Electromagnetic sensitivity

I am a retired scientific researcher and strategy adviser having worked mainly in telecom R&D, industry and academia, living in Norway. Only late in my career, around 2010, I became aware of the abounding scientific research indicating health issues from cell phones and other RF-EMFs, as well as of tricks used to build a boolwark against such results. Since then, I have full time studied the scientific results and conveyed them to others, as I find the evidence overwhelming. On the way, I wrote books reviewing the science, translated books, and collected 150 selfreported descriptions of unhealth reactions experienced by electrohypersentive persons mainly from smartmeters, and from some other transmitting equipment. The stories include several in practice blind folded tests, and a wide range of so called "diffuse" acute symptoms, which vanish when away from the transmitting source. The 150 stories are included. (Publication consented.). However, listings of symptoms such as requested here and found in the 150 stories, do only register acute reactions, not long term effects from well documented impact on biosystems, e.g. DNA breaks or opening of the blood-brain-barrier. As unhealth from such effects is stochastic, multifactor and spread on a wide range of possible diagnoses, no valid conclusions can be drawn from registering acute symptoms. One must rely on huge epidemiological studies, realistic lab studies on basic mechanisms, and a precautionary approach. Therefore, as to relevant standards, the present standards from ICES/IIEEE and ICNIRP are irrelevant, as they only accept acute heat effects as proven, and set the recommended exposure maxima accordingly, only to protect against heat effects and demand presize measurements relevant for heat as causation. Such standards are unsuitable for protecting against (athermal) long term effects, and not precaucionary and have no predication value and therefore unusable for public radiation protection. Federal health agencies should in stead consider exposure standards based on experience cum science, and base standards on a precautionary approach. The best and most relevant such guideline and standard with recommended max exposure limits at present is: Belyaev I, Dean A, Eger H, Hubmann G, Jandrisovits R, Kern M, Kundi M, Moshammer H, Lercher P, Müller K, Oberfeld G, Ohnsorge P, Pelzmann P, Scheingraber C, Thill R. EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses. Rev Environ Health. 2016 Sep 1;31(3):363-97. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2016-0011. PMID: 27454111. What would improve the assessment, disclosure, and regulation of wireless radiation exposure the most, would be to get the bodies shaping the norms have a balanced representation of industry, independent researchers and government - not only industry and/or personell accepting to work on the premises that heat only effects is all there is to protect, and neglecting all other effects, although very well proven (or even probable only). To include taking advice from the ICBE-EMF (The International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields) would be such an important step in the right direction. A very efficient step to develop, test, and evaluate the effectiveness of procedures and techniques for minimizing exposure to electronic product radiation, would be to establish a lab test site and approval system based on measuring oxidative stress in cells from microwave exposure. (This can easily and cost-effectively and fast be measured by standard equipment. Ask prof. em. Martin L Pall for further advice for set up of such a lab.) As effects from RF-EMF are in part acute, in part long term and just one of several vectors, trying to list the risk picture per item is a futile exercise and disturbs real risk assessments. In stead, to Measure Human Exposure and Public Health Surveillance, MDs should start registering and reporting suspected cases of EMF-caused unhealth. Any radiation protection strategy must be based on standard environmental medicine / toxicology procedures as to already present toxic matters: i.e. based on precaution and with a low, not an extremely high, demand for proof as at present, and not demanding sigle factorial proofs. Einar Flydal, cand. polit.; Master of Telecom Strategy, retired from telecom & academia, writer and blogger Oslo, Norway

