Microwaves. These handy gadgets have been the source of much debate in the online health community, and it’s not hard to see why. The idea of “zapping,” “nuking,” or otherwise heating your food using microwave radiation can seem a little dubious.
In this article, I’ll take a look at the evidence behind some of the most common microwave concerns. Do microwaves leak radiation? Do microwaves destroy the nutrients in food? Do they denature proteins and make food toxic to our bodies? First, though, let’s start with the basics. How do they work?
How Do Microwave Ovens Work?
The aptly-named microwave oven uses microwave radiation to heat food. Electromagnetic (EM) radiation exists over a range of wavelengths, where shorter wavelengths (such as x-rays and gamma rays) have higher energy than longer wavelengths (such as radio waves). On the EM spectrum (pictured below), microwaves fall between radio and infrared waves.
Each level of radiation has different effects on the molecules they interact with. Microwaves contain enough energy to induce molecular rotation, which is the lowest energy form of interaction, but they don’t have enough energy to induce molecular vibrations, electron excitation, or ionization. Microwaves have the greatest effect on water molecules, due to their polar structure, and these rapidly rotating water molecules transfer energy as heat to the other molecules in food.
Do Microwaves Leak Radiation?
One concern many people have about microwave ovens is the simple fact that they emit, well, microwaves. Hasn’t exposure to microwave radiation been linked to cancer and infertility? Evidence is mixed; most published research concludes that low-level microwave exposure doesn’t present a significant risk to human health. (1, 2, 3) Even if it did, this is only an issue if the microwaves inside the microwave somehow escape the microwave and encounter your body, which (as you’ll see below) is unlikely.
The FDA requires that microwaves emit no more than 5 mW/cm2 of radiation at a distance of 2 inches from the microwave. They also point out that microwave radiation dissipates rapidly as you move away from the source, so a measurement taken 20 inches from the microwave would be about 1/100 of the measurement taken at 2 inches. This is good news, because it means that to avoid radiation from your microwave, all you have to do is step away from it while your food is heating.
Are #microwaves as unhealthy as we are told?
The other good news is that in general, real microwave emissions seem to stay below the federally mandated maximum. A study published in 2013 on microwaves in Palestine found that the radiation leakage measured one meter from the microwave varied from 0.43 to 16.4 μW/cm2, with an average of 3.64 μW/cm2. (4) A 2001 survey of microwaves in Saudi Arabia concluded that with 95% probability, a microwave will be found to leak between 0.01 and 2.44 mW/cm2 at a distance of 5cm, and only one out of 106 microwaves surveyed was found to leak more than the FDA limit. (5)
For comparison’s sake, a 2013 study measured microwave radiation emitted by cell phones at a distance of 3.5cm from the phone, and found levels of 10 – 40 μW/cm2 during a call and 0.35 – 10.5 μW/cm2 on silent. (6) Based on these numbers, having a cell phone in your pocket on silent mode exposes you to roughly the same level of microwave radiation as standing one meter from your microwave while it’s heating food.
Honestly, just don’t press your face up against the door of the microwave while your food is cooking, and step a few feet away if you can. If you’re going to be concerned about exposure to microwave radiation, you’d probably be better off getting rid of your cellphone than your microwave oven. (But that’s a topic for a another day.)
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Do Microwaves Make Proteins Toxic?
Now, let’s talk about the effect of microwave heating on food. One oft-cited claim is that microwaves can “denature” proteins, making them toxic to the human body. First of all, I think there are some misconceptions about what exactly “denaturation” is. Contrary to how the word is often used, it doesn’t mean that a protein has ‘changed’ in some unspecified way to make it more toxic. When a protein is “denatured,” that specifically means it has unfolded and lost its three-dimensional shape, but all of the amino acids in the protein are still bonded together.
Heat in general denatures proteins, so cooking your food (using any heating method) will denature the proteins. Cooking can even be defined as heating something enough to denature the proteins. (7) Changes in pH also denature proteins. In fact, guess what one of the functions of stomach acid is? Denaturing the proteins you ingest! Proteins need to be unfolded (denatured) before digestive enzymes can cleave them into individual amino acids to be absorbed in your small intestine. “Denatured proteins” don’t sound so scary any more, do they?
