In my last post, I talked about the dangers of EMF radiation.
In this post, I want to talk about the things I’ve done around the house to limit my family’s exposure to this silent danger.
Your Smart Phone is Like Cigarettes
Most of us carry smart phones, so we’re constantly tethered to cell towers. Cell phone providers try to convince us this is a good thing.
How many Verizon, T-mobile, or AT&T ads have you seen in which darker and lighter shades of color are displayed on a map of the U.S. to show the strength of the cell phone signals in all parts of our country?
They tout the ever-increasing darker shades of color, which denote a stronger signal, as a great thing, a step forward for humankind.
Forget about 5G. 6G is the future, they say. Imagine a time when we can download an entire movie in one second.
We are heading towards a more interconnected world at breakneck speed. But is this good for us?
We should really be asking ourselves, “At what cost?”
Something similar happened decades before when cigarettes were in vogue and were advertised as such. That is, until we knew better.
But even in the early days of the Marlboro man ads, there were those who suspected that inhaling smoke voluntarily and repeatedly couldn’t be good for them and promptly decided against putting their lips to the butts no matter how glamorous the ads and the celebrities made smoking out to be.
I guess you could say they were wise? Or at least not dumb?
And in the same vein, before it becomes common knowledge that cell phones are extremely dangerous and pose great risks to our health, and especially to our children, perhaps we can practice some prescience or at least not be dumb and limit our exposure to this virtual poison before it’s too late.
So think of your smart phone as a cigarette the next time you’re tempted to take it with you to the bathroom or leave it under your pillow during the night. Imagine yourself inhaling smoke the entire time. If that doesn’t disincentivize you, I don’t know what else to say.
The best thing to do really is to ditch the phone: smart phone, flip phone, it doesn’t matter.
But who’s going to do that? I certainly haven’t. I still carry my iPhone X. My wife is even more old school. She has an iPhone 7 Plus. It has that round home button and no Face ID. They say Face ID is far more secure than fingerprint sensors, but again you have to ask, “At what cost?”
Touted as a great thing, but what freedoms am I giving up when my gadgets can analyze my face and send all sorts of data to companies and even to the government? Something to think about.
As an aside, my wife Jen likes to say that the only people who use smart phones are dumb: that’s why they need them. I don’t disagree.
Up until maybe half a year ago, I was planning to upgrade to the latest iPhone. I thought I was due for an upgrade.
But knowing what I know now, I have absolutely no desire to invest more money into a cell phone. Perhaps, sooner than later I’ll quit cold turkey.
But in the meantime, I’m still using one, but with a lot of caution.
Rules for Smart Phones
As a rule of thumb, if you choose to carry a smart phone, you kind of have to become obsessive about keeping it in Airplane mode most of the time, but that’s not even foolproof. The best way to ensure minimum exposure to EMF from your phone is to keep it off and turn it on only when you need to use it. I actually do that sometimes, but it’s annoying for sure.
When I’m at home, the phone is mostly in Airplane mode. If I need the internet, I use my computer, but note that I really try to stay off the computer if possible. The same goes for my phone. I try not to be on it if it’s not required. It’s not easy to limit screen time, but it’s an important habit to cultivate if you really want to live your life instead of watching others live theirs.
When I’m out, I keep my phone off my body. I try to avoid putting my phone in my pocket if it’s on, even if it’s in Airplane mode. In the car, the phone is on the dashboard, and I only turn on cellular if I need to use the GPS, which again I try to avoid.
If I’m walking around at the store, I keep the phone in my hand and not in my pocket (in Airplane mode, of course). If I know I’ll be walking for a while and won’t need to use the phone, I’ll turn it off and put it in my pocket. As I said before, you have to be a bit OCD about the whole thing, but keep in mind, these things are like cigarettes.
That’s about it when it comes to using a cell phone.
Note that these precautions are taken not just for my own health, but for the health of my family members, especially my children. Like second-hand smoke, EMF from my cell phone use impacts those around me. And for this very reason, I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn’t allow your child to have a cell phone. You wouldn’t give your kids cigarettes now, would you?
Say “No” to Wi-Fi
Now if you’ve read this far without calling me a lunatic, then read on for some practical changes you can make in your home (the ones I’ve made myself) to protect your children. Warning: these changes will make life less convenient in some ways, but I believe they’ll make it much better in others.
