Book: Overpowered - Martin Blank
The hidden health risks behind all this wireless awesomeness.
I see you all. On the train. On the bus. At the dinner table. Phone on your lap. Bluetooth headphones buried deep inside your ears. Smart watch keeping track of your all-too-precious heart, making sure you hit your magical ten thousand steps. Solipsistic zombies. Disconnected from the external world and plugged into unending novelty, triggering cascades of dopamine in a gray city.
I get it. I don’t want to talk to you either. I’m on my device too. But I’m wired. Wired headphones. Phone and watch in flight mode. No Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cellular. A one man EMF black spot. Because I know what these devices are capable of. The good and the bad, in the short term and in the long term.
Martin Blank’s book “Overpowered: What Science Tells Us About the Dangers of Cell Phones and other Wi-Fi-Era Devices” is one of the best books to start becoming acquainted with the potential adverse effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation.
Mobile phones are ubiquitous in 21st-century life, jammed against our ears and buried in our pockets. We've all heard whispers that these vital little devices cause brain tumors. In this book, Martin Blank walks through the science and shows that there are biological effects from exposure to low, non-thermal levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation—levels that are currently considered safe by regulatory authorities.
The book.
Most of the source material for these notes comes from the book “Overpowered” by Martin Blank. This book provides insight into the biological effects of exposure to non-thermal levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. The type of radiation you are exposed to every day from your phone, headphones and Wi-Fi router.
But why this book?
So why should you give a damn about electromagnetic radiation? Why should I give a damn if you don’t give a damn? Every day I step outside, I see more and more people radiating their brains with their wireless headphones. More and more kids with mobile phones nestled in their laps, the cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi signals penetrating deep into their torsos. What if someone told you that there is good science demonstrating that with exposure to electromagnetic radiation comes an increased risk of cancer, infertility, impaired sleep, disruption to the Blood-Brain Barrier, asthma, anxiety, and depression? Would you listen? Would you stop for a moment to consider how radically different our current exposure is from what we were exposed to only a few years ago?
We are swamped in man-made electromagnetic radiation at levels that have never been experienced by humans before. From mobile phone towers, smart meters, smart watches, Bluetooth headphones, mobile phones, and Wi-Fi routers, our bodies are constantly bombarded by electromagnetic radiation. This book has been covered here to raise a flag, to start a conversation, and hopefully provide the impetus to do more reading and learn how to better protect yourself and your family.
If you find this sketch interesting, please go get the book and support the author.
A Global Experiment
We are all part of a global experiment, and almost no one is aware of it. For the first time in history, our planet is being bathed in electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that are generated by humans. Here is a quick outline of what we are dealing with. Cell phones generate electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Different devices radiate different levels of EMF with different characteristics. Mobile towers, wireless routers, Bluetooth devices, smart watches, and baby monitors all radiate EMF. I have labeled it an experiment because we do not know what the long-term impacts of this unprecedented exposure will be. Most of the potential negative health effects from EMF exposure are expected to take decades to develop.
What we know.
The science about the bioeffects resulting from exposure to electromagnetic radiation is still in its early stages. We cannot yet predict that a specific type of EMF exposure (such as 20 minutes of cell phone use each day for 10 years) will lead to a specific health outcome. We do know, however, that people who use cell phones for at least 22 hours a month are 50% more likely to develop cancers of the salivary gland. People who live within 400 meters of a cell phone transmission tower for 10 years or more have a cancer rate three times higher than those living at a greater distance. There is also growing evidence that exposure increases the risk of neurodegenerative diseases and negatively impacts fertility.
The Author.
In 1987, Dr. Martin Blank read a paper by Dr. Reba Goodman demonstrating unusual effects of EMF on living cells. He’d long understood the importance of electrical forces on the function of cells, but did not think it was possible to alter living cells' ability to make proteins. It had long been believed that non-ionizing electromagnetic fields were harmless to humans and other biological systems.