Perhaps what people have in mind when they refer to “protein denaturation” is actually isomerization of amino acids. This is a completely different process, but it is a change that actually affects the nutritive value of proteins. Without getting too into the chemistry, amino acids can exist in two configurations, termed D- and L-, and isomerization is the process by which an amino acid switches from one configuration to the other. Our bodies almost exclusively use the L- form of amino acids, but pH changes and heat can cause amino acids in food to isomerize to the D- forms, which can’t be efficiently digested or utilized by our body. (8)
In any case, there doesn’t appear to be a significant difference in levels of D- amino acids in foods cooked in the microwave compared with foods heated conventionally. One study conducted in 1989 found higher levels of D- amino acids in microwaved formula compared with other heating methods (10), but several more recent studies have found no difference. (11, 12, 13, 14, 15) Additionally, the general consensus seems to be that if more D- amino acids are formed, it is due primarily to over heating or uneven temperature distribution, rather than a specific effect of microwaves themselves.
Do Microwaves Destroy Nutrients?
As far as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and plant phenols, retention does not appear to depend on cooking method. Levels of nutrient retention were sometimes higher in microwaved food, and sometimes lower, depending on time, temperature, and amount of water used in the cooking process. (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
In general, nutrients are lost from food during any type of cooking, and more nutrients are lost when the temperature is higher or the food is cooked for longer. Water soluble vitamins are readily leached into cooking liquid (no surprise there), so boiling food tends to result in greater nutrient losses than microwaving it with a small amount of water (unless you drink the water you boiled the food in, in which case you’d still be getting most of the nutrients).
As a final interesting data point, one study published in 1995 used a rat model to look at the overall effects of a microwaved diet in vivo. The diet consisted of meat, potatoes, vegetables, and some oil, cooked either in the microwave or conventionally, and was fed to rats for 13 weeks. To magnify any adverse effects of microwave cooking, the study authors added two additional experimental groups that received “abused” food, which had been reheated and cooled a couple times either conventionally or in the microwave. (21) At the end of 13 weeks, they found no adverse effects of microwave cooking on the rats.
Don’t Fear the Microwave!
In conclusion, microwaves aren’t as scary as some people make them out to be. Yes, they’re another source of microwave radiation in your home, but the levels are extremely low, and can be almost entirely avoided by simply stepping away while your food is heating. And compared with microwave radiation from other devices (particularly cell phones), radiation from your microwave oven is negligible.
Additionally, there’s no evidence that microwaves adversely affect the nutrient profile of foods. Because microwaves are a relatively new device, I prefer to think of them as “guilty until proven innocent” rather than the other way around, but given what we know about EM radiation and its effects on food molecules, there isn’t really a mechanism by which microwaves could destroy nutrients other than heat. And heat, of course, is an issue regardless of cooking method!
If you’re still skeptical of microwaves after reading this, by all means – use whatever cooking method makes you comfortable. I might be one of the few freaks in the world now that still doesn’t use a microwave, but I can’t say that it’s because of any safety concern or scientific concern. I’ve just never liked what they do to the texture of certain foods, and for whatever reason, I’ve never gotten into using one.
But if you enjoy the convenience of a microwave, don’t be afraid to use it – especially if being able to microwave your food makes the difference between heating up leftover Paleo chili or grabbing a Nutri-Grain bar for lunch!
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As Chris states the only real danger to health from the microwave would appear to be those generally associated with over heating food. Over heating food is a danger to health regardless of the means used to over heat the food. The problem is, it is extreemly easy to over heat food in a microwave. I’m sure many people have ended up with a jacket potato (any variety) that could be used as a wepon due to its overcooked consistency of a rock. I tend to use a microwave only for a limited number of items (as I agree with Chris most food is awful microwaved) and I take great care not to over cook them.
Overcooked potato gets mushy not hard…
Microwaves are not resident radiation in layman terms. But there are some certain properties which I could not come across in this article. So let me kindly add them.
* Thermal runaway: Microwave heats certain materials/foods/liquids in a very special manner (like a kind of resonance) and there could be super-heated areas in a manner of seconds. This is rare but possible and your coffee may blow up to your face. So stay for a couple of seconds once you heat something in MW.
* Microwave does change material properties: Not necessarily for food but for chemical reaction speed up, MW is utilized as catalyst sometimes. Certain special molecules can only form in case of MW heated or triggered reaction chambers. Hell a lot of MW assisted chemical reaction articles out there in the science circles.
* Microwave heats evenly: Considering a stirred MW once the MW radiation is even (not resonant within the cavity) the target (food in this case) is evenly heated. So unlike conventional ovens working with convection, MW is instant and even making it more economical in terms of energy.
* MW leakage fear: MW leakage is not a concern. I say this with MS EE degree and over +100 field measurements of different sources. Here is the math. MW oven leakage is below 50W/m2. Your cellular phone is around 0.8 W and with half dipole antenna it almost sends half of its energy to your head. The spread is less and the distance is a few cm to your head. So 50 W/m2 spreading to your whole body with at least you being 50 cm away. While your phone spreads 0.8 W/(0.07)power2 at 2 cm. So exposure roughly 50W/m2 divided by (0.5)p2 =”200 W/m2″ (dont get lost with the units) while cellular phone is 0.8W/ (0.07)p2 divided by (0.02)p2 = “408000 W/m2”. So your brain is simply cooked with cellular terminal in the long calls. (This is not a correct calculation but it is straight approach-wise for comparison of exposure)
Cellular phone operates around 2100 MHz (depends on the country as well) while MW operates around 2450 MHz. Do you know which part of the spectrum your WiFi works? Let me guess… 2450 MHz!!! mainly…
A woman who does live blood cell analysis once told me that she can tell when someone eats microwaved food by the type of irregularities in observed blood cells.
We removed our microwave (replaced it with an extractor fan). Took about 30 days to get used to working without it. It has now been 5 years and we never think about it.
CELL PHONE and EMF’s:
If you do that, please include infer from the Swedish study, which was extensively discussed in a 3- month long series, which ran in the New Yorker, or maybe it was Smithsonian, magazine, June-July and August, in approximately 1993, 1994 or 1995.
We had that whole series at Stratford’s office, but I cannot remember exact year.
Those pages included very specific findings, and quoted many studies, not just the Swedish one.
ALSO: I’m sure you know, Dr. Chris, but many don’t, that when considering research, it’s important to read the actual studies and data; sometimes the summaries differ markedly from actual data–particularly if reviewing Docs dislike, or are paid to denounce, a particular thing being researched–because most readers don’t make time to read the actual data and study content, they opt to read only the summary.
Then there are the politics and profit preserving factions who tend to try to tweak data to suit them–on BOTH sides of the mainstream / alternative fence.
AND, sometimes research parameters are falsified in some very creative ways—it’s very important to learn who paid for them, which often requires real digging to learn who’s behind the funders listed on the top of the stack, who’s on what interlocutory boards, etc. [Like Hillary’s history of being a Monsanto corporate lawyer; or, Cheney excusing himself from Halliburton just before it became big in the Middle East; or, Obama appointing an “ex” Monsanto exec as a VP for the FDA, for instance—corporate level execs can be posted in one position art some other venue, but quietly, under-the-table, still active with the other corporations]
It’s common for industries with vested interests in making a product profitable, to tweak the way parameters are arranged, and/or, to falsify data and readings. This was done with Brachy-Therapy [radiation-bead implants for cancer treatment] research, and with Nicotine patches and gum; I was part of staff in one hospital that ran those researches, and witnessed what was done–otherwise, On Paper, those LOOK like successful projects… BOTH have been being marketed to public for over 20 years, despite failures and falsifications which were never documented, during research phases. Those researches were over 30 years ago. Stuff like that happens on far too many important research projects, which affect millions, or even billions, of people; I’ve read too many projects that have hints of those things in them.
When people like me die off, there will be no more witnesses to that corruption of process, for those sorts of researches.
A few points I like to make. I came across articles that 1) Russians banned microwaves somewhere in the 60’s 2)Blood,
because it was needed quickly, warmed in a microwave caused the patient to die. 3) identical plants given microwaved water produced abnormal fruits and were stunted compared to plants given conventionally heated water. This would be easy to test for a first hand unbiased opinion.
Microwaved and cooled water does not kill plants, nor does it stunt their growth. The oft cited case of the patient dying after blood was warmed in a microwave was found to be not true. The patient died from a blood clot, which is a risk in surgery. Heating blood in a microwave does increase the risk of overheating or the blood, which destroys the red blood cells, regardless of heating method. There is an additional risk of uneven heating with a microwave. If done properly, blood can be heated in a microwave.
