Neurological symptoms & sleep

My comments represent the perspective of an individual citizen. 3)a)For five and a half years now I have experienced "atypical migraine" (as diagnosed by a neurologist) which becomes severe during and following exposure to radiofrequency radiation from mobile phones, Wi-Fi routers, cell towers, smart meters and any radiating devices. These migraines are characterized by long episodes of afflictive, abnormal, painful, distressing neuropathy, pressure, burning, and palpations in the meninges region. They became severe and chronic starting in the spring of 2021, and at that time always started when I used a hotspot modem to connect to the internet, often for video conferencing. From that time I experienced the above-described form of intolerant physiological reaction while and after coming into close proximity to cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, cell towers, smart meters, wireless printers, and devices including bluetooth AirPods worn by someone nearby. The migraine is also characterized by sometimes severe brain fog, by near total deficit of executive function, memory issues, trouble concentrating, anxiety, and disturbing tingling in my hands, feet, and diaphragm. Over time, unable to establish a stable ongoing life free from exposure, the intolerance is worse. I am also affected by "dirty electricity," and electric and magnetic fields associated with wiring in my home, which has not been assessed by a credentialed professional with knowledge about idiopathic environmental intolerance and best mitigation practices. My comment is uploaded in full in the attached file Pfoutz

Dear FCC, My family is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and are unfortunately exposed to more and more EMR every time we go to town. 5G cell towers are popping up everywhere and the march of smart gadgets are hard to avoid. I personally get severe headaches when I’m near WIFI for any length of time. We have to pay our electric company extra every month to avoid having a smart meter placed outside our bedroom. The corporate push to use EMR in all aspects of our daily lives is literally killing us and needs to be regulated through new independent scientific studies overseen by reputable non-profits like the Environmental Health Trust. Why has FCC not conducted regular safety studies on new cell phones using 5G and 6G? We know that 2G-4G negatively impacted rat health in laboratory studies. The evidence is there but the public continues to be misled and unprotected by irresponsible corporate greed. Lawsuits are overdue on the subject of human EMR exposure! We trust FCC will serve the public good and do the right thing in regulating EMR in the near future. Thank you

I have experienced extreme negative health effects for being exposed to EMF/ RF radiation. Too many times I have been plagued with severe headaches/migraines, weakness and even at times heart palpitations due to exposure. I have hardwired all devices to drastically reduce all EMF/ RF exposure and all cellphones are to be put in a Farraday bag right after use but Health issues still arise due to cell towers, neighboring wifi routers & more. EMF/FR radiation poses extreme health concerns and risks and must have immediate study and evaluation to consider all health risks associated with it.