Dr. Goodman's research showed otherwise. Her findings changed Dr. Blank’s view on the potential health effects of magnetism. They started a research partnership that focused on how EMFs permeate the surfaces of cells and impact DNA, and they demonstrated observable and repeatable health effects.
In the late 1990s, we started to see the impact of the industry’s profit-driven efforts to confuse and muddy the science of EMF bioeffects. Pushback on the data of Dr. Blank’s scientific work has largely come from scientists backed by the power and telecommunications industries.
Not the first time.
It’s an old playbook. It has a rhythm and rhyme that we’ve all felt and heard before. Think tobacco, pesticides, and asbestos. When scientific research threatens a lucrative business model, scientists are paid by industry to generate studies that are public relations tools for their products. At the very least, they sow doubt, which allows them to continue to profit for decades until the health impacts are more clearly established.
An irreversible trend.
EMF isn't just a by-product of modern society; it's the cornerstone of our existence. If tobacco were gone tomorrow, there would be no significant change in quality of life. Sanitation, food production and storage, and health care are all dependent on power and wireless communication. It is understandable why people are reluctant to embrace the idea that there may be a dark side to this incredibly convenient technology. The implications would reach further than most of us could imagine.
Precaution.
EMF exposure poses a real risk to living creatures, and industrial and product safety standards must be reconsidered. It is recommended that as individuals we adopt the notion of "prudent avoidance," minimizing our personal EMF exposure and maximizing the distance between us and EMF sources when those devices are in use. If EMF levels were regulated just as automobile carbon emissions are regulated, this would force manufacturers to design, create, and sell devices that generate much lower levels of EMF.
I will summarize and simplify the current known information on the health effects of EMFs. The goal is to demonstrate that all EMF exposure, even at very low levels affects living beings. With this knowledge, I hope you will do more to protect yourself and your family and reduce unnecessary dangers for your short and long term health.
Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)
So where do electromagnetic fields come from? Electromagnetic fields emerge from a combination of electricity and magnetism.
All matter is composed of atoms, and all atoms are made up of the same fundamental particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. A nucleus containing the much heavier protons and neutrons sits at the center, and the much lighter electrons orbit around the nucleus. Electric currents occur due to the flow of electrons or of atoms that assume positive or negative charges due to gaining or losing electrons.
The “magnetic” part of electromagnetic fields refers to the same type of magnetic fields that emanate from those small pieces of metal that you have sticking to your refrigerator door. As anyone who has played with two magnets knows, the strength of magnetic fields decreases with distance from the magnet. Because magnetic fields exert influence without making physical contact, physicists refer to magnetism as “action at a distance.”
A magnetic field is generated when a current flows. A current in a wire is always accompanied by a magnetic field around the wire. Magnetic fields resulting from the flow of electric charges are called electromagnetic fields (EMF) or electromagnetic radiation (EMR).
Man-made and natural EMFs.
Visible light is a type of natural EMF produced by the sun. Modern devices such as mobile phones and Wi-Fi networks produce artificial EMFs, but so do devices such as hair dryers and light bulbs. Man-made EMF sources produce electromagnetic radiation at different frequencies across the spectrum, generally in the non-ionizing range. Everyday devices such as desk lamps and hair dryers emit low-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the extra low frequency range. Televisions, mobile phones, and their towers emit higher frequency EMR called microwave radiation.
Since the first use of electricity, humans have been exposed to increasing levels of man-made electromagnetic fields. Everything that runs on electricity produces electromagnetic radiation, and our daily lives depend more and more on these ubiquitous devices.
Power and energy.
Two terms commonly used in discussions of electricity and EMFs are “energy” and “power.” The higher the frequency of the EMF, the more energy it has. The higher the power of the given energy, the more work the current can do. Therefore, a 300Hz EMF signal can be generated at 5W or 50,000W. It has long been believed that low-energy electromagnetic radiation at the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum is less harmful to the body than higher-energy frequencies. However, we know that even low-level electromagnetic fields can be harmful to the body. The fact that significant biological responses to EMF can occur across the EMF spectrum makes the focus on energy levels largely irrelevant in discussions of EMF public health and safety. Nevertheless, it has been used to justify significantly different safety limits of EMFs depending on whether the EMF falls into the category of ionizing or non-ionizing radiation.