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp
http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/microwave_cooking_is_killing_you
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9291364
Oh please. The USSR did NOT ban microwave ovens, this was a story made up by Bill Kopp years ago that has ended up on Mercola’s website among others. There is absolutely no evidence for this at all. None. Neither did the Nazis invent “radiomissor” MW ovens.
Oh please, again, an old story about heating blood, cited frequently yet never with a reference to the autopsy, or the findings of the jury, or the decision of the judge. Neither are alternatives considered, e.g why would a surgeon need blood so quickly that conventional means were unacceptable. To me that says “medical emergency” and might have been fatal anyway. BTW, the autopsy said it was a blood clot, the old lady’s family claimed that the nurse had “cooked” the blood too long, the jury found for the hospital. The case is Warner vs Hillcrest.
Again, oh please not again. Do the test yourself and be surprised. The most common version (Arielle Reynolds, a granddaughter or a school science fair project) was actually faked and even if it wasn’t the protocols are appalling.
It annoys me that so many deliberately ignore the scientist (and so often then claim it’s scientists not listening!!) because the science doesn’t support their argument. If the evidence doesn’t support your hypothesis, do what every scientist is forced to do in a similar position and modify your hypothesis. If necessary, ditch it. Scientists have been doing this for years when new evidence comes along.
QUESTION:
Why no mention of antioxidant destruction in foods cooked in microwave? I heard of one study that showed nearly 100% of antioxidants in foods, are destroyed by microwaves.
Whether that is from the heating process, or from the microwaves themselves, was not clear.
We were talked into buying 1 of the 1st microwaves [Litton], over 40 years ago “so that [you] can better sell them, because you can tell others about how you use yours”. Those things were LARGE and HEAVY. Modern units are far better, smaller and with turn-tables to help avoid hotspots.
Hotspots in microwaved food are common and problematic; in old units, had to stop/start to turn food to decrease those hotspots, but not effective. Hotspots are what mostly causes the bad textures and overcooked/undercooked spots.
Microwaves are not so good at cooking eggs as they are at exploding them.
We garaged-sales that behemoth; got smaller unit later.
We rarely used that microwave for over 15 years, beyond hotting up water for tea/coffee.
Someone gave us a 2nd small unit, which we re-gifted to someone in desperate need of a cooking device. Ended up gifting the other one to a group in need of a way to heat snacks.
Never got another one. Don’t need it. Living in a tiny space, microwave ovens take up more real estate than they work to earn.
We discovered portable induction burners: REALLY like those, even the cheap ones are great. Induction duplicates regular stove cooking; heats faster; can cook at lower temps; easily controlled; timer easy to set prevents walk-away-burned-pans; all good stuff.
We’ve been using 2 Mr. Induction burners, exclusively, for our cooking, for over 2 years, augmenting with a small, 30+ y.o. toaster oven/steamer for any small baking. Perfect for 2 people; saves chunk of electricity off the power bills. Saves our pans from damage by burned food; much easier to avoid over-cooking foods.
Induction burners are pretty much fireproof, too—if we’d had them while care-taking our elder parent, she’d never have been able to cause a stove fire from spilled oil; she’d have been safer doing the cooking she liked to do.
Induction most-closely approximates regular stove-top cooking, but far more safely.
It probably has a similar EMF footprint as a microwave, if anyone is concerned about EMF’s.
I don’t use a microwave and have not for many years as I do not like the texture or uneven heating of the food. I have read many articles on its safety, both for and against. I believe if there is any suspected harm from using a microwave why would you? Your body, your choice.
I hope you’ll write the article you hinted at about cell phone radiation.
I generally use my microwave for heating coffee or tea, occassionally for cooking vegetables, or reheating something. I used to not like coffee heated in the microwave, because it tasted burnt. Then I realized that since I had been heating coffee that had set in the pot, with the heat on under it for hours, before being turned off. Yeah, the coffee tasted burnt, but it probably was BEFORE I put it in the microwave. Now, I shut off the coffee maker when I get my first cup. Coffee doesn’t taste burnt anymore. The food generally only feels rubbery if it’s overheated. But it’ll turn rubbery if overheated conventionally too.
the is one serious fault in your article about Microwave ovens. Here it is: “A study published in 2013 on microwaves in Palestine” when you click on reference you see: “1Center for Radiation Science and Technology, Al-Quds University, PO Box 20002, Jerusalem, Palestine.”
