Infants, Toddlers, and Children are most impacted

The Bioinitiative Report on Early Childhood Development

Electromagnetic Fields, Pulsed Radiofrequency Radiation, and Epigenetics: How Wireless Technologies May Affect Childhood Development

Abstract

Mobile phones and other wireless devices that produce electromagnetic fields (EMF) and pulsed radiofrequency radiation (RFR) are widely documented to cause potentially harmful health impacts that can be detrimental to young people. New epigenetic studies are profiled in this review to account for some neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral changes due to exposure to wireless technologies.

Symptoms of retarded memory, learning, cognition, attention, and behavioral problems have been reported in numerous studies and are similarly manifested in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, as a result of EMF and RFR exposures where both epigenetic drivers and genetic (DNA) damage are likely contributors.

Blue Light Exposed

...Studies suggest that, over time, exposure to the blue end of the light spectrum could cause serious long-term damage to your eyes.

...According to a study by the Kaiser family Foundation, children and teenagers (ages 8-18) spend more than 7 hours a day consuming electronic media. Before age 10, children's eyes are not fully developed. The crystalline lens and cornea are still largely transparent and overexposed to light, so too much exposure to blue light is not a good thing. Parents should supervise and limit the amount of screen time their children are permitted.

Examples of Radiation Regulations for a Few Countries: From Parents for Safe Technology

France:

• 2015 Law passed: WiFi banned from nursery schools, Wifi must be be turned off in elementary schools when not in use, Cellphone advertisements must recommend headsets to reduce exposure to brain.

• 2011 French Cell Phone Statute: Merchants must display SAR Radiation levels for different phone models, all phones must be sold with a headset, cell phone ads aimed at children younger than 14 are banned and phones made for children under 6 are banned.

Israel:

• The  Israeli Ministry Of Education has issued guidelines limiting WiFi and cell phone use in schools including. 
  
• Preschool through 2nd grade have banned the use of wireless networks.​
  
• A hard wired direct cable connection is required if the teacher has a computer in the class. Magnetic fields below 4MG are being reduced. 
• The Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli government to reply on ceasing  Wifi installations
  
• In third and fourth grade class internet is restricted to 3 hours per week.
  
• The Education Ministry has instructed all schools to perform radiation tests.
  
• The Health Ministry has called for a halt to Wifi installations.  
• The Israeli Ministry of Health published  Environmental Health in Israel  2014 which states that “Precautions should be strictly enforced with regard to children, who are more sensitive to developing cancer.” and that "wireless communication networks in schools be reduced."

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 

• Resolution 1815 was issued in 2011 entitled:
  The Potential Dangers of Electromagnetic Fields and Their Effect on the Environment.
  A call to European governments to “take all reasonable measures” to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields “particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumours.”  The Resolution calls for  member states to:
  
• Implement “information campaigns about the risk of biological effects on the environment and human health, especially targeting children and young people of reproductive age. “
  
• “For children in general, and particularly in schools and classrooms, give preference to wired Internet connections, and strictly regulate the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren on school premises.”

Switzerland

• ​The Governing Council of Thurgau Canton 2008 “The Governing Council recommends for schools to forgo the use of wireless networks when the structural makeup of a given school building allows for a wired network.“

Germany

• Bavaria: The State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs: “For precautionary reasons the Federal Office for Radiation Protection recommends for schools that if a wireless network is used to place its components in suitable locations and to prefer the use of wired network solutions whenever possible.” In 2007 Parliament recommendation to all schools to not install wireless LAN networks.
• Frankfurt: ​“In Frankfurt’s schools there will be no wireless networks in the short or mid term. The Local Education Authority did not wish to conduct a “large scale human experiment,” said Michael Damian, spokesperson of the Head of the School Department Jutta Ebeling.

Austria  

• "The official advice of the Public Health Department of the Salzburg Region is not to use WLAN and DECT in Schools or Kindergartens.” -Gerd Oberfeld, MD.
• The Austrian Medical Society has issued cell phone safety guidelines (See picture to the left) stating that cell phones should be used for as short of a time as possible and that children under 16 should not use cell phones at all. They also  state that wireless LAN leads to high microwave exposure.

United Kingdom

• The UK National Health Service issued guidelines specific Recommendations for children and cell phones as “children are thought to be at higher risk of health implications”.
• “Children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short. “
• For the public they have  “recommendations to help lower any potential long-term risks” which include keeping calls short, keep phone away from the body on standby mode, only use it when the reception is strong and use a phone with an external antenna.

India  

• 2012 The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology issued EMF Guidelines with new Exposure Limits lowered to 1/10 of the ICNIRP level, SAR labeling on phones.
• Official guidelines for Cell Phone Use include:  Headsets, Speakerphones, limiting cell use, increasing distance from devices, and choosing landlines.
• 2013: Supreme Court of India upheld the High Court of the State of Rajasthan decision to remove all cell towers from the vicinity of schools, hospitals and playgrounds because of radiation “hazardous to life.”  
• The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has an EMF  webpage
• Read the REPORT OF THE INTER-MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON EMF RADIATION.  
• Zilla Parishad orders removal of all cellphone towers near schools citing exposure to “harmful radiation”.​​

United States

Visit the Parents for Safe Technology site to see legislation for the United States. Various states have passed laws to reduce exposure to children, but the Federal Communications Commission is dominated by the telecom industry, so the United States government is lacking any meaningful regulations.

This book was published by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University: