The Well Adjusted Mama is a podcast dedicated to educating and empowering women from preconception, pregnancy, birth, and through early motherhood on wellness lifestyle. The host, Dr. Laura Brayton, is a maternity/pediatric chiropractor and mother who has hand-selected experts in natural, holistic health-care specialties to shine light on options and choices during this exciting phase of a woman’s life.
In this episode, Dr. Laura Brayton chats with SYB CEO R Blank about the various ways in which EMF exposure impacts women’s and reproductive health.
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Transcript
Dr. Laura Brayton 0:14
Welcome to another episode of well adjusted mama. This is a podcast dedicated to educating and empowering women from preconception pregnancy, birth and early motherhood on wellness lifestyle. I’m your host, Dr. Laura Brayton. And I’m a maternity pediatric chiropractor and mother, who has hand selected experts in natural, holistic health care specialties, to shine light on options and choices during this exciting phase of a woman’s life. And today’s episode is all about effects of EMF on reproduction, children and the immune system function. And I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing my guest R blank. R blank is the CEO of shield your body whose mission is to make technology safer, with hundreds of 1000s of customers in over 30 countries. And having been interviewed on platforms ranging from ABC Television, to electric sends ours an internationally followed expert on issues of EMF health and safety. He was inspired to create shield your body when he co authored the best selling book overpowered with his father, Dr. Martin Blanc, one of the world’s leading EMF scientist, he has degrees from Columbia University and UCLA and now hosts the new, healthier tech podcast. For more information, you can check out his website at shield your body.com. Hi, R, welcome to the show. Very excited to have you on.
R Blank 1:38
Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Dr. Laura Brayton 1:41
So I’m really interested in this topic that you’re very passionate about, which is essentially having people especially moms understand the impacts of EMF, on our bodies and on our family’s bodies, and how we can kind of essentially what it does to our health in our body, and then what we can do to protect ourselves as well. Excellent. Yeah. So let’s start off and talk a little bit about who you are and why you’re so passionate about educating people about the effects of EMF.
R Blank 2:14
Sure. So well, in a, in a former life, I was a, I was a software engineer and taught on the faculty of University of Southern California. And about 10 years ago, while my father was Dr. Martin Blanc, who was one of the world’s leading scientists on EMF and health effects, and about 10 years ago, he had a contract to write a book for the general audience on everything he’d learned and understood about EMF and health effects, but again, targeted at at regular readers, not at academics, not of activists, but at regular people. So he asked for some help to write this book, which became overpowered, which is still available on Amazon, it’s still one of the best books written on, on this subject. And so I hopped in and started co writing overpowered with him. And in the course of writing that book, now, obviously, you know, he’d been my father my entire life.
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Dr. Laura Brayton 3:14
It wasn’t your first exposure to that topic. Exactly.
R Blank 3:18
So I knew the work he did. And I knew, for instance, you know, never to hold the cellphone right up to my head. And I knew why we didn’t never had a microwave oven when I was growing up. But beyond that, I didn’t really understand the subject. And it was in the course of writing overpowered with him, that I learned a whole lot. And a few things really stuck out to me. One, is that the science on this question of EMF and what its impact is, it’s incredibly strong, because when you you see this covered often in mainstream media, it’s presented with this kind of both sides ism perspective of Oh, does do you know, does self do cell phones cause cancer? Well, one group says yes, and another group says no. And, you know, you’ll hear people say there’s no definitive proof that it’s the case. But if you actually step in and look at the science that’s been established now over 100 years, but certainly even more so in the past 3040 years, I mean, it’s a really compelling case, that’s, that’s made that this stuff is bioactive.
Dr. Laura Brayton 4:24
It’s a yes, yes, scientifically. Yeah.
R Blank 4:27
I mean, that when you get it, we can talk more about that. In terms of, you know, what science can actually prove versus what it indicates. But when you I mean, you’re looking now at 1000s of studies that show bio effects. I’m talking about high quality peer reviewed research that shows bio effects across multiple biological systems. And across multiple species. It’s not just humans, it’s animals. It’s insects, its birds, its plants and its trees. The EMF impact We’re all living things. Now that that was the first realization that the science is incredibly strong. The second is when you step back to think about it, right? EMF is a force that everything that emits it is something that constitutes our modern society as we know it. Right? We’re talking about, everyone thinks about cell phones and cell phones are very important in modern life. But we’re talking about computers, we’re talking about power lines, we’re talking about light bulbs and refrigerators. You can’t get rid of the sources of EMF, unless you’re willing to go back to about, you know, life in about 1850, which is obviously never going to happen is completely impractical, and very undesirable.
Dr. Laura Brayton 5:42
So yeah, and also even the Earth makes EMF Correct. Like, yeah, it was the urges from technology.
