Safe ICT NZ
Safe Information and Communications Technology for New Zealand
6 ways to reduce EMF exposure
use WORLDS as a memory aid for what needs protecting
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Wired
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Choose to go wired, except when the wire leads EMF to the brain
A wired computer is more secure, the data is faster, it requires at least half the power as wireless (in some situations 10x less) and most importantly you are not exposing yourself to radiation. Use a wired mouse, a wired keyboard and also wired peripherals.
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The only time not to prefer wired is when the wire leads the EMF directly to your brain
This would happen with a wired headset. Instead, choose either a hollow-air-tube headset. Using a hollow tube headset you will be using sound waves, not radiation for your communications. However, these airtube headsets are not airtube all the way, be aware that EMF near any part of the body is not good, especially near the heart, and the EMF does go a bit beyond the ferrite bead. Or you can use a retro-style curly-cord smartphone headset (like Gwyneth Paltrow and Lenny Kravitz do). There are a number of companies making these: YUBZ, Moshi Moshi, and OPIS 60s Micro.
Forget your cord-less (DECT) phone with its continuous radiation, instead, use a landline with a curly cord, provided that it is not a high EMF style with a dial-pad on the handset.
You can still use your iPhone, iPad, apple and android devices to access the internet without Wi-Fi if you access it via a ethernet connector (or a dongle as they are known). You will get get blazing high speeds and no radiation. They are a bit fragile and I sorry to say they often have to be replaced because of this, but keeping yourself safe is worth it. Watch the Tech Wellness video to see how easy it is. You can get these in New Zealand from places like PB Tech and Jaycar Electronics.
“Make little changes. Refrain from using your device while eating or spending time with friends, and add one thing a day that’s done without the phone." Nancy Colier, licensed clinical social worker and writer of “The Power of Off.”
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Keep your phone as a phone—for talking
If you reduce your smartphone use to texting, calls and emergency banking and swap your Google searches and app use on a wired desktop computer, that will go a long way toward protecting your health. The research tells us you need to keep your calls under 20 minutes a day, to lower your risk level.
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Attach Ethernet cables
Desktop computers are easy to use wired. Just attach Ethernet cables from them to your router and then uncheck the wireless connectivity. However, newer iPads and laptops do not have Ethernet ports. See here for the: 8 steps for getting wireless devices switched over to Ethernet cable and switching off the WiFi.
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Off when not needed
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Nothing will break if you turn your WiFi router off!
on the device before unplugging them, they are mini computers and will do a proper shut-down this way. Also, you will save electricity! Having said that, some geeks recommend putting them on a timer, to ensure they get turned off and reboot themselves, this is actually to enhance the performance of the router. Routers have drivers to wake up sleeping computers for connectivity, called magic packets, which wake up your computer's LAN. Just turn your router on again, before you turn on your computer. You will diminish radiation exposure and have protected the health of your family and pets. If you cannot turn off the WiFi completely then make a habit of turning off the WiFi when you clean your teeth at night, you are likely to halve your radiation exposure. Turn your router off when not needed and simply turn it on again before you power up your computer. It is best practice with most electronics to them off
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Read “The Power of Off,” Nancy Colier
Colier explains how our compulsion to constantly check our devices plays on our primal urges and what to do about it.
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Unplug at night
It is a good idea to literally unplug devices at night for the best night's sleep so that light from LED's doesn't disturb you, and ​the electrical fields that surround our wiring do not disturb the body's own beneficial processes during this sleep.
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Find the Bluetooth and WiFi OFF button on your devices
On every computer, laptop, tablet, or wireless networking device, there are function keys that turn OFF the Wi-Fi and Blue tooth transmitters.
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All children should be handed devices with radiation transmission turned OFF
Whenever you hand a child a technology device such as cell phone, tablet, or laptop, please set the Airplane mode to ON, Wi-Fi to OFF, and Bluetooth to OFF. As Olga Sheean (documenter of wireless radiation effects ) says, "It may be inconvenient, but so is cancer, which doesn’t come with an OFF switch".
