Forced exposure to EMF radiation at work

More businesses expect their employees to be ‘plugged in’ using wireless transmitters on the head or waist.

In all fairness, we should make a distinction between employment that includes EMF radiation exposure by the very nature of the employment and on the other side jobs where EMF radiation exposure is not needed or intense body exposure to EMF was not reasonably to be expected. We will give some valuable tips on what to do for your health when you are exposed to EMF radiation at work but lets cover the issue of employer forced exposure first;

• what are the dangers and health risks of EMF radiation exposure at work?
• what are the symptoms of EMF radiation exposure?
• what you can do about an employer changing your job description to include this exposure, and of course
• who is liable for this exposure when things go wrong now or in the future?

Employers expecting employees to be exposed to EMF radiation and not speak up about it

We’ve seen it in the occasional jobs:

• Order takers at the fast food drive-through restaurant with electrical and wireless transmission devices strapped to their waist and their ear, ‘plugged-in’ during their shift.
• Life-guard with a radio strapped to their side or chest.
• Police officers using hand-held radar.
• The security guard or bouncer having one ear wired up to a transmitter.

Transmitter on the waist during work hours, pregnant of not.

But this exposure to EMF radiation is getting much wider spread. Many business employees I know and deal with in the businesses around me, know what I do for a living, and when they find themselves equipped with wireless transmitters strapped to them all day long because it ‘improves effectiveness’ they do ask me: ‘Should I be worried about radiation from this transmitter?’. Others ring us up, experiencing a decline in health and well-being and linking it to a recent ‘technical improvement’ at work involving transmitters, Wi-Fi or roof mounted mobile phone towers.

Put the transmitter on your waist, pregnant or not

In my area all the floor staff of a popular office stationary store have been equipped with wireless transmitters/receivers strapped to their waist. We see the same thing in electronics stores, hardware stores and many other establishments. It was just ‘expected’ by management and little regard was shown for if employees actually wanted this, if employees had health concerns or were pregnant.

How can EMF radiation (at work) affect health? What to look out for?

Symptoms caused by EMF radiation at work can be wide ranging and come on slowly.

It seems problems can start very quickly or can take a long time to develop and to be recognised as being a result from EMF radiation exposure introduced at work. It is thought that 3-5% of the world population are electrohypersensative or EHS for short. This can mean that in a short time of exposure, and this can be hours or minutes, symptoms are experienced.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) mentions this as common symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity on their website:

WHO: “The symptoms most commonly experienced include dermatological symptoms (redness, tingling, and burning sensations) as well as neurasthenic and vegetative symptoms (fatigue, tiredness, concentration difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitation, and digestive disturbances). The collection of symptoms is not part of any recognized syndrome.”

More people will be less sensitive to EMF radiation. Biological changes inside the person may go unnoticed for a long time but for many the resulting symptoms may take only weeks or months to manifest. The range of health issues linked to EMF radiation exposure experiences at home or at work are wide ranging. Here are some and you can find research links for all of these on our EMF Research page.

Find peer-review research links to all these health problems linked to EMF radiation exposure here and a previous article of ours discussed the medical evidence and the approaches to radiation by governments around the world.

Can EMF radiation exposure at work have an affect on fertility and cause spontaneous abortion?

Protect the unborn child against radiation from every day devices.

There are many links to affects on fertility by EMF radiation exposure and even on affects on the unborn child including spontaneous abortions (Mahmoudabadi et al). The use of simple electrical devices like an electric blanket, which can produce electromagnetic fields similar to that of many cars, machinery or security gates at the exit of a shop, have been linked to increases in abortion rate (Wertheier PhD, Leeper).

The use electrically powered aid you might not think twice about can have detrimental effects. One study looked at miscarriages among female physical therapists and discovered the use of electrical heating aids raised miscarriages to 47.7% of the women! (Ouellet-Hellstrom and Steward 1992)

“…wireless transmitters strapped to the waist of employees might do unforgivable things to their fertility and to their ability to conceive a child with the best possible genetic materials the parents would be able to contribute.”

Much research shows low level radiation affecting sperm quality.

Studies on males attending a fertility clinic, demonstrated that the more exposure to a simple cell phone dramatically affected sperm count, motility, viability, and normal morphology, AND that it was independent of the initial semen quality (Agarwal A, et al). We and many natural health experts would interpret this as ‘cellular change’ in general due to mobile phone exposure… So those wireless transmitters strapped to the waist of employees might do unforgivable things to their fertility and to their ability to conceive a child with the best possible genetic materials the parents would be able to contribute.

