Is WiFi an invisible threat to health?

**Gerd Altmann’s photo in Pixabay.** Low-frequency magnetic fields and radio-frequency electromagnetic fields are “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” warns the World Health Organization.

They exist, you can’t see them, but we know immediately whether or not they are around us because we are already dependent on their existence. They are the Non-ionizing electromagnetic waves emitted at low frequencies through the wireless internet, the so-called wireless network (WiFi). At home, at work or on the street, you can communicate by voice, data and/or image in real time with your computer, TV, tablet or mobile phone.

This is the digital revolution that is changing the world at the speed of light but without the population’s knowledge of the harms, which they are exposed daily, by these radiations’ cocktail. All humans are true guinea pigs of low-frequency electromagnetic waves and their radiation, warn many scientists.

The World Health Organization (WHO) itself, in 2011 and then in 2016, through the International Agency for Research on Cancer, admitted that “low-frequency magnetic fields and radio frequency electromagnetic fields” are “possibly carcinogenic to humans” and may also cause electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Also in 2013, the National Agency for Safety and Health in Food, Environment, and Work (ANSES) recommended: “to limit the exposure of the population to radio frequencies, especially from mobile phones and in particular for children and frequent users”, but also, “ to Control the global radiation exposure of mobile network base stations”.

There are currently more than 15,000 mobile communications antennas installed, only in Portugal, and for Internet access through WiFi routers, it is expected to be around three millions. Not to mention the 16 million active mobile phone cards. In addition to all of this, there are the electricity supply and distribution infrastructures, as well as, the innovative smart meters that flood the country. Also in many cases, there are even high voltage stations and telecommunication base stations in schools, letting the electromagnetic impact be forgotten in return for financial consideration, as some telecommunication managers admit.

The regulator of the telecommunication’s sector, Anacom, has been doing inspections in Portugal but considers that everything is normal. In 2016, 1,846 were made, of which 242 were in schools, and the result is always the same: they meet the levels set by law (see here), although the reading values are not revealed.

However, we all know people who are very uncomfortable about living close by a telecommunication antenna or even when entering a shopping center, where there is a large concentration of lights, computers/cash registers, automatic payment terminals, alarm systems, detection fire, security cameras, fixed and mobile internet. A cocktail of electromagnetic fields, that is invisible pollution to the naked eye but is harmful to our body.

Controversy and discord

But there are also scientists who disagree with it and dispute the studies that exist about the risk to human health. But also, in early 2017, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency and Health (SACRH), under the aegis of the Complutense University of Madrid, whose direction was taken in 2016 by the Order of Telecommunications Engineers, presented a report that admits disassembling 350 studies, concluding that exposure levels in Europe “are hundreds or thousands of times lower than those recommended by the European Union, the WHO and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)”.

The truth is that every day we are more exposed to electromagnetic fields without having a permanent global measurement of the places where we are. So, despite the uncertainty that hangs in the air, it is up to each of us to assess whether it is worth exposing our body, soul, and spirit to this risk.

What are the risks?

**Life-Of-Pix’s photo in Pixabay.** Electrical hypersensitivity is already recognized as an illness by the European Parliament.

Many scientists, including the World Health Organization, admit that there is a risk of cancer, cell stress, increase in pernicious free radicals, genetic damage, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system (infertility in both sexes, which in the case of women can start by altering the menstrual cycle, ovulation process and even cause abortion), or the breakdown of the immune system, blood and cardiovascular system, memory and learning deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on the general well-being of the human beings. Some symptoms are manifested through tired sight, headaches, shoulders pain, exhausted mind, among others.

If in relation to brain cancer and the nervous system it remains difficult to prove a statistical correlation, however in relation to electrosensitivity, the European Parliament was the first international entity to recognize the disease in the resolution of 2 April 2009 art. 28:

“Member States should follow Sweden’s example and recognize that people suffering from electrical hypersensitivity are recognized as having disabilities, providing them with adequate protection and equal opportunities“ (Read the full text).

In Sweden, the State accepts sick leaves for electrosensitivity and guarantees financial compensation due to disability.

In Spain, at the end of 2011, electrical hypersensitivity was recognized and for the first time, a full retirement pension was given to an employee with this disability.

In France, for example, the writer Marine Richard, aged 39, receives a monthly invalidity pension, although the French State does not recognize electrosensitivity.

Hugo Dunkel, aged 29, cited by Visão magazine (edition 5/5/2016), does not rule out that psychological factors can contribute to his electrosensitivity, but for the designer living in Oporto, it is impossible to deny the evidence of what happens to him: “If I’ve been using the WiFi computer or the phone for a long time, the skin on my hands is very dry, my fingers warm up and cuts appear almost instantly. ” He confesses that he was already “much mocked and misunderstood”.

In this way, better safe than sorry, the best is to prevent and the best solution is to turn off the WiFi at home, as well as all the electronic gadgets available, to ensure that overnight you will not be exposed to non-ionizing electromagnetic waves.