Corded or cordless: have you made the connection?

This weekend, I’m going out to dinner. Hardly cause for a blog, you might say—or even a Facebook status update, given that most people go out for dinner several times a month or week. For me, though, it’s a rare event. In fact, I haven’t had dinner at a restaurant or a friend’s place for over two years. It’s not because I can’t eat. (Boy, can I eat!) It’s not because I haven’t been invited out, either. (I do have friends.) And it’s not because I’m broke or have BO. No. The reason I haven’t been out is because there’s Wi-Fi everywhere, generating harmful radiation that affects me so badly I can barely function. And it’s not worth the risk of getting another brain tumour, no matter how good the food is.

This time, we’re going to a friend’s place—a friend who has shown himself to be exceptionally caring and considerate. He has offered to switch off his Wi-Fi when we arrive and even asked his neighbour if he’d be willing to do the same, if necessary. The neighbour agreed, and I love them both already. To be sure that our friend’s home was radiation-free, however, my man Lewis took my gauss meter and went to check the place out. (I love my man, too …and it seems to me that a lot more loving happens when Wi-Fi is turned off.) He was surprised to find that the levels of radiation were sky-high. Yet the Wi-Fi had been switched off, so where was it coming from? It wasn’t from a Smart meter and it wasn’t coming from the neighbours’ place.

It turned out that it was coming from a cordless phone system. Our friend has three cordless phones in his house, and they were emitting shockingly high levels of radiation—500 times higher than the radiation from a Samsung cell phone (known for its particularly strong signals). When the base unit was unplugged and the handsets disabled, the meter readings dropped down to minimal levels.

It’s your call

If you have a digital enhanced cordless technology (DECT) phone in your house, you’re almost certainly being exposed to far more radiation than your system can tolerate, over time—and you may be unaware of how it’s affecting you. Some people are concerned about the radiation from their cell phone, but few ever think about cordless phones, which are far more harmful. These phones emit the same type of pulsed microwave radiation as cell phones, but they never ‘power down’. They are always transmitting and the pulses they emit are far more aggressive than those used in cell phones. With long-term use, cordless phones have been found to increase the risk of brain tumours, including acoustic neuromas—previously considered to be rare. (My hubby tells me I’m one in a million, but even I got one of these growths, which are rapidly becoming common.) Several studies of analogue cell phone, digital cell phone and cordless phone use have revealed that all three types of phones were linked with increased tumour rates. Research by Swedish scientists confirms that the risk of cancer is greater for those who use either DECT cordless phones or cell phones—and even greater for those who use both.

The radiation from these cordless phones can be far more harmful than the radiation from a cell phone because DECT pulses at a lower frequency—and the lower the frequency, the stronger the biological effect. The radiation from a cordless phone base is often also far higher than the radiation from a cell phone tower. Additionally, most cordless phones emit radiation from the handset, as well as from the base, at full power, even when the phone is not in use.

A German medical physicist and researcher at the University of Luebeck, Dr Leberecht von Klitzing, has researched the biological effects of DECT systems. He took blood samples from children who had cordless phones in their homes and found that the red blood corpuscles did not mature properly, resulting in listlessness and/or aggression, pallor, sleeplessness and many other symptoms—all of which could be reversed when the phones were removed.

According to Lloyd Burrell of electricsense.com, we’d do well to follow the advice of respected Harley Street physician, Dr David Dowson, who says: “Having a cordless phone is like having a mobile [cell phone] mast in your house. I’d recommend anyone who has one to switch to a plug-in phone.”

Too much trouble?

Yes, it’s inconvenient. If you use a corded phone, you won’t be able to walk around the house while you’re on a call. You might actually have to sit down and focus on the conversation, rather than doing the laundry or making dinner as you talk. But I can tell you from personal experience that it’s far, far less inconvenient than having brain surgery, which can cramp your style in unimaginable ways.

According to Dr Magda Havas, an expert in electromagnetic radiation who petitioned for first-generation DECT phones to be banned in Canada, serious health effects occur near DECT phone base units. “[A]t a distance of just beyond 3 meters from my DECT phone base unit (according to studies of RF radiation),” she says, “EEG brain waves are altered. At 2.8 meters, motor function, memory and attention of children are affected. At 1.7 meters, sleep is disturbed. At 30cm, memory is impaired and, at closer distances, the immune system is affected, REM sleep is reduced, insulin levels drop, and there are pathological changes in the blood–brain barrier. Studies also show that there is a 100% increase in adult leukemia between 45 and 130cm from the phone and a similar increase in childhood leukemia between 35 and 260cm.”

Our bodies have a lot to say about this…

Havas also reports that studies of 356 people, exposed long term to high-frequency pulsed electromagnetic fields associated with DECT phones and/or cell phone base stations, revealed a disturbingly long list of effects.

The following symptoms increased with greater proximity to the phone base:

• sleep disturbance, fatigue, depression
• headaches, restlessness, irritability
• mental confusion, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness
• learning difficulties, trouble finding words
• frequent infections, sinusitis, lymph node swellings, allergies
• joint and limb pains, nerve and soft tissue pains
• numbness or tingling
• tinnitus, hearing loss
• giddiness, impaired balance
• visual disturbances, eye inflammation, dry eyes
• tachycardia, episodic hypertension, collapse
• hormonal disturbances, thyroid disease
• night sweats, frequent urge to urinate
• weight increase, nausea, loss of appetite
• nose bleeds, skin complaints
• tumours and diabetes.

Many of these symptoms are now associated with the rapidly growing phenomenon of electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), and they’re a healthy, normal reaction to an invisible threat.

[pullquote align=”normal”]You’ll benefit more from listening to your body than from talking on your cordless phone. [/pullquote]

Because DECT phones are so powerful and because the radiation instantly passes through walls, you can be exposed to this radiation even if you don’t own a DECT phone …but your neighbours do.

Somewhere online, I read that having a cordless phone beside your bed is (in terms of radiation) like having a jet plane land in your bedroom. Sounds exciting, but I think I’d prefer to have a peaceful, intimate dinner with my DECT-less, Wi-Fi-free friends.

For more info, see: http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/dect.php; http://bit.ly/2913qhb; and http://bit.ly/2927CfJ.