Due to the findings of Indian infertility clinics, who noted that having a mobile phone in was a major contributing factor for male infertility, the Indian government has issued warnings about this. It recommends that clinics supporting men with reproductive problems, advise to keep mobile phones out of their pockets.

This tells you, you should not have your own mobile in your pocket, but what about the transmitter your boss might ask you to wear as well? Will that improve or reduce your fertility or quality of your genetic material contributed to your new baby?

Pregnancy and radiation interview

What produces EMF radiation in the workplace?

Here we have to separate the employment types where radiation exposure is part of the job description and where it is unnecessary or unexpected.

There are a wide variety of sources that produce EMF radiation:

• Wireless transmitters worn on the body
• Computers / Laptops
• Wi-Fi routers
• Fluorescent lighting
• Electrical machinery
• Vehicles and the more advanced they are, the more exposure they typically have
• Mobile phones and cordless telephones
• Radar (also hand-held)
• Airport navigation
• Baby monitors
• Smart meters

Pilots and cabin crew know they are exposed to radiation. How about your workplace?

In some professions people are very well aware they are exposed but the job is held in such high esteem that they happily put up with the EMF radiation exposure at work or the culture in that industry that it is all not that serious. I would count the aviation industry in this catagory. Being a pilot myself I know that those who make it in are so glad to get there they will put up with negative effects of their employment.

Cabin crew have told me that they had it written into their employment contracts that if ‘radiation exposure proved to have had negative effects on health or fertility’ that the airline could not be held liable for this. Fertility difficulties are common place amongst air hostesses and at some point, if sources are correct, airlines used to pay for IVF treatment.

Radar is another source of RF EMR and has been asking its toll for years. In 2001 the German army was confronted with 300 soldiers who had operated radar equipment and had attracted cancer. This was the event which led our Sascha Hahnen to develop shielding paint. More recently, studies has revealed that Police Officers that operate hand-held radar devices developed testicular cancer at far higher rates than the average.

Who is liable when health effects appear due to EMF radiation exposure at work?

Precedents are being set for legal liability of exposing others to EMF radiation.

This is an interesting area and 2015 saw much development in terms of legal precedents when it came to holding governments and employers liable for EMF and WiFi exposure. It is by no means easy though. As there is much scientific disagreement, despite the available research, the employer cannot easily be held accountable and therefor it is (at the moment) hard to expect justice or compensation when you make a claim against them out of the blue. Employers do have a duty of care and, what we have seen so far, it seems that legal action has been far more fruitful when the people have continuously raised the issue with their employer and have asked not to be exposed. It is their inaction, despite having been informed and requested to change the situation, that has led them into a failure to meet a duty of care. Some detailed examples are given in a previous article about EMF radiation and liability, including the case of Mr McDonalds vs Comcare in 2013.

The best thing to do seems to document everything you do in relation to your requests not to be exposed or the health effects you are experiencing due to EMF radiation exposure in your workplace.

• Keep doctor notes and sick-leave statements
• Make and keep requests from your doctor addressed to your employer to reduce your exposure (‘My patient Mrs Smith’s health may be affected by having wireless radiation at close proximity and i therefor recommend she is no longer required to wear any transmitter technology on her person’. For example, when pregnant.)
• Record and store emails to your employer and their responses to you
• Try and avoid verbal conversations about this as it leaves you with nothing to demonstrate that happened.

When can you speak up about your fears or discomfort of being expected to be exposed to low level radiation at work?

Sadly you have to consider the following consequences of you speaking up; You could be labeled a trouble maker and see your career development opportunities change course if you make it difficult for your employer to utilize your body the way they had imagined. A crude example of an employee/whistle blower being fired for opposing the introduction of WiFi in a school, was a well loved Math teacher from North Kingston, Rhode Island, Shelley McDonald, who you can see being fired in video recordings.

For this reason it is perhaps advisable to treat carefully. You could consider speaking to other employees and find people that share your opinion or fears and present a request to your employer from a group of employees rather than just you on your own. You could also investigate the possibility to utilize government bodies or a union, to assist you to raise the issue with your employer where you can choose to stay anonymous until you are ready to reveal yourself. You could even send an anonymous letter to your employer, raising the issue, the research available on the subject and hope for a course correction by your employer. You could even include this article as a reference as it will be a good starting point for employers to realise they could be dealing with the next ‘Asbestos’ of our time.

Staying silent does not seem to be the answer.