R Blank 5:48
Well, so yeah, so let’s narrow terms here. When I’m talking about EMF, I’m talking about human made EMF. Now it’s true, there are natural forms of EMF, the main one being the Earth’s own magnetic field. But then there’s also the, the EMF we receive from the sun, and other cosmic sources, also called cosmic radiation. And then there’s a little bit from lightning and some other sources. Now, by way of comparison, just to kind of put this into perspective, right, so the levels of those natural forms of EMF, which is the only the only sources of EMF that all life on Earth was exposed to, for 4.5 billion years up until the 1850s. If you compare that to just the ambient level, walking down the street in a city These days, and I’m not talking about holding a cell phone up to your head, just walking down the street in a modern city, according to conservative estimates, you are exposed to more than 1 trillion times more EMF just on an ambient level today than you would be just exposed in nature. Right. So we’re talking about many, many, many orders of magnitude, greater levels of exposure to frequencies that that don’t exist in nature, right. So the types of frequencies that a cell phone uses or that are emitted off of a power line, those are different frequencies than what we get just by walking in sunlight. So So I
Dr. Laura Brayton 7:25
guess, as a species, our bodies and I’m specifically talking about humans haven’t had the opportunity to really adapt to that change, and evolve to kind of mitigate those exposure. Right. And it’s different.
R Blank 7:40
It’s still growing, right. So even if by some miracle humanity had had adapted to, to endure the levels of exposure that were common when I was born, they are much, much, much greater now. And they will be much, much greater in 10 years, and in 20 years, because of the proliferation of wireless devices and wireless infrastructure all around us. Wow. So stepping back, just to finish the original thought, right? So you have the science, painting a very compelling picture that this stuff is bioactive, and then you have the fact that you can’t get rid of the sources. And so I realized there had to be a safer way for people to engage with modern technology. And that’s where the idea for what became shield your body came from? And that’s, that’s the company I run today.
Dr. Laura Brayton 8:32
And when did you start that company?
R Blank 8:35
So I started it right after finishing the book. So my first product came out in 2013. So that’s just about nine, nine years ago.
Dr. Laura Brayton 8:46
Right? Wow. And ever since then, you’ve just been adding all these different products to your line. Yeah. And these products are specifically made for people to protect themselves from EMF.
R Blank 8:58
Yes. Do you have anything for animals as well? No, yet? Not yet. I mean, we still we have a bed canopy and you know, your cat or your dog can sleep in the bed canopy with you. But no, no. Yes, definitely. Specifically for nonhumans at this point,
Dr. Laura Brayton 9:16
well, a lot of the our listeners are either pregnant or new moms, and I know you have a whole section of products for babies. Yes. Um, do you have anything for pregnant bellies?
R Blank 9:28
So the baby blanket is designed to be used by by someone who’s pregnant while they’re pregnant, and then for the baby once once it’s born. Oh, so that’s a really nice baby shower gift. Yeah, that’s a fantastic baby shower.
Dr. Laura Brayton 9:46
What other products do you have specifically for pregnant and new moms and babies?
R Blank 9:51
Well, so the other product we have specifically for babies are the baby beanies. So that goes on, on their head. So between the baby blanket and the baby beany you get some really good coverage on on someone the size of a baby? And how does how does this work. So all of my shielding products, which is all of my products, except for my headsets, which work a little bit differently, all of my products use EMF shielding technology. So this is this is universally accepted science, it goes back almost 200 years to when a scientist named Michael Faraday, British scientist invented what became known as the first Faraday cage. And what he showed is if you weave certain conductive metals into certain patterns, you can block and deflect EMF radiation of certain frequencies in the opposite direction, just the same way a window shade blocks and deflect sunlight in the opposite direction. And so in the intervening, you know, that was, I guess, 1836, or something. So since 1836, we’ve gotten really good at making those conductive metallic weaves really, really, really small and fine. So they can be woven into fabrics, like my baby blanket, or like the fabric that goes in my phone pouch. And also, all of my shields and all of my EMF protection products are based on their shielding technology, they all make. As I mentioned, this is universally accepted technology universally accepted science. But all of my products have independent lab testing to demonstrate our product claims. And then I also make available materials to help people understand how they can test for themselves at home, using consumer grade equipment to verify my product claims. So unlike, you know, certain types of products that are sold as EMF protection, mine make demonstrable, measurable claims. So you can actually measure the efficacy of these products,
Dr. Laura Brayton 11:48
right? Which is really important. You know, so you want to make sure it’s working. Can you throw that baby blanket in the washing machine?
R Blank 11:55
Yes. All of all of my apparel, I call that apparel, but all yes, the baby blanket and all my apparel products are what are machine washable? air dry? Yes. Got it.
Dr. Laura Brayton 12:07
Fascinating. And, you know, that makes so much sense. You know, I’m even thinking back to like Lord of the Rings, and they have like those, the shields right for armor that are super thin. But I mean, to save, I mean, I know that EMF isn’t necessarily a sword coming out your chest. But regardless, you know, protecting our bodies, using a weave with metal is is not a new, like you said even with EMF, it’s been around for almost 200 years. Yeah. So that’s just so fascinating to me that there’s that geometric, you know, quality, what type of metal do you use for your products.
R Blank 12:44
So in the apparel products we use silver is the shielding agent. Because it is not only it’s a fantastic shielding agent, but it’s also hyper hypoallergenic and antibacterial for for the non apparel product. So for instance, my phone pouch, we generally use some kind of mix of nickel and cobalt, sometimes copper, because those those products, that the shielding part of the products don’t come into direct contact with human skin. So we don’t need the same considerations.