I am submitting these comments as an individual. These comments share my personal and family experiences with man-made EMR illness and can thus be categorized as answering Question 3 on HHS’s Request for Information. I am a US citizen and a resident of Massachusetts. I am 34 years old and currently living in a semi-rural residential neighborhood, sharing a home with my parents and three adult siblings. One reason why we live together is our inability to find other living situations where we can avoid man-made electromagnetic radiation (EMR). All of us experience symptoms of EMR exposure when we spend time in commercial or urban areas in our region. [3c] Symptoms include headaches, vertigo, nausea, cognitive dysfunction, “brain fog,” chronic fatigue, skin rashes, full body bloating, diarrhea, tinnitus, and impaired motor control. [3f] We have been able to mitigate EMR exposure in our own home such that when these symptoms are triggered by EMR exposures outside our home, we can return home to recover. [3b] Recovery takes hours to days to weeks, depending on the severity and duration of exposure. [3a, f] We have taken measures on our own property to ensure that our home remains a sanctuary from EMR. We do not have a “smart” utility meter. We do not have any LED or fluorescent lights in our home—only incandescent (and a few halogen) lights whose radiation is closer to that of natural light. We do not have WiFi routers in our home. We use laptop computers (not on our laps!) with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities disabled, and with internet access via hardwired ethernet. We have resisted our internet service provider’s efforts to upgrade our service box to a newer model that emits more EMR. There is enough distance between our house and our neighbors’ houses so that our neighbors’ WiFi signals are significantly reduced (though still present) in our home. The nearest cell tower is on the other side of a hill from our house. We do not own cell phones or any other “smart” devices; thus, we do not have devices calling for the cell tower’s signal from our house. We do not drive electric cars or have solar panels on our roof. While it is impossible to completely eliminate wireless EMR from our home (we still have cell service, as well as weak WiFi access from our neighbors’ houses), the difference between the EMR in our home and in the stores, schools, homes, and public buildings we visit is extremely evident—as measured both by our EMR exposure symptoms and by our handheld RF and Tri-field meters. [3g] As an example of meter readings, our home regularly measures under 10 microwatts per meter squared of RF radiation as measured on a handheld “Safe and Sound Pro II” meter (which measures radiation in the 200 megaHertz to 8 gigaHertz frequency range), and often under 2, while commercial and public buildings often measure in the tens of thousands. We are able to tolerate our home environment, and we often cannot tolerate other environments for longer than a short visit, if at all. It is important for our health and ability to live that we are able to maintain our home as the relative EMR oasis that it is. This means, in particular, retaining the rights to purchase incandescent light bulbs, to live without smart phones, to refuse smart-meter installation, and to reject cell towers or other wireless radiation infrastructure projects in our neighborhood. While we are able to live in our home, we are increasingly unable to leave our home without getting ill due to the continued increase in EMR in our broader communities. Society-wide scaling back of EMR technologies would enable us to participate more in our local communities and the broader society (e.g., to work) without getting so ill. When we go out into the world—to grocery stores, to schools, on public transportation—we observe that many people are dealing with illnesses similar to our EMR-induced illness, though our broader society fails to make the connection. We appreciate any efforts by HHS to address the nationwide illness crisis caused by our wireless telecommunications infrastructure. Regarding questions 12 and 14: Two useful sources of scientific evidence of EMR health and environmental harms are (1) the book “The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life” by Arthur Firstenberg, information available at https://cellularphonetaskforce.org/, and (2) the essay “When Light Turns to Darkness: Electromagnetic Radiation and Health: Are Our Wireless Technologies Harming Us?” by Margot DesBois, which distills much of the information in Firstenberg’s book and can be found online here: https://www.desboistutoring.org/when-light-turns-to-darkness-03-18-25.html.

Personal Statement Re: EMF, RF, and Wireless Radiation Exposure: I am submitting this comment as a concerned citizen and someone who has been personally effected by wireless radiation. In 2009, in the middle of the day, there was a knock on our door. I opened it and it was a utility worker. He said he was going to switch out our meter to a smart meter and it would only take about 10 minutes. I said “Ok” and went about my business in our house. Almost immediately (within 24 hours) everyone in our house began having problems and unexplained health issues. We homeschool our kids and so we were home a lot. My 10 year old son began coming up to me, multiple times a day, complaining that his ears were buzzing and he couldn’t make it stop. My husband began complaining headaches, which progressed to migraines. I began having a variety of issues such as dizziness and racing heart. Our baby was noticeably bothered, crying and not sleeping—we all were having sleep disturbance. Trying to figure out why our family was falling apart suddenly took me on a long journey starting on the internet. I kept coming back to the day it all started and the utility worker who showed up at our door and the smart meter placement—I knew, intuitively, this is what had changed in our environment. After much research, which was more sparse at the time, it was apparent that we were suffering with commonly known effects of the smart meter. I have been told that at some houses, they place “collector meters” which collects data from the neighboring houses, and that these give off more EMF radiation than other meters. With our lives turned upside down, we eventually moved out-of-state and to a house with no smart meter—and our symptoms dissipated; yet we are now more sensitive to wireless exposures. We can tell when we are in wireless saturated environments. Places we used to enjoy, like the library, certain stores or restaurants near cell towers, malls, etc., are almost unbearable to stay at for any length of time. Even though our smart meter experience had a negative impact on our lives, we were able to make adjustments to everyday living which kept us healthier and more vital in the long run; things such as hardwiring our internet, keeping a wifi-free environment at home, using shielding on modems/routers when we travel, using cellphones only when needed (mostly keeping them off) and having a landline phone. We can see the difference it has made in our lives and our kids' lives, especially compared to other kids who are our kids' age who seem to have trouble with keeping attention and are generally more agitated. Yet we cannot live in a bubble. Traveling can make it difficult to control our environment. In one instance, when we were traveling, we were staying at an Airbnb and it felt awful there for ALL of us, despite unplugging the wifi router. I brought out my TriField EMF meter and the found where the exposure was. It was outside the house. The house was next to the highway with 5G antenna poles placed all along the highway. We were all bothered while there and couldn’t sleep. I got in the car and slept about a mile down the road and we left the next morning as soon as the sun came up. Going on this journey, I have spoken to many people about this issue and have heard so many stories, like mine, from a host of people; people who have been permanently disabled by wireless radiation—like those who were living in apartment buildings on the opposite wall of an entire panel of utility meters that were switched out with smart meters and can no longer function in society. I know some people who live like refugees because they can’t get away from wireless exposures, so they live in their cars. I have heard stories from longtime teachers who suffer in their classrooms and see the harm it is causing to the students, who became agitated, have headaches, and can’t think like they used to after wireless was introduced in their classrooms. The teachers try to decrease the exposures in the classroom, with limited success and without administration support. I respectfully request and implore you to reassess the exposure limits of all wireless devices and infrastructure and look at the effects it has on our health and well being as well as to the natural world. There are so many studies that show the harmful biological effects, going back many, many decades out of Israel, Italy, Russia etc. These, as well as the large body of more recent studies should be more than enough to light the way to what has been going on, more than simply looking at thermal (heat) effects. Please do the right thing for our citizens, our children, animals, pollinators, birds and our entire world and look at the large body of independent, biological studies on wireless radiation. Please also look at what other industrial countries have done to limit wireless/EMF exposure and protect their citizens. Thank you-

