122 | Practical Tips to Protect Yourself from EMF Exposure

Transcript:
(00:05) How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the Healthy Home Hacks podcast, where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home Authorities and husband and wife team, Ron and Lisa, will help you create a home environment that will level up your health.
(00:25) It's time to hear from the experts. Listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, bow biologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans, and avocado afficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres. Welcome to EMF Exposed.
(00:55) I am Ron and I'm Lisa. Most people think nonionizing EMF from phones and Wi-Fi is harmless, but the World Health Organization says otherwise. They classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields as a possible carcinogen in 2011. In a recent metaanalysis of over 100 studies found significant associations between long-term cell phone use and brain tumors. Yet, most people carry these devices against their bodies all day.
(01:26) Okay, guys. We're not here to scare you off grid. The best EMF protection is free. Simple changes like airplane mode at night, wired earbuds for calls, and repositioning your router can dramatically reduce exposure. Today, we're answering what does science actually say about EMF safety? What free protection strategies work? How do you spot real protection from marketing hype? And what does empowered living look like in our wireless world? Whether you're a concerned parent, a screenheavy professional, or just questioning all of this radiation around us, this episode is for you. Put that
(02:10) phone down and let's dive in. Oh yeah, and our guest today is back for an encore. If you remember back when we had him on the Healthy Home Hacks episode 56. Yes, R. Blank is a technologist, entrepreneur, and internationally recognized expert on EMF health and safety. He is the CEO of Shield Your Body, the world's largest store for sciencebacked EMF protection products, helping hundreds of thousands of customers around the world reduce their exposure to radiation from cell phones, Wi-Fi, and other modern tech.
(02:45) R is the host of the Healthier Tech podcast, co-author of the best-selling book overpowered with his father, the renowned EMF scientist Dr. Martin Blank, and more recently released Empowered, a practical guide to living safely with technology.
(03:06) With degrees from Columbia University and UCLA, R brings both scientific insight and accessible solutions to the global conversation about making technology safer. Welcome, R. Yes. Well, thank you guys. That was quite the intro. I appreciate it. Welcome, R. It's always fun to say your name, R. Yeah, I'm a big hit on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, right? I bet. No, it's so great to have you back. There's so much constantly changing in the world.
(03:36) Technology is still advancing at an insanely rapid rate and so we're really happy to have you back. We've done quite a few podcasts on this topic, but you just can never have enough because there's so much going on, right? It's a really deep topic. Yeah, it's deep.
(03:56) And people have to be reminded of this cuz we get back into our slumber and we get back into our modern world and we forget how much we're being exposed and children especially. So you've written a new book, Empowered. Can you tell our listeners what makes this different from other EMF related books and why did you feel it was so important to write this right now? Yeah, so thank you for that question.
(04:16) So in terms of EMF, there are a lot of books including the one I wrote with my father, which is one that is basically about the science, right? The science of the health effects. So you have some books that are about the science of the health effects. You have other books that are grounded more in what might be called conspiracy theory.
(04:36) You have other books that demand immediate societywide change, regulatory change. There was no book that I believed provided a comprehensive personal approach to self-defense against this toxic force that not only surrounds us but increasingly so year after year along with the growth of technology.
(05:06) So this book it explains the first part demystify EMF right electromagnetic radiation what it is how it works what emits it and an overview of what the science says. This is not a deep dive into the science like overpowered was and then I get into the behavioral changes that people re anyone who is serious about reducing their exposure to EMF buying a little sticker to put on your phone isn't going to cut it.
(05:32) And even if you're buying something that works, which I talk about later, you're not willing to do the basic behavioral changes, you're not going to see the results that you want to see. And then I get into an explanation of uh legitimate EMF protection products, what they are, how they work, how you can differentiate them from the snake oil that permeates the market, and then also how you need to use it if you want it to work.
(06:01) and to understand its limitations because it combines all of that in one book. I believe it's the first of its kind. It's the first real survival guide against EMF radiation. Yeah. And a really, really, really great tool for parents because this topic is very complicated.
(06:25) It's very scientific and most people don't need to know all of that. They don't have the time or the bandwidth to dive into that and learn why is it harming us and they just want to know what do I need to do? Especially in this day of like very short attention spans where we're watching really short videos online and people can't sit through a long video anymore. It's got to be real short. Just like tell me what to do, tell me what I can do.
(06:43) But before you get into some of that, give us a quick list of some of the health effects that people experience from exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Yeah. So, I'll quote myself from the book, which I actually quote myself from podcasts like the last one I was on with you guys.
(07:02) Are you talking in third person again? R um when R was here last time, what the science tells us is that we find negative health outcomes in essentially every biological system in which we search for them. It both sounds impossible and crazy at the same time, but it's also true. And so in terms of humans, I mean, everything from sleep disruption, which by the way is very widely accepted now. It's why blue light glasses are popular.