Dr. Laura Brayton 13:18
And that makes a lot of sense. You know, I’m just thinking about so many people that are carrying their cell phone in their pockets like
R Blank 13:27
Richard should not do never, ever do ever, or put it into airplane mode if you do, but that’s like my number one tip for because, you know, you hear me on a podcast and you learn about this stuff. And you start realizing, well, you know, the science is real. And now you start looking around. And there’s all of these sources of EMF everywhere you look, and you start freaking out like it’s helpless. And my response to that is no, you know, odds are even given all of these sources in your environment. Depending on on your your personal behaviors and habits. That cell phone that you carry in your pocket is likely one of the biggest if not the biggest source of your personal exposure. And this is for reasons we can get into but it is so important for people not to carry their phones in their pockets or their bras directly on their person. Or if you do put it into airplane mode before before you put it in.
Dr. Laura Brayton 14:27
Got it and I would say that, you know, like even I was going through the Starbucks drive thru this morning. And every l these days, you know, younger employee or employees all have their cell phones in their back pocket, right? Because it’s so funny because when I was working at a job like that, you know, when I was in high school, college, I didn’t have cell phones. phones weren’t really popular at that point. So it’s a different generation. Like that’s like I never imagined having a cell phone on me while I was working right and now it’s like they can’t it’s like literally a part of them would be Missing if they didn’t have their cell phone on them, while they’re employed has to be right next to their body. It can’t be in their phone put away somewhere it has to be on them. So this is like a real thing. And this is these are pre, you know, they have not reproduced yet these people are teens 20s 30s. I really fear fear for how that’s going to impact our fertility rates, which are already declining over the past 20 to 30 years. And this is going to make it even worse.
R Blank 15:31
Yes. I totally agree. I just hope for
Dr. Laura Brayton 15:35
this teenager, 20 something or maybe somebody else is listening to his around. If they put it in airplane mode, they’re not going to get all their messages, right? They’re not going to get all the instance.
R Blank 15:45
Not instantly, they’ll get it when they turn Airplane Mode off,
Dr. Laura Brayton 15:48
right? And there’s that then you like turn off that instant gratification of that DD you know that Pavlovian response, I’ve like, Oh, my God, somebody’s sending me a message.
R Blank 15:58
Yeah, but there’s I mean, and this goes a little bit outside of the benefits of of learning about EMF and EMF protection. But there’s plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t be exposing your mind to the constant stream of notifications, as well. And there’s a growing body of science on that linking it to plenty of serious issues, social anxiety, depression. And, but again, that gets outside of it because other podcast Yeah, exactly. But but so it’s, you’re not depriving yourself of a constant stream of notifications, you’re giving yourself the gift of a lack of constancy.
Dr. Laura Brayton 16:41
Inherent, so we need to teach our kids this right, like this is really important, because they are growing up around a different environment than the way we were raised. Yes,
R Blank 16:51
very much so. And you know, the younger you are, the more the more susceptible you are to damage from, well, for multiple types of toxins, but EMF included, and there’s, as you know, given your background, but there’s there’s many reasons for that, but one that you always have to consider is that they have longer to live so that they any damage that occurs, it is going to spread in their body more rapidly, because they’re by the nature of growth, their their cells are dividing and multiplying more rapidly, but then they have longer that they have to live with it. And those effects will compound with further exposures over time, in a world where the level of exposure is continually growing at an incredible rate.
Dr. Laura Brayton 17:39
Right? Yeah, that makes so much sense. I mean, even like, I remember learning in chiropractic school, that we all have cancer cells in our body, right, but it doesn’t mean we all have cancer, and recognizing that when you have cells that are that our bodies aren’t able to essentially manage, right and eradicate and they start, you know, mutating and replicating, that’s where we’ll then get a tumor, right? And But that takes time, right? These aren’t these, that doesn’t happen overnight. So it totally makes sense to me, like you said, the longer we live, and then the longer we have exposure, that and we’re not addressing it with a healthy lifestyle with antioxidant foods and stress management and and EMF protection, right? Like this is something that we have to really literally teach our children how to protect themselves from EMF and and of course, first protect ourselves. So So what would you recommend to women listening? Who are the leaders of the health in their family of what they can do at home? To protect their families?
