Babies in Homes with High Levels of Wireless Radiation Have TRIPLE the Risk of Developmental Delays
Extremely concerning!
This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.
A study of 105 babies in India showed that those who lived in homes with high and medium levels of wireless radiation — including Wi-Fi routers, cellphones and nearby cell towers — exhibited, on average, worse fine motor, communication and problem-solving skills than babies in homes with lower levels of wireless radiation.
Babies living in homes with high levels of wireless radiation were more than three times as likely to develop problem-solving difficulties and nearly three times as likely to have fine motor delays compared with infants in homes with low levels of wireless radiation, according to a new peer-reviewed study.
“Having data to show that the normal development of children is under assault by a nearby antenna or Wi-Fi router should alert the public to this dire situation,” said Dr. Robert Brown, vice president of Scientific Research and Clinical Affairs for the Environmental Health Trust. “People need to wake up.”
Children are affected more strongly by wireless radiation than adults, according to the authors’ report:
“Since children have a developing nervous system with higher water content and ion concentration, their brain tissue is more susceptible to impairment due to the energy emitted from the cell phones held next to the head than that of adults.
“About twice as much mobile phone energy is absorbed in the peripheral brain tissues of children as compared to adults.”
The study was published July 10 in Cureus, a Springer Nature journal.
What researchers found
The study showed babies in the high- and medium-exposure groups performed worse, on average, than babies in the low-exposure group on skills including gross motor, fine motor, communication, problem-solving and personal-social.
Babies in the high- and medium-exposure groups were more than three times as likely to show delays in problem-solving skills, such as figuring out how to reach a toy, than those in the low-exposure group (3.67 and 3.12, respectively).
Babies in the high-exposure group were nearly three times more likely (2.74) to display hand-eye coordination delays, such as difficulty stacking blocks, compared with the low-exposure group.
Those in the medium group had nearly triple (2.67) the risk of personal-social delays, compared with the low-exposure group.
The high-exposure group also had the highest percentage (11.5%) of babies with emotional-social issues, compared with the low-exposure group (0%).
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How researchers conducted the study
An engineer measured the level of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in the homes of 105 babies in Mumbai, India, to capture a real-life assessment of the wireless radiation emitted by each home’s wireless devices, including Wi-Fi routers, cellphones and Bluetooth gadgets, and nearby cell towers.
Based on the engineer’s measurements, the authors divided the babies into high-, medium- and low-radiation exposure groups.
During each baby’s routine wellness check, parents completed screening tools used by the study authors to assess neurodevelopmental delays. The tools measured the baby’s problem-solving, communication, fine and gross motor skills, and social interaction.
The babies were between 2-12 months old when their parents completed the assessments.
Using statistical analyses, the authors compared the neurodevelopmental skills of babies in the three groups.
Babies exposed to higher levels of radiation had poorer neurodevelopment outcomes — even after accounting for differences in birth weight, socioeconomic status and gender, according to the study.
The results don’t prove that wireless radiation exposure caused delays, the authors said, but “there is a need to monitor the neuro-development of children in whom the RF-EMF radiations are expected to be higher.”
This includes homes very close to cellphone towers or with numerous wireless gadgets.
Homes in the high exposure group had a median radiation level of 32.36 milliwatts per square meter (mW/m²). Median radiation levels in the medium- and low-exposure groups were 8.66 and 0.62 mW/m², respectively.
The Institute of Building Biology & Sustainability categorizes anything above 1 milliwatt per square meter in the “extreme concern” range, said Fariha Husain, manager of Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless Program.
The Federal Communications Commission’s limits for wireless radiation for the general population are 10,000 milliwatts per square meter — but those limits are “ridiculously high by design,” Husain said.
Eric Windheim, a certified Building Biology EMR specialist who routinely measures wireless radiation in U.S. homes, said he rarely sees levels of 32.36 mW/m² or higher. When he does, it’s in homes very close to a cell tower or when he’s standing within three feet of a cellphone or Wi-Fi router.
The study authors did not say where exactly in the babies’ homes the radiation measurements were taken.
The study is ongoing, and the authors plan to publish future results as the babies develop.
The Defender reached out to the study’s corresponding author for comment but did not receive a response by the deadline.
Wireless industry must ‘start competing on safety’
A growing list of studies links negative health outcomes with wireless radiation exposure, said Miriam Eckenfels, director of CHD’s EMR & Wireless Program.
“Even the World Health Organization, which has been accused of featuring biased researchers, recently published a systematic review showing there’s strong evidence linking cellphone radiation to cancer in animals,” Eckenfels said.
Brown, a diagnostic radiologist with more than 30 years of experience, published research earlier this year showing that a healthy adult woman’s blood cells clumped abnormally after just five minutes of having an idle cellphone placed on her leg.
He said the new study involving babies may create more urgency among younger generations to address the dangers of wireless radiation than studies on adults.
“As a father myself, I recognize that parents are willing to make significant sacrifices to their own lifestyle in order to protect their young children,” Brown said.
Joe Sandri, president and general counsel at Environmental Health Trust, said the new study — “along with too many prior studies showing negative health effects from wireless radiation” — reinforces the need for the telecommunications industry and its regulators to prioritize human health.
For instance, cellphone manufacturers could make “simple engineering fixes” that would drastically reduce the amount of radiation the phones emit, according to scientists with the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields.
“It is past time for the industry to start competing on safety,” Sandri said. “Consumers demand it and the industry’s own shareholders should expect it.”
Related articles in The Defender
Cellphone Radiation Causes Abnormal Blood Clumping in Just 5 Minutes, Study Finds
‘5G — The Untold Story’: New Documentary Spotlights Health Hazards of Wireless Radiation
‘Simple Engineering Fixes’ Could Reduce Cellphone Radiation, Scientists Say
‘High Certainty’ Cellphone Radiation Linked to Cancer in Animals, WHO Study Finds
New Report Adds to Evidence That Cellphone Radiation May Cause Brain Cancer
I am concerned that the follow up data on the developmental scores was very weak. There was a major drop off in the number of infants followed over time (with about 20% getting long term follow-up)**. Also, it appears they did not publish enough data on the the actual scores, just means of infants in radiation groups of "low, medium, high" (no standard deviation). FURTHER, they seemed to have aggregated all infant scores at all follow-up times into the means scores, rather than showing data at each age of development. Since neurodevelopment is, by definition, a longitudinal (time-sensitive) variable, they need to show the score at each age of development,. not aggregate them. This is especially critical given the vast numbers of babies lost to followup.
They only published numbers in each group considered "normal, monitor and refer", but not the scores in those groups (at each stage of follow-up age).
In addition, the researchers acknowledge that they did not measure parental interaction. Perhaps in homes with strong wifi, the parents are so distracted using the wifi that they are neglecting their children (a significant confounding variable).
I agree this is an important issue, but this study has major flaws.
David McKalip, M.D.
Neurological Surgeon.
(**"The observations for ASQ were as follows: 2 months - 96; 4 months - 54; 6 months - 38; 8 months - 25; 9 months - 16; 10 months - 15; and 12 months - 17.)