Wi-Fi & indoor exposure

**Title:** Challenging the Consensus: Occupational EMF Exposure and Firefighter Wellness  Challenging widely accepted perspectives is never easy. In the mid-19th century, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that childbed fever deaths plummeted from 18% to 1% simply by requiring doctors to wash their hands after autopsies. Yet, the medical community resisted his findings for decades, discrediting him until he died in an asylum. It took generations for Body Substance Isolation (BSI) to become universally accepted.  In 2026, challenging the consensus remains difficult. One critical topic is electromagnetic field (EMF) and radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure and its detrimental health effects on firefighters and the general public. Because of the unique infrastructure of fire stations and the nature of the job, firefighters are chronically exposed to higher levels of EMFs from communication systems, station wiring, and nearby cell towers. Research suggests this long-term exposure may be linked to increased risks of mental health disorders, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  The historical connection between electrification and health dates back to 1869, when Dr. George Miller Beard documented "Neurasthenia" (weak nerves), noting symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and heart palpitations. Beard observed that it primarily affected the educated classes—who, at the brink of the second industrial revolution, were the only ones with widespread access to electricity. In 1894, Sigmund Freud catalyzed a shift that reclassified these symptoms as psychological "anxiety neurosis," causing the medical community to treat it as an inherent human condition rather than an environmental issue. While Western psychiatry dropped the diagnosis, Asia and Eastern Europe never adopted Freud’s reclassification; neurasthenia remains frequently diagnosed there today as a sign of chronic environmental toxicity. Firefighters frequently experience these exact symptoms, often dismissing them as standard shift-work burnout.  Cancer is the third leading cause of death among firefighters. In 2009, Dr. Samuel Milham, author of *Dirty Electricity*, found that firefighters face elevated risks for various cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer. Notably, respiratory cancers were not disproportionately elevated despite regular exposure to smoke. This discrepancy strongly points to alternative carcinogens, such as chronic EMF exposure from communication devices and station infrastructure.  Current human safety limits fail to protect first responders. There are two distinct categories of safety metrics: one for electronics and one for humans. Electronics standards are based on the principle of interference—recognizing that even a weak wireless signal can disrupt a device. Conversely, human standards set by the FCC and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) are strictly thermal. They only protect against acute tissue heating. This completely ignores the reality that our bodies operate on complex bioelectrical cell communication, leaving us completely unprotected against non-thermal biological interference.  Change is urgently needed. In 2021, the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC's existing RF safety standards were "arbitrary and capricious," mandating the agency to provide scientific justification for its extraordinarily high limits. Years later, the FCC has failed to adequately address this mandate, while telecom infrastructure continues to expand near fire stations, schools, and neighborhoods.  Immediate, practical solutions can be implemented at fire stations to create healthier environments. The most critical area to protect is the common sleeping dorm. Placing cell phones in airplane mode when turning in for the night drastically minimizes cumulative radiation exposure. Moving Wi-Fi routers out of sleeping quarters, removing unnecessary Bluetooth devices, and utilizing distance as a shield are vital first steps. Ultimately, we must operate under the Precautionary Principle: if an action or policy carries a suspected risk of severe harm to human health, protective measures must be enforced even if some cause-and-effect relationships are still being evaluated by the scientific mainstream.

I suffer from a physiological response to wireless technologies. This happens when I am in a strong wifi environment and if I stay too long near electromagnetic frequencies from standard electrical pulsations. I didn’t want to believe that my symptoms and suffering would be so clearly caused by such ubiquitous daily technologies but the facts have remained- I feel the intensity of pulsed electromagnetic waves. My symptoms are: insomnia, headache, increased and heightened tinnitus (ringing becomes more shrill), and an overall increase in anxiety. To alleviate my reactions/illness, I have learned to prepare for a specific environment. For example, when I enter a restaurant, I use an EMF meter to find the areas of least radiation. My house is hard-wired with ethernet cables providing my internet connections and I use a landline to communicate. I do own a cell phone but it is kept in airplane mode or off most of the time. My friends and family know about my condition and they do not keep their phones on around me. I can’t attend stadium concerts, games and events where I know all phones will be pulsing their signals so, I don’t go. Luckily, I own my home and I am not subject to others’ wifi signals that would occur were I living in an apartment building. What about those who can’t afford a home and are forced to live in an unsafe environment? Sadly, I have come to believe that our government does not care about people like me. They care about the profits made by Telecom and they continue to deny that my sub-group has validity. Despite the studies that show harm, the FCC has just continued to allow more transmitters at higher frequencies to be developed. These higher frequencies (4G, 5G, 6G, 10G) are currently causing damage to plants and wildlife while the Federal government just looks the other way. I urge HHS to take me and the thousands of us (could be millions, with symptoms blamed on the wrong cause), seriously. We are disabled and are often unable to participate in general society. Today, it is hard to find a safe place where there are no EMFs. This is why many escape into a forest, living off grid and on the edge. The small cell antennas now being deployed in every conceivable location- schools, office buildings, churches (shouldn’t they be sacred and safe places?), and on people’s homes make life impossible for those suffering from EMR-S (Electro Magnetic Syndrome). Please, take action now and prevent more suffering. Thank you, Kelly Marcotulli