In the home, the main goal is to discontinue or severely limit running anything on Wi-Fi or cellular data or bluetooth. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we cannot use our cell phones or iPads or laptops, but it does mean that we can’t use them in the ways in which we have become accustomed. I hate to break it to you this way, but basically, we’re going to have to go back to attaching our devices to cords and cables.
If you live in an apartment complex where you have people living above or beneath you and everyone’s using Wi-Fi, then getting rid of your Wi-Fi might not make much of a difference.
But if you live in a single-family house, and there’s some distance between you and your neighbors, removing Wi-Fi from your home is a great idea. Here’s how to do it.
Turn Your Wi-Fi OFF on Your Router
The first thing to do is to turn off the Wi-Fi signal from your router (Yes, that means that you will now be able to access the internet only via an ethernet cord from your router to your device). For some routers, there is a button on the back of your router that turns the Wi-Fi on and off.
If you don’t have a router with that option, you need to replace your current router with one that does. I know this is an inconvenience, but we’re talking about the health of your family here.
I had to replace my Google Mesh Wi-Fi system, which I spent close to $200 on, because there’s no way to turn off the Wi-Fi. I bought a Netgear Nighthawk in its place (the one shown above).
Once, you’ve done so, check your phone and you’ll notice that your Wi-Fi network no longer appears on the list of available networks.
Turn Wi-Fi OFF on Your Devices
You’ve completed the first step, but this doesn’t mean that you’re safe. You now have to turn the Wi-Fi off on all of your devices.
This is a simple process on your phones, tablets, and computers. It’s nothing more than pushing or toggling a button or two.
The harder part is disabling Wi-Fi on things like your Smart TV or printer.
Smart TVs, while very convenient, emit very strong EMF because they are constantly connected to Wi-Fi. To disable the Wi-Fi on your TV, you’ll need to open the panel in the back of the TV, find the Wi-Fi transmitter, then disconnect it. My son Jayden and I disconnected the Wi-Fi off of both our Vizio and LG smart TVs. It wasn’t too difficult. It took perhaps 30 minutes for each TV. There are other videos on YouTube that show you how to do this for your TV’s particular make and model. Here’s our video.
If you have other Smart devices or appliances, you’ll have to turn those off as well. Some might not give you that option, and you’ll need to decide whether you want to replace them. For us, that meant disabling Wi-Fi on our Nest thermostat and no longer using our Nest doorbell.
We even had our Smart meter replaced with a non-Smart meter that requires someone to come each month to check the reading. It cost us an initial fee to remove the Smart meter, and we’ll have to pay a surcharge each month for not having one, but for us, it’s worth it if it means limiting our exposure to Wi-Fi and EMF in our home.
Replace Bluetooth Devices with Corded Options
Before I understood EMFs, I bought into the Internet of Things wholesale, which meant I wanted everything to be wireless and connected. I spent considerable cash buying wireless keyboards, mice, and bluetooth earbuds. But once I realized that all of these devices are harmful, I replaced them with corded alternatives.
Before I used a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.
Now I use a wired Apple keyboard and wired mouse.
I’ve gotten rid of my Apple Airpods Pros and a handful of other bluetooth earbuds and headphones and now use the wired Apple earbuds that come with the iPhone.
I know it’s trendy and certainly more convenient to use wireless buds, but again, ask yourself, “At what cost?” At the very least, don’t let your kids use earbuds or headphones that connect via Bluetooth. The sheer proximity of those earbuds and the EMF radiating from them to the brain cannot possibly be good for anyone, let alone a child.
In addition, I sold my Apple Watch and the Fitbit-type watches I had gotten for my kids.
I no longer use an Apple Pencil with my iPad. Using Notability without an Apple Pencil is certainly less convenient. My workaround has been that I use the Mac desktop version of Notability and use a Wacom Intuos Tablet. It’s not nearly as accurate, but it gets the job done for most of my note-taking needs.
There’s nothing sexy about going back to cords and cables. It’s uglier, and the wires get in the way. But the silver lining is that it puts a damper on the whole experience of being in front of a screen, and that, for me, is a good thing.
