Housing, work & access barriers

The last few years I've had a decline in my health due to EMF exposure. The first thing I noticed was pain when holding my cell phone, or being on the computer. It took me about 1 and 1/2 years to figure out what was causing the issues by process of elimination. I was working from home until March of this year, when I lost the ability to be on my computer from extreme vertigo, and headaches due to emf exposure. There is also a 5g tower right down the street from me, and my digital emf device readings are dangerously high, only a few feet from my home. The only thing that has truly helped is avoidance, and hardwiring my house. I was seeing a doctor and diagnosed with extreme emf sensitivity.

Whatever Walmart uses is too much! Every time I go in there I feel terrible and I get light headed. I can go for hikes outside or walk around church for hours and feel fine but never in Walmart. An hour or more and I’m exhausted and light headed.

Thank you to HHS for examining this urgent issue. I am commenting as someone who has studied the cautioning peer-reviewed research meticulously for many years. I know a growing range of individuals who are functionally disabled by rising wireless radiation pollution with far-reaching negative impacts on their lives, including loss of access to everyday services plus deepening social isolation. I too have experienced some deleterious health effects personally from exposure, including two years of extreme sleep starvation that was unresponsive to all measures other than eventual wireless radiation mitigation when, after the two years, I discovered from records and measurements that (i) symptom onset had coincided with simultaneous wireless makeovers at work and home, and additionally (ii) the highest level of cell-tower (mast) radiation in our home was in our main bedroom, precisely over my pillow. I continue to be prone to dizzy headaches, loss of cognition, and sleep impairment from wireless-radiation pollution. Life impacts have included loss of work, having to move house, and difficulty accessing shops, events, social groups, and medical services: typically, for example, I have to wait outside clinics rather than in waiting rooms and sometimes have to leave appointments early; I am similarly unable to linger in shops, social spaces, or public transport crowded with smartphones and/or WiFi or DECT transmitters. I suspect that those who have uncovered their relative sensitivity to the growing pollution are but the “tip if the iceberg” and that, as with all environmental toxins, there is a bell-curve of impairment across the wider populace with more individuals losing quality of life as the pollution intensifies. As you examine peer-reviewed evidence of harm, notice oxidative / nitrosative damage to cells and tissue – a frequent finding and risk factor for degenerative diseases – and also that the pulsed, polarized, variable nature of wireless outputs adds to their biological effects (Panagopoulos et al)1. Remember that the (outdated) “safety standards” normally refer to single-source exposures and that the young, sick, pregnant, or elderly, and other vulnerable groups, are now besieged on all sides. Less toxic technologies using, for example, state-of-the-art cable and (subject to biological safety testing) modulated light offer inspiring ways forward but humankind is tragically mired in outdated paradigms and addictions that are driving up the pollution while divorcing us from the unmediated beauty of the non-virtual world, at profound cost to body and soul – Lynne W. 1: see Panagopoulos, D. J., ed., Electromagnetic Fields of Wireless Communications: Biological and Health Effects, Routledge 2023 - an excellent reference work