Ionizing radiation.
As mentioned earlier, all matter consists of protons, neutrons, and electrons. When an atom loses an electron, it becomes a positively charged ion. When an atom gains an electron, it becomes a negatively charged ion. When ionizing radiation comes into contact with an atom, it has enough energy to knock electrons out of orbit, turning the atom into a positively charged ion. The electron then bonds to another stable atom, becoming a negatively charged ion. This is how ionizing radiation turns neutral atoms into charged ions. Ionizing radiation is extremely dangerous to biological beings. This is the type of radiation that you are exposed to during X-rays or after a nuclear explosion.
Non-ionizing radiation.
Non-ionizing electromagnetic fields, with frequencies lower than visible light, do not contain enough energy to expel electrons. Non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation cannot ionize atoms. However, we will see later that even non-ionizing EMF is capable of causing significant biological changes.
The science highlighted in these notes specifically addresses the effects of non-ionizing EMFs.
It has been known for a very long time that EMF at non-ionizing levels causes changes in biological systems. As far back as the 19th century, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the effects of electromagnetic radiation on entire biological systems resulting from exposure to EMFs. Yet we find ourselves today still debating this fundamental question: whether non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation can cause disease and other negative health effects in humans. So let’s try to shed some light on what we know. Let’s look at how EMF exposure has been shown to alter DNA and cellular function, setting the path for the onset of disease.
EMF Health Effects
EMF damages DNA.
DNA is not only complex but also delicate and susceptible to damage. The sort of damage that, if repeated over a long period, is thought to cause cancer and other serious diseases. We have long accepted that UV light (or the X-rays we are exposed to in the doctor's office and dental office) can damage and destroy DNA. However, non-ionizing radiation from power lines, television towers, and mobile phones was thought not to damage DNA.
DNA conducts electricity and acts as an antenna, picking up EMFs that it is exposed to. EMFs can then break the DNA strands. Scientific studies have shown that not only do DNA strand breaks increase when exposed to EMF, but the breaking of DNA strands continues for hours after the exposure too. Exposure triggers the stress response in cells. Long term exposure reduces your body’s resilience to stressful forces in the environment. The harm it causes your DNA leads to cell death and cell mutation. Errors and mutations accumulate eventually leading to malfunction and disease.
EMF and cancer.
Epidemiological studies have begun to show that low-frequency, non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation does correlate with cancer. In 2009, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published findings that reviewed 23 epidemiological studies on the link between cell phone use and cancer. The team concluded that:
…although as a whole the data varied, among the 10 higher quality studies, we found a harmful association between phone use and tumor risk. The lower quality studies, which failed to meet scientific best practices, were primarily industry funded.
The 13 studies that investigated cell phone use for 10 or more years found a significant harmful association with tumor risk, especially for brain tumors, giving us ample reason for concern about long-term use.
Associations take a long time to identify due to the fact that cancers take a long time to occur, generally due to extended exposure to carcinogenic agents. In addition to the increased risk seen from cell phone use we’ve seen an increased risk of cancer based on the proximity of houses to cell phone towers, TV broadcast towers, and power lines.
Now you might be wondering: If a force can cause cancer, surely it must be powerful enough to cause many other types of damage. Well, you’d be right.
Other health effects of EMF.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that destroys the neurons in the brain. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that exposure to low-frequency EMFs, such as those emitted by power lines, significantly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. There appear to be links to an increase in the occurrence of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a disease that is characterized by sufferers gradually losing control of the voluntary muscle movements of their bodies due to the deterioration of nerve cells in the brain and spine.
