Thank you for your interest. This site is dedicated to helping people make their homes healthier. My focus is on Electromagnetic Fields and overall Indoor Environmental Quality which includes things like mold, VOC's, chemicals, noise, and thermal comfort.
The term "EMF" covers a wide spectrum of frequencies including things like natural earth resonance, sound, DC electric and magnetic fields, AC electric and magnetic fields, AM/FM radio, cell phones, cordless phones, cell towers, microwave ovens, radar, infrared, visible light, ultra violet, X-rays, and gamma rays. They are categorized by wavelength and frequency. The AC current in our home wiring has waves bigger than soccer fields, cell phone waves are as small as a period, and X-ray waves are as small as a molecule.
The EMFs that I focus on when creating a healthy home environment are primarily what is emitting from the wires inside and outside of the building, plus what is being emitted from wireless devices inside and outside of the building. The earth's static magnetic field can also be distorted by conductive elements under the house. The static electric charge of the air is also a concern and, for health, we want it to be more negative.
Building wiring delivers alternating current and has both a magnetic field and an electric field. These can be measured independently. AC electric fields are best mitigated by turning the power off to areas of concern as needed. AC magnetic fields become elevated when the current in the electrical cables are unbalanced, which happens when the circuits are not wired properly, or parallel paths are created for return current. This is very common; nearly every house has at least one wiring error. If this unbalanced circuit happens to be near a place where people spend a lot of time, such as the bedroom, there can be negative health consequences.
There are thousands of independent peer reviewed studies showing harm from EMF exposure even if it's classified as non-ionizing. You can read the abstracts of many of them at The Environmental Health Trust, scroll down to "Key Studies". The BioInitiative Report was a landmark report assessing the harms of low-intensity electromagnetic radiation and is worth looking at as well. It is well understood that we need to have good sleep so our bodies can recover from the daily toxins, which includes EMFs. EMFs can disrupt the production of melatonin which is our master healing hormone, that's why we need a sleep sanctuary -- a low EMF and low toxin environment in which to rejuvenate.
The higher frequencies of wireless devices are considered to be more bioactive because of their erratic pulsing form. This is electricity being sent trough the air imposing a charge onto every particle in its path, sent in packets of data from transmitters to receivers. Some materials absorb it, some reflect and refract it. While the achievements this technology has made available are impressive, the health consequences have been under appreciated. Our bodies use electrical signals to communicate on a cellular level, and the energy being projected by things like cell phones interferes with these natural processes. We should take this seriously and find ways to reduce our exposure.
There are easy steps we can take:
Use a corded landline phone at home
Use a wired internet connection at home
Turn off the cell phone at night, or put it in another room where you can hear it
Keep the phone in airplane mode as much as possible
Compose and read texts in airplane mode
Disable bluetooth and Wifi on the phone
Don't use the phone for internet activities unless you use an ethernet adapter
The more we are exposed, the less time we have to recover.
That's why my motto is "The Less, The Merrier!"
Please do what you can to reduce your exposure and educate your friends. Share this post and look forward to more valuable Healthy Home Tips to come.
Be well,
Rex Funk