1. Jerusalem is capital of Israel
2. Al-Quds University is University of Jerusalem
3. There is no such country as Palestine and it never existed.
4. The “scientist ” did his research on Israelis taxpayers money.
I do not know if the mistake was made intentionally.
Palestine never existed, really?
https://www.google.com/search?q=palestine+currency+mils&tbm=isch&ei=rbQlVc3QGfG_sQSVy4GIAQ
Palestine never existed as a country. Romans who occupied antic Israel and Judea call it Palestine. Then It was occupied by Osman Empire then by British. Palestine always was associated with Jews who lived and live there for 5000 years. So called “palestinians” but really arabs from many different tribes had no idea that they are palestinians just 50 years ago. Term palestinians applied to arabs was invented and coined by Soviet KGB and spread by left-liberal media around the Word. The goal was destroying Israel by creating arab state. To create a state you have to invent a group who claim a land.
Take it easy
Something that I was surprised wasn’t mentioed is that microwave “radiation” is nothing like the same kind of “radiation” from a nuclear reactor or bomb. Very differnt deal, and something that so many people simply don’t know.
See this for more;
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/ionize_nonionize.html
You are absolutely right about that. People in general have no idea what “radiation” is. Most have come to think it is synonymous with “radioactive”. I saw an article a few days ago about a video where someone uses an “electromagnetic radiation detector” to show how dangerous CF light bulbs are because they emit EM radiation. The person apparently had no idea that if a bulb did NOT emit EM radiation, it would not produce light or heat. I suppose it would blow their minds to realize that their bodies emit EM radiation.
I am not sure how many we are up to, but I am a non-microwaver as well. Why add any extra radiation to your life? That the cell phone is worse is not a factor; I dont have a cell either.
Your computer screen emits radiation. You NEED (electromagnetic) radiation to see. The most dangerous forms of radiation (truly radioactive materials) are helium nuclei, free electrons/positrons, and gamma rays, which are on the opposite side of the spectrum from microwaves. To the best of my knowledge, no parts of the microwave contain or emit any of those. If in doubt, use a Geiger counter.
I have heard….that one is not supposed to heat up Colostrum in the microwave because it supposedly destroys the ‘goodies’ in the colostrum.
I am curious to know if you think that this is an old wives tale or true. I would think that overheating the Colostrum certainly would not be a good thing but warming it in the microwave…?
One of the studies linked to in the article did not deal with colostrum, but it did discuss formula and breastmilk. It found “The content of nutrients and antibacterial factors in milk are maintained unchanged provided the final temperature does not exceed 60°C.” I would guess the same holds true for colostrum.
I’ve always been told not to heat up breastmilk in the microwave. I did it once, out of desperation. I tasted it and it seemed fine to me, but the baby would absolutely not drink it. I’m not sure if that means anything but…yeah.
The reason they said not to heat up baby milk (it was not just breast milk, it included formula too) in a microwave had nothing to do with destroying any nutrients. It was because microwaves heat food unevenly… it can cause hot spots in the baby milk and lead to serious burns in the baby’s mouth….
ie it is a safety issue rather than a nutritional one.
Are there dark field microscope studies showing the impact on blood clumping eating MV food vs. other forms of cooking? Also using muscle testing could show wide individual differences on MV food/water has on energy status. Certainly there must be studies on this?
Good to know that microwaves are safe from a distance.
I have heard that microwaves destroy enzymes in food. Is this true? Can cooking with other methods destroy them anyway?
As Chris says, enzymes are proteins. Proteins are denatured by cooking, including microwave cooking. So yes, microwaving destroys enzymes in food. However, enzymes in food are unlikely to have any health benefits as they are also destroyed by stomach acid.
Actually the only thing that Chris said about enzymes in his article was “Proteins need to be unfolded (denatured) before digestive enzymes can cleave them into individual amino acids to be absorbed in your small intestine.” So the enzymes are digesting the protien. Denaturing unfolds the protien, not destroys it.
