ORIGINAL COMMENT · UNEDITED TEXT
I'm writing to share how wireless radiation has affected my health and to raise a concern I don't think current policy accounts for: the layering of exposure inside and around our homes and office buildings.
For years I lived with migraines, tinnitus, poor sleep, slow recovery, and a nervous system that struggles to settle. These aren't abstract complaints; they shape my life. When I began measuring the radio frequency levels in my home and reducing them, by hardwiring our network, scheduling the router off at night, and tracking down hidden sources, my body responded. The quality of my sleep has improved, although I still have day to day exposure and migraines have gotten worse, and the ringing in my ears hasn't stopped.
What's most concerning is how pervasive the exposure is getting. A decade ago, a home might have had one wireless router. Today, radios are built into refrigerators, washers, thermostats, smoke detectors, televisions, sound systems, garage door openers, lighting controls, doorbells, and security systems, alongside routers, modems, and mesh repeaters. Many are boxed into walls and cabinets where homeowners can't see them, and many can't be turned off without disabling the appliance itself. People and pets absorb these signals around the clock, including while we sleep, when the body is meant to repair.
Even after we deployed mitigation strategies, the highest reading in our house was in the hallway outside our bedroom, and it traced back to an alarm communicator mounted inside a closet wall. We didn't choose that exposure; we didn't even know it was there.The layers don't stop at our walls. Outside, 5G small cells now sit on streetlights and utility poles steps from bedroom windows, in addition to existing cell towers. Smart meters on each home relay signals to one another in a mesh network, so an entire neighborhood transmits as one connected system. License plate cameras at intersections and community entrances send their data over cellular connections, and satellite networks now beam service down from above. I can turn off my own router at night; I can't turn off my neighbor's smart meter, the small cell on the corner, or the camera at the end of my street.
The public never consented to any of this and an informed public would surely not consent.
Many of these systems also track where we go; geofencing lets companies and agencies draw a virtual boundary and collect data from every phone that crosses it. We weren't asked about the exposure or the tracking.
Federal exposure limits were set in 1996 and evaluate single devices, not the cumulative load of dozens operating at once. In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found the FCC had failed to explain why those limits still protect people from harms unrelated to cancer, including effects on children and long-term exposure. The U.S. National Toxicology Program and Italy's Ramazzini Institute both found tumors in rats exposed to cell phone and cell tower radiation, and a Danish birth cohort study linked prenatal and childhood phone exposure to behavioral difficulties.
Over the same decades that wireless exposure has multiplied, we've seen rising rates of autism, autoimmune disease, and chronic illness, and some researchers have raised questions about RF exposure and mold growth indoors. I'm not suggesting wireless radiation is the single cause of any of these; I'm asking that it be studied seriously rather than ruled out.
Wireless radiation also doesn't reach us alone. Every day we're exposed to more synthetic building materials that off-gas, plastics in our clothing, children's toys, and household products, and chemicals permitted in our food and skincare. Each of these is approved on its own, and RF limits are set one device at a time, while our bodies take in all of it together. Little research has looked at how RF exposure interacts with this growing chemical load; until it does, I don't see how anyone can call the combination safe.
I respectfully ask that you:
1. Update exposure limits to account for cumulative, long-term exposure from multiple sources, inside and outside the home, as the 2021 court ruling requires.
2. Require public notice and local input before new towers, small cells, smart meter networks, or surveillance cameras go up in residential neighborhoods, with a no-cost opt-out for smart meters.
3. Require that appliances and home systems with wireless radios offer a wired option or a simple way to disable the radio without losing core function.
4. Require clear labeling of wireless modules on appliances and building systems so families can make informed choices.
5. Fund independent research on chronic exposure and how it interacts with everyday chemical exposures, with attention to children, sleep, and the nervous system.
Thank you for considering the people living with these exposures every day.
Christy Wallace