What Will You Tell The Children?

What Will You Tell The Children?

When the risks from today’s use of wireless technologies are fully accepted, what will you tell the children?

Of all the possible justifications - “They said it was safe, nobody knew, everyone was using mobiles, smart-phones and Wi-Fi…” and on and on. Perhaps the one thing that embraces all these vain excuses is:

“We didn’t think…”

We didn’t think holding a microwave transmitter next to our brains or theirs would be hazardous; we didn’t think the effects would be cumulative or carry over to future generations; we didn’t think each device on its own would be dangerous; we didn’t think the powers-that-be would allow it and we didn’t think it would affect us or anyone close to us. We trusted and we believed it was all safe, however much we were exposed. We thought we could all talk and text, speak and e-mail forever, surf the Internet and stream audio and video wirelessly to our heart’s content and nothing bad would happen, ever. In short, we thought whatever the potential risks,

"We would get away with it."

We never knew that smart-meters were wireless or that our home, school and office alarm systems were constantly filling our space with microwave radiation. We did not understand that cordless phones use always-on pulsed digital wireless, and the Wi-Fi router, and the laptop, and the tablet, and the baby monitor, and the security cameras, and the Bluetooth in the car and, the microwave oven, and....

We let our children bully us into giving them their first mobile phone. We thought we’d lose them if we didn’t comply with the emerging trend. We found it hard to believe that wearing the wrong brands or a lack of wireless connectivity would cause our children to be rejected by their peers. We let them have a wireless games console and we thought a wireless keyboard and mouse couldn’t possibly hurt them, us or our pets. As for our neighbours, we never really liked them anyway.

So now our children blame us. They blame us as old fuddy-duddies who failed to equip them to live and function in the modern world. They blame us for denying them always-on wireless connectivity soon enough. They blame us for not providing them with instant access to e-mail, Wikipedia, snap-chat, twitter, Facebook and the latest tech, and ultimately they may well blame us for not protecting them from the addiction that is even today taking them from us. In any event, we the grown-ups should have known better and are by default guilty. No wonder today’s teenagers especially seem to harbour so much resentment for the state of the world they find themselves in.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t think so. The next generation will have to live with their naiveté and the consequences of our actions and inaction. It probably wasn’t your fault that the world you lived in and knew turned against you and stole your children - but you may still carry the guilt. 

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Are You Inadvertently Harming Your Baby?

This post was originally published on this blog in 2008 under the title 'Dying To Make That Call #1'. Latest edits are shown in bold.

1. The Masts in Your Home:

As the dangers of living near mobile masts are becoming more recognised, homeowners are becoming increasingly reluctant to tolerate more (non-elective) masts in their neighbourhoods. The mobile companies and local planning departments are now seeking to install new base stations on existing masts. The objections of concerned citizens who do not want radio hot-spots in their midst are largely overruled when adding extra capacity to existing masts. In an attempt to introduce wireless technologies by stealth, the operators are now installing small 'pico' and even smaller 'femto' cells in road signs and other street furniture and are thus exempt from the planning process.

Our Government has so contrived the regulations as to largely, though not totally, exclude health concerns from the planning process, leading concerned residents with no place and no official body to protest to.

With the odds stacked firmly in the operator's favour, they are infiltrating femto cells into homes across the land. The first mast in your home is the Home Hub which not only provides wireless Internet connectivity but allows wireless connections to the telephone network. In effect, a Home Hub is a mobile phone base station inside your home that silently screams its toxic microwave signal at you and your loved ones 24 hours a day.

2. The Second 'Mast In Your Home' is often the base station for a DECT cordless phone. It too floods your home with continuously pulsed digital microwave signals.

Then there's the wireless laptop communicating with its printer and other peripherals like a wireless router (or a Home Hub) as above. Most homes now also have a microwave oven, and depending on how and where it is situated it too contributes to total toxic electrosmog exposure. Many homes also have wireless security systems and intruder alarms that rely on filling rooms with microwave (and ultrasound) signals the whole time.

3. The third and most insidious 'Mast', of all is the wireless (DECT) baby monitor which broadcasts its signal only a few feet away from a young child's head and developing body.

So before you protest about a new mobile phone mast in your neighbourhood, you might consider just how much your chosen elective exposure is already contributing to your and your family's existing electrosmog diet.

Most people's major exposure comes from wireless devices they have brought into their homes. And it's not just them. Exposure comes significantly from your own and the mobile /cellular-phone and tablet computer use of others nearby. When travelling and at work, the chances are your electrosmog exposure is being added to without you ever being aware of it.

Only a proportion of people's everyday exposure is elective i.e. under their control. The rest is non-elective and forced on them. In any event, it makes good precautionary sense to be aware of and manage all your exposures at home, where you spend much of your time and where your body returns to rest and repair.

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Smart-Phones As Alarm Clocks - A Timely Warning

If you read no further, read this:

The first thing a smart (mobile or cell) phone does when the alarm kicks off is to search for a network connection – whether or not it is in Airplane / Flight mode!