Most enzymes are proteins, so everything Chris said about proteins refers to enzymes as well. Enzymes only work when they are in their proper 3D folded shape, which means that denaturing via heat or acid does stop them working. Since by definition, enzymes need to be able to function as catalysts, unfolding them destroys them.
It is the enzymes in our gut that we really need. Enzymes in our food are proteins and would be denatured by cooking (any form of heat) and then broken down into polypeptides in our gut by our own enzymes. Few external enzymes would work in our gut because most would be broken down.
Chris Kresser,
I appreciate your work and that it’s often the most scientific and fact based paleo advice on the web. It must be incredibly difficult catering to an audience that by and large is distrustful of science and would rather prove their point by linking to youtube videos and natural news websites and talking about the anecdotes they’ve experienced versus relying on controlled and repeatable experiments.
Keep up the good work!
I am very disappointed in this article as it is not thoroughly researched. There are many studies showing the negative effects of microwaves on food and on the people who eat it. Our whole family became sick from the microwave radiation from our “smart home” system in the form of cordless phones and wifi (same frequency as your oven but lower intensity). We are all essentially being microwaved at a lower intensity but a longer duration now with wifi, cell phones, cell towers and smart meters and there are literally thousands of studies showing adverse biological effects (damage to DNA, stress protein production, infertility, cancer, nervous system and hormonal disruption, micro biome changes, etc.) Our family became very sick from it over a period of 4 years. All of our symptoms cleared up when we drastically reduced our exposure but now all 5 of us are sensitive and are unwell in wifi environments (try staying away from wifi and cell phones for a challenge!) and are unable to use cell phones. This is a growing problem around the world and children are especially vulnerable. The Bioinitiative Report (bioinitiative.org) is a good place to start to learn more. Chris – so many people trust you, you could really help people by raising awareness of this growing issue. Never before has any group of people been exposed to cradle to grave microwave radiation at these levels. Microwave radiation will be the next tobacco and asbestos combined and this generation of children will be the worst hit victims. Also look at the documentaries: “Mobilize”, “Take Back your Power”, “Microwaves, Science and Lies” and “Generation Zapped” (this on is being made now.
Michele,
You say ‘many studies’ – I challenge you to name just one well done study by a reputable group which supports anyof your claims. I’ve never found one, and I have looked.
I’ve found lots of hocus-pocus masquerading as scientific studies, but it takes very little digging, or simply a knowledge of high-school physics, to see them for what they are: garbage.
Modern society subjects us to many things which we did not evolve to handle – microwaves is one, but there are many others (AM radio stations have been around about 90 years now – they also emit electromagnetic radiation; oh, let’s not forget moving at velocities exceeding 4 mph for extended periods – if you’re looking for bug-a-boos to explain health issues, I’m sure some nutcase out there will come up with a psuedo-scientific explanation of why moving faster than natural speeds affects our health. Time to ban all travel faster than a rapid walk.)
I think a much more likely cause than microwaves for many modern health issues is the human-made chemical soup of a zillion different kinds of molecules in which we all now live. Most of these chemicals our bodies simply are not equipped to deal with or even detect, and have no way of defending against (and, I might add, which we have no way of avoiding even if we want to).
The fact that you would claim your whole family became sick from microwaves, when there are no reputable studies of any effects in any humans, makes me think you should be looking at environmental factors other than microwaves. Did you all really get better by shutting off microwave sources, or was it a placebo effect because you’re so convinced that is the culprit?
Sorry for the skepticism, but such broad claims just don’t stand up to critical examination. If microwaves were so bad, people would be dropping like flies given the number of cell phones in use (and the field strengths of a phone pressed against the ear far, far exceeds the leakage from a microwave oven).
(That’s not to say that long-term exposure to higher energy microwave fields may not be found to be a problem – the jury is still out on that. The jury, in this case, possibly being the 1 billion people with phones glued to their heads. But we’re up to 10-15 years of use without any uptick in health issues related to cell phone use – the jury may come back with an innocent verdict even for microwaving your right ear for hours.)
Finally, your comment about microwaves being the next tobacco and asbestos combined borders on silly – there are very clear causal pathways from tobacco and asbestos to ill health (see my concerns about chemical soup above); no such pathways have been found, or even conjectured by concerning microwaves (outside the pseudo-science circles).
