Why are you wanting to raise awareness of electromagnetic radiation (EMR)?
People have a right to be informed about the devices in their homes and workplaces.
It concerns me that so many people are using equipment that they don’t know is exposing them or their families to wireless radiation. Wireless devices have become a popular fad and many people use them without really thinking about the implications. This is particularly true of children, many who have grown up never knowing a world without wireless radiation.
At the moment, there’s just too much evidence of risk for us not to be looking carefully at our exposure.
How did you get into this field?
By accident!
I was the Director of Sutherland Shire Environment Centre when the Coordinator of its EMR activities (EMR Alliance of Australia) retired. I found myself drawn into the field (excuse the pun) and was immediately fascinated.
One of the things that piqued my interest was the work of pioneer researcher Dr Robert Becker. Did you know that a salamander can regrow its legs, but a frog can’t? Becker wondered why this was the case when these creatures are so closely related. And he found the answer had to do with electromagnetic fields. Salamanders had a negative field at the site of the amputated leg; but frogs had a positive field. Becker found that when he applied a very small negative field to mammals with amputated limbs he could partially regrow the limb. Fascinating! So he developed a technique based on this discovery to help heal difficult-to-knit factures — and it’s widely used by orthopaedic surgeons today.
Becker argued that our bodies are electromagnetic and that’s why they react to external electromagnetic fields. So, right from the start, I found this issue fascinating and couldn’t learn enough about it.
Salamanders might have helped get me into the ‘field’, but the thing that’s kept me there for the past 22 years is the fact that there are so many people out there who are suffering. Right from the start, people were ringing me asking for help. The more I learnt, the more I was able to help, and there wasn’t much other help out there at the time.
If this is such an important issue, why don’t we hear about it more often in the mainstream media?
It’s a shame that the media hasn’t picked up on this issue as much as it could have done. I think one reason for this is that it can be quite a complex issue to come to grips with. I have the advantage of having monitored the important developments and the research on this for over 20 years and that puts me in a good position to draw together key threads for our readers.
Hopefully, the media will help get the important messages in Wireless-wise Families into the public domain.
Are you suggesting people throw away all their devices?
Not at all! I’m suggesting that people use their devices sensibly and in an informed way.
For example, many people don’t know that when they hold a mobile phone directly against their head or their body — such as in a shirt pocket — or when they use a laptop or tablet on their lap, they could be exposing themselves to more wireless radiation than is allowed by international standards.
Many people don’t realise that, when they place a baby monitor next to a child’s cot, the child is exposed to wireless radiation for many hours each day. We see babies sucking mobile phones that are turned on; pregnant women resting their mobile phone on their baby bump; breast feeding mothers holding mobile phones close to their babies’ heads.
Giving people information empowers them to make decisions about their use of wireless devices.
Where are you getting your information from? Are the studies and statistics you quote in your book peer-reviewed?
All the information in the book can be easily substantiated by checking the references I provide. These are not included in the book itself, as we wanted to keep it light and easy to read. However, readers will find them online here.
Yes, the information on scientific studies comes from peer-reviewed journals.
What do you say to people who think you’re extreme?
There’s nothing extreme about wanting people to be informed and safe.
And there’s nothing extreme about taking steps to protect children from potential hazards. We do it all the time — every time we strap a child into a car seat, every time we put on their sunhat, turn on an air purifier, buy nontoxic products, install a pool fence — we’re protecting our children from some potential threat or other.
My experience is that most parents want to know what they can do to keep their children safe. This book gives them tools that help them to do that.
As you can see, the book gives people a range of options they can choose from, depending on how much precaution they want to take. If people choose to do nothing to reduce their exposure, at least they’re doing it from an informed position.
If you had one piece of advice about a small thing that people could do to make a change, or take a first step to being more aware, what would it be?
Take a moment to step out of the digital world into the real world.
Leave all of your digital devices behind and take your family out into nature for a while. Spend some time interacting with each other and with the natural world. That’s real living!
Wireless-Wise Families: what every parent needs to know about wireless technologies is in stores now. You can purchase online via our website here.