HHS, I would like to comment on non-ionizing man-made radiation that the citizens of the U.S. are daily exposed to, which negatively impacts our health though they may not be aware of it. I am personally negative impacted with adverse health effects when exposed to man-made radiofrequency (RF) made radiation as I am more sensitive to it than others. As a result of being significantly affected by the non-ionizing radiation produced man-made devices, I found a physician to address to issue and was subsequently diagnosed as having electromagnetic hypersensitivity. (EHS). We are exposed daily by devices such as cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fis, Wireless Access Points (WAPS), Bluetooth and AirPod devices, etc. In addition, there are low frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced by wiring and equipment in homes and businesses. Animals and plants are also negatively affected by man-made EMFs and radiation. A huge problem is that the FCC is NOT adequately protecting the citizens of the U.S. based on their old outdated man-made EMF standards based on the heating effect and not the biological effect. The FCC is obviously an industry captured agency and they have so far refused to update their standards even though on August 13, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in the historic case EHT et al. v. the FCC that the December 2019 decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to retain its 1996 safety limits for human exposure to wireless radiation was “arbitrary and capricious." On the Children's Health Defense (CHD) website, it says, "In a motion filed today [August 6, 2025] with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), CHD urged the agency to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set wireless radiation exposure limits that protect public health." This is an excellent move by the CHD. The HHS should set the man-made radiation standard, not the FCC. Asking the FCC to do it is like having the fox guard the hen house. I am aware of no action yet taken by the FCC to revisit the old EMF radiation standards or that the FCC is collaborating with the HHS to update the EMF radiation standards. It is unconscionable that the FCC is doing nothing as far as I know to help make sure the citizens are not exposed to man-made radiation that negatively impacts their health. The new standards must be based on the biological cellular effect, not on the old outdated heating effect. This new standard, if based on the many scientific studies that are not biased in any way will help increase the U.S. citizens' health as many are negatively affected by man-made EMFs but they do not correlate negative health effects with the EMFs. All of the U.S. government agencies need to do things that prove they are focused on public health issues, not just talk about it. Remember MAHA.

I am very grateful that HHS is giving Americans an opportunity to share our personal experiences and concerns about RF radiation and electromagnetic fields. I appreciate the willingness to listen to the public and investigate questions that may have been overlooked or insufficiently studied. I am 29 years old, and until the past few years, I had always been an exceptionally healthy, active person. I have been athletic my entire life and loved exercising, being outdoors, traveling, and challenging my body. I have also always eaten a very clean, healthy diet and have been extremely proactive about taking care of myself. I was able to live a very active and full life. I was not someone who had a history of chronic illness. That is why the change in my health has been so shocking. After I had COVID, my health changed dramatically. It felt as though my Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which had previously been dormant, suddenly "turned on." I was diagnosed with EBV a little over two years ago, and since then I have experienced debilitating chronic fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, significant neck and body pain, and what I can only describe as a constantly frazzled nervous system. I went from being a very healthy and athletic young woman to struggling to work normal hours and participate in many of the things that once made me feel like myself. I do not claim that COVID caused my EBV to reactivate or that EMF caused my illness. I understand that my experience does not establish causation. However, I believe the dramatic change in someone who was previously so healthy deserves to be investigated, especially when multiple environmental factors may be involved. One thing I have personally noticed is that I seem to be sensitive to electromagnetic and wireless exposure. I have experimented with reducing my exposure in my home, and the difference has been significant enough that I feel compelled to share it. At night, I use a kill switch to turn off wireless and Bluetooth devices, including my Alexa and television. I use wired headphones instead of Bluetooth whenever possible, and I use a Faraday box over my smart meter. When I significantly reduce my wireless exposure, particularly at night, I feel noticeably better. My nervous system feels less overwhelmed and my body seems able to settle down more easily. I realize this is only my personal experience and that there may be other explanations. But I believe experiences like mine should be studied rather than dismissed. I would like to see more research into whether some people may be more sensitive to RF/EMF exposure than others, whether people with chronic illnesses may respond differently, and whether long-term, cumulative, real-world exposure is adequately represented in current research. While we are looking at environmental factors that may affect our health, I also hope we can investigate the bigger picture: highly processed foods, pesticide exposure and glyphosate, PFAS and other "forever chemicals," plastics, and the cumulative effect of being exposed to so many substances throughout our lives. I have always eaten very cleanly and taken care of my body, yet I am still exposed to environmental chemicals that are difficult or impossible to avoid. I would like to better understand what levels of these substances are actually accumulating in our bodies and what long-term, low-level exposure may mean for human health. I also hope there is continued independent research into microwave ovens, including both the radiation they emit and potential effects of prolonged proximity while they are operating. I understand that properly functioning microwave ovens are currently considered safe when they meet federal standards, but I believe it is reasonable to continue studying these questions rather than assuming everything has already been answered. I hope researchers look at cumulative exposure rather than studying every environmental factor completely in isolation. We are surrounded by wireless technology, pesticides, plastics, PFAS, food additives, and many other environmental substances daily. We need to understand what years of combined exposure may mean for human health, particularly for people who develop complex chronic illnesses. I am not asking for predetermined conclusions. I am asking for these questions to be taken seriously and investigated with rigorous, independent research. I am grateful that HHS is creating a place for people like me to share what we have experienced. The past two years have been incredibly difficult. I know what it feels like to have a healthy, active body, and I desperately want to get back to that life—to exercise, work, travel, have a family, and feel like myself again. I hope listening to patients and investigating these environmental questions can lead to better research, greater transparency, and a healthier future for all of us and the generations that come after us.

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. Background: 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. Most 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. a) RF (most kinds of cell signal, WiFi, and Bluetooth) a.1) Headache - 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. - Some kinds of RF, especially some Bluetooth speakers, can give a slow-onset hyper-intense headache that persists up to 24hr even w/ Tylenol. a.2) Brain fog (difficulty concentrating or holding attention) a.3) Gut pain (short stabs) - More common with newer 5G phones a.4) Restless leg while falling asleep ("phantom itching") - Follows most kinds of EMF exposure from earlier in the day if I don't discharge before bed. - I can remove the feeling either by exercise (unreliable) or by grounding myself barefoot outside for 10-15m (very reliable). - The effect is reduced if I prop my torso up. - 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. a.5) Insomnia (lack of feeling sleepy) - Even if there are no other symptoms, RF usually prevents/impairs feeling drowsy, even if in need of rest. - Turning on a wireless device reliably wakes me up, no longer feeling tired. a.6) Raynaud’s syndrome - If in the presence of lots of RF AND cold. Cold but no RF is usually no problem. a.7) Dread - 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. b) Magnetic fields b.1) Headache b.2) Gut pain - 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. b.3) Ring-worm-like spots - 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. c) Electric fields c.1) Headache (buzzed feeling) c.2) Tingling/cold feeling - Touch screens / fingerprint readers will usually induce this in my fingers. d) Dirty Electricity / EMI d.1) Headache + brain fog d.2) Digestive issues - 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. - 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. d.3) Panic attacks - 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.

EMF /RF exposure is making Americans sick. Studies are outdated and do not align with population growth and the fact that every household including apartments where the distance from each other is minimal and residents or homeowners all have cell phones , WiFi routers, smart meters , etc that add to the problem . My cell phone, my WiFi router, smart meter, etc all emit high frequency signals all day . I turn it all off at night but I still am affected all day everyday . When you consider how many people are walking around with cell phones. GPS tracking, WiFi devices in their hands , in their cars, that constantly ping cell towers the frequencies are astronomical . I am extremely sensitive to EMF/RF waves or frequencies that bombard me daily. My symptoms include daily headaches , nausea ,muscle cramps, fatigue , memory loss , cognitive decline , irritability, trouble speaking , weight loss , and sleepless nights every night. I feel electrical shocks , literally. I have uncontrolled muscle spasms and cramping and trouble with balance . There are 4 giant cell towers within 1 mile of my home and I’m sure those are the culprits along with everything else that’s provided by big tech companies. Does the dept of health and human services really know what is attached to those towers and whether or not it can be used for nefarious purposes. I purchased a EMF/RF reader and it’s reading is in the danger zone , all day . I try to stay away from windows and move to the most interior room to avoid the frequencies, but it’s everywhere. I have no safe zone anywhere. Sometimes , when going through an intersection, I get a very strong feeling of something that pulsates my brain that last about 4 seconds and is debilitating . Please do more testing on these towers, devices, routers, smart meters, cell phones, etc. that emit EMF/RF frequencies as they are making a lot of us sick. Satellites in the atmosphere also contribute to the abundance of electromagnetic RADIATION the American tax paying citizens are showered with on the daily. I have doctor reports and MRI’s showing a rapid decline in health due to the EMF fields . The reports and data regarding EMF’s are outdated and need to be re-examined, fast. Americans are not free. We are tracked and under surveillance, monitored and controlled by these anomalies . Please I’m begging you. It’s like being silently killed with no smoking gun and no accountability for anyone of these high tech corporations and their shareholders. I am 61 and have never felt anything like this before phones and towers . We should all go back to Ethernet and dial up phones .

