{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-0520","number":"0520","name":"Bryan Stearns","organization":"","posted":"2026-09-23T04:00Z","received":"2026-09-22T04:00Z","body":"I am an individual citizen who has had several adverse health events from EMFs. I include information on behalf of my wife, who has also been impacted. I hold a Ph.D. in computer science (artificial intelligence, cognitive architecture), with an undergraduate background in computer science, math, and physics. I have also grown up in the medical research world as someone with a rare metabolic bone disease (X-Linked Hypophosphatemia, \"XLH\"), am comfortable reading many types of medical literature, and currently work in the healthcare sector. I am willing to be contacted by the DoH for further conversation on what I am reporting in this comment. I am not able to fit all relevant details in the space allowed.\n\nBackground: My own symptoms are noticeably worse (but not gone) when my phosphorous is low due to my genetic condition. At first I attributed my symptoms to my XLH, until I learned I could remove them by removing EMFs. (My XLH doctor is interested in learning more about the potential links between electrolyte processes impacted by XLH and EMFs, but he has no time to look into it. My PCP only cares about cholesterol.) After years of living with reduced EMFs, my sensitivity is lower than it used to be, but it still impacts daily life.\n\nMost symptoms are immediate and subside when the source is removed, though often they take time to fully subside. Building Biology recommended EMF levels align w/ my own experience. Useful resources are emfdata.org and mdsafetech.org.\n\na) RF (most kinds of cell signal, WiFi, and Bluetooth)\na.1) Headache\n    - At my most sensitive I could tell when some 5G phones received a text before they gave the notification, feeling the individual RF pings as sharp stabs in my head.\n    - Some kinds of RF, especially some Bluetooth speakers, can give a slow-onset hyper-intense headache that persists up to 24hr even w/ Tylenol.\na.2) Brain fog (difficulty concentrating or holding attention)\na.3) Gut pain (short stabs)\n    - More common with newer 5G phones\na.4) Restless leg while falling asleep (\"phantom itching\")\n    - Follows most kinds of EMF exposure from earlier in the day if I don't discharge before bed.\n    - I can remove the feeling either by exercise (unreliable) or by grounding myself barefoot outside for 10-15m (very reliable).\n    - The effect is reduced if I prop my torso up.\n    - My hypothesis: EMF-induced clumped blood cells (rouleaux formation) lead to itching in contracting leg blood vessels as I fall asleep. Propping myself up increases blood volume in my legs and reduces the stricture effect.\na.5) Insomnia (lack of feeling sleepy)\n    - Even if there are no other symptoms, RF usually prevents/impairs feeling drowsy, even if in need of rest.\n    - Turning on a wireless device reliably wakes me up, no longer feeling tired.\na.6) Raynaud’s syndrome\n    - If in the presence of lots of RF AND cold. Cold but no RF is usually no problem.\na.7) Dread\n    - My wife felt unexplainable dread whenever in a particular room. Once I disabled a smart-home garage door motor transmitter nearby, the feeling stopped permanently.\n\nb) Magnetic fields\nb.1) Headache\nb.2) Gut pain\n    - With all RF features disabled on a Macbook Pro, being within ~6ft of it while charging induced instant, intense gut and head pain. On battery I could use it from ~3ft away.\nb.3) Ring-worm-like spots\n    - Back when I used my Macbook point-blank, these appeared near where the Macbook lined up at my desk. They did not itch and did not move. The doctor prescribed anti-fungal cream, which I applied faithfully for months to no effect. Then I randomly changed my desk setup so that my laptop was higher relative to my abdomen, and then the spots moved to the new height and disappeared from the old. When I distanced the laptop using a USB keyboard the spots disappeared.\n\nc) Electric fields\nc.1) Headache (buzzed feeling)\nc.2) Tingling/cold feeling\n    - Touch screens / fingerprint readers will usually induce this in my fingers.\n\nd) Dirty Electricity / EMI\nd.1) Headache + brain fog\nd.2) Digestive issues\n    - When I used a USB keyboard for my work computer, my stool would be pale and contain undigested food. After I switched to an IR-remote keyboard, these symptoms disappeared (and headache/fog reduced as well). The tethered keyboard acted like an antenna for EMI from the ethernet connection to my laptop.\n    - Other forms of EMF might induce this symptom as well, but I had already removed most of those from my home by the time I changed this variable.\nd.3) Panic attacks\n    - My wife as an adult was diagnosed with anxiety/panic attacks and prescribed medications, which did reduce symptoms. She was able to wean off meds when we married and she adopted my low-EMF lifestyle. Later we moved to a house that had high EMI on its power supply, and we were able to repeatedly, controllably, instantly induce her old \"panic\" symptoms by toggling a circuit at the circuit panel, even if she didn't know it was being switched.","attachments":[],"attachment_inventory":true,"withheld":false,"source":"https://www.regulations.gov/comment/HHS-OASH-2026-0397-0520","tags":["health-experiences","sleep-cognition","biology-metabolism","exposure-places","research-evidence"],"source_hash":"f46340bad80c9aa58c8470b05e54e399ec9534e6528ea25faa97226de27a0b5c","slug":"health-experiences-comment-0520","classification":{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-0520","body_sha256":"a9e94ab9455b7b9ff19e9b453be3203352b0da74a0c772da5febd5dc7caca490","status":"ai_reviewed","primary_topic":"ehs","topics":[{"id":"ehs","evidence":"my sensitivity is lower"},{"id":"neurological","evidence":"Brain fog"},{"id":"wifi","evidence":"WiFi, and Bluetooth"},{"id":"electricity","evidence":"Dirty Electricity / EMI"},{"id":"optical","evidence":"IR-remote keyboard"},{"id":"mechanisms","evidence":"electrolyte processes impacted by XLH and EMFs"},{"id":"children","evidence":"rare metabolic bone disease"}],"summary":"Describes personal and spousal symptoms attributed to RF, magnetic and electric fields and wiring-related interference, with perceived changes after exposure reduction. Discusses a genetic metabolic condition and proposes possible mechanisms.","reviewed_at":"2026-09-23T15:03:52Z","review_method":"ChatGPT full source-text review of September 23 11 a.m. export","review_source_sha256":"a9984b4c13394aa4d84dc0ca3d078f233332c723487e5c405fc34ee7cec8c0ba","source_url":"https://rfsafe.net/hhs-comments/data/catalog.json","scope":"Original comment body; attachments excluded"},"forum_topics":["ehs","neurological","wifi","electricity","optical","mechanisms","children"],"primary_topic":"ehs","forum_title":"Describes personal and spousal symptoms attributed to RF, magnetic and electric fields and wiring-related…"}