I live in a suburban area less than 1 mile from a 5g wireless tower. I am concerned about radiation exposure from EMFs, RF radiation, and Wireless radiation exposure. I consider myself sensitive to the radiation in my area and bought a EMF-390 device to measure. I have attached some random exposure pictures over a few days. Sometimes I can get low to 0 readings, other times I get high radiation exposure numbers. When the numbers are indicating high exposure levels I suffer from headaches, body aches/joint pain, fatigue, insomnia, as well as hot/cold flashes. I would also refer to Len Ber's comments regarding diagnosed civilian Havana Syndrome/Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI) victims have no federal case definition, reporting pathway, or case definition. I ask that you recognize AHI1 as a novel clinical phenotype and to set safety standards for exposure limits and parameters associated with this condition. Directed, pulsed RF energy is the leading scientific explanation for Havana Syndrome/AHI1.

Question 3 Thank you for the opportunity to share with you my personal experience of exposure to ElectroMagnetic Radiation (EMR). I became sensitive to EMR when electricity smart meters were first installed in my area. I did not know that they had been installed on the houses two properties away from mine. I couldn’t understand why I was suddenly sleeping poorly, waking at exactly 1.30 AM and 5.00 AM every morning. I would wake with what seemed like an adrenaline burst and it would take me 2 hours to get back to sleep. Given that I was working at the time, this was not conducive to performing well in my job and it contributed to my job loss shortly after. This rendered me unable to ever work again as my new electro-sensitivity meant every work place was now a threat, due to pervasive EMR from wi-fi networks, cell phones, and numerous other RF emitting devices. After two weeks, I recalled that smart meters were due to be installed around that time and when I asked the neighbor two properties away, he said that a smart meter had been installed on their property on the very day I started experiencing insomnia. I had been alerted to the problems with smart meters several months earlier by a TV news report. Some people like to say that electro-sensitivity is a nocebo effect. But it took me two weeks to make the connection between my new insomnia and the installation of smart meter. I experience a large variety of symptoms, including heart problems, insomnia, stinging pains in my body, agitation, head pain, dry eyes, skin and lips, and neuropathy, but I challenge the ‘nocebo experts’ to explain to me how I can knowingly will my nose to bleed when exposed to EMR. I have spent thousands of dollars trying to protect myself from RF entering my home and body. But every time I think I’ve achieved some level of success in protecting myself, a new source of RF invades my home, leaving me struggling to address the new situation. It is a case of two steps forward, three steps back. I have given up all my recreational activities due to the impossibility of avoiding cell phones and cell phone tower radiation. I am a prisoner in my home, but my home isn’t safe either. I have to ‘pick my poison’. Becoming sensitive to radio frequencies has also made me sensitive to other types of EMR, such as magnetic fields, electric fields on wiring and harmonics on wiring (dirty electricity). My life has been turned upside down by radio frequencies. This is not a minor inconvenience. Hardly an hour goes by when I am not in distress from one or more symptoms. Others have been forced to move to remote, inhospitable locations, often even leaving family members behind in the city. Some have committed suicide. And yet, research papers (usually those funded by industry) can find no cause for concern with RF. ORSAA in Australia (https://www.orsaa.org/) has collated hundreds of research papers to show a plethora of papers finding health effects from EMR. Clearly protection standards are inadequate. I became ill over a decade ago from EMR that was a lower frequency and lower pervasiveness than I am currently exposed to. My health has continued to deteriorate with each new environmental EMR assault. If my body couldn’t cope over a decade ago, how much less can it cope today with ubiquitous cell phones, wi-fi networks, cell towers, smart watches, etc, etc.? The strength of RF signals needs to be decreased. Wired internet connections should be used where possible, especially in hospitals, nursing homes and schools. Cell phone towers should not duplicate coverage. Rather, providers should share their resources so that people are not assaulted by multiple cell towers in range of each other. Cell phones should be more stringently tested to ensure that they do not exceed safety standards. We need to investigate the multiplicity of electro-sensitivity symptoms and stop relying on the thermal effect as if only heating of tissues causes distress. I am also concerned about magnetic fields from electricity substations and power lines. The protection standards are woefully inadequate. Building biologists recommend lower than 2 mG, but ICNIRP recommends below 2,000 mG. That’s a huge difference. I am alarmed at the number of buildings being erected with substations incorporated into them. Who is spending their day on the other side of the wall/floor/ceiling from the substation? And it seems that it is now ok to build homes close to high voltage powerlines. In fact, if the powerlines run underground where no-one can see them, power companies are happy to install high voltage powerlines within a metre of (existing) homes. I should know; that is the situation I am in. All of this is also contributing to high ground current which then enters the home as harmonics/dirty electricity.

