Children & vulnerable groups

https://karger.com/neo/article-abstract/112/2/187/231565/Electrical-Grounding-Improves-Vagal-Tone-in?redirectedFrom=fulltext "Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants" "Abstract Background: Low vagal tone (VT) is a marker of vulnerability to stress and the risk of developing necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants. Electric fields produced by equipment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) induce an electric potential measurable on the skin in reference to ground. An electrical connection to ground reduces the skin potential and improves VT in adults. Objectives: We aimed to measure the electric field strengths in the NICU environment and to determine if connecting an infant to electrical ground would reduce the skin potential and improve VT. We also wished to determine if the skin potential correlated with VT. Methods: Environmental magnetic flux density (MFD) was measured in and around incubators. Electrical grounding (EG) was achieved with a patch electrode and wire that extended to a ground outlet. We measured the skin potential in 26 infants and heart rate variability in 20 infants before, during, and after grounding. VT was represented by the high-frequency power of heart rate variability. Results: The background MFD in the NICU was below 0.5 mG, but it ranged between 1.5 and 12.7 mG in the closed incubator. A 60-Hz oscillating potential was recorded on the skin of all infants. With EG, the skin voltage dropped by about 95%. Pre-grounding VT was inversely correlated with the skin potential. VT increased by 67% with EG. After grounding, the VT fell to the pre-grounding level. Conclusion: The electrical environment affects autonomic balance. EG improves VT and may improve resilience to stress and lower the risk of neonatal morbidity in preterm infants"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3406339/ "A Prospective Study of In-utero Exposure to Magnetic Fields and the Risk of Childhood Obesity" "Abstract We conducted a prospective study to examine whether in-utero exposure to magnetic fields (MFs) increases the risk of childhood obesity. Participating women carried a meter measuring MF levels during pregnancy and 733 of their children were followed up to 13 years to collect clinically recorded information on growth patterns with 33 weight measurements per child on average. Prenatal exposure to high MF level was associated with increased risk of being obese in offspring than those with lower MF level (odds ratio = 1.69, 95% confidence interval: 1.01–2.84). The association demonstrated a dose-response relationship and was stronger (more than 2.3 fold increased risk) among children who were followed up to the end of the study. The association existed only for persistent obesity, but not for transitory (unlikely) obesity. Maternal exposure to high MF during pregnancy may be a new and previously unknown factor contributing to the world-wide epidemic of childhood obesity/overweight."

I wouldnt call the below "autistic", but I do see that maybe it influences attention and what the attention is used for and in what ways. I think some amount of TV and radio can help improve speech, but the content matters a lot. As does time exposed to it. And parent interaction outside it. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5849631/#bib4 "Early electronic screen exposure and autistic-like symptoms" "Results showed that children who spent viewing ≤ 3 hours per day had language delay and short attention span, while children who spent viewing ≥ 3 hours per day had language delay, short attention span, and hyperactivity. While, we found that more than a half of children (66.6%) had no parents-child interaction during the exposure, speech delayed and short attention had been reported in all cases, and hyperactivity was found in 66.6% children."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30077193/ "The role of cellular phone usage by parents in the increase in ASD occurrence: A hypothetical framework" "Over the last few decades there has been a significant worldwide increase in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the causes of which are unknown. The biggest environmental change over this decade has been the massive introduction of cellphones. Eye contact is fundamental for infants' development, and parent-infant eye contact is impaired when parents are pre occupied by cellphones. We speculate that children with a pre-existing vulnerability to autism may be adversely affected by this pattern of parental behavior. As a first step toward exploring our hypothesis, we wished to document the extent of cellular phone usage by parents during their child's diagnostic developmental assessment. We speculated that, if under these stressful circumstances of awaiting their child's crucial assessment the parent is not fully engaged with his/her child, then in real daily activities this phenomenon is likely much more pronounced. Of 111 developmental sessions, 73 parents (66%) engaged their phone during the assessment, between 1 and 20 times. Of 62 observations in the waiting room, 52 (83.9%) parents used their phone, 1-19 times. Nine parents (17.3%) used their phone for 10-50% of the time and 16 (30.8%) for more than 50% of the time in the waiting room. In our analysis, the rate of language/motor delays was twice more common among children of cell phone users than among non users (p = 0.04) as an initial support of our hypothesis. Parents' focus and full attention toward their cellphones can adversely affect the development of joint attention in infants and may contribute to the development of autistic features among a vulnerable subgroup of infants. While more research is needed to prove causation, it would be reasonable to advise parents to decrease to minimum the usage of cellphones when interacting with their young children"