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When talking of anything private keep your cell phone off
When talking about credit card details, or passport details or sensitive private matters realize your phone could be listening', even if you have disabled the more well known AI spies like SIRI. Even if you have disabled this capacity, updates can re-enable this potentially spying software.
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Free apps can spy
Free apps that give horoscopes etc can be also be listening to you as well as storing and using your personal information. Facebook quizzes such as "What was your first car? and What kind of dog are you according to your zodiac sign?" can find out your first car, your pet names, your favourite teacher etc, This gives hackers great information for the exact questions you are asked when you forget your password.
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Check your mobile app privacy policy very carefully, and the legal statement that discloses how a party gathers, stores, and uses the personal information it collects from the app users.
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Public WiFi users in London found they had signed away the rights to their own eldest children
In the Herod clause included as part of a security research experiment, six users of public WiFi found that they had signed away the rights to their own firstborn children. We will be returning the children to their parents,” wrote the Finnish company conducting the experiment. The research continued with the terms and conditions removed. In Westminster, 33 devices connected to the hotspot, with researchers startled to find that the popular POP3 email protocol revealed passwords in plain text when used over Wi-Fi. Gene Bransfield attached mini wireless computers to a kitten and a dog and was able to remotely turn off people's TVs while they were watching the World Cup. In this case, it was simply a prank, but revealing all the same. Disabling WiFi makes your data more secure.
*IMPORTANTLY realize also that you cannot turn off your Smart TV's ability to listen to you.
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Radiation shielded
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Radiation shielding can definitely be useful but beware:
We do think shielding your body using a special phone case used correctly, is a good idea, however WiFi blocking phone cases, stickers etc can make your cell phone emit more radiation to operate. Or, if used incorrectly, they can send the radiation towards instead of away from you. Less use in general is better than being reliant on shielding. If in doubt, a building-biology trained specialist can advise you.
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Ferrite beads
These clamped on to your wireless head-set can shield your brain from radiation travelling along the wire to it. Still, be somewhat cautious here, there is still little science on the protective effects of these devices, and radiation can be measured travelling up to and slightly past the ferrite beads, at the base of air tube headsets, your heart is also vulnerable to EMF radiation, if your cell phone is active, however these would be good protection when using your phone as a music device with GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi off and Aeroplane mode on.
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Blue-light blocking glasses can be used with your blue light-emitting devices
There is a variety of these; some are amber but others are almost clear glass. While the almost clear glass ones comply with our fashion needs, they are not quite as good at blue light shielding, as the amber ones, blocking about 50% of the blue light but suitable for use in the daytime, the amber ones are suitable for use after dark.
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Shielding textiles and clothing
You can lower your body's exposure with curtains and clothing that contain metal and act as a Faraday cage. Something like a special EMF shielding singlet will significantly lower your overall exposure, even though it is not shielding your whole body. This is good for high EMF situations like flying.
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Shielding cages
If you are unable to get rid of a smart meter, you definitely want a cage to shield the radiation from it to you. Be aware that the radiation from these can travel through walls, without a shielding cage.
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Shielding Paint
EMF shielding paint can also be a good solution to reduce exposure in apartments from neighbours' WiFi or other intrusive antennae.
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Less use
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Cell phone safety standards are based on six minutes of use: Cell phone standards were designed for only 6 minutes of use per day—24 minutes per day if allowing a safety margin of 4. Yet recent research tells us the average user spends 145 minutes on theirs a day. Make it your new policy to only use your cell phone if absolutely necessary.
Tip: stick a radiation sticker on your cell phone
to remind you that it's radiating.
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Go naked
Challenge yourself to “unplug" or "go naked" without your cell phone. Who says you have to be available 24/7? While no amount of radiation above the natural is known to be safe, we can at least can minimalize it, and be less available to the demands of others.