Did you look at the studies in the Bioinitiative Report? Do you really think they are not credible sources? They are all peer reviewed and most importantly, independent, not industry funded. There are more than 10,000 studies by independent scientists showing adverse biological effects from this type of radiation and absolutely NO studies proving they are safe.
We are bio-electric beings and unlike am or fm radios, cell phones, wifi routers and cell towers are 2 way microwaveradios, constantly sending and receiving information with pulse modulated information carrying microwaves.
We do not have fm radio antennas broadcasting in our homes or hold fm radio antennas next to our heads all day long but we have wifi in our houses and cell phones next to our heads and our children are in classrooms all day with iPads and wifi routers, using cell phones, gaming, and living in homes with wifi. This is a dangerous human experiment and our family is just the canary in the mine.
We searched for every environmental cause for the issues to our health and finally had a very experienced building biologist fly in from California and his testing showed that the only environmental issue in the home was the high levels of radiation coming from the smart home system controlling security, audio and video, lighting, heating etc that operated with wifi and cordless phones. When we removed that radiation our symptoms went away. Since then, I have met many people whose strange symptoms have cleared up once they dialed down the wireless.
You must do your own research and not rely on false claims from an industry that is hiding even its own results. Read “Disconnect” by Devra Davis. Her website is http://ehtrust.org. She is one of the epidemiologists that helped to bring down big tobacco. She explains how the communications industry is using the same tactics to keep us in the dark as the tobacco industry once did.
The DNA in our cells recognizes electromagnetic fields at the lowest levels of exposure and produces a biochemical stress response activating heat shock proteins that increase free radicals, resulting in a whole slew of inflammatory and unhealthy conditions.
There have been many documented health effects from mobile phones, especially brain cancer. See Lennart Hardell’s work. His conclusions that certain brain cancers increased 200-300 % with over 1000 hours of life time use (500% if use started before the age of 20) were consistent with findings of the industry funded Interphone Study. However the authors of the Interphone Study rejected their own findings saying that this level of cell phone use (about 1/2 an hour per day) was “implausible.” Does anyone only use their cell phone for 1/2 an hour per day?
Although those results can be found by reading the whole report, they did not appear in the conclusion and were not reported in the press.
It is really important to look at all of the independent research and not rely on the main stream media which is not properly reporting it or even the WHO which has huge conflicts of interest. The New York Times is 17% owned by a telecommunications company and receives lots of advertising from it too.
Here is a link to a California Medical Association Resolution calling for a Wireless Standards Reevaluation.
http://www.parentsforsafetechnology.org/california-medical-association-resolution-on-wireless.html
Read the references. If the CMA, thinks they are credible, maybe you will too.
But don’t take my word for it, do your own experiment. Sleep with a wifi router, a cordless phone and your iPhone in your bedroom. Work on a laptop, use your cell phone, get an Apple watch and be sure to live near a cell tower. Also keep using that cell phone and blue tooth in the car. See how you feel in a few years. You will first become extremely irritable (maybe you have already judging by the tone of your message!), and get strange problems like sinus issues, allergies or digestive stuff. Your sleep will be affected. Then your cognition will start to go. You will have a hard time focusing and remembering. You may get vertigo, ringing in the ears or be dehydrated all the time. Then you may get heart problems, an autoimmune disorder or cancer. Maybe you will get chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. Hope you aren’t trying to have kids by then because that may be tricky. Your sperm count will be low and your wife’s eggs will have genetic damage and a hardened outer shell. You will treat all of the symptoms and not have any idea they are all related unless you become electrically sensitive and can actually feel the radiation like many people do now. Then your cell phone will make your hand burn and give you a head ache and you may feel nauseous or get heart palpitations in front of your computer. By then it is very hard to come back from it. Let us know how it goes.
Prove this stuff is safe for us. The burden of proof should be on those claiming it is safe and who are forcing it on everyone, especially our children.
Here is another good website. http://www.c4st.org
I am not sure about all of the studies but I know what the microwave did to my gut. I got to feeling like something was gnawing at my gut after drinking tea made with a microwave so I stopped doing that and all bad feelings went away and I have not used one for at least 30 years now. Mel
Do wall pug in and wrist band anti-EMF effect devices do any good?