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 non-professional researcher, advocate, concerned member of the public for current and especially future generations. I am extremely concerned about wireless radiation and its effects because I, myself have experienced a decline in my health since emf's have become more popular in our everyday lives with smart phones and wifi connections in virtually every aspect of our lives and places we frequent. Restful REM Sleep is vital to our health and is disrupted by the growing level of electric and magnetic fields. I have experienced this in myself and children around me. The increase of radio frequencies is known to not only disrupt sleep but affect brain and cognitive function such as memory loss, cause eye problems, alter dna, reduce melatonin production, interfere with pace makers, cause brain tumors and infertility. These are major and legitimate concerns. I have attached two articles regarding the health dangers. https://drjockers.com/emf-exposure-dangers-symptoms-and-protection/ https://drjockers.com/5g-phones-safe-health/ 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 am a retired biomedical scientist. 14 years ago, a mobile mast was erected on the top of the apartment block next to where I live. It was 10 metres from my study. I started to get nosebleeds and headaches which diffused when I left the apartment and walked barefoot on the beach nearby. I also became aware of sensitivity to WiFi. This sensitivity has got worse and worse and now my life is very limited. I cannot do most of the things that a retiree should be able to look forward to. My health has deteriorated. I am very susceptible to infections and all in all I am a greatly diminished person as result of this. I resent the unwillingness of authorities to address the health implications. The evidence is out there. Time to call out the Telecoms industry

When the home battery and inverter take over from the grid, I turn away. It happened twice when I went to ask for information.I hear a sound (no one else hears it) and feel immense pressure on my body; the entire environment suddenly feels very heavy./ Wi-Fi and mobile phone signals weigh down the environment. Everything feels heavy and oppressive.it’s exactly as if my head were caught in a press

I send this message answering to the request of information by the HHS on (EMF), (RF) and exposition to Wireless. i write as individual citizen worried about the effetcs on health. I can't use smartphone of last generation because I have headache, and when I take the mobile in my hand I feel a strange tingling in my arm e burning in my armpit and on the side of my breast. I can't use the wireless too.

WIFI is horrific for my health. It gives me a pounding headache with 5 minutes of being exposed to it. FPL put a Smart Meter on my house - the wall is on my bedroom. I could not sleep - I would be woken every time I got to sleep. I finally figured out it was the smart meter - I had it removed ( I am charged $13 a month now) and now sleep great as I always have. It is not just me - a friend had a baby. The baby cried all the time when it was in her room. She would take it to the doctor and by the time they got there the baby was happy and fine. Get home, it starts crying. The Palm Beach Post did a story about it - she figured out the smart meters for the building were on the wall outside her room - that was what made the baby cry - and who knows how much damage it did. I recently went into an Olive Garden restaurant that had just opened in my area. I left in 10 minutes with a headache - they had wifi. I have no doubt wifi affects everyone - it is just some people feel the effects right away. Keep exposing yourself to it and dementia will soon follow.