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Devices are not necessarily more environmentally or socially responsible
Use paper notebooks, read on paper, do not think that properly managed production of paper is less environmentally friendly—the 'cloud' actually consists of many huge warehouses of computers that need to be cooled constantly. It takes quite a lot of energy for our data to get to these massive data centres and back, and a whole lot more if done via WiFi devices where there is added encryption load. WiFi is about 60% less efficient than wired ethernet. Not only is it slow—expect a document sent to its cloud location by WiFi transfer to use at least 2x more power than a document sent by a wired ethernet cable. A recent study has been made of environmental impacts by Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne. World use of the Internet already takes the equivalent of eight big nuclear power stations to run.
There are many ways that our electronics are socially irresponsible. A civil war in the Congo is largely being financed by the violent procurement of coltan used for our devices. The factories where cell phones are made have nets installed to catch their suicidal workers and Chinese workers assembling our iPads and phones, get leukaemia and nerve damage from the way benzene and n-hexane are used is to clean parts during assembly.
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Our electronic devices, smartphones, DVD players etc use many rare minerals beryllium, and tantalum for their capacitors, which require mining in places like the Congo
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Tower radiation harms flora and fauna
Arthur Firstenberg (researcher and writer on EMF harm, and also a victim of radiation overdose) advocates not having a cell phone even for an emergency. The reason for this is that having one for this purpose still requires cell phone towers and they radiate twenty-four hours a day, harming not only our bodies but contributing to the huge plummet we are seeing in numbers of insects and bird-life, and frogs including the colony collapse of bees. There is too much evidence to discount this, or to put all the blame on pesticides.
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Is checking your messages really better than sex?
When one in three people admit they’d rather give up sex than their smartphones, it is time to recognise the addictive nature of our devices and deal with that addiction. Unlike other addictions which aren't socially sanctioned, screen addiction is. Social media is literally programmed to make it addictive, and the blue light which all our devices emit excite our brains in an addicting way. Read the Power of Off by Nancy Collier for tips on mitigating the increasingly complex ways in which technology is affecting our relationships—with ourselves, others, and our devices themselves. The most fundamental relationship, that of a child with its parents, is being harmed and in turn affecting child development, by us favouring our phones.
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Less use = fewer cell towers
If you do not want a cell tower near you, turned on to the highest it can go to keep up with usage (within the standards) use your cell phone as little as possible.
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Electrical appliances are also problematic
Hairdryers and electric razors emit tremendous magnetic fields up to 20,000 MilliGauss within four inches. Use rechargeable DC razors. If you use hairdryers all the time like in a salon, get wall-mounted hair dryers like the ones supplied in hotels, where the ELF is further away from the head and hands. Purchase low EMF-rated hair dryers. Or, if you can, use natural drying. Hair-dressers have a much higher rate of cancer than the general population (30-35% according to 2010 figures). Obviously hair dyes and carcinogens in hair products are a factor, but this is another one. We do not want our creative Derek Elvy (7 times NZ hairdresser of the year) types to have to 'fight' cancer. Dr Martin Blank (an expert in this field with two doctorates) cautioned that children shouldn't use them at all.
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Distance​
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Cell phones only meet safety standards when distanced from you
International safety guidelines are only met by the majority of cell phones when they are not touching the body. The minimum distance varies a lot, it can be 2mm, 10mm or 25mm from the body. Look up the safety specs for your device. They are a legal requirement when selling them, though good luck on finding them. They may be hidden under an icon that says SARs, which means the Specific Absorption of Radiation in Watts per kilogram of tissue (W/kg). So think "Covid19" when holding one near your face or ears. Try to keep 30cm from your phone. Unfortunately, independent researchers in France at Phonegate Alert, and also in the US have found that many phones that do not actually comply with international and NZ standards for radiation exposure. Many research papers attest to harmful biological effects from exposure which is well under the amount allowed by these standards.
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The “high-five test”
If you can’t properly "high-five" your computer screen, you’re sitting too close. Position the monitor at least 24  inches from your eyes—about an arm’s length distance. If your screen is larger, add more viewing distance.​
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Your phone is still on when you are not talking on it
When you are not using your phone, unless a bunch of settings are turned off, it is searching for a signal and radiating while doing so.​ Use a case with a strap, a backpack or bag to carry your phone. No pocketing or tucking phones into bras. (Hello, family jewels and heart!) Underwire also acts as an antenna right next to the breasts.