R Blank 18:45
Sure. So there’s there’s two key rules, and then there’s the actual protection product. So I’ll I’ll cover the two key rules as quickly as I can. And these are, these are the three ways that are the most effective ways to reduce your exposure. So one is minimizing your use of EMF emitting technology. So this, this falls into into two parts, right? So there’s one is, is just not buying so much stuff that emits EMF right there, right? These days, the companies are trying to sell us smart, everything, right? There’s obviously smartphones, which we all need. But there’s smartwatches, which fewer of us need their smart fridges which even fewer of us need. And then there’s this whole class of products that I feel are a complete waste like smart kitty litter box, a smart and tampon. They are trying to make everything smart, a smart hairbrush a smart toothbrush, and you have to realize each one of these things is not only a source of EMF, it is an additional source of EMF to the ones that you’re already exposed to. So you know, when you’re when you have the opportunity to buy something that’s smart versus dumb, you know, you have to really think, you know, is this going to actually add value in a meaningful way to my life that it’s worth it versus no, let me get the dumb version, because then I’ll have less EMF. But another
Dr. Laura Brayton 20:07
smart marketing trick to write because who wants to buy something is dumb. We all want to be smart. And I’m also assuming that technology then also cost more money, right? So it has a perceived value. But what you’re saying is, we have to really take a closer look of whether we not actually need those additional services. And that everyone does. I mean, there’s still people, honestly, that are in the United States that are choosing an old fashioned flip phone. They have they technically have a cell phone, but they’re like, I don’t want it to be smart. I don’t. And you know, like, they’re really trying to, I know, get rid of those, like, Verizon and whatever they’re like, we don’t really want you to even buy these anymore. But yeah, that’s true. We don’t all need everything to be smart neural,
R Blank 20:54
I can’t think of a single compelling use case for a smart fridge every every year, I go to CES, the big consumer electronics show in Vegas. They’re trying to sell, you know, Samsung, and LG. And these companies are trying to show these awesome smart fridges. And I can’t think of a single compelling use case, to justify getting a smart fridge. Wow. But again, everyone needs you know, maybe there’s someone out there who does need a smart fridge and they see the value in it, that’s fine. But again, go go make intentional decisions on this stuff, don’t just buy a smart thing, because that’s what they’re trying to sell, you realize that it comes with a cost to your health and and that cost is going to be borne not only in the short term, but in the long term. And not just by yourself, but by everyone in your household.
Dr. Laura Brayton 21:39
Right. And I think that’s the challenge is I’m sure that when they’re selling this product, they’re not listing the potential risk,
R Blank 21:46
though, with a lot of these products, all the benefits. Yeah, with a lot of these products, you can’t even get the EMF emissions, they don’t publish it. Right. So that’s legal. Yes. So there’s a whole set of EMF emissions, that there’s some that we know of right, that we all know of that are technically although very imperfectly regulated, and that that includes cell phones, but there’s whole other classes of EMF emissions, that are not regulated. And that would include, you know, something as common as power lines, in some countries they are but in the United States, they are not interesting. And then you know, I’ve because I’ve done this this work, I’ve done this research, try to find how much EMF a Tesla emits versus, you know, even or Toyota, you know, any any car, you can’t, you can’t find, and they’re loading all of this EMF emitting technology into these cars. And they don’t have to publish I don’t even know if they have to test how much EMF the vehicle is generating to the person.
Dr. Laura Brayton 22:46
Thought about that? Yeah, exactly. The people, the passengers.
R Blank 22:51
Yeah. So. And, you know, I’ve taken the the reason I have gone to CES that that electronics show I was talking about, I bring my meters with me when I go, and I take measurements, and the levels can vary even between two types of two different versions of the same kind of product. So a smart speaker, the levels can vary tremendously between between, you know, different brands, different models, and so forth, right? Because, because there aren’t they don’t, they don’t have to publish the standards, right. And the consumer is completely unaware. So there’s virtually there’s no drive for them to minimize the emissions because there’s no regulatory drive, there’s no consumer drive. And those are the types of pressures that in a free market economy, you know, that that that would create the incentive to make safer products from an EMF perspective, but they are not doing that. So the answer to your question is, yeah, there. This is completely legal.
Dr. Laura Brayton 23:48
Yeah, so that’s really disturbing. To me, it kind of reminds me of not having to label genetically modified food. Because once again, if you’re really not conscious, like we go to the grocery store, right, we all have to eat. And if you’re really not conscious to to read the labels, check the sticker on your produce. You don’t really know what kind of chemicals pesticides you’re putting in your body or your family’s body, right. And, you know, there isn’t like I think maybe a couple states in the country, enforce the labeling. So essentially, in general, you don’t have to label so you have to look for the non GMO label as opposed to a GMO label, which is really frustrating to me, as a mom, and I’m hearing the same thing with the EMF. So that’s very frustrating. What can we do as consumers to try to change that like in other words, we have to all get our own meters. And when we go shopping at Best Buy to get some new technology let’s say we have to like check to see which is safer to bring into our house
R Blank 24:56
for learning is learning how to get a decent meter and these are the kinds that cost, you know, 150 $160, get a decent meter, and to learn how to use it in order to test so that I actually have a because I don’t make or sell meters. But I have a free guide that has recommendations for what I believe are good quality meters and explanations for how to do the testing, and then references for how to understand the levels that you’re getting off of these meters,
Dr. Laura Brayton 25:25
right, because the average person wouldn’t know that that’s on shield your body.com.
R Blank 25:29
Yeah, that’s if you go to directly to shield your body.com/test te S T, you can get that free guide. It’s now in its sixth edition, I believe it was updated a little bit earlier this year with some new information. And that so I am a huge advocate for that. Because even with the stuff where they published the levels, right with cell phones, there’s there’s a whole bunch of reasons why the what they but the point, the point I’m about to make is you still can’t just rely on what’s in the, the, the the manual that comes with it right there, because that’s tested under very artificial circumstances. And it is in a lab, in a study paid for by the manufacturer. So you can’t just trust just because so even if
Dr. Laura Brayton 26:17
we feel objective, and neutral is what you’re sadly,
R Blank 26:20
so even on the stuff where they publish the data, you still need to test for yourself. Because, you know, people ask me, it’s very common people email in and say what kind of phone should I get that’s low EMF. And I say, you know, just basically, I don’t trust any of the unit, any of the measurements that these cell phone companies put as published as their their emissions, because of the nature of this testing. And so my my advice is just to get a phone and to use it as little as possible, and to use it as safely as possible. And rather than focused on getting the safest, you know, quote, unquote, safest cell phone, from my perspective.