On World EHS Day - 16^th June 2024, I was watching a Youtube recording of an excellent webinar; The International Webinar on Children in the Digital Age;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SfIeaP7yCY&t=2398s

It is hosted by a very credible Doug Wood of Americans For Responsible Technology. https://www.thechildrensdeclaration.org/

In one quote, Mary Anne Tierney Safetechnc.org states:

Of 150 6^th Graders (11-12 year olds) she was presenting to, 2/3 used their phones as their alarm clock.

I was stunned. Do they not know how reckless that is? Clearly not. Hence the motivation to write this post.

The first thing a smart (mobile or cell) phone does when the alarm kicks off is to search for a network connection – whether or not it is in Airplane / Flight mode!

The few moments before becoming truly awake are, in my experience as an EHS sufferer of nearly 30 years, the time when one is most vulnerable. It incidentally is also perhaps one’s most creative time. Be that as it may, having your head bathed in microwave radiation as you prepare to wake up fully is probably not the best way to start the day.

Maybe your phone / network doesn’t do this. How would you know? The only way to know for sure is to reset your alarm once you are fully awake and test your device as it comes alive with an RF EMR (wireless) meter such as the Acousticom2 or the Safe&Sound ProII. (By the way, I get no commission for these recommendations).

That’s it. There’s not much more to say other than it adds a whole new perspective to “WAKE UP!”

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Wireless Roadkill

or ‘EHS – Road Kill In The Wireless Wild West’

Written for World EHS Day 16 June 2024

Millions of people around the world know that sickening feeling when they hear the crunch of some poor creature disappearing under the wheels of the vehicle in which they are travelling. It is unfortunate and regrettable but driver or passenger they usually do not feel responsible for the creature’s demise. It is generally rationalised that it is ‘the price of progress’ or maybe less charitably ‘that it was ‘the creature’s own fault’. In a little while, as the scenery goes by it is put at the back of their minds. The creature nevertheless lays dead or injured, splattered across the road, it’s life destroyed, often with the utmost disregard. Other drivers may lament the loss but can reassure themselves that ‘there but for the grace of God...’ Of course, it is difficult to reconcile creature’s freedoms with people’s. Roads have always been dangerous and ultimately society has adapted, though children and wildlife have to learn the hard way.

When it comes to road kill, I regret I am much like many other drivers. I try not to hit any creature that foolishly steps into my path but if it comes down to the creature or me, I am afraid the creature is apt to lose. The speed and momentum I have built up cannot be readily diverted. If I am to enjoy the benefits of speed I cannot go against Newton’s first law of motion and anything that gets in my way had best get out of it. With the advent of the railways and motor vehicles, society was going to have the benefits of speed at any price and woe-betide anything or anyone that got in the way. Humans have subsequently learned to live more or less safely with the train and the motor vehicle but speed and momentum are unable to negotiate and require laws and penalties to keep them in check. There are heavy penalties for killing and maiming people on the roads and elsewhere but none for road kill. Fences and by-laws are aimed at preventing trespass on the railways and The Rules of the Road, driver training and speed limits are set and enforced. Pedestrians are taught to act with caution and drivers are held liable for their actions but there are no such official constrains, sanctions, warnings or safety education in the wireless world we now inhabit.

Electro Sensitives Are Today’s Wireless Road Kill.

In trying to live our lives without wireless trespass or harm should anyone have the temerity to get in the way of ‘progress’ they are simply being ‘run over’ and swept aside without regard, regret or indeed a backward glance. Denying that EHS exists at all allows any action involving wireless by anyone to be undertaken without guilt or being held to account. For the average cellular / mobile, Wi-Fi or cordless phone user to enjoy the benefits of speedy communications, if someone or something has to suffer, most people think that’s just too bad, if they think at all. People are going to have the benefits of always-on wireless, come what may and having built a life that relies on it they are not about to have their toys taken away.

Governments around the world have abrogated their responsibilities and have handed over the territory in which we all live out our lives to the wireless companies. We live in a lawless Wireless Wild West without accountability, one that is governed by powerful global corporations and other vested interests.

There Are No Limits...

There are no limits to the power that can be radiated from a broadcast / cellular tower. There are no limits to the amount of wireless radiation that can be imposed on 90,000 people in Wembley Stadium. There are no limits on the number and power-outputs of all the wireless devices you can simultaneously use in your home. There are no limits on the number of devices your employer can demand you are exposed to in the workplace. There are no limits on the wireless exposure inflicted on doctors and patients in surgeries and hospitals. There are no limits to the number of wireless devices used in vehicles, planes, trains, ships or indeed anywhere. There is no limit to the total cumulative radiation exposure you may suffer in a day or indeed a lifetime.

Nobody is yet held liable for wireless pollution and the trespass and harm it imposes on everyone.

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Alarm Systems - Are They Safe?