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When wearing next to the body, put it into aeroplane mode which turns off the antennae communicating with a cell tower, also turn off the WiFi, Bluetooth antennae settings and finally the location settings. These are different antennae and a mini GPS chip in the phone. You will find slider buttons for this under Settings, the location slider button may be under your Privacy setting.
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Do the 'cell phone stretch'
​Dial then stretch. Phones give out maximum radiation when searching for a signal at the start of a call. Bring your cell phone closer only after the person has answered. Do the same if you download a movie keep the phone away from your body until after it is downloaded.
Laptops
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No lap-topping of Laptops
Even on Aeroplane mode, the laptop is likely to have internal WiFi for the bits to talk to each other (unless it is a solid-state drive, in which case disable the WiFi and use with an ethernet cable). Use these portable computers on a table to prevent the condition of 'laptop-neck'. Keep well away from children and pets as well.
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EMF drops off quickly
Every time you double your distance from the source, you lower the amount of radiation by approximately 4 times. Radiation drops off really quickly. More specifically, it follows the inverse cubed rule really near the antennae (near-field), and then the inverse square rule a bit further away (far field).
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Other EMF emitting devices such as Bluetooth speakers/WiFi/Smart Meters/Microwave Oven
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Sit as far away from the source as you can
If you cannot turn off the WiFi, sit and work as far away from the source as possible. Three metres should allow more safety.
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Replace the supplied Ethernet cable with a longer one so that you can be at least three metres away from the router. (The strength of the router is also an exposure issue. NZ standards allow for a lot higher exposure than some other countries.)
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Beds should never be close to a Smart Meter
Make sure any beds in the house are as far away from smart meters as possible.
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Stand far away from Microwave ovens if being used. EMF remediators find when doing household measurements that all microwave ovens leak a little, usually emitting an electrical field of about 200mG.
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Place your chargers far away from you when charging
Keep at least 60cm away from these. They are basically little transformers converting the power down to what your devices need.
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Keep away from electrical fields
Stay far from the back of machines or fridges. Do not park one beside a bed or work-station.
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Keep photocopier machines outside of workrooms.​
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Stationary
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Stand still when communicating on your cell phone
If you move a lot when using your cell phone, it is constantly looking to "handshake'' with the next cell tower and will emit more radiation. The phone updates when entering a new base station area, and this can be as often as once every few minutes depending on if one is in the city centre or suburban area. For those periodic updates, the GSM phones operate at full power. Exposure on standby mode can also vary a lot while moving, depending on the phone, the apps installed, the network used and the provider.
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Using cell phones in cars, trains and buses is particularly bad
Vehicles are metal, so the radiation signal will bounce around inside these vehicles and the phone has to work harder to get the signal out of the vehicle. But also your phone in standby mode is continuously checking for the next cell tower. Travelling on buses and trains can be 100 times worse than travelling in a car because other travellers' cell phone radiation is bouncing around within the vehicle. Another researcher Dhami 2015 found the power density increased by 393% when Bluetooth and cell phone were used in a car with the windows rolled up by comparison to using the phone outside the car.
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Get a good signal before dialling
If you have to move around to get a better signal (more bars on the phone) avoid using it at all. Lower signals mean more radiation will be emitted from your phone in its effort to connect with a tower.
The cell phone is really a radio that sends information signals on waves to a base station sometimes several miles away. To cover the distance, the signal is pushed by a burst of power which is the source of the radiation we are most concerned with. The farther the base station, the more power needed to carry the signal, the more power, the more radiation generated and the greater the danger. The length of your call or even the number of calls you make, for that matter, is not as important in terms of the radiation as where you are when you make the call relative to the base station”.
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Treat your phone like a potential Covid19 carrier. Keep at a distance.