EMF Health Effects Survey 2019

The EMF Health Effects Survey 2019 is an anonymous survey circulated online from 11/27/2018 to 1/27/2019 through the EMF Safety Network lists, website, and affiliate online EMF groups. There are 876 respondents and over 1300 comments. THANK YOU to all who took the survey and to all who helped to circulate it!

Ed Halteman, PhD of Survey Design and Analysis has prepared a report of the Survey Results. A summary of the results is 52% of all respondents stated “severely”or “a lot” in response to the question of “How much does the current EMF environment (cell phones/smart meters/wireless etc.) limit your lifestyle – your ability to work, shop, play, and or spend time with friends and family?”22% said they are affected a moderate amount, 15.6% a little and 10.5% not at all limited. 

Respondents were asked to best match themselves to the following descriptions which are synonymous with mild, moderate, and severe Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS). 49.3% said they are EMF Aware: “You are aware that electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation affect your health or make you feel unwell”

27.5% EMF Injured: “You have been injured by electromagnetic fields and/or wireless radiation”

19.1% Radiation sickness: “You have electromagnetic radiation sickness, a severe and chronic condition”
4.1% None of the above 

The top health problems all respondents experience(d) and believe are related to EMF exposure are: Sleep; Fatigue; Concentration, memory or learning problems; and Stress and anxiety.

The top EMF device(s), all respondents believe caused or worsened their health problems are: Wi-fi; Cell phone; Smart meters; and Cell or radio tower.

The top remediations that people tried and reported as most helpful were: Prudent avoidance of EMF; turning electricity off at the breaker box, and shielding. The least helpful remedies were reported as: Medical doctors, prescription drugs and counseling or therapy.

When you look at the survey results segmented by self-description the numbers change. People with Radiation sickness had twice the number of health problems as EMF Aware, and 50% more than EMF Injured.

94% of people with Radiation sickness reported Concentration, memory or learning problems, compared to 47% of EMF Aware. People with Radiation sickness were more affected by cell or radio tower.

See the survey report by Survey Design and Analysis for more details on all descriptors and varying results between the three groups as well as a link to Survey summary and all comments. http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EMF_Wireless-Study-2019_Final-1.pdf

There is much to learn, and much more to say about these results. How can we best use this? Circulate this report to doctors and decision makers. Try a solution you haven’t tried yet. Have more compassion for people who are more affected than you. Understand not everyone is equally harmed. What else? Let us know!

In closing, please read the following commentary on this survey by Cindy Sage:

“The many hundreds of comments written by people responding to the EMF Health Effects Survey 2019 by the EMF Safety Network are illuminating and profoundly disturbing. The Survey itself is invaluable to teach us what it is like to live a life with EHS limitations.  It doesn’t matter whether you live in the US, or Canada, or western Europe or Scandinavia. Or Asia. Or Australia.  The accounts are so similar.  The demoralizing effects are the same. 

What is obvious is that these people are expressing the symptoms of microwave radiation illness that could be predicted based on decades of international scientific studies.  The physiological basis for brain and body effects from microwave radiation exposures are well-accounted for in the science – so it should be no surprise to hear it.  At least a dozen major studies and reviews of cell tower-level RF exposures (of 0.1 microwatt per centimeter squared or more) have identified these same health effects the Survey presents through the personal comments of responders.

We don’t often get a window into the life of a person with EHS – how isolating it is – how marginalized people are – and how withdrawn they must become to protect what is left of their health.  We need to listen with ears wide open.  This is real and real people are living greatly diminished lives.  Imagine yourself forced to give up a productive life to live on the edge, and that edge keeps moving. Imagine being denied access to business opportunities, education, transportation, healthcare, public participation, recreation and places of celebration and renewal. 

Again and again we are hearing the same things.   I lived a normal life until… smart meters were installed on my wall… until a major macrocell tower was built next door…. until my office installed several wireless routers.   My family didn’t understand.  It took me some time to realize what was making me sick.  It destabilized my relationships.  I lost my freedom.

People with EHS have to give up so many things most people take for granted in life.  Shopping, going out to dinner, attending meetings in public places, going to a child’s graduation or recital, travel along an interstate or by rail or air.   Everyday activities that make up the fabric of life are no longer accessible – at least without paying the price.  

It is an insidious and invisible progression where the activities of daily life are incrementally diminished by exposures that intensify with time, subject to no health and safety accounting at all.   No one is keeping track of cumulative RF body burdens.  There is no governmental agency that is tracking EHS illness reports, nor conducting a serious effort to revise health standards.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson we can learn from this Survey is educated compassion. The first thing we can do is to accept that EHS is real.  The next thing we can do is to change our own behaviors.  And, after that, wherever we have influence – we need to help others find healthier ways of interacting with technology that protects all of us.”

Cindy Sage
Editor, BioInitiative Reports
Sage Associates

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