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13102818.2022.2046505?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstract "Radiofrequency radiation (RFR) emitted from wireless devices increases rapidly and the most sensitive groups are pregnant women and children. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the fidgety movements (FMs) and motor repertoires of the infants of pregnant women with different durations of mobile phone usage (DOMFU) in the prenatal period by performing a general movement assessment (GMA) using the Prechtl method. Infants suitable for the study were divided into 4 groups according to their mothers’ duration of mobile phone usage during pregnancy, comprising those who did not talk on a mobile phone (Control Group, n: 31), those with mobile phone usage (MFU) of ∼20 min a day (Group 1, n: 33), those with MFU of ∼40 min a day (Group 2, n: 31), and those with MFU of ∼2 h a day (Group 3, n: 28). The analysis showed that the abnormal fidgety (AF) and absent fidgety (F–), suboptimal motor optimality score (MOS) and reduced motor repertoire were statistically higher in Group 3 compared to the other groups. Normal posture and the quality of other movements were statistically higher in the Control, and Groups 1 and 2 compared to Group 3. According to the findings, infants of mothers with different DOMFU during pregnancy differed with regard to the quality of FMs, MOS, repertoire, posture and other movements. In conclusion, the findings suggested that there may be a relationship between prenatal RFR exposure and motor development in infants. More long-term studies are needed to determine whether these changes are temporary or permanent"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5506372/pdf/nihms866566.pdf "Methods—We used individual participant data from 83,884 mother-child pairs in the five cohorts from Denmark (1996–2002), Korea (2006–2011), the Netherlands (2003–2004), Norway (2004– 2008), and Spain (2003–2008). We categorized cell phone use into none, low, medium, and high, based on frequency of calls during pregnancy reported by the mothers. Child behavioral problems (reported by mothers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or Child Behavior Checklist) were classified in the borderline/clinical and clinical ranges using validated cut-offs in children aged 5–7 years. Cohort specific risk estimates were meta-analyzed. Results—Overall, 38.8% of mothers, mostly from the Danish cohort, reported no cell phone use during pregnancy and these mothers were less likely to have a child with overall behavioral, hyperactivity/inattention or emotional problems. Evidence for a trend of increasing risk of child behavioral problems through the maternal cell phone use categories was observed for hyperactivity/inattention problems (OR for problems in the clinical range: 1.11, 95%CI 1.01, 1.22; 1.28, 95%CI 1.12, 1.48, among children of medium and high users, respectively). This association was fairly consistent across cohorts and between cohorts with retrospectively and prospectively collected cell phone use data. Conclusions—Maternal cell phone use during pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk for behavioral problems, particularly hyperactivity/inattention problems, in the offspring. The interpretation of these results is unclear as uncontrolled confounding may influence both maternal cell phone use and child behavioral problems."

We do not need these towers. I’ve seen them over apartments and playgrounds. We don’t need this!!! These towers are horrible!!!