(07:37) Sleep disruption, anxiety, depression, all the way up to obviously cancer and neurodeenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Lugers and essentially everything in between. Everyone who's listening understandably is very concerned about human health, but just to underscore how it's found in every single biological system.
(08:03) We see it in plants in seed germination in trees. We see it in animals, dairy cows are very well studied on this marine life and we see it in insects and birds where migratory patterns are disrupted. The links to colony collapse disorder. So it really is linked to essentially every biological system where the funding exists to investigate. That's powerful. I mean, yeah.
(08:31) Everyone's like, "Why are birds falling out of the air? Why are the bees dying? Why are trees in certain areas not growing?" Yeah. Where we'll see that. You'll see a cell tower on one side of a wooded area. And you can see the pattern near the cell tower. The trees get thinner and thinner and thinner.
(08:50) And you see it over and over and over again, right? Cuz we're all energy and we have energy system that's disrupting our energy. what do we expect? Right? So that I try to make that point in the book as well, right? EMF exists. This form of energy, electromagnetic radiation, this exists outside of cell phones and power lines and your Bluetooth headset.
(09:20) It exists on Earth, but it exists in very specific forms and in very very low doses. And the main source of this energy on Earth is the sun. And the sun emits an unbelievably massive amount of it. But by the time it gets to Earth, it's incredibly low. We're talking trillions of times lower than what you're exposed to walking around a city.
(09:43) Not only was it low, like I said, it was very specific types, very specific frequencies, and also a regular pattern, a consistent level. What we have now are pulsated incredibly high power levels of different frequencies that don't exist in nature. But our bodies and indeed all life on Earth evolved in a certain electromagnetic environment that we are now overpowering with all of our human technology.
(10:15) And so to your point, the energy environment in which all life emerged to to thrive is what we are effectively destroying with the byproducts of our modern society, right? We are the man-made. So the electromagnetic I'm sorry, Lisa. I prefer the term humanmade. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Non-gender. We're going there. Okay, let me be politically correct here. I'm gonna cancel you when this is done.
(10:46) I know the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. So, when you look at that, when you look at a a visual of that, maybe we could link to that in the show notes. You know, you've got the man-made and the natural made or humanade natural made. And so it sounds like what you're saying is yeah like the earth you know the earth has a frequency the the resonance and the sun and all of this and our bodies adapted to that but we've got all this bombardment of man-made technology that hasn't been around that long
(11:18) and that we are like playing with what would you call it like fire fire I guess we're playing the fire you know and it's like it's like the guinea pig generation still because that's exactly we are the experiment because this isn't just true with EMF emitting technologies. A lot of people just by default assume and want to assume and really have a justifiable reason to assume that if something is made available for sale that it is safe and that's just not how things work, right? The way things work is things are made
(11:57) available for sale and then if it causes enough damage and if banning it doesn't cause too much economic damage then it will be banned. But that's how things work. And so to your point, you said this type of radiation hasn't been around that long. That's absolutely true.
(12:25) Not till the late 19th century, but even within the course of our lifetimes, the EMF exposures have gone up exponentially. Right? When I was growing up, cell phone technology existed, but nobody had them. Even if you had a a pager, you were obviously a drug dealer or a doctor. Uh, we didn't have had a pager. What? I'm assuming you were a doctor. My first I was an actress. I needed a pager. Hey, R. I think my grandfather had one.
(12:50) What What generation are you part of again? I think technically I'm joking. I'm joking. Yeah. Yeah. We had the block. People had the block phone, right? Oh, the brick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The brick phone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brick. Yeah. So, no. I mean, cell phones were invented when I was three years old. I didn't get one until 1998.
(13:09) That was when I got my first cell phone. So, right after college. That's great. Because of your dad, right? So, you snuck it behind his back. Oh, it's because no one had them really. Oh, dude. Was that really? But that is why we didn't have a microwave oven. And even when I'm staying at a rental and there is one, that'll be my excuse to go get microwavable popcorn and and enjoy that that one time.
(13:32) So, you But I feel like this is a confession for you all. No, I really admit things like this. I read a Kindle in bed. Uh, but in airplane mode, but I know I shouldn't even be in amber mode. Amber and airplane. I was talking to you guys about my sleep issues before the show.
(13:51) I know I shouldn't be doing that, but you know, I I'm I'm pretty honest about this stuff. In my house, where I'm talking to you from is both uh hardwired and has Wi-Fi. Yeah. For various reasons, but I can switch between them. And I'm not what some people call electrosensit. I mean, I believe everyone is electrosensitive to some degree.