Dr. Laura Brayton 26:58
And the other thing too, is air pods, I know are can also be a major source of EMF. And, you know, when they came out, people were like, Oh, this is great, I don’t have to hold a cell phone next to my head anymore, I’m not gonna get brain cancer, because I think people do have an awareness is not good to have a cell phone against your head all day long. And if originally was the Wired, had phones, right, that you could pop in your ear. But now air pods are just like universal. And that’s also a major source of EMF right next to your brain.
R Blank 27:29
Yes, so air pods and other Bluetooth headsets they use, obviously, Bluetooth, Bluetooth is basically the same thing as Wi Fi, just lower power, because you know what, whereas Wi Fi maybe has to travel over 100 or 200 feet. Bluetooth, has to travel over 10 or 20 feet. So it has less power, but it’s the same type of radiation as Wi Fi. And when you put it right there, as you noted in your ears, it’s very close to your brain, it’s a part of your head that has no skull between where you’re putting it in the brain. And I say that because the skull provides a degree of natural shielding, but the ear canal has no skull, there’s a direct hole in there. And so you have it very close to your brain and a part of your head where there’s no skull, and you generally have it there for extended periods of time. This is an example a great example. I mean, all wireless technology is deployed this way without any long term testing into the health effects. But this I think, is a powerful example. Because we’ve all just lived through the period in time in which this stuff is being released and deployed. And we’ve seen it go from no one’s using it to a ton of people are using it. And yeah, they were they are there’s no requirement for them to actually perform long term studies into this stuff, they develop the product, they think great people will buy it, they release it, people buy it, and then it’s 1015 20 years later that you actually start seeing what the impacts are.
Dr. Laura Brayton 28:57
Wow, it’s so sad. And you know, I hate to say like I see this in other areas of healthcare and the at least in the United States, so I can speak to that, for example, like maybe the FDA, CDC don’t really have our best interest in hell and in mind, right? There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of companies, large companies, companies that are looking to make a profit. So I guess once again, how do we protect ourselves? Now we all know to go get that free guide to learn how to use a meter. I don’t have one of those at my home and I wouldn’t know how to use one. So I’m gonna check that out. And then really start checking, you know, the other source I’m sure I don’t think a lot of people nowadays do this, but I mean, laptops on your lap, right? Like that’s another obviously big no, no.
R Blank 29:47
Yeah, getting back to so said there were two rules. One is minimizing the use of EMF tech and I gave the example maybe skip the smart fridge. Another way to minimize is to turn off this stuff when you’re not using it. So a good One example there, one that a lot of people I know have used and benefited from is turning off your Wi Fi at night, you might not be willing to get rid of Wi Fi from your house, but you should be willing to turn it off at night, you know when no one’s using it or benefiting from it, and you’re trying to get a good night’s restful night of sleep. So those are two examples of ways in which to minimize your use of EMF tech. Now, the second key rule I was going to mention is maximize the distance. Now this is really important for people to understand the power of EMF radiation diminishes exponentially with distance. So if you have your cell phone, and it’s an inch away from your body, and then you move it two inches away from your body, the power of that exposure of your exposure to that radiation from that cell phone has dropped 75%. And that’s why earlier I was saying the cell phone in the pocket, it can be a huge source. And that’s why it’s one of the first thing I tell people, right? So that
Dr. Laura Brayton 30:57
people that sleep with their phone by their bed, right and never
R Blank 31:00
do. Yeah, create, as in every instance, you can think of where it’s in your control, you want to create as much distance between the device and your body when it’s on and then use and so you would set laptops and lap that’s a great one. That’s the same same reasoning is with the cell phone. And in fact, if you read certain, you know, it can be shocking. If you actually read manuals for some of these things. There’s a there’s a whole class of Dell laptops, where if you read the manual, and they call them laptops, they don’t call them notebooks, they don’t call them Dell books, they call them laptops. If you read the manual, it advocates a seven inch separation between the laptop and your body. But again, they sell it and call it a laptop. But yeah, so you have to open the manual to see what they’re actually recommending.
Dr. Laura Brayton 31:46
How many people read the manual?
R Blank 31:49
Hear me on your podcast? And so yes, sleeping with your phone is another another great example of that you should not be doing that. Or again, if you need to be on airplane mode on airplane mode. Yes, yeah. And that’s another. That’s another reason why I say not to use air pods because it’s impossible. And with all wearable tech, air pods being the most popular one now, but the same is true for Apple Watch. There’s no way to create distance, they are just they are designed to be used only in direct contact with your body. Right. So that whole class of products is one that I strongly recommend people against people adopting and using so air pods smartwatches, we’re now seeing a growing availability of smart glasses for multiple companies. These are all things that people should be, you know, be really wary of for themselves, and especially for their children. Just remember this stuff, there has been no long term testing into the health effects of this stuff. And that data that we do have, from studies into Wi Fi, which has been around long enough and cell phones which has been around long enough and other forms of EMF shows that we have every reason to be concerned.
