Reports suspected smart-meter interference with a medical alert device, personal cardiac and breathing sy…

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure and am submitting from my perspective as a family member, caregiver , someone who has been physically impacted and as a concerned member of the public. We chose to have my elderly mother wear a Life Support brand device on her wrist to alert family and fire department in case she might fall. At night she would take it off. When she began leaving it on the dining room table the device would not be working the next morning. Numerous times we had to get a replacement by mail. Leaving her vulnerable during the "no device, in shipment" times. One day I realized that the electric company's Smart Meters for her apartment and 11 others were placed on the outer wall next to the dining room table. Having read about the charges carried by the meters I asked her to no longer place the Life Support wristband device on the table. Onc she stopped doing so we never had to replace another device. The sad part is that I had put up a sheet of EMF protective material on the inside of the wall in question. And yet it was not strong enough to protect the medical device. My personal impact occurred when taking my mother to a doctor's appointment at a local teaching hospital. As we entered the exam room I became short of breath, having trouble getting a full breath and my heart began pounding. This happened on two different occasions of walking into the exam room. But as soon as I left the premises the symptoms disappeared. I came to find out that my body was reacting to the effect of EMF's disrupting the oxygen saturation in my blood stream. Stories have been shared by my friends of hearing a high pitch whine coming from behind walls in their homes, of pets not entering rooms or showing fear of entering rooms with new wifi devices that they had once entered. I can not use a cell phone for longer than 15 minutes or my arm begins to tingle and ache. I support the department of HHS taking an active and directing role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. It is now more important and timely - as more and more wireless devices are brought to communities and the marketplace - that questions about human health and risks should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and it is imperative that the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence. The existing study/recommendation for cell phone exposure/use is long outdated and the technology has only become more specialised and of a higher and more intense energy yet we are relying solely on outdated guidelines or information supplied by the companies making, supplying and financially benefitting from the sales of the products in question. I urge HHS to carefully evaluate these experiences and the scientific evidence, identify gaps in current research, give particular attention to children and other potentially vulnerable populations, and establish appropriate federal research priorities regarding wireless radiation and public health. Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard. This is a issue of national and international importance and urgency as the world relies on advancing technologies. Respectfully, Constance Frankenberg