Connect Your Devices (Smart Phones, Tablets, Computers, Smart TVs) to the Router with Ethernet Cables and Adapters
Now that you’ve disconnected your devices from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you might be wondering how you’re actually going to use those devices. Well, the only way to get Internet on your phone, tablet, or computer now (assuming you won’t use cellular date on your phone) is to connect them to the router via an ethernet cord and an adapter.
These are the ones I use.
The other end of the ethernet cord will go into the router. But you’re probably going to have more devices than ethernet ports on your router. So you’ll need an ethernet switch.
Here’s my setup. The modem is connected to the internet service via a coaxial cable (the white cable). The modem is then connected to the router via a short ethernet cable. Another short ethernet cable connects the router to the switch. All of my devices are then connected to the switch. Notice also that my switch is covered with a golden fabric. That’s Faraday fabric that I use to shield us from the EMF emitted from these devices. I have a cover for the modem and router as well.
You’re probably going to have ethernet cords dragging on the floor, so just make sure you get the flat cables in a color that blends in.
If your home computer is stationary, this should not pose much of a problem. In fact, what you will find is that your internet speed will most likely improve because a hard-wired connection is usually much stronger than a Wi-Fi connection.
But there’s no getting around the fact that using your phone to access the internet will be more cumbersome. I find this to be a good thing, because the mere inconvenience of having to plug my phone into a wire just to browse the internet or check my email or flip through Facebook disincentivizes me from using my phone for that purpose. If I really want to be online, I’ll go over to my desk and use my computer.
Some Internet Rules
As I mentioned before, you should not let your children have cell phones. My children do not have a cell phone. Well, not exactly. We use an iPhone 7 as an extra phone in the home, kind of like a landline back in the day. It is not connected to Wi-Fi although we have a very basic data plan on it, 500mb per month, I believe. This phone is used by my kids to communicate with us if my wife and I are out, say, running an errand. In that instance, the phone is plugged into the router via an ethernet cord and the adapter above so that we can FaceTime if needed. But outside of that scenario, our kids are not using this phone.
So the only times that my kids have access to the Internet is when they are in front of a computer, usually the family computer that sits in the living room.
Every time they want to get on the computer to use the internet, they are to ask for permission and tell us what exactly they will be using it for. Usually, they ask to watch a video on YouTube to learn this or that. Almost all of the videos they watch are for the purposes of learning something or doing some sort of research. Nothing is just entertainment.
We don’t have strict time limits on the amount of time that the kids can be in front of a screen, and that’s probably because they’re not in front of a screen much at all to begin with. Now if it ever gets to the point where we find ourselves in front of screens too much, then we might have to institute some sort of screen time limit. but every member of the family is aware of the negative effects of being in front of a screen, and so it isn’t too difficult to pry ourselves away from it.
Education, then, is an effective means of preventing bad habits from forming in the home when it comes to cell phone and computer use.
If you currently have children who have their own cell phones, I would suggest that you limit their use as much as possible. Your children should certainly not have the phone on their body at any time. The data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth should all be turned off when the phone is not in use. If your child must use the phone, make sure that only what is necessary is turned on. It might be the cellular data. Make sure they know to keep the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off and to keep the phone away from their bodies, especially their faces.
The Least You Can Do
As I mentioned before, you might not live in a place that allows you to distance yourself from Wi-Fi. There are some measures you can take like painting your walls with a EMF-blocking paint, especially in your bedroom. This is a long shot, but if you can talk to your neighbors about turning off their Wi-Fi at night, you can all benefit from 6-8 hours a day of Wi-Fi-free living.
Those who live in single-family homes should get rid of Wi-Fi. But if that’s not something you’re willing to do, at least turn it off during the night.
Every night, we turn off the breakers in all of the bedrooms and in the office that houses the modem, router, and switch. We turn them back on in the morning.
Lastly, we try to avoid using the microwave.
This is our microwave. Jen put this post-it note on it as a reminder not to use the microwave. That doesn’t mean we never use it, but when we do, we make sure to run to the room farthest from the kitchen until the microwaving is done.
All of this might sound crazy or just too much. But I go back to the question I posed in the beginning. At what cost are you willing to use and enjoy the conveniences of modern technology? If you try to count the cost, you just might realize it’s too high a price to pay, especially when those costs will be borne not just by you but also by the people you love, especially your children.
I always tell my kids it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m just trying to practice what I preach.