Do you have experience bringing this up with your employer?
Tell others about it. Leave a comment below, it is appreciated.

What can you do to help yourself when exposed to radiation at work?

You can’t see radiation exposure in a bedroom

If you cannot, or for the moment cannot, change your situation at work, other than making sure you don’t wear you personal mobile phone in your pocket, then there is this very important fact to remember:

The human body rests and regenerates (repairs, fights disease and damage) AT NIGHT.

In order to ‘rebuild’ your defenses to cope, as best as your body can, with the exposure to environmental health burdens, you must ensure that the place you sleep is free of radiation irritation. The shocking thing is that 95% bedrooms we go into need improvement. The wiring inside your bedroom wall, even with nothing plugged into a power point, is causing grief in most bedrooms.

In addition to this, wireless communication technology inside or outside your home may be exposing you to too much high frequency radiation. Lastly, there are excesses of natural radiation (geopathic stress) to consider. All these issues you cannot address by yourself and a Geobiological home and bedroom assessment with one of our consultants is a good start to figure out what fundamental issues need to be addresses with verifiable solutions. Once in place, they should keep working for you with minimal involvement of you and aiding your sleep and well-being.

During the assessment we can also point out to you small things you can do immediately, like:

• Remove any wireless devices from your bedroom at night (mobile phone, tablet, cordless phone and their base station)
• If you need your mobile as an alarm, then switch it to ‘flight-mode’ but keep it at arms length as a minimum (not under your pillow)
• Don’t have bedside lights with transformers in them (halogen lights often have them, or those touch activated lights)
• Remove transformers and chargers from the power points near your bed
• Remove electric blankets and water beds (linked to miscarriages and fetal growth defects)
• Don’t buy, or unplug electrically operated bed frames.
• Don’t sleep against the wall where your meter box is on.
• Consider moving away from metal-filled mattresses or those that may not be antistatic – Consider our mattresses when due for replacement, they are truly unique.

Patrick van der Burght, Geovital Academy

Doing all this by no means creates a health bedroom in regards to radiation exposure. As mentioned, your wiring and outside-the-home transmitters, are normally outside your control. But doing all these small things will improve the situation in the right direction.

If we can help you with an assessment of your bedroom, or that of your children, we would be delighted to assist you.

Word of warning to employers about exposing employees to EMF radiation

The amount of research is mounting that radiation exposure from mobile phones, wireless transmitters and power supply is damaging health. To get an insight, view our research page and on there you will also find a link to the Bioinitiative Report. A 1400+ page document put together by 29 international authors amongst which 22 PhDs warning the world about all the research they could find that EMF is a serious problem.

Scientist from various countries are petitioning governments and the UN to take action against radiation exposure.

Lloyds of London, the big insurer, has removed coverage against EMF related law suits from their school insurance policies, obviously because they can see the storm coming.

You may find yourself in an asbestos situation many years from now with people you are employing today. Will your insurance cover you then?

Precautionary approach

It is much better to adopt a precautionary approach and minimise exposure to employees. Given the effect EMF can have on people’s health, you probably will have a more energetic crew without it, more productivity, less sick-days and they can certainly say you have their best interest at heart.

• Use wired technology, wired keyboard, wired mice, wired headsets, wired computers.
• Fit GEOVITAL shielding to the building if you decide to put a transmitter (phone tower) on top of your building. But do protect against all sides, not just the roof, as other towers will be ‘beaming in’ on your location from miles away.
• Be conscious of not placing people’s desks against internal electrical hardware like power boards and substations. Put storage there instead.
• And please…. take pregnant women, those trying to conceive and those with pace makers very serious and don’t ask them to be exposed.

Do you have experience bringing this up with your employer or employees?
Tell others about it. Leave a comment below, it is appreciated.

LINKS

• EMF radiation research
• Article: Risks regulations and liability around exposing people and students to wireless technology – Part 1 – Medical 
• Artcile: Risks regulations and liability around exposing people and students to wireless technology – Part 2 – Liability
• Article: International Scientists Appeal to U.N. to Protect Humans and Wildlife from EMF and Wireless Technology
• Article: Hello Barbie radiation for children
• Article: Radiation protected GEOVITAL HOTEL ROOM now available in Martinspark Hotel
• SERVICES: What is involved in a home health assessment? 
• How to shield a bedroom from transmitter radiation (including videos) 
• GEOVITAL consultations in UK | USA | Australia | New Zealand | Germany | Austria | Switzerland | Other countries

#radiationatwork #wirelesssafety