Children & vulnerable groups

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure. I am responding from the perspective of a patient, a parent and concerned member of the public. 15 years ago I went through a period of difficulty sleeping and frequent illness. After trying many avenues to figure it out, I had a person come and test for EMFs. Thankfully I had heard about this because it turned out that my wireless router was positioned on the opposite side of the wall from my bed. We moved the router and immediately I could sleep again. Not long after that, one of our neighbors a few blocks away knocked on our door. She and her family had been very inexplicably sick and it wasn't until the leaves fell off the trees that she discovered that a cell tower had been put up very near to her home and visible right out of her window. There had been no notice to the residents and she and her whole family (with young children) were trying to find relief by submitting a petition to get the cell tower removed. But since telecommunications companies have been given free reign to trample on property rights, the cell tower remained and the family had to sell their home. My son recently moved into an apartment building that has a small cell tower right out front in full view of his living room window. When he tells me he has a headache and is tired, I don't know what to tell him - move? It is unreasonable and unconscionable that cell towers are being permitted in residential areas, next to schools, and in parks. Communities should be able to decide whether more wireless infrastructure is installed or not. Without that right, our government has decided it is a tool for industry rather than a protector of individuals and property rights. I never agreed to have my taxes pay for that! How many people suffer from headaches and insomnia that are actually caused by too much EMF in their home environment? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, for sure. Sleep is the time that the body heals and restores itself. Without restful sleep, other illnesses, cancers, etc are inevitable. Since my experience 15 years ago, I have found myself to be electro-sensitive and have had to make adjustments in my life. City environments are far too heavily laden with EMF so I choose to live outside of the city and I do not use wireless in my home, I have setup my office with hardwired ethernet connections. It becomes more difficult everyday as cell phones are sending off more powerful signals, and bluetooth is becoming standard on so many devices (like printers and cars) and often the wireless bluetooth signal cannot be turned off. Thankfully I am able to live outside of the city and setup a low EMF environment, but many cannot. They should not have to suffer while the telecoms profit at their expense. My children should not have to worry about whether the environment they are in is safe and healthy. I support HHS taking an active role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. Questions about human health should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence. 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.

I whole hearted support what Secretary Kennedy is doing. Protect us and our children from poorly regulated EMF Radiation. Why are they putting up cell radiation towers next to our schools and neighborhoods? It is a place for learning, not distractions with cellphones and its radiation, which brings bring fog and health issues. My son had EMF sensitivity in high school I told the school and they gave me red tape. They did not care because it was not their son that was having health and anxiety issues. He went from being an A student to dropped out of high school, once he transitioned from middle to high school. The high school had a cellphone tower, middle school di not. May everyone see the truth and stop denying the fact that radiation is harmful and needs to be seriously regulated. Cellphones are a distraction in schools. Radiation is a health concern that should not be ignored.

I am submitting comment to express my concerns for myself and my family regarding wireless technology and telecommunication towers. Wireless technology and infrastructure having increased dramatically since the FCC current guidelines were placed in 1996. In depth and accurate studies have not been completed to see what the effects could be on the environment and human health. I personally have experienced extremely noticeable symptoms. I seem to be very sensitive to EMF exposure. Especially since it telecommunication “pine tree” was placed near my home. I have certain reactions to different towers. The straight vertical towers with the thicker tops caused me to have a very strong pressure in my head and for my ears to ring I can actually tell if there’s a tower near me because my symptoms start before I even noticed the tower. I also experienced headaches and brain fog. Since the fake pine tree telecommunication tower was placed near my home, my entire family has been experiencing extreme brain fog, and it’s getting to the point where our words are affected. Even my elementary school students are noticing the effects. The moments of word, loss and forgetting what we were talking about are becoming a daily thing. This is a very concerning symptom in childhood. Our sleep has been affected. At certain times it seems like the frequency is higher and we feel a buzzing sensation. One of my children is about to be 14 years old and his special needs, he has a neurological disorder, and I noticed a huge impact on his cognitive ability when he has been on a tablet or computer. It gives him headaches and causes blank, staring episodes and intense mood swings. When I please strict guidelines on screen time there is a noticeable difference in the interactions with my children. I feel that the blue light exposure mixed with the frequencies that all of these devices are putting off have greatly negatively impacted the health of my family. I purchased red and yellow blue light glasses to help with our circadian rhythm, but that doesn’t help from all of the different EMF frequencies that are coming from all of the different device devices in our home. A lot of device devices are smart technology, and have Wi-Fi signals. If I were to count how many different signals and frequencies were pulsing through my house, it is very concerning. Most homes have all of these frequencies. I have also noticed a drastic change in our telephone signal over the last few months I have a fairly new iPhone, and there are days where I barely get any signal and it switches over to LTE. I set up a home phone line that is wired to try and have a strong phone connection, these land lines are so muffled and don’t work nearly as well as they used to. With having a medical fragile child I want a strong wired landline connection because I do not trust the cell phones. I urge HHS to support independent, non-biased, Transparent, in-depth research and studies on the effects of the drastic increase in this technology. You need to determine if these decades old outdated guidelines should be changed, and if the technology should be reduced. Americans are bombarded with different attack attacks on our immune system to include toxins, heavy metals, plastics chemicals in the food, EMF frequencies and many more things that all are having devastating effects on Health. We are one of the sickest nations in the world, and we rely on our government to protect us. It is your responsibility to protect public health and do it in an honest way. Public Health research should be led by independent scientific expertise and not from industries that financially benefit from continued wireless deployment. I am especially concerned with our children’s health who are forced onto screens and have telecommunication towers on every school. We weren’t even informed or allowed to vote on the tower that was placed on our street because the property that it was placed on is owned by a different town so they were allowed to vote on it.

I am writing in support of stronger restrictions and more robust research on wireless radiation, especially in support of the HHS rather than the FCC directing this effort. My family experiences poor sleep and ringing in the ears as a result of it, and many others (friends, acquaintances, and wider community members) suffer debilitating effects as a result of wireless radiation. I know that the future will demonstrate the incalculable harm done by this environmental disruptor, just as thalidomide was first considered safe and effective before its devastating health effects were undeniable. Please stand for the health of our fellow citizens, our children, and future generations by seriously researching and restricting this new form of environmental pollution.

I purchased my first smart phone in 2017 the Apple 8. Within 2 weeks I started getting excruciating headaches, shooting pains in my head, equilibrium problems and vertigo, nose bleeds, difficulty with speech, brain fog, ringing in the ears, and more. I know it was coming from the cell phone because every time I would try to use it the symptoms would start and after about 1/2 hour or so when I turned it off they would start to get better. Cause and affect. I could actually feel a tingling in my body around the phone. My family would turn off their phones when coming into our home and every time they would forget, I would let them know their phone was on because I could feel it. They thought I had lost my mind and so did I until I began researching and discovered I had been over exposed to emf and now was suffering from Electrohypersensitivity. I still have the condition today and my life has changed dramatically. In order to not feel sick I have to stay secluded frequently and if I do go out there is always a price to pay. I will be sick and the newest of my symptoms after exposure is leg jerking and body jerks that feel like mini seisures. Doctors can find nothing wrong with me and Nueroligist think I am a nut case when I mention the phone and emf's being the environmental toxin making me sick. I have everything wired in my home and I use a land line. I have spent thousands on doctors, and blocking material to keep my home emf proof. Recently my neighbors boosted wifi is so high I can no longer even sit on my deck without becoming ill. I can't travel and socialize or enjoy my life without symptoms. I applied for disability and was denied twice. I am unable to work and now I am 63 and forced to live on a very tight budget to get by, not knowing what the future holds. There is an Environmental Health Center in Dallas Tx. that specializes in treating people with EHS symptoms but ultimately the treatment is avoidance. If there is enough people getting sick from emf and a clinic for the condition has been opened, then a red flag has been raised. Hard to avoid the environment when everywhere you go there is emf/rf to extremes. I moved to the country but again "second hand" emf wifi boosting from neighbors forces me inside. I know we need this technology but I believe we could be more responsible with it. Education is key. We need to get the smart phones out of our children's hands and wifi out of the schools. The old style flip tops did not put out emf unless being used and that would be a safer way to have communication with our children instead of smart phones that continually put out emf. People need to be informed of the dangers and vulnerable populations need protection. I am hearing that AT&T will no longer be providing residential landline service and if that continues, I will be cut off completely. Technology has its place and we need to put it in its place. Please keep in mind that those of us who are sick need help. We need disability and our medical people education on Electrohypersensitivity. Thank you so much for addressing this very important life altering situation with emf/rf. I know that our HHS Secretary Kennedy is knowledgeable about this problem and I remain hopeful for my children, grandchildren, and future generations that we can make changes to protect our citizens and the world. It is too late for me but I pray for a better and more responsible tomorrow.

I am submitting this comment in my capacity as CEO of Children’s Health Defense to express serious concerns regarding the potential public health consequences of the rapid expansion of wireless infrastructure, particularly as they relate to children. For years, Children’s Health Defense has heard firsthand from and worked with families who experience serious health challenges associated with increasing exposure to artificial electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from wireless technology. Stories like those of Amelia Gilardi from Pittsfield, MA, who became seriously ill when a cell tower was activated in her neighborhood, remind us that wireless technology and infrastructure do not come without a cost. Behind the promise of greater connectivity are real children and families suffering from debilitating health issues—and too often, it is our children who pay the price. Children are uniquely vulnerable and deserve special consideration. They are exposed to wireless radiation at increasingly young ages, often beginning during pregnancy and continuing throughout childhood and adulthood in their homes, schools, communities, and workplaces. The widespread use of screens and wireless devices has become normalized and encouraged, while questions about hazardous, long-term and cumulative exposure effects remain routinely ignored by federal regulatory agencies and government authorities. The FCC’s current RF exposure guidelines were established in 1996 and are fundamentally flawed and outdated. Wireless technology and infrastructure has exploded since the guidelines were introduced, and yet the industry has actively suppressed the extensive body of scientific literature that clearly demonstrates harm to people and the environment. Furthermore, federal regulatory agencies have yet to demonstrate to the public that the FCC’s decades-old RF exposure guidelines adequately protect children, other vulnerable populations and the environment from the risks of exposure. Rather than continuing to dramatically expand population-wide wireless radiation exposure, we should exercise a precautionary approach when it comes to wireless and take this opportunity to thoroughly examine the current state of scientific literature and conduct new studies that appropriately consider the long-term consequences of ubiquitous and cumulative exposure to current and future wireless environments. That means supporting independent research into the health and developmental effects of RF radiation, particularly the effects on children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable populations. Additionally, it is equally critical that federal regulatory agencies are transparent about the body of scientific literature that is used to establish exposure standards, and must ensure that they are based on biologically-relevant models. This scientific literature must be independent of industry influence and any entity that has a financial interest in continued wireless deployment. It is of utmost importance that HHS and other public health agencies play a central role in evaluating the evidence and identifying where research gaps remain. Children’s Health Defense will continue to advocate for the responsible deployment of wireless infrastructure prioritizing public health above wireless expansion and industry profits. We believe that families and communities deserve meaningful opportunities to understand and address these risks and will continue to advocate for the best interests of people, public health, and the environment. We must not allow yet another generation of children to be harmed by the effects of wireless radiation. For the sake of our children and their future, we must consider independent science, exercise transparency, and implement the necessary protections to make safer, and more responsible decisions about the wireless environment in which they are growing up. I urge HHS to prioritize rigorous, independent, and transparent research into the health and developmental effects of wireless radiation, particularly for children and other vulnerable populations. As wireless technologies become increasingly embedded in our daily lives, we have a responsibility to ensure that their widespread use is guided by sound science and accompanied by safeguards that fully protect children’s health and development. Sincerely, Mary S. Holland, Esq. President / Chief Executive Officer Children’s Health Defense

Across the nation many residents are concerned about the small cell wireless antennas being deployed in our community. These powerful antennas, part of the next generation of wireless technology (5G), are being placed in close proximity to our homes, schools and other places where we engage in the activities of our daily lives, even though there is no science that assures their safety. This is an undeniable risk. The rapid rollout of the next generation in wireless communications known as “5G." In neighborhoods like ours across America, so-called “small cell” antennas need to be installed close to homes and apartments to facilitate this new technology. The deployment raises serious issues that should concern everyone in our community: safety, security, privacy, property values and health. The FCC’s human exposure guidelines for the radio frequency (RF) microwave radiation used for this technology are decades out of date and the agency has dismissed the results of decade-long research on RF microwave radiation and human health completed last year by the National Toxicology Program that showed “clear evidence of carcinogenicity.” Because the health and safety of our families is at stake, we demand a moratorium on further deployment of 5G until it can be proven safe. NOTE: This is a security and privacy issue. Wireless networks are relatively easy to hack compared to fiber-optic wired networks. Data from your phone and other wireless personal or home devices can be easily captured and marketed. In addition, small cell installations have the capacity to house cameras for facial recognition, as they do in China. What guarantees do we have that the technology will not be abused? This is a safety issue. Local zoning codes are meant to protect our safety, but the wireless industry is fighting those codes. Most existing utility poles (the preferred location for small cell antennas because it’s cheap) were not designed to withstand the hundreds of pounds of additional equipment, and severe weather events could bring down the poles, causing damage to our homes and property. Our local officials should have the right to decide where those new antennas and their equipment are placed. But perhaps most troubling is the news about our health. A recent (2018) peer-reviewed study by the National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health – the most prestigious health research organization in the world – proved that exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation, the kind emitted from all wireless devices and their infrastructure, causes cancer and DNA damage. Not maybe. Their language says there was “clear evidence of carcinogenicity.” We urge you to visit www.AmericansForResponsibleTech.org to learn more about these issues and what you can do to protect your home and family.

I don't personally have any known ill effects from EMFs, but I have to tell you that I have lost all faith all of the regulatory bodies. I do not trust that the correct studies have been done. The thermal tests are insufficient to show all of the effects. There are many anecdotal reports of effects on children in classrooms after wi-fi is installed and people getting brain cancer where they hold their cell phone. The safety signals are out there. We need to have a regulatory organization that is honest, transparent and works to regain our trust. Until then people will continue to distrust the government and the corporations who make decisions on what is or is not safe for us.

My comment is in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure. I am responding from the perspective of a citizen, parent, and grandparent. Since this is a medical issue, it is obvious that HHS must be actively involved in directing scientific research which thoroughly tests and measures the effects of EMF, RF, and Wireless radiation on people, animals, and the environment. HHS must also investigate reports of those who have been injured/affected as a result of EMF, RF, Wireless radiation exposure. It is the duty of HHS to fully explore any and all connections between EMF, RF, and Wireless exposure and negative health outcomes, especially to those exceptionally vulnerable such as children and the aged. Do what is right for the United States and the world! Discover the Truth! Thank you.

I am submitting this comment as a consumer concerned about long-term exposure to wireless radiation from phones, Wi-Fi routers, cell towers, and other connected devices. I urge HHS to conduct a thorough, independent review of whether current exposure limits adequately protect public health. This review needs to consider those most heavily exposed and should examine potential effects beyond tissue heating, including evidence concerning cancer, reproductive health, and children’s development. Please prioritize research that reflects how people actually encounter wireless radiation: repeated exposure over many years, often from multiple sources and devices used close to the body. Assessments should consider signal strength, pulse patterns, duration, and combined exposure. Please consider Melnick and Moskowitz’s 2026 analysis of animal data, which argues that existing exposure limits may inadequately protect against cancer and reproductive harm (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-026-01288-6). I also ask HHS to evaluate Lai and Levitt’s review of exposure intensity, duration, and signal modulation (https://doi.org/10.1080/15368378.2022.2065683), and Scarato’s review of US regulatory gaps and proposed reforms (https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1677583). These papers warrant careful consideration alongside the broader evidence, including studies that have not found adverse effects. I ask HHS to: •Assess whether additional protections are needed for children, pregnant women, and other potentially vulnerable groups. •Support long-term research with safeguards against industry conflicts of interest. •Provide clear information about exposure and practical ways to reduce it, including wired alternatives in homes and schools. •Recommend updated standards wherever the evidence shows that existing limits are insufficient. Consumers should not have to navigate these questions alone. Please use this inquiry to advance transparent science, meaningful oversight, and public health protection.