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1107612 "Maternal Exposure to Magnetic Fields During Pregnancy in Relation to the Risk of Asthma in Offspring" "Results After adjustment for potential confounders, a statistically significant linear dose-response relationship was observed between increasing maternal median daily MF exposure level in pregnancy and an increased risk of asthma in offspring: every 1-mG increase of maternal MF level during pregnancy was associated with a 15% increased rate of asthma in offspring (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.27). Using the categorical MF level, the results showed a similar dose-response relationship: compared with the children whose mothers had a low MF level (median 24-hour MF level, ≤0.3 mG) during pregnancy, children whose mothers had a high MF level (>2.0 mG) had more than a 3.5-fold increased rate of asthma (aHR, 3.52; 95% CI, 1.68-7.35), while children whose mothers had a medium MF level (>0.3-2.0 mG) had a 74% increased rate of asthma (aHR, 1.74; 95% CI, 0.93-3.25). A statistically significant synergistic interaction was observed between the MF effect and a maternal history of asthma and birth order (firstborn). Conclusion Our findings provide new epidemiological evidence that high maternal MF levels in pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma in offspring. Asthma is the most common chronic condition among children. Approximately 13% of children younger than 18 years (9.4 million children in the United States) have asthma.1 Based on reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma is a leading cause of hospitalization and emergency department visits for children younger than 18 years in the United States, with staggering annual costs of more than $30 billion (http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/asthma).1 The prevalence of asthma has been steadily rising during the last several decades, with an increase of about 74% from 1980 to 1996. While not ruling out genetic susceptibility, such a secular increase indicates the presence of important environmental risk factors that remain elusive. Environmental exposures during pregnancy could affect fetal development of the immune system and lungs and thus have an impact on the risk of asthma in offspring.2-5 Among the limited research, chemical exposures have represented much of the focus, while the potential of environmental physical exposures has rarely been examined. One such physical exposure is increasing man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs). In addition to traditional low-frequency EMFs from power lines and appliances, the buildup of increasingly stronger wireless networks both inside and outside living and work spaces and the proliferation of cell phones and other wireless devices have led to human populations being surrounded by EMFs of increasing intensity. This parallel increase in both EMF exposure and asthma prevalence in the past several decades warrants examination. Studies have shown that EMFs could adversely affect reproductive outcomes and the immune system.6-15 A recent study also showed an EMF effect on brain cell activities.16,17 Therefore, it is conceivable that exposure to high EMFs, especially during pregnancy (the period of fetal development), may have an impact on the risk of asthma in offspring. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted a prospective study based on a cohort of pregnant women whose daily exposure to magnetic fields (MFs) was captured objectively by a meter during their pregnancy and whose offspring from the index pregnancy were followed up for as long as 13 years for their asthma diagnosis."

EMF from power lines. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25824762/ "Increased risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by prenatal and postnatal exposure to high voltage power lines: a case control study in Isfahan, Iran" "Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common hematologic malignancies, accounting for one fourth of all childhood cancer cases. Exposure to environmental factors around the time of conception or pregnancy can increase the risk of ALL in the offspring.This study aimed to evaluted the role of prenatal and postnatal exposure to high voltage power lines on the incidence of childhood ALL.This cross-sectional case control study was carried out on 22 cases and 100 controls who were born and lived in low socioeconomic families in Isfahan and hospitalized for therapeutic purposes in different hospitals from 2013-2014.With regard to the underlying risk factors, familial history and parental factors were noted but in this age, socioeonomic and zonal matched case control study, prenatal and childhood exposure to high voltage power lines was considered as the most important environmental risk factors of ALL (p=0.006, OR=3.651, CI 95%, 1.692-7.878). As the population was of low socioeconomic background, use of mobiles, computers and microwave was negligible. Moreover prenatal and postnatal exposure to indoor electrically charged objects was not determined to be a significant environmental factor. Thus, pre and post natal exposure to high voltage power lines and living in pollutant regions as well as familial influence could be described as risk factors of ALL for the first time in a low socioeconomic status Iranian population"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6781513/ This is a Swedish study, that mentions various other studies. Among others a swiss study on RF causing symptoms in children. And it refers to studies on other health effects. "...A cohort study on Swiss adolescents showed that there was an association between whole body cumulative RF radiation dose from mobile phone talk, internet use and sent SMS and symptoms like headache and exhaustibility and also a decrease in figural memory (14,15). Many research studies have shown effects from RF radiation exposure on animals below current safety levels with opened blood brain barrier and neuronal damage (16,17), oxidative stress with increased production of reactive oxygen species (18,19), DNA-damage especially in the memory center hippocampus in the brain and increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines (20). Apart from animal studies research studies on people living near mobile phone base station show augmented indications on health risks. Adverse effects have been seen on neurotransmitters in the brain (21), on hormones like cortisol, ACTH and from the thyroid, decreased levels of testosterone in men and prolactin in young women and also increase in salivary cortisol (22,23). Other studies have shown lowered antioxidant levels and induced DNA damage in blood lymphocytes (10,24) as well as health complaints. Symptoms like sleep disturbances, headache, fatigue, dizziness, cardiovascular symptoms depression and difficulties with memory and concentration have been reported from people living near mobile phone base stations (25,26)." Of note they also mentioned that the window surfaces may reflect some of the RF from the outside. I think this would mean indoor RF bounces off of windows too. "...Lower levels were detected also in the vicinity of the windows. This indicates a notable screening effect by the contemporary heat-reflecting windows..."