I have been personally affected by my cell phone, computer and wireless radiation since January of 2019 when I had an “electrical accident” in my home office. Since then, when I touch my cell phone or use my laptop, I get these symptoms: tingling on the tip of my tongue that spreads further back toward my throat, my lips swell, nausea, swelling in my joints, ...until I stop using the device. The cell phone impacts me extremely quickly, just by touching the front of it, and I often get a pulse through my arm. Awhile back, I began to get a lump in my breast. It was right where I could feel the signal from my fingers on the cellphone to my breast. This lump kept increasing in size until I went to the doctor and showed her. It felt important that a medical person see the lump and record it in my health records. Realizing the cell phone seemed to be causing the lump, I stopped using it for 4 days until the limp went away. I can only use a computer for a short time before these reactions occur and nausea sets in. I have friends for whom the reaction is a lightning bolt headache that lasts many days, burning skin and worse. I have also had tinnitus since this occurred. It is loud and affecting my hearing. Hearing aids will be necessary, and you know what they cost, but I can’t have wireless hearing aids which are now wireless or have a battery, something I also can’t tolerate at close range. In the "electrical accident," I was using my computer with the wireless on and charging my cellphone in the same unit of 4 outlets. I was back and forth using the computer and the cell phone when I needed to text/make/take a phone call. Suddenly, tingling began on my tongue, and my lips swelled. I have been told that my hands on both the keyboard and the cell phone at the same time completed something like a closed circuit, charging my body. Since that time, I have had this sensitivity. My doctor and my chiropractor both diagnosed it as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. My MD says I am something of an antenna now, possibly exacerbated because we all have metals in our bodies from environmental pollutants. There are costs associated with being electrically sensitive. I cannot have wireless on in my home and must hardwire my laptop. Wireless is free, and cell data, which I am forced to use, is expensive. I purchased a good meter, between $350 and $800. My RF/EMF meter told me there is no place is my home that is really safe enough to sleep on a regular basis and I had to invest in some very expensive shielding material ($1500.00) that shuts out radiowaves in my bedroom. I need to hire a Building Biologist to determine what about my home makes the sensitivity worse. This hire is expensive ($800-1000.00) as well as costs for anything that person determines I must do to mitigate my exposure. I have great concerns (terrified, really) about 5G and all that will come in the future. Smart meters aren't local yet, but we have gotten the dreaded letter saying they are putting them on houses now. These must be studied as they emit huge amounts of strong radiation and will be installed right on our homes. They also put dirty electricity into our wiring, and I and some others react to that. I actually have to turn off the circuit to my bedroom when I sleep so I don’t get a killer headache. What else is forced on us this way? Please let us have free meters on our homes for water, electricity and gas. The more radiation we add to the environment, the more people will be negatively affected. Please study the effects of the enormous amount of cumulative radiation in the air in towns wiht strong wireless infrastructure and those with little. We have seen huge differences. Please study the effect on children, wildlife, the elderly and immuno-compromised. Our lives are in your hands. Please protect us and keep services people-centered not profit driven. Thank you so much! ~ Upton, MA

March 15th, 2019, our life changed overnight. I went from sleeping 8 to 9 hours a night to 4 or 5 at most. We thought there was some kind of attack--both my husband and I had headaches, extreme tinnitus, heart palpitations, brain fog and memory issues, irritability, aches and pains, and feelings of internal vibrations (jumpy legs, our teeth hurt, etc.). We didn't know what happened. As the days wore on, we found that when we were away from our house, we felt relief, and then all the symptoms and extreme discomfort would come back when we returned to our home. Eventually we came to realize that the cell tower on the water tower near us was the cause of this, and we researched emfs. We fit all the symptoms. We got an rf meter, tried a dozen other things, but it was too much for our bodies. We had to sell our beloved home and move, which impacted our finances in a negative way. We were fine in the new place for almost a year, until a cell tower about a mile away was 'upgraded' to 5G. (Remember all the commercials during the pandemic about Verizon 'upgrading' all their towers?) Since that time, we have doctored to no avail, people have thought we were crazy, the energy is sapped from us, the symptoms are worse when it's time for a phone update or when we are in a city or large crowd, and it is almost impossible now to get away from it, which we were able to do in 2019 and 2020. EMF radiation from cell towers have ruined our lives, our health, our home, and our joy. Recently I have been diagnosed with a mold infection (not by a western doctor, but by a functional medicine practitioner)--one of the symptoms is emf sensitivity. So it seems like there is some relationship between how emfs effect a person if there is mold. ( I did read that mold replicates 600 times faster when emfs are present). So two huge problems that seem to be getting worse. The RF world of cell phones and towers has never been effectively researched on the health impacts of not only humans, but all biological species. Something is seriously wrong with our environment when we have so many sick, medicated, unhappy people. Stop the give-away to the cell companies, make them accountable, regulate them with stiff penalties, do the research, protect the American people! I have read that there are frequencies that are more compatible with biological life, but cell companies would have to pay for them while the ones they use now are free. There are solutions to these problems. Don't let money and corporate greed get in the way of the health of people, animals, and plant life.