If there is one thing in this world, one benefit of modern life you tell yourself, it's the reliable sentry always looking out for your and your loved ones' wellbeing, the sentinel at the ramparts, it is the good old alarm system. Upon noticing the little lights twinkling away in the corner of a room it is often with a feeling of satisfaction and reassurance that one is doing all that can be reasonably expected to safeguard ones home and every thing of value in it. You dutifully always set the alarm when you go out, it rarely gives a false positive and it protects you from fire, intruders and villains of all descriptions. Oh, and may be a condition of your or your landlord's insurance policy.

But is it safe? "Oh Yes," you say. "We always put it on when we go out."

Technical: There are three main components in most wired domestic alarm systems:

1, The Systems Board, 2, The Control Panel / Keypad and 3, the various Sensors (fire, smoke, CO2, glass, intruder, flood etc.) Some systems are linked by phone line or mobile SIM Card to a 'Central Office' staffed 24/7 by responders who take action according to the instructions associated with the address. Other systems merely activate a sounder(s) and strobe(s) but some when tripped do both. Some are linked to a pendant worn around the neck.

1.    The Systems Board is mains powered through a sealed 12v battery and delivers Direct Current to the sensors which are themselves stand-alone mini-computers. In the normal course of events the whole alarm system is controlled by a remote keypad, usually situated somewhere near the main entrance. Operation is simple, reliable and robust. The Systems Board is usually tucked away in a cabinet somewhere inconspicuous such as under the stairs or in the eaves and is rarely given a second thought. Its circuits however may produce significant oscillating magnetic fields over a range of metre or more. If for example it happens to be the other side of a partition to a child's bed or desk, a favourite / TV chair or near a pets sleeping place, serious damage to health can occur over time.

2.    The Control Panel / Keypad: Should a circuit be broken for any reason, the alarm is set off. The panel then indicates which sensor or zone of sensors has been triggered. The Panel like the Systems Board may, perhaps due to conversions or modifications to the use of space, be mounted inappropriately close to areas where people or pets spend a lot of time.

3.    The Sensors: The range of alarm sensor types is vast and varies from such things as panic buttons, under-mat pressure pads, ultrasound glass breakage sensors, radioactive and optical smoke sensors and many others. Motion sensors are usually contained within the familiar little white enclosures typically mounted in top corners of rooms, passageways, garages etc. Their internal construction generally falls into three types (PIR, Dual-Tech, Tri-Tech) and all three types work by breaking the circuit back to the Systems Board when the type of event they are designed to detect occurs.

PIR - Passive Infra Red: These are an early type of motion sensor that picks up moving heat signatures through a little frosted window and whilst being cheap and readily available are subject to poor event discrimination and in the past at least, frequently produced false alarms. They are however the most environmentally friendly.

Dual Tech: To overcome false alarms Ultrasound was added. It fills the room space with 'silent' standing waves and listens for the Doppler frequency shift caused by any moving object. Some sensors only produce this form of radiation when the PIR has been triggered but others may produce it 24/7. Being constantly bathed in ultrasound even if only when you move is liable to affect hearing, produce tinnitus, upset sleep and may have many other side-effects not immediately associated with alarm systems.

Tri-Tech: To make motion / intruder alarm sensors even more reliable and even less prone to false alarms, Microwave Radiation capabilities have been added. These detect Doppler shift in a similar way to Ultrasound and like Dual-Tech sensors may invoke the Tri-Tech 10 GHz. microwave signal only when the other two sensors agree that an alarm event is occurring. Or they may fill the space 24/7 but, as with Ultrasound the health consequences can be broad-ranging and are rarely linked to alarm sensors. The power output of the microwave component generally has three levels according to the volume of the space being protected. Low, Medium or High and is set by the installation engineer (who must disable the Systems Board when setting up the sensors in order not to be blasted in the face by the microwave and ultrasound signals as the sensor cover is replaced).

Most homeowners do not understand that deactivating their alarm system when they return home simply tells the system not to raise an alarm when sensors are triggered. It does not cease the sensor operation. They continue to operate 24/7. This mode of operating is chosen because it makes the sensors more reliable and stops them suffering condensation and corrosion when unpowered. It does however subject occupants to a never-ending stream of radiation as they move about in their living space. Being hit by a bolt of ultrasound, swiftly followed by a bolt of microwave radiation upon entering a room may alert residents to an issue. By leaving the sensors running 24/7 there is less likelihood that any association will be made. This article focusses on domestic alarm systems but many of the concerns expressed here apply equally to nursing / care homes, offices, factories and other alarm-protected enclosed spaces.

Motion sensors may be fitted with visible indicator lights (red, green, orange, blue) that are tripped by movement and generally indicate the sensor is detecting and discriminating as it should. A blue indicator light may suggest a microwave / Tri-Tech sensor and if this is the case, it is probably a job for the professionals. Ultrasound can be detected by a relatively cheap 'Bat Detector' but the 10 GHz. radio frequency (RF / microwave) radiation is above the range most readily available / affordable meters can detect. To establish what kind of sensors you have see 1. the installers notes / invoice, 2, by calling the alarm service provider or 3, by having an alarm engineer come and deactivate the Systems Board so as to physically examine the motion sensors.

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