Dr. Laura Brayton 33:04
Yeah, totally. I mean, this is like we don’t have to wait. We certainly shouldn’t wait for the government to step in and start creating regulations, we have to be smart consumers. That goes back to what I mentioned with the groceries or you know, for buying personal care products going to like a website like an ew G, they’re going to show you what’s what chemicals are in this product and why you wouldn’t want to put it on your body or your family’s body. So just really in the end, when then when we buy products that are safer, we are going to be supporting those businesses, instead of the businesses, like you said that have a same product but have 10 times the amount of EMF, because they don’t nobody’s telling them not to write, nobody’s enforcing that. I don’t know if it costs more to make the product safer. But what’s the reason why the same type of product would have a different amount of EMF
R Blank 33:57
just because it’s not a factor in the engineering. They it’s you know, if the decision makers and the stakeholders don’t make it a requirement that we test this and make sure it’s under a certain level and we want to get it as low as possible, then it’s just not a factor. It’s a factor in the design. And so things end up all the decisions are made irregardless of so it’s
Dr. Laura Brayton 34:20
not necessarily a cost factor. It’s an engineering design. Interesting. So once again, as smart consumers when we buy the safer products, we’re gonna be supporting the businesses that are having a mindfulness around creating safer tech.
R Blank 34:37
Yes, and if you skip the EMF emitting tech altogether, you know the smart kitty litter box, right there’s going to be market pressure against the those types of products to so even you so you don’t even need to go for the safer smart kitty litter box. Go for kitty litter box. Right? The smart one
Dr. Laura Brayton 34:57
is so weird. I never even heard of that.
R Blank 35:01
Everything there. Yeah. And like you
Dr. Laura Brayton 35:03
said, it’s just gonna keep growing, right? Because there are people that are like, Oh, this is cool. It’s new.
R Blank 35:09
Yeah, I used to be one of those people. I was in software engineering for 20 years. You know, I remember what it’s like to think, when there was a new thing coming out, and how, how shiny and tempting it was, and how long did it right. Well, I totally understand that mindset. And that’s why I you know, I’m here to tell people, you know, maybe maybe ease off on that.
Dr. Laura Brayton 35:31
Yeah, that’s interesting, because it is like, it’s like, you know, I grew up watching the Jetsons and it just seems like, wow, this is like, sci fi, Star Wars, right? Like, we’re all, you know, we’re like, all like getting all these really cool gadgets. And it’s all about suppose supposedly making our life, you know, easier and simpler. And, and then you really start to say, oh, maybe that’s not really the case, you know, or what, what is it doing to our bodies? That, you know, once again, nobody’s really investigating? I mean, can I mean, we do have to get Congress involved, we need to write our legislators.
R Blank 36:06
Yeah, I mean, certainly that stuff helps. And there are sites out there that can help channel that type of effort. And so one that right off the top of my head is the Environmental Health Trust. I think that’s eh, eh, trust.org. Run by Dr. Deborah Davis. That said, and, you know, this was actually a topic we covered on my last season on my healthier tech podcast I had on a policy director and legislative assistant from Congress, and now from, from New Hampshire. And you know, that just the whole point, the whole focus of that discussion was on regulation and tech regulation, and specifically how different it is in the United States versus in Europe. And the point that he made one of the key points that he made, is that any trying to get anything done at the federal level in the United States right now is essentially impossible. And so that doesn’t even it doesn’t even have to be as controversial, or complex topic as EMF, it is virtually impossible to get any thing meaningful done in the United States right now. And that’s that is indifferent. That is in contrast to what we see in Europe, where not only are EMF regulations, tighter, but you have the right to disconnect, which is another topic we covered on where have you heard of the right to disconnect? No. So it’s, it’s the law now in multiple European countries, and it will soon be the law throughout the entire EU, your employer does not have the right to contact you. Once working hours are over. And you you know, you tell that to Americans, and they like that’s even possible. And but in Europe, it’s going to be the law throughout Europe. And you imagine trying to get that done in the United States that doesn’t even have to do with EMF directly. But anyway, so the answer to your question is if people are motivated in that way, Environmental Health Trust is a great place to start. I think what you’re seeing is some progress on the more local level, where there is still functional government at the local level in many areas around the country, and you are seeing, you know, certain states take certain actions, certain municipalities take certain actions, you’re seeing certain school boards take certain actions. But at the federal level, I think I mean, I don’t like to say that I’m hopeless, but I put my hope somewhere else.
Dr. Laura Brayton 38:34
Got it in your in your action? Yeah. So it’s like, what can you do really take action, you can just really impact what’s going on within your home. You know, something recently, I saw something about with 5g coming, you know, I’m in a more populated area, and there was a way that you could turn off your home from getting 5g and have a low is that possible, where you can actually create some boundary from what’s going along your street? And actually what’s coming into your home?