Our government, including HHS have as their first and most important purpose, to secure the rights of the People who created government. We are calling on HHS to protect the People from the harm of EMFs RF Radiation and Wireless Radiation. The FFC has proven incompetent and not impartial. FCC employees are regularly employed in the fields that benefit from their lax regulations and refusal to investigate and research. I have been personally affected by the lax regulations through a smart meter that was forced on me by my utility company that provides power to my home. A smart meter was placed outside my bedroom window. From that month to 2 years after, i suffered many health issues that took over 2 years and 10 health care providers to finally realize that the issue was the radiation. Ultimately the health care providers did not help me as they are not educated on this issue. I had to figure it out through my own diligent research which took hundreds of hours. I finally ran across a podcast about smart meters and remembered a notice from my utility company 2 years before about the smart meter. I emailed them and had it confirmed that the same month my symptoms started was the month the meter was installed outside my bedroom. The worst of my symptoms was full body eczema, hives and welts which I had never experienced in my life. I then had other issues from the stress of it all that piled on, creating a full blown crisis in my body. I had lost my will to live and it was all created by a company that still to this day claims their equipment is safe which obviously is a total fabrication. It is not healthy to have a constant pulse of radiation outside your window. From that point on I have been sensitive to EMFs and other radiation. I see other people struggling in other ways as well because we all have different weakness in our body so we present dis-ease differently. HHS must help regulate these types of exposures. To ignore it any longer is a violation of our right to a healthy environment. It is not right to allow companies and industries to benefit financially from destroying the health of the American People. I have attached a picture of my leg to show how excessive my reaction to the smart meter was. I apoligize for how unsightly it is but it is important for HHS to know how People are suffering and how urgent it is that this issue be addressed. Thank you

My dad ended up dying of brain cancer. He was left-handed and he got the brain tumor on the left side of his head near his ear where he held his cell phone and all of us are convinced that's why he got brain cancer. In many ways wireless radiation really ruined my life. I have MCS multiple chemical sensitivity and everybody like me has a lot of problems processing chemicals and a sensitivity to electromagnetism. Usually they display one of the two a little bit more than the other one, but both sensitivities are always both present and no one seams to knows why. I have to pick houses based on how far they are away from the cell towers. Trying to get at least 2 miles away is almost impossible now and I use this website called antennasearch.com to help me. I can't be in the room with wireless routers and I always plug in the ethernet of my computer to avoid Wi-Fi because it really hurts me. When I was younger, I didn't feel electromagnetism and slowly overtime It's become a huge problem in my life. I don't know if I just have heavy metal toxicity and it's resonating inside me or what happened. For all of human history humans were only exposed to background radiation and then we upped that by billions of times and expected that there was no consequence when there really was. The thermal threshold argument for wireless safety clearly doesn't apply to me because it ruined my life. In the future we can use quantum physics and entanglement to do all the things we're doing wirelessly but without the non-ionizing radiation that's hurting me so eventually we might grow out of this problem. I remember seeing people that were studying all of these worms underneath a giant leaf and how all 30 worms would curl and uncurl all together and the people studying it thought it was some mating ritual or some thing, but then they realized it was actually a radar tower and whenever it's spun around and was facing the worms from miles and miles away is when they all would curl up at the same time and then they would uncurl when the radar faced away from them as the radar dish turned around. Wireless technology creates a magical and convenient world, but unfortunately it comes with problems that nobody wants to acknowledge that eventually ruins your life like me or gives you brain cancer like my dad and kills you. Just because it's non-ionizing radiation doesn't mean that there isn't consequences from using it the way humans are and my life is proof of that. If we use quantum entanglement instead of non-ionizing radiation we can have infinite bandwidth at any distance and so the benefits of moving on from this technology to the next thing is really high. Just know that people with MCS multiple chemical sensitivity and electromagnetic sensitivity are not making this up in a psychosomatic way. In the real world people don't want to pretend that their life is ending. Their lifes are actually ending from the stimulus of chemicals and the stimulus of electromagnetism and society just pretends that they're making it up as if it's not true. We put cell towers on the sides of hospitals, churches, and schools, and this is a huge mistake. It's causing an invisible stress on the body and overtime it's destroying people at a massive scale. Society isn't going to give up the convenience and magic that comes with wireless technology so the answer is to just move to the next technology with quantum physics and entanglement. Using things like nitrogen vacancy nanodiamonds we can probably have room temperature quantum effects and changed the world forever starting in the next couple years. Here's my dad's obituary so you know I'm not lying... https://tucson.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/article_231262e2-2d0e-11e9-ac12-c75c99f75ff8.html