On Sep 30, 2019 I was stopped at a red light in Boston and immediately felt like I was being zapped by electricity. My heart started racing, felt dizzy, and felt the sensation of a vice around my head. A small cell 4G antenna was on top of the light pole approx 15 feet from my car. I never noticed this antenna before at that intersection. My symptoms subsided within a few hours. After that experience, whenever I go to Boston I feel similar symptoms which are caused by the high number of small cell 4G/5G antennas: head pressure, feeling ‘off kilter’, various degrees of dizziness/vertigo, feeling ‘wired’ like I drank 10 cups of coffee, and loud tinnitus. I’ve only experienced tinnitus that ‘loud’ if I was at a loud concert (decades ago) or in Boston or other cities with many small cells. I used to work in Boston and never felt these symptoms prior to 2019. In Manhattan at the corner of 3rd Ave and E. 45th there is a cell ‘tower’ with many 4G and 5G antennas placed on the roof of a small 1 story sandwich shop. In Feb 2020, I measured the RF from across 3rd Ave. It was 2896 milliwatts (so 2,896,000 microwatts) per sq meter. Ever since getting ‘attacked’ by the small cell antennas, I now get symptoms of slight dizziness and/or head pressure when I am near a router or wifi access point on the ceilings of public buildings, restaurants, etc. The symptoms also linger hours after exposure. I live approx ¼ mile from cellular antennas. I own a meter that measures RF in milliwatts per sq meter, which is set to building biologist standards. With my 3G smartphone years ago I got 5 bars of service from home and the RF reading (not on a phone call) was approx. 3.4 milliwatts per sq meter. With my newer 4G LTE phone when 3G was discontinued, even though I was in the same home, I only got 2 bars of coverage and the RF reading (not in a call) ranged between 34 and 350 milliwatts per sq meter . I stopped using a smart phone as a result of this 10 to 100 fold increase in RF exposure since 3G went away and haven’t had wifi turned on in my home for ten years to reduce my exposure. Worst of all is the AMI smart meter installation that the electric companies have rolled out. I live in one of the few states that allow an opt out. However, my neighbors didn’t opt out and the same day the meters were installed, the side of my head and face felt tingly (occurs when I am closest to the bank of 8 AMI meters-approx 10 feet away). The only other time the side of my face/head ever felt tingly was when I was within 4 feet of a wifi access point that was attached to a wall at a school 8 yrs ago. I occasionally feel a sensation of a quick ‘jab’ to my brain which lasts 2 seconds, constant head pressure/ feeling like a band is tightly wrapped around my head while I’m at home, insomnia, and heart skipped beats, irregular heartrate, tachycardia and a few episodes of atrial flutter. These symptoms all occurred and are getting worse after the AMI meters were installed, likely caused by the RF pulses every 15 seconds and/or the increase in dirty electricity caused by the AMI meters. I didn’t have the tingly head/ head pressure/ stabbing to head sensation, tachycardia, etc symptoms in my home with the prior AMR meters. When I leave the house the head pressure completely goes away but comes back again every time I return home. I needed to spend $$$ on building biologist phone consults, a meter, shielding fabrics, etc, to try to tolerate living in my own home after the AMI meters were installed and I know people that needed to move after the AMI meters were installed on their homes. The shielding fabrics didn’t help that much. The best way to reduce symptoms is to reduce/eliminate exposure and that cannot be done with AMI smart meters in neighborhoods. The meters pulse every 15 seconds or so which is harmful to all of us, whether or not we feel symptoms, due to oxidative stress and many other ill effects. In addition: I am forced to purchase cars at least 10 years old to avoid being blasted by RF in the new cars due to all the technology in newer cars. Difficult to travel in a plane due to passengers using their devices and now some airlines incorporated a drop down ‘shelf’ for the passenger in the next row to place their phone in to watch in flight movies, with their phone’s antennas inches from the back of our heads. The readings in the plane that I have taken vary from approx. 2.9 to 9 milliwatts per sq meter. At hotels, I need to find a room as far away from wifi hot spots to try to get a good night sleep and to avoid symptoms. I wish hotels didn't replace their wired internet in guest rooms with wifi. I used to enjoy spending time in large cities but over the past decade I now sadly need to avoid them due to the extremely high levels of EMF. I feel fortunate that I at least know what is causing my symptoms. So many people have symptoms and they have no idea what is causing them. See attached files