I am a wife and mother of two adult daughters. I have a B.S. in Elementary Education and K-12 Art Education. My husband and I have home schooled and graduated both daughters, ages 20 and 22. Early in 2021 we began to struggle with comprehension and recall. At first I thought it was burnout, but after several months we had an opportunity to leave the city of Billings, MT for vacation in a more rural area with only minimal cell phone coverage and no 5G. The brain fog cleared within a couple of hours, along with exhaustion, muscle fatigue, sleep disturbances, dizziness and headaches. That was when I began to suspect the connection with the roll-out of 5G. Since then, we've been searching for help with the increasing severity of these symptoms, trying different methods of shielding, health support, reduction of exposure, mold elimination, heavy metal detox, etc. We have been unable to attend church services for several years, though we meet our pastor once a month for communion, privately. We pushed through the brain fog, fatigue, etc. until 2 1/2 years ago, when we were forced to give up weekly horse riding and piano lessons. At that time I also realized it was unsafe for me to continue driving, as my abilities to focus and process were seriously impaired. Though we graduated our daughters and are confident in their abilities to continue their education at some point, it is currently impossible. They have never been well enough to have jobs or learn to drive. Leaving the house is very difficult, making an obvious social barrier. We are currently working with a specialist in bio-resonance and have come to the conclusion, through this therapy, that our emf sensitivities are not caused by some other injury, such as mold, but are just a part of who we are. I am also convinced that many people may be misdiagnosed, based on similar symptoms, when the cause is our society's sudden immersion in a dense electromagnetic smog. In summary, 5G has isolated us from family, friends, and church community, deprived us of the ability to work, learn, and recreate, and consumed thousands of dollars. It hurts my heart to think of how many people may be suffering similar or worse circumstances, being misdiagnosed with mental health illness or labeled with disorders, and feeling despair over failing health, when the answer is so clear; we're being poisoned by 5G!

My aunt has been impacted my EMFs and had her life turned upside down. She can. Longer travel, be comfortable in her own home, or be social due to the stress it puts on her body. eMFs need to be regulated and reduced.

The following information is my personal experiences from EMF's and other wireless technologies. On January 19,2018 I returned home after an appointment. My husband told me that a smart meter had been installed on our home. That night I couldn't sleep anywhere in the house. My reaction also included significant tingling, feeling anxious, weakness all over, balance was off, eyes very sensitive to light and thinking skills were off also. I felt miserable and didn't know what to do to get relief. Duke energy did replace the meter with an electrical mechanical meter, but I felt no improvement. With the previous analog meter I could function well. I had to search and educate myself about the EMF problem. Through many months I purchased products that proved to be useless. Finally, in February 2019 I learned about a product that was a filter to be attached to the circuit breaker box. I immediately ordered it and had electricians install it. While they were connecting the wires downstairs, I remained upstairs. I knew INSTANTLY when it was connected. My tingling abruptly completely stopped! After 13 months I had relief! Living with EMF sensitives has negatively impacted my health and life activities. I always need to be aware of EMF exposure sources and avoid them. Some of the hardest places have been hospitals, long term care facilities and medical offices. I have even had to change doctors due to my body's reaction in those settings. With more technologies being used in my neighborhood, I needed to have a building biologist help assess my home. Using two different meters the assessment showed that I needed further remediation. Seeing actual numbers gave me a clear understanding of the exposure strength. For the future I strongly support the 704NoMore initiatives. New lower exposure standards need to be implemented based on science. I firmly believe that more education and research needs to be accomplished.