(14:11) I'm not the type of electrosensitive that experiences these types of symptoms that make life really difficult and painful. So, I don't have to take those types of precautions, but I take what I believe to be sensible precautions based on what the science says.
(14:30) What does the science say? Because you you alluded to the fact that, you know, cell phones are relatively new experience for humanity, right? And we all assume they're safe. What does the science actually say? They're not. So the first line of the book is there is no doubt that EMF is harmful. That and I put it in bold too because I I wanted to state my position very clearly.
(14:52) If you're talking about cell phones in particular, that science only goes back like 20 years. But if you add in cordless phones, that starts to go back now approaching 35 years. And then if you add in other similar forms of this radiation like FM radio and radar, you're talking about 60 70 years. And then if if you add in other forms of EMF that actually the first study, the oldest study I cite in the book is from 1924.
(15:27) So we're talking about over a century of a body of scientific research demonstrating. So I mean I gave you very broad terms when I answered this question the first time in this interview. So to get into more specifics, one area where the science is incredibly strong with cell phones is on male sperm health and men who carry their phones in their pockets have much higher incidences of infertility and subfertility. Right.
(15:58) I think I remember I actually think it was my mom cuz her she married a policeman and she said yeah they were finding out that the policemen with their radar machines they would put them on their laps. I remember my dad told me about that study when it came out. I was still living at home and he told me about because Yeah.
(16:15) And I was like why? He's like well they put their radar guns in their crotch while they're sitting in the car. Yeah. Oh wow. Decline decline for declines sperm counts. And we have now they're Have you heard this? This is I think her name's Dr. Swan. I want to say she's a I don't know her exact title. I was going to say endocrinologist.
(16:36) I'm not really sure, but she studies toxins and is pretty worldrenown. And I think it's her that predicts by the year 2050 sperm counts will be like zero. Have you heard this? Oh yeah. I don't know if it's zero or I don't remember specific years or numbers. I know that already around the world fertility I think it's something like down by half over the last 40 years.
(17:01) I believe EMF is a c I mean like with a lot of the let's call them the acute symptoms of EMF exposure. I believe EMF is just uh one of multiple toxic forces. And really and this is this is really in your guys' wheelhouse. what what humanity is responding to actually all life on earth is responding to is an overflowing toxic load because EMF is just one of the toxins that we are polluting our environment with and so there's I believe the drop in fertility is due to multiple toxic factors but I will say in the studies that I'm talking about when men stop
(17:39) carrying their phones in their pockets their sperm health improves within 24 hours because sperm regenerates every 24 hours. And so that shows a real cause and effect relationship. We need to bring back the man first. Yeah. Well, that's a bunch of the products I make are specifically designed to make it safer to carry your phone.
(18:05) So, I have pouches, fanny packs, sling bags, purses. You're bringing back the 80s. R. We went to an 80s party this week. We just went to an 80s party and I made Ron wear a fanny cap with his mullet. Yeah. But he did. Bronze a per. He did it. Oh, I'll send you one of mine. I have one that could go at an 80s party. Okay. That's vegan leather. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. You're all in.
(18:28) That's right. The um endocrine disrupting chemicals that we've got in parabens and phalates and BPA and plastics and the pesticides, the atrizine, which has been proven to turn male frogs into female frogs. That was a study out of Berkeley. Yeah. at the feminization of these frogs, male frogs that were um laying eggs, creating eggs, and then some of them turned into full females. This is fact, you guys. This is I know this sounds crazy.
(18:55) No, it's absolutely fact. Sometimes this happens due to just increases in ocean temperature because due to changing climate and some of these species they've just evolved so that the temperature of the environment helps determine their sex and genitalia.
(19:22) And so it's not even that this stuff is toxic or not toxic, my perspective, it's that we've we're changing our environment. so rapidly that life requires a certain amount of stability. I'm not talking just about, you know, nice financial security, a good 401k. I'm talking about how much radiation is in the air in your environment, what the temperature is outside, how much it's raining where you live.
(19:48) All the life around you depends exactly on what the temperature is and how much rain there is. And if it changes, I mean, like if I moved my climate from behind me up to where you guys are, there would be tons and tons of mudslides, right? But it's not that this environment is toxic. It's that it is completely different from the environment that you guys are in.
(20:14) And so if you're constantly changing at such a crazy pace, life doesn't have a chance to stabilize. And so all of these forces become toxic. That's happening in California. Have you heard about the sand loosening under the homes? If you go up into Palos Ferdes, the Wayfar's Chapel, a famous chapel by Frank Lloyd, Wright, which is was stunning. I've been there a few times.
(20:36) They had to tear the entire thing down because the ground is slipping. The reasons are a lot. This ground is loosening. It's in areas. It's really kind of scary. But yeah, we've just kind of gone through life like using taking from nature with like lack of respect for the natural environment and even the animals and like you said the birds and the insects like people not really thinking about the consequences of these choices even the chemicals the chemicals that Ron and I like focus on it's so devastating.