R Blank 39:03
I have not heard of that. But maybe there’s something that um, I mean, so 5g penetrates, construction, much less than 4g. So if you’re, you know, for instance, if you live in a home, it’s made of brick, it’s gonna be a lot harder for 5g to get into that home than it is for 4g. So maybe that that’s what they’re talking about. And that’s why that’s one of the reasons why there are going to be so many more 5g towers around, which are effectively invisible because they’re, they’re so much smaller, and they’re camouflaged. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, so they don’t look like 4g towers. They look like you wouldn’t even notice them necessarily. They’re on top of lampposts and traffic lights and so forth. But that’s why there’s so many more of them and why they need so many more of them because 5g doesn’t travel as far and it doesn’t penetrate construction nearly as well as prior generations. So that’s why they have to have so many more Have these network towers these, these small cells?
Dr. Laura Brayton 40:03
Are Can you explain how 5g impacts our bodies differently than previous generations?
R Blank 40:10
Sure. Well, I would love I would love to Dr. Brighton. But unfortunately, this is another area where there is no science.
Dr. Laura Brayton 40:19
So science or minimal science,
R Blank 40:22
basically no science, because five, the frequencies that are in use for 5g, and this is going to become increasingly true over time. Right. So, so 5g covers a certain spectrum. And the initial 5g deployments are at the low end of the spectrum. And there it’s overlapping with 4g. But 5g opens up this whole other spectrum of frequencies, that spectrum which gets into what we call millimeter wave, because that’s the size of the wave have never before been used in consumer technology. And so there was never any real reason to study what the health impact was of 5g, much less actual opportunities to study it. Now, there are certain studies. So for instance, there’s one and I forget the specific citation, but it’s out of its out of Israel, that shows that at 60 gigahertz, which is in the 5g range, certain aspects of the way our skin is constructed, effectively turn us into antennas, for 60 gigahertz EMF. But there’s again, there’s just not much of this science when it comes to 5g. Now, I will say a couple of things. One is that there is a class of weaponry used by the military that relies on these frequencies. So they they deploy, they’ve weaponized 5g frequencies, to disable and inflict pain on people. And these are you can Google it. If you just Google microwave weapons, it’s a real thing. And it’s used by the military and that these are the same frequencies that are in use by will be in use for 5g. But the other thing I’ll say is, there’s absolutely no reason to suspect that 5g is safe. And the reason is, you know, we’ve gone you know, the power grid was deployed, that is a certain set of frequencies called elf, then they deployed FM radio, then they deployed TV, then they deployed radar, and then cell phones and Wi Fi, and we’ve been moving up the frequencies. With each deployment of big infrastructure, EMF emitting infrastructure like this, we we see health effects, there are certain health effects that we see at every frequency. And then there are certain ones that we see concentrated at certain frequencies. So for instance, you know, the increase in Alzheimer’s and certain types of cancers like childhood leukemia, those came with the power grid. So we see those those clusters around those types of exposures with FM radio, you know, a good example is melanoma. That is, that’s one that we’ve had sciences documented from FM radio frequencies, but not so much from the other frequencies. And so what I strongly suspect you’re going to see with 5g is the continuation of that. Right, we’re going to see negative health
Dr. Laura Brayton 43:10
pandemic that’s was around the same time as 5g. Is there a connection there?
R Blank 43:15
I have no reason to believe that there is a connection there. I think what we see is Well, I I understand why you’re asking that. But no, I think our immune health right yeah, that’s so what there is a pretty significant body of science now demonstrating the impact the negative impact on our immune system function as it comes to EMF exposure. Now, when it comes to 5g in particular, that wasn’t really deployed, when the pandemic really kind of hit. In fact, a huge amount of the deployment took place during the lockdowns, which is when it really started, the infrastructure really started to spread. But in terms of immune system performance, we see you know, there’s there’s science, demonstrating that EMF exposure like to cellphone radiation has the same impact as immunoassay, taking immunosuppressive drugs, drugs that are designed to suppress your immune system, EMF exposure can actually trigger the same, the same results. There’s other studies showing that EMF exposure can trigger an auto immune reaction. So we’re talking as you know, but as your listeners may already know, right, we’re talking those are two different extremes. Right and system dysfunction. We’re talking about suppressing the immune system and making the immune system hyperactive. On the immune of the autoimmune disease side, this is I also think this is interesting. There’s actually science showing not only that that you EMF exposure triggers autoimmune disease, but that using EMF protection products can reduce or reverse that autoimmune disease. So there’s again, really strong links here between EMF exposure and immune system.