Federal rules evaluate EMF, RF, and wireless radiation exposure one device at a time. They do not assess cumulative exposure humans are living with. Phones, Wi-Fi routers, Bluetooth devices, smart meters, wearables, household sensors, and satellite terminals each receive their own compliance rating. No federal program measures the combined, time-averaged exposure in a bedroom, living room, office, an apartment with neighboring networks on all sides, a school, or a crowded public place. Ionizing radiation policy accounts for cumulative dose. Non-ionizing policy does not. That is a regulatory choice and merits modernizing. FCC general-population limits in 47 CFR 1.1310 were built around single sources and peak heating tests. They were not built around dozens or hundreds of transmitters operating at once in the same room or vehicle. New systems are arriving faster than health research can follow. In a short period the public environment gained denser cellular service, additional Wi-Fi bands, consumer devices in every room, satellite broadband, satellite-to-phone service, passenger Wi-Fi, and dense small-cell and venue systems. A credible chronic study takes years. A product cycle takes months. The absence of a completed study of this combined environment is not proof of safety. It is a lag between deployment and evidence. Current limits are designed to prevent tissue heating above defined levels. What remains unsettled is whether lower levels affect other biology, including cellular energy production, oxidative stress, or circadian signaling. Standard-setting bodies have not changed exposure limits on that basis. If effects occur at ordinary public levels, today’s device tests do not capture them. HHS should state what the evidence shows at measured real-world levels, not only in laboratories. In addition to homes, people also spend hours in places where many independent systems overlap and no one person controls them: - Airports and aircraft: terminal Wi-Fi, cellular and small cell radios, airline and passenger Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, operational radios, and then a metal cabin full of devices. - Buses, trains, subways, and stations: onboard Wi-Fi, passengers’ phones, wayside cellular, and transit communications in a confined concentration of people. - Shopping malls, stores, arenas, and other venues: Wi-Fi, tenant networks, cellular in-building systems, point-of-sale and inventory radios, and a rapidly growing list of personal devices. Each transmitter may meet its own limit. The combined field in a airport gate area, a packed bus, or a mall corridor is not what a single-phone SAR fixture represents. Dwell time and cumulative exposure is key. HHS should also quantify how many radios surround people at home and in public. There is no adequate official count of in-home access points, neighboring networks through walls, and client devices. The same gap exists for public venues: how many networks and handsets are active, on which bands, and for how long a person stands in the field. Satellite internet and satellite-to-phone service add whole new bands and geometries to an environment that is already full of cellular and Wi-Fi. They should be counted in the same cumulative inventory. Ku user downlinks are an outdoor field over entire neighborhoods, 24 hours a day, from a growing constellation, on top of terrestrial cellular. Even the energy that does not enter the house still reaches yards, streets, vehicles, and anyone outdoors. A single Wi-Fi router can dominate a spot reading inside one room. That does not mean satellite and cellular are negligible in a person’s full-day dose across home, transit, work, and outdoors. Residential electrical codes only address shock and fire. They do not address powered furniture, outlets at the head of a bed, or always-on equipment next to a sleeping place in a room that already contains several radios. Power-frequency fields and radiofrequency fields are not the same problem. They now occur together in bedrooms. If indoor environment is in scope, wiring layout and household equipment belong in the review with HUD, CPSC, and related agencies. The United States already knows how to approve devices. It has not shown that it can account for RF, EMF and wireless dose in a room, cabin, or terminal.

The ABC’s of EMF’s During my twenty-seven year tenure as a public school teacher, much changed: Chalkboards gave way to Smartboards. Pen and paper gave way to keyboards and screens. Attendance, grading, testing all transitioned from analog to digital. Instead of bookshelves, classrooms were furnished with carts. My classroom had two bulky rolling carts, each housing twenty WiFi laptops for a total of forty machines. These laptops became necessary for standardized testing, research, composition; their use was mandated. Of course, this level of use required bandwidth, vast quantities of it, and the hardware to support it. One morning, however, the electricity went out. My classroom of younger adolescents passed the time happily in the semi-twilight, keeping one eye on the clock because after a few hours of no power, school would have been dismissed for the remainder of the day. When the electricity came back online, a collective groan of disappointment arose—which was to be expected. One student’s reaction, though, was very different. Call him Declan, a pleasant enough kid who exhibited classic ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) behavior. Surprisingly, Declan did not bemoan having to stay in school for the rest of the day. Rather, he threw up his hands and exclaimed, “WHY did the power have to go back on? It was JUST SO PEACEFUL without it!” I have thought of his statement many times since, especially when considering the invisible, insidious effects of electromagnetic fields on the human body. Could Declan’s ADHD have been either caused or exacerbated by his daily immersion in the significant electromagnetic field required to sustain the school’s WiFi network and capability? Was he somehow more biologically sensitive than most?

In 2019 I was in perfect health and suddenly began to experience acute symptoms of tremors and muscle flinching at night, extreme fatigue, pain in hands when holding a phone, pain in chest when near a computer or remote control, interrupted sleep. After much consternation and searching for answers I learned Smart Meters were installed in my neighborhood in January of 2019 and I clearly determined that to be the source. I provided a doctor's medical verification to the power company to request an opt out meter. During the five weeks I waited for the meter after submitting the application, I was suffering so badly I called the power company multiple times to plead for the installation and this is not at all my nature. After I received an opt-out meter in July 2019, the tremors and flinching stopped immediately. But only after implenting MANY other mitigation measures I learned about from EMF advocacy groups (which took a lot of digging to find) did I experience nearly complete relief. But my health never returned to the full measure of stamina as before smart meters, and if I get a lot of exposure I start to have pains again when near devices and fatigue. Apparently the 7 months of smart meter exposure until I received an opt out meter in July 2019, and the ubiquitous presence of 5G, took a serious toll on my body. The EXTENSIVE measures I had to take to effectively mitigate include: a townhome neighbor was kind enough to install a smart meter guard; eliminating wifi router; turning off internet hotspot whenever not in use; turning off breakers in sleep area at night; shielding blankets; removing all battery powered gadgets and electronics from sleep area; always placing my cellphone on a table to scroll or make calls; placing devices in another room or turning them off when not using them; limiting time on devices. This last measure has affected my ability to work since my work required 8-10 hours on a computer and cell phone 4-5 days of the workweek. If I spend significant hours on devices (computer and phone) with wifi connected I start to get exhausted again. I can only surmise that untold millions are suffering without knowing the cause. And I am very greatly concerned about future generations. I am happy to testify or sign off on the complete truthfulness of these statements.