Author Ann Louise Gittleman has thrown down the proverbial glove when it comes to a form of environmental pollution that industry, government and wireless consumers alike may be loath to acknowledge. Gittleman contends, "You may not be able to see electropollution, but your body responds to it as though it were a cloud of toxic chemicals. Electropollution is continually disturbing your sympathetic nervous system."
The quote is from Gittleman's recent book, Zapped: Why Your Cell Phone Shouldn't Be Your Alarm Clock and 1,268 Ways to Outsmart the Hazards of Electronic Pollution. The risk from electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by widespread deployment and usage of celluar phone and Wi-Fi technolgies may be, it appears, a matter of more than just passing concern. And medical professionals from both the M.D. and integrative medicine communities are standing up and taking note.
"A few years ago, I was so concerned that I took a certification course in the detection and harmful effects of EMFs. What it taught me, above all, was how much what the scientific community is learning daily, and how little we in the medical profession knew. This area was both frightening and daunting in its scope."
How frightening? How daunting? Hess goes on to report:
The UK's BioInitiative Report of July, 2007 (updated in 2009) describes hundreds of studies that link EMF exposure to Alzheimer's disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), brain fog, cardiovascular disease, birth defects, infertility, insomnia, learning impairment, as well as anxiety and depression. Wireless technologies--like cell and cordless phones--produce microwaves that increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, leading to changes in brain chemistry. Even low-level EMFs can cause brain cells to leak...
...Most disturbing of all, the Swedish National Institute for Working Life found that people using cell phones for 2,000 hours--a total most of us could easily rack up over the years--had a 240 percent increased risk for malignant brain tumors on the side of the head where they usually held their phone...
...Some of this radiation -- extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation in power lines, the radio frequency (RF)/microwave range where all things wireless live, intermediate frequencies ("dirty electricity" or freaky frequencies linked to sick building syndrome), and the highest frequencies (gamma and X-rays) -- is more damaging than natural frequencies to which humans (and animals) have adapted over millennia. Today, most Americans are constantly exposed to artificial frequencies, given the rapidly escalating pace of microwave and wireless expansion...
...The bottom line is that electropollution--from cell towers, computers, cordless and mobile phones, PDAs, WiFi, even the electrical appliances and wiring in our homes, offices and public buildings--continually disturbs the sympathetic nervous system...
Yikes.
Full disclosure alert: Hess states in her article that author Gittleman is a friend of hers, so the reporting -- which enumerates a list of helpful tips for avoiding electropollution zappage (as it were) conveniently drawn from Gittleman's book -- could be written off as nothing more than a glorified book review -- or, worse, advertorial.
Still...use of mobile and wireless electronic devices their effects on our health is a topic we've all wondered about, and one that the World Health Organization has acknowledged. Do you really think it's all myths?
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