Mobile phones appear to be responsible for drastically impacting male fertility. A 2011 review of the various scientific studies published on EMF and male fertility concluded that men who used cell phones experienced “decreased sperm concentration, motility, abnormal morphology, and viability” and that sperm exposed to RF radiation in a laboratory have “decreased motility, morphometric abnormalities, and increased oxidative stress.”
Now if cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and weak sperm weren’t enough to give you pause about putting that phone back in your pocket, how about this:
The Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) prevents many otherwise-harmful substances in your bloodstream, such as viruses and bacteria, from entering your brain while permitting access to nutrients and other essential components that your brain needs to function. It has been shown with rats that were injected with dye, that within minutes after exposure to EMF the dye leaked into the brain. It has also been shown that some brain cells die shortly after such leaks occur. Still want to put the phone next to your brain?
What about sleep? Melatonin helps regulate circadian rhythms and synchronize the sleep-wake cycle. It is also associated with your ability to learn, to fend off damage from free radicals, and other key immune functions, including your body’s ability to defend against cancer. Additionally, melatonin levels in your body correlate with serotonin levels, which are related to human diet, metabolism, and depression. Many studies have shown a connection between exposure to EMF and reduced and impaired levels of melatonin.
What all this tells us is that there are clear health risks from man-made EMFs and that the health outcome will vary depending on the frequency and exposure to EMFs in the course of your daily life.
The non-human impact of EMF.
As you can imagine, EMFs do not just impact humans. There are many other biological systems that are now under stress due to increased exposure to man-made EMFs. There is an impact on the navigational abilities of birds and bees. This is most clearly demonstrated with the increasing phenomenon of tower collisions. Birds become disoriented and smash into communications and transmission towers. Sparrow populations have been shown to migrate away from high EMF areas. For bees, the impact has been observed in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The belief is that this is caused by a variety of environmental stresses, including EMF. Studies have also demonstrated impacts on trees and plants, with less growth in flora when exposed to EMF.
In addition to loss of territory through habitat deterioration, many species of animal and plant life suffer long-term health effects and reproductive consequences from EMF exposure.
So given the well-documented health effects of EMF exposure, why isn’t a greater alarm being sounded?
The Business of EMF Science
So based on these scientifically proven links to adverse health effects of exposure to non-ionizing radiation, why do we so regularly hear that the science is inconclusive? Well, the scientific literature has many studies that show negative impacts and many others that show no impact. Well, why is this?
The science is significantly muddied by industry-funded research, which tends to promote studies that are faulty by design. They are often intentionally designed to produce a preordained positive outcome for the industry. Studies funded by industry have been shown to be nine times more likely to find no health effect than studies funded by the public or a charity.
Many of the people operating in the wireless industry have also had stints in government regulatory services. This has resulted in regulatory capture, where the industry dictates what regulations should apply to the wireless industry. Making it even more difficult for the average Betty is the fact that the underlying science is extraordinarily complex and easy to obfuscate.
The state of research is this: the government no longer funds research, and the wireless industry attacks and defunds scientists who produce results contrary to their interests. The industry produces low-risk studies that assure a positive result, using these to convince the public that wireless technology is safe. The industry is so profitable that it can fund a significant amount of research—enough to obscure the value of those studies that do demonstrate health effects from exposure to EMFs.
Doubt.
What we see happening today with EMF science is the same thing that we have seen with the science of tobacco, asbestos, lead, plastics, and other toxic materials. Companies skew the scientific literature to manufacture and magnify doubt, influencing policy decisions and keeping the public confused. The history of these industries shows that it can take 30–100 years between early warning signs and regulatory action to protect public health.
EMF safety standards.
Knowing that there is a danger from electromagnetic fields, it is still challenging to establish safety standards. At this stage, no one can say what a “safe dose” of EMF is because the effects vary so much due to voltage, frequency, and duration of exposure.
We do know, however, that the current framework used by regulators is based on faulty assumptions that result in the public being exposed to levels that are thousands of times higher than the levels at which biological effects have been observed. Currently, they are based on the insufficient goal of ensuring no single exposure results in a heat stress response. They fail to consider non-thermal health effects, multiple simultaneous exposures, and cumulative exposures over a lifetime.