Dr. Laura Brayton 45:16
And do we know why EMF creates this essentially, immune? Regulation, you know, like the immune system cannot regulate itself normally, right? Why? How is EMF causing that
R Blank 45:30
so on? That’s a really good question. And I do not know what the postulated mechanisms are under the immune system dysfunction. I do know that there are several mechanisms in play. And I mean, there’s a whole lot of them, but there are a few key ones, that, that, that that, that operate at a very basic biological level. So one is the voltage gated calcium channels. So these are things that are on on the cells in our body, that regulate how much calcium your cell allows in and out of the cell. And when you disrupt these vgccs, you’re altering the amount of calcium and that the cell can take in and does take in. And that then leads to oxidative stress and inflammation, which is we know is a contributor to illness and disease. And that is that is a mechanism that Dr. Martin Paul had had some very, he’s not the only one, but he has some very strong research on that one. And that’s that’s that that is a low level mechanism that could be a contributing factor to what we’re talking about. Another set of studies that I think are very important for people to real to know about are were performed by doctors, Henry Lai, and Narendra Singh. This was back in the early 90s. And they they studied cell up sorry, cordless phones, because cell phones weren’t really a thing yet. So they were sitting cordless phones, but it’s very similar type of radiation. And what they found is that exposure to cordless phone radiation, and I’m not talking about crazy law, I’m talking literally off of a cordless phone would would would lead to a significant increase in the amount of DNA strand breaks. So what that means is DNA has people know it’s a double helix, right? It’s made of two strands. And so when you have a strand break, you have a single strand break or a double strand break, that means one or both strands of DNA in a cell are broken. And if both strands, if you have a double strand break, and both strands die, the cell dies. But if you only have one strand break, the cell will try to recreate it from the information in the other strand. And that is a mechanism by which mutations begin to occur. Cancer. Yes, exactly. And so that is and the reason I mentioned that one and why I think that one is so important. And again, there are multiple mechanisms more than even I know, but multiple mechanisms documented by science. The reason I, I think that one’s really important for people to understand, because I think people understand that, you know, DNA is in every cell of every living thing, right. And what these doctors showed is that even just reasonable like reasonable, the kinds of level of exposure you would get, just by using basic modern technology leads to this thing that is in every living cell of every living thing, serious damage. And there’s there’s studies showed that the damage of the increased levels of damage persisted for hours after the exposure. So I think that that is a powerful illustration of just how fundamental the biological impact of these types of exposures are. And that was just a one again, again, to one cordless phone, we’re not talking about 15 Different Wi Fi networks and your own phone and you know, your partner’s phone, and the power lines and all of this infrastructure that we’re exposed to now.
Dr. Laura Brayton 49:07
Yeah, that is so crazy. And you know, I’m thinking about it too. Like we know our bodies have its own electromagnetic field. Right? So we have this going on as well. So it can it makes sense that an outside field could create an interference and energy blocks and whatnot, and how that would create this ease.
R Blank 49:28
Yeah, the entire body, as you know, and you were just saying, is it we are electromagnetic beings. It is how our brains communicate with and control our entire body. It is how our entire body communicates back to our brain. It is with these electric electromagnetic signals traveling across our nervous system that are when you compare it to the level of radiation coming off of a cell phone, right? It’s tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, and you have all of this radiation coming in. It drowns out and disrupts these signals And, and that is, you know, another example of why it impacts what the science shows is we see these negative impacts in essentially every biological system in which we look for them. Right. And so it’s not like it just impacts your liver, or it just impacts your brain. It is everything. That’s one of the key messages I want. I want people to come up whenever anyone listens. To me, that is one of the key messages I want them to come away with.
Dr. Laura Brayton 50:30
Amazing. Well, I was gonna ask you, if you have any last thoughts, kind of maybe just gave it or do you have anything else you want to add? No. Well,
R Blank 50:38
that was a little bit on the I guess on the depressing side. So. So I think it is important for people to realize that this is a serious issue. This is this is real. But you are in can even with the deployment of 5g and the growth in the number of cell towers. And if you live in an apartment building, and you see 30 of your neighbor’s Wi Fi networks, you are still in tremendous control over your exposure, there’s no going to back to a world without EMF exposure. And we wouldn’t want to, because we’ve gotten used to things like refrigerators and light bulbs and cell phones. So but you are in a you have a tremendous amount of control over what your exposures are. And you have a tremendous amount of control over what are some of your biggest exposures are. So I gave the example of the cell phone in the pocket, you gave the example of sleeping with your phone, these are the types of things where you can make a huge difference in your exposure, and the exposure of the your loved ones and the people that you live with. And there are products out there like the ones that have shield your body.com that are make demonstrable, measurable claims that are laboratory tested, that can contribute to, to your protection and to your reducing your exposure further, but don’t lose hope, you know that the whole purpose of me sharing this information is for people to start to take back control back and to really take the steps to reduce the health risk for themselves and their families.
Dr. Laura Brayton 52:10
I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing this topic, you’re very passionate about it. And I feel like the listeners are really gonna get a lot of value from the tips that you shared.
R Blank 52:22
Thank you. It’s been a pleasure being here, I really appreciate the opportunity.
Dr. Laura Brayton 52:26
Well, I hope you enjoy today’s episode R is an amazing expert with so much knowledge and information around EMF and how it impacts our health and the health of our families and especially during preconception pregnancy. And with babies, we really want to be extra cautious about exposure from all the technology in our home and our environment and how that’s impacting the cells of our body and our children’s bodies, and specifically also a developing fetus. So I really loved also how are shared with us about how we can get our own EMF meters to test the technology in our home or for going to purchase some new technology, how we can be educated consumers to see which products have the lowest EMF. So you can check that out at shield your body.com/test. And that way you can really get clear about the amount of EMF exposure that you and your family are exposed to in your home. And you can make conscious choices to minimize that exposure. Right. Have a great day. Thanks
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