As a Lived Experience Expert in EMF Sensitivity, I represent a growing population of patients sickened by our ever-growing blanket of EMF & RF exposure. For over two years now with the onset exacerbated by fiber optics installation and Smart Meter installation on my house, in addition to the endless Cell Towers in our neighborhood, my health declined drastically. Allopathic practitioners seem to lack knowledge to deal with this growing issue. So, seeking healthcare is useless. This growing concern includes the co-morbid conditions that sometimes present with EMF Sensitivity, like chemical sensitivity. The daily struggle to use devices like cell-phones or Wi-Fi connected devices is devastating. The remediation efforts in my own home have helped minimally with keeping symptoms at bay. They include Hard wire internet and a non-Wi-Fi router, and No Wi-Fi appliances. My symptoms include debilitating neurological, sensory, and physiological. In 2022 the National Council on Disability Framework included "#6.Provide mandatory industry guidance, including recommended policies, training and best practices, to address the needs of people disabled by exposure to low level chemical, electromagnetic, and other environmental exposures that preclude access to care and treatment at medical, dental and at other providers’ offices, hospitals, surgical centers, and other healthcare and healthcare–related facilities, as a result of their use of chemical, fragranced and other scented products, and also as a result of the usage of wireless communications and electrical technologies and other sources of non-ionizing radiation, which may trigger disabling and life-threatening cardiac, respiratory, neurological, and other adverse physical reactions. (Requires administrative action through HHS Office of Civil Rights, and further research concerning this matter should be conducted by the FDA, NIH, HHS, and HUD.)" The 2006 project of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) with funding support from The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) reported that “There are a significant number of people who are sensitive to chemicals and electromagnetic fields. Surveys conducted by the California and New Mexico Departments of Health and by medical researchers in North Carolina found 16 to 33 percent of the people interviewed reported that they are unusually sensitive to chemicals, and in the California and New Mexico health departments' surveys 2 percent to 6 percent reported that they have been diagnosed as having multiple chemical sensitivities C. Miller and N. Ashford, "Multiple Chemical Intolerance and Indoor Air Quality," in Indoor Air Quality Handbook Chapter 27.8 (McGraw-Hill 2001). Another California Department of Health Services survey has found that 3 percent of the people interviewed reported that they are unusually sensitive to electric appliances or power lines. P. LeVallois, et al., "Prevalence and Risk Factors of Self-Reported Hypersensitivity to Electromagnetic Fields in California," in California EMF Program, "An Evaluation of the Possible Risks From Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMFs From Power Lines, Internal Wiring, Electrical Occupations and Appliances, Draft 3 for Public Comment, April 2001" Appendix 3.” The research already exists, and rather than waste money, let’s do more to protect the public with better updated FCC restrictions, and more stringent state and local laws that can expand on protecting the public, if they choose to do so. Consideration should be taken for all infrastructure to include the ability of those with medical issues to resolve them with low to no emf products like copper land-line availability options. Non-smart meters retained or installed with service fees outlawed, and notification services for tower installations within a two-mile radius of residents/busninesses. Restrictions on towers being in and near residential areas, and the protection of any already existing radio-quiet zones, with the consideration of providing one in each state.

I have been battling EMF sensitivities for over 10 years. I get headaches, dizziness, irregular heartbeats, wiredness, insomnia,etc when exposed to cell phones, computers, wifi, cell towers, etc. This limits my ability to be in public places where there are cell towers nearby, wifi, bluetooth, and numerous cell phones that are inherent in crowds. But the biggest and most devastating are the cell towers. Even radio towers affect me. It is like being in a prison, my freedom limited as the government continues to push more and more radiation and EMF into our environments. Please bring some kind of real information by unbiased reaearchers and citizens experiences to the forefront. This is not in our heads. It is real!!!

My life and health have been ruined from the elevated, man-made EMFs in which we are living. I have moved 20+ times and attempted expensive house ‘remediation’ to block EMFs, to no avail. Severe heath problems have evolved—connective tissue disorder, mast cell activation, 2 heart arrhythmias, and a neurological condition and more. My body is so tuned in to the EMFs (all types—radio frequency, magnetic, electric, and dirty electricity being the worst for me), that I really don’t need expensive equipment to detect (yet, I have to confirm). There is no question that it is these pervasive, man-made EMFs that are driving my rapid health decline. I wish others were sensitive like me and could so clearly feel how destructive these are to us, humans, as well as all biology.