Because of the wide range of biological systems affected, the wide range of frequencies that are biologically active, the low response thresholds, and the possibility of cumulative effects from repetitive stimulation, the exposure standards should be revised to take into account the guidance provided by the new findings, specifically:
The importance of non-thermal mechanisms in assessing risk.
Total cumulative exposure across the different divisions of the spectrum from multiple sources.
The increasing EMF background radiation due to the proliferation of cell phone and broadcasting antennas, as well as many different electronic devices in the home and in the workplace.
The most sensitive populations (usually children) must be afforded even greater protection.
Minimizing EMF Risk
Before you panic and burn all your tech while screaming at the stars about how unfair it all is, consider this: you can reduce your exposure to EMFs by learning to recognize and measure EMF sources and then practicing staying as far away from them for as long as you can. It is about risk management. Adults still drive cars knowing that there is a risk of accident. People still drink alcohol knowing that it will increase their chances of cancer. A pragmatic balance needs to be found between paganism and holding a mobile phone against your baby’s head.
You can buy or rent relatively inexpensive meters for measuring all aspects of electromagnetic fields. To get really accurate readings, consider hiring a specialist who can walk you through the fields you are exposed to and how to best address them. If you decide to conduct the measurements yourself, take multiple measurements to understand how your exposure changes throughout the day. Also measure devices when they are both on and off. Many devices these days do not truly turn off.
Once you’ve got an understanding of your exposure level, you need to consider and review how you want to interact with these devices going forward. Technology has completely redefined the way we live and communicate with each other, so everyone’s calculus on this will be different. Remember though, each time you are exposed to man-made non-ionizing EMFs, that exposure carries the risk of increased probability of health problems in the long term.
I can’t imagine anyone being able to not use a computer these days, but you could probably wire your house so that you can avoid having a Wi-Fi router blasting everyone with electromagnetic radiation 24x7. You can choose not to carry your mobile phone directly on your body. Just understanding this will go a long way toward significantly reducing your exposure.
Here is a quick list you can run through to help minimize your personal EMF exposure:
Avoid living near high-voltage power lines.
Keep away from transformers.
Live as far from cell phone antennas as possible.
Get rid of electric blankets.
Don’t let extension cords tangle under your desk. Run them clear and away.
Keep your cords organized.
Don’t use fluorescent lights.
Don’t use dimmers.
Avoid radiant electrical floor heating.
Don’t use microwave ovens.
Position high EMF appliances against outer walls.
Use Airplane mode on devices whenever possible.
Keep your phones out of your pockets and bra.
Get rid of any cordless phones you may still have in the house.
Avoid wireless headphones.
Don’t put a laptop on your lap. You are cooking your junk and damaging your chances of successful procreation.
Wire your house with Ethernet cables and limit your use of Wi-Fi in the house with AC timers.
Reject smart meters.
Don’t use baby monitors.
This list is not comprehensive but will act as a starting point to get you thinking about what fields you are exposed to and what you can do to start reducing your exposure to EMFs.
So when I see you on the bus, train, yacht, public scooter, taxi rank, pub, creative space, or safe space, please consider me and every other scowling worker bee in spitting distance, knock the phone into flight mode, embrace the cabled life, and if you are lucky, you may still get to pass on your own unique and important genetic material to the next ungrateful and confused generation.
Action.
If you’ve enjoyed this, go get the book here, read it, and share it with your fellow public transport captives. All this wireless convenience comes at a cost. Please think deeply on this and keep learning.
If you’ve got any questions about this book or suggestions for any books you’d like to see summarized here, hit me up on twitter at @thedavidhart.
Next up in the Self As Lab series is “This is How They Tell Me The World Ends”, by Nicole Perlroth, a book that will teach you about the invisible black market for cyberweapons, how they have the capacity to turn every device connected to the internet into a weapon of war, and why you should be terrified.
Thanks for reading.