When you turn on an electronic mouse repellent or a new printer with its own router, you do expect to get pressure in the chest and ears. But that is what happened to me, and the incidents were two years apart. The second event happened in 2012, at a time when smart phones and the infrastructure to support them was being rolled out. I was healthy so it was obvious it was the frequencies in these pieces of equipment that had affected me. And at that time in my part of the UK, the environmental load of exposure to EFs and EMFs was (and still is) increasing exponentially, and my health quickly went down hill. It felt as if my brain was being jammed, and my ability to string a sentence together faltered, but woke up at 11pm when people went to bed and switched their tech off. New to me pains began to be experienced: at one point fizzing in my head would increase decrease and stop for 30 secs or more as I walked a main street full of different types of tech. In general I was getting tinnitus, brain fog, more disturbed sleep, all of which would stop if and when I found an environment low in the triggering EFs/EMFs/ and other frequencies. Fortunately I knew how to access information from the internet and quickly could find good sources of information. It was clear to me that my mercury fillings were acting as antenna and needed to be removed by someone who could do it safely. I had all 7 mercury fillings replaced and my health improved, confident speech was back. It has not been a cure all, but despite expecting to be ill for a while after this process I was not. So my surprise, no nocebo effects either. I still have to protect myself from over exposure and so there much I no longer do to avoid the pains provoked by this issue. I use wired alternatives for communication purposes, and I am dreading the complete shift to just digital and WiFi means of communication evermore gatecrashing my life. I know people who have had a terrible time at work because they become electrically sensitive. Hanging on to jobs can just become too difficult. I was fortunate in that I was already retired, when my electric sensitivity was triggered. The science is being ignored, especially re: infertility, and cancer and pain and brain fog. When I was at my worst I thought people meeting me for the first time would think I was mentally ill or suffering from early dementia. Are we not seeing huge rises in the diagnosis of these illnesses. From my own experience it is strange that the contribution of EFs/EMFs and other frequencies is not allowed on the table. Only one reference given below due to shortage of time. https://www.es-uk.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ES-UK-Newsletter-Summer-2026-vol.24-no.1-Printing.pdf

To whom it may concern, I feel the need to be direct when I state that the fact that in 2026, we’re just now “seeking public input” on a subject that has been, beyond all shadow of a doubt, scientifically proven for many decades, feels like an afront to anyone who can see the broader economic picture, and the (all-too-typical) deprioritization of public health in favor of corporate greed. Let’s face it, The Invisible Rainbow, first published in 2017, covering countless, well-documented scientific studies going back more than 100 years, makes it abundantly clear that WE HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ON BIOLOGY FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. That said, as for my personal experience, my life has been fundamentally and irreparably altered as a consequence of EMF exposure. I’ve been hospitalized several times, and am now permanently unable to participate in many of the activities most people take for granted. I have to cover myself from head to ankle with expensive and uncomfortable faraday clothing when I leave my home. Even with this protection, I cannot stand to be in high-EMF environments (which is pretty much everywhere now) for longer than several hours at a time, and the effects on my health are catastrophic. My activities have been limited, my diet has been limited, my social and professional life have been decimated, and my life will never be the same. But at least I haven’t died of a brain tumor, as quite a few of my clients, colleagues, friends, and family members have. Again, the fact that we’re “seeking public input” on this topic is a bitter bill to swallow. It feels a bit like asking people what their experience has been drinking arsenic-infused soda that we’ve been insisting is safe for the last 50 years, as if the people making money (huge, HUGE amounts of money) haven’t known the answer from the beginning. Anyway, I digress. On the upside, I now run a business that stays consistently busy helping clients who are becoming sick en masse due to the electromagnetic radiation soup we’re all now swimming in. Tragic. The recent acquisition of the 800mhz band by Starlink is a nightmare waiting to happen. I’ve published a book, created online content, read the studies (no – not all of them, let’s face it – there are many thousands), read the books, watched the documentaries, deep-dived into the science, the biological mechanisms, and worked with countless clients suffering the effects of EMR. We don’t need more science. It’s been done. The effects are clear. The BioInitiative Report alone made this point, as have innumerable other sources. What we need are protections and education for an unaware populace suffering while corporations yield record profits at the expense of their customers’ health and, yes, their very lives. I can only hope that enough individuals in the decision-making process have enough integrity to stand up for what is right, rather than being cowed (or bought) by the financial interests committed to keeping this subject marginalized and quiet. I must say, based on history, I’m not optimistic. But perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I hope you choose to do what is right. You do have the power to make a difference. I thank you for your consideration. - Anonymous EMR-S sufferer P.S. – I’m choosing not to attach files below because I fail to see the point. Yes, I have countless studies, infographics, PDFs, etc. stored on my computer that I could include, but as I mentioned – we all already KNOW the truth. The Environmental Health Trust, The BioInitiative, and literally COUNTLESS resources online have enough data to drown in. And it all says the same thing – as the BioInitiative Report put it “Bioeffects are clearly established”. Full stop.