(21:09) Then when you, you know, when you combine, so when you combine these chemicals with the EMF, these forces, then you've got like a really really Yeah. an overflowing toxic load. Yeah. 100% 100%. Yeah. And everyone's so worried about 5G. Give us a little input on 4G, 5G, 6G. What's what's down, right? I mean, it's just more.
(21:35) And just to give people an understanding very top level of why it's so much so even if 5G hadn't come along every year there would be more wireless devices because that's just where technology is going. Whether it's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G, you'd have I mean a few years ago your thermostat wasn't going to be an a source of EMF and now it is. Your door lock wouldn't be a source of EMF.
(21:59) Your doorbell wouldn't be a source of but all of these things are becoming new sources of EMF. it would be growing anyway. Your meters, your water meter, your gas, anyone paying attention to that thing about 5G that I would like people to understand is that it was engineered, yes, to be faster so that you can download a movie in a nancond because we all need to do that.
(22:24) It wasn't just engineered to be faster. It was engineered to support orders of magnitude more devices on the network. And so by deploying 5G, they're creating a landscape for the rate of growth to accelerate in terms of the number of these sources around us. And so that is the part about 5G that I think is most harmful to human health.
(22:52) I don't believe that the 5G frequencies are inherently worse or better than the 4G frequencies. we do tend to find clustering of different health effects at different frequencies. So like at least in terms of what the science says. So for instance, the melanomas were really in the science linked to FM radio.
(23:18) That doesn't mean other forms of EMF don't cause melanomas, but that at least that's what the science says. Whereas brain tumors are obviously more linked to cell phones and cordless phones. You can see clustering of specific diseases appear in the science based on different frequencies, but there are no frequencies that haven't yielded that have said, oh, oh, that's safe.
(23:42) Let's roll that out unregulated. Yeah, I was going to say Brad, when you asked your question earlier, it's like what's the perception on is it safe or not. It depends who you ask. If you ask the cell phone industry, everything's safe, right? Well, no. Yeah. I mean, if you ask them, yes. But if you read their manuals, no.
(24:00) Right. So I mean this is the whole reason that cell phone radiation regulations exist. Is because even the most bought and paid for regulatory authority in the entire world says, "Hey man, there's a limit to how much this can emit because over that limit it starts to get dangerous." The thing is is not only is that limit way too high, but they don't actually even enforce that limit.
(24:26) But the whole reason the limit exists is because everyone actually when push comes to shove agrees this stuff is harmful. And if you read the iPhone manual, you're not supposed to hold it against your body. Well, that's strong, right? In the fine. Who's reading that that pamphlet? Yeah, exactly. Print, right? And so I guess R did. You read it, right? Sounds like you. Yeah, I've I've read a lot of these kind stories. His dad read it, too.
(24:52) I think I talk about this and I've talked about it a lot. But I think it's inempowered, but there's a model of a Dell laptop. They call it a laptop. They don't try to cover it and say, "No, it's a notebook." It's a laptop that if you read the manual, you're not supposed to use within 8 in of I hope it's not mine.
(25:10) I'm on a double right now. That's what I'm looking at, too. But I'm wired. I'm wired up right now. Yeah. But no, laptop I mean, that's good. That helps. But laptops are also big sources of the low the extremely low frequency right radiation that comes from electronics. I wonder you'll have to send us the the model. I'd like to put that in uh you'd model that.
(25:33) Are from your research I mean do you suspect this is all nefarious by nature or this in or is it just negligence? So to step back a little bit in and when I say a little bit I'm talking about a hundred years or so uh even 200 years. The science around electromagnetism it's really only like 300 maybe 400 years old depending on how you want to count it. They apparently have found some ancient batteries from Baghdad.
(26:01) So that would be we watch ancient aliens too. In fact, uh, yes, aid have the big light bulb in the But in general, the scientists like Galvani Faraday was in the the 19th century. But, you know, we're talking the last 3 400 years. So, it doesn't go back that long. And as it was emerging, the belief was this stuff was actually benign.
(26:28) And that was my father was one of the leading advocates on EMF health effects. And yet he didn't learn that this type of EMF was bioactive until 1987. And so he got through two graduate programs at the two of the leading universities in the world and became a professor at Columbia University Medical School teaching this. And so he went through all that time firmly believing that this form of EMF was benign.
(26:59) It was safe. And it was only when he started in 1987 when he met Dr. Reeba Goodman and they ended up doing a lot of work together over the years. That was when he started realizing that that assumption was wrong. Good for him for admitting that and sticking to Yeah, he follows. He was definitely all about the science. there was no room for anything that couldn't be measured in