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 parent, as a person negatively affected by RF and a concerned member of the public. I am also an elected official for my small town. This last year I realized that I am negatively affected by RF and EMF. I had been sleeping for six year with a smart meter on the outside of our bedroom wall and though I am a very healthy individual, this has negatively affected my body. I can feel in my body when there is strong WIFI as it makes my body feel anxious and uncomfortable. My sleep is negatively affected by WIFI. I frequently have headaches when I go out in the public and am around strong WIFI. It takes me a couple of hours to recover. Places like Target are untenable with the strength of their WIFI. Air travel is very difficult. We had to sell our electric vehicle because it was negatively affecting my body. We have cut back on our WIFI at home and have put shielding between ourselves and our smart meter. I am trying to live wisely but still be part of our modern world but it is hard with all the increasing infrastructure. Even if we take measures at home, our neighbors do not which is discouraging. My children are exposed to wireless radiation all day while at school. They come home exhausted and have to spend the rest of the day recovering. Scientific studies have shown that wireless radiation is a toxin and causes oxidation on the cellular level. Many of my friends now have cancer and thyroid disease in their 40s. Their children have ADHD, autism and emotional problems and I believe it is because all of our bodies are being bombarded from RF and EMF everywhere we go. I am also concerned by the rise in Parkinson and dementia that I am seeing in our general population. Websites: https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-10742025v24i3288526 https://www.cureus.com/articles/66244-an-exploration-of-the-effects-of-radiofrequency-radiation-emitted-by-mobile-phones-and-extremely-low-frequency-radiation-on-thyroid-hormones-and-thyroid-gland-histopathology#!/ There should be laws against building homes and offices next to phone towers and phone towers being erected near schools. 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. The strength of a nation depends on its youth and having a healthy population and I believe our nation's strength and vitality is compromised by this hidden assault of EMF and RF. Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard.

Hi my name is Salman. I have been living near a cell tower in 20 meters for the past two years and have experienced persistent health problems, including insomnia cnt sleep at night, dizziness, headaches, and burning and itching sensations in my skin and eyes everytime. Despite consulting several doctors and trying different medications, my symptoms have not improved. And there are several other residents in our area have reported symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and nausea, and hotness of body, This has raised serious problems among local residents,two residents got cancer in last 2 years, Cell towers emit radiofrequency (RF) radiation continuously, 24 hours a day, RF microwave radiation can cause cells and tissue heating at sufficiently high exposure levels, There are many researches and investigations and publications available regarding cell tower radiations which proved that cell tower radiations are harmful for humans , animals .plants and birds.and other living things I urge the relevant authorities to take residents' concerns seriously, investigate the potential health and environmental impacts of rf cell tower radiations and do research about it and make people life easy...thankyou