{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-4330","number":"4330","name":"Jo-Anna Hennessy","organization":"","posted":"2026-10-24T04:00Z","received":"2026-10-15T04:00Z","body":"I am submitting this comment with my perspectives in response to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure.\nI am responding from several perspectives: as a software engineer with extensive experience working with technology and electronic systems; as a person who has experienced significant symptoms that I associate with exposure to electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation; and as a professional who has spent the past several years measuring and documenting electromagnetic field exposures in my home and other environments.\nIn January of 2022 I eliminated wireless technologies completely from my personal environment and whenever feasible reduced or distanced myself from electric and magnetic emissions. These changes improved my health and allowed me to reengage with the world. Unfortunately, avoidance of wireless technologies required changes that permanently affected my career, family, and personal life. \nIt is impossible to avoid being exposed to all wireless and electromagnetic emissions. Radio frequency exposures from sources which are not my own continue to aggravate my symptoms and limit my life. I don’t want to feel these symptoms anymore when doing normal things like working in an office, walking into a store with an overpowered mesh / wifi system, going to a concert, restaurant, bar, or visiting family or friends. \nOver the last few years, I learned more about detection, identification, measurement, and mitigation to electromagnetic emissions. My sister became a Building Biology Institute-certified Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist (EMRS). Together we develop practical methods for detecting, measuring, documenting, and reducing electromagnetic exposures. Using these strategies we have significantly improved my functionality and not only am I back at the computer, but I have developed a web application that shows electromagnetic emissions and measurement statistics spatially. \nI have become particularly concerned that consumers are uninformed about the specifications of a product’s wireless features and have limited or no control over those features. Technology will continue to develop faster than long-term health research and regulatory processes can reasonably keep pace with it. Additionally, the way RF exposure is evaluated does not always reflect the conditions people experience in their daily lives. \nI therefore encourage HHS to consider these particularly practical areas for regulatory and technology standards:\nWireless devices should provide a genuine, user-accessible means of turning off wireless emissions, rather than merely hiding wireless functionality or placing a device into a mode in which emissions continue.\nCellular phones should support calls and text messaging when the phone is connected through a wired Ethernet connection to a router, so that consumers who choose a wired network connection can use their phones for these functions without requiring an active wireless connection.\nProducts should be required to display prominently on the packaging standardized consumer-facing RF exposure information, similar in concept to other standardized product information that allows consumers to compare products and make informed choices. \nthe type, number, frequencies and transmission characteristics of a device;\nhow to reduce unnecessary close-proximity exposure;\nhow to use wired alternatives where available;\nhow to disable wireless functions completely;\nwhether a device continues transmitting while in standby or charging;\nwhether simultaneous transmitters were evaluated;\nwhether children or other populations were specifically evaluated; and\nwhat exposure conditions were and were not included in testing.\nI am particularly concerned about exposure involving children, infants, pregnancy, and other populations that may differ from those of a typical adult. Children may spend many hours in schools and childcare facilities surrounded by multiple wireless transmitters, sometimes at very close distances. Wireless devices are also increasingly incorporated into products used by infants and children. Federal research and exposure assessment should therefore specifically address age-specific and developmental exposure scenarios rather than assuming that adult testing adequately represents all populations.\nI also believe that federal research priorities should include long-term, independent investigation of cumulative and chronic exposure, children and pregnancy, reproductive and developmental outcomes, neurological and sleep-related effects, cardiovascular and other biological effects, environmental and ecological effects, and exposure associated with evolving technologies such as 5G, future wireless systems, IoT devices, wearables, smart homes, wireless medical devices, and increasingly dense wireless infrastructure. \nSee attached file.","attachments":["https://downloads.regulations.gov/HHS-OASH-2026-0397-4330/attachment_1.pdf"],"attachment_inventory":true,"withheld":false,"source":"https://www.regulations.gov/comment/HHS-OASH-2026-0397-4330","tags":["child-development","health-experiences","sleep-cognition","biology-metabolism","exposure-places","policy-standards","research-evidence"],"source_hash":"8c93a040c92026685c279b3963a8e1d391d9315a87654090ba7f4d945cc23417","slug":"child-development-comment-4330","classification":{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-4330","body_sha256":"64f3555e55be861200993b4bb07f229a5ce9aefbff4d81d053e1356143ac80cf","status":"ai_reviewed","primary_topic":"access","topics":[{"id":"access","evidence":" wireless technologies required changes that permanently affected my career, family, and personal life. \nIt is impossible to avoid being exposed to all wireless and el"},{"id":"wifi","evidence":"g in an office, walking into a store with an overpowered mesh / wifi system, going to a concert, restaurant, bar, or visiting family or frie"},{"id":"standards","evidence":":\nWireless devices should provide a genuine, user-accessible means of turning off wireless emissions, rather than merely hiding wireless functionality or placing a d"},{"id":"optical","evidence":"saging when the phone is connected through a wired Ethernet connection to a router, so that consumers who choose a wired network connec"},{"id":"children","evidence":"ticularly concerned about exposure involving children, infants, pregnancy, and other populations that may differ from those of a typical a"},{"id":"reproductive","evidence":"nd chronic exposure, children and pregnancy, reproductive and developmental outcomes, neurological and sleep-related effects, cardiovascular and othe"},{"id":"neurological","evidence":"cy, reproductive and developmental outcomes, neurological and sleep-related effects, cardiovascular and other biological effects, environmental and "},{"id":"cardiac","evidence":"mes, neurological and sleep-related effects, cardiovascular and other biological effects, environmental and ecological effec"},{"id":"environment","evidence":"cardiovascular and other biological effects, environmental and ecological effects, and exposure associated with evolving technologies such as 5G, "},{"id":"research","evidence":"t federal research priorities should include long-term, independent investigation of cumulative and chronic exposure, children and pregnancy, repr"}],"summary":"A software engineer reports improvement after eliminating wireless sources but lasting life limitations, and requests genuine wireless-off controls, wired phone functions, clear labeling and independent research on cumulative exposure and vulnerable populations.","reviewed_at":"2026-10-24T20:09:12Z","review_method":"Full comment-text review with exact source evidence; attachments not reviewed","review_source_sha256":"2f4f5b75ce019147e49bd35b18f0ad2d5d5f0b5b3a44269d66e274082b36ea80","source_url":"https://rfsafe.net/hhs-comments/data/catalog.json","scope":"Original comment body; attachments excluded"},"forum_topics":["access","wifi","standards","optical","children","reproductive","neurological","cardiac","environment","research"],"primary_topic":"access","forum_title":"A software engineer reports improvement after eliminating wireless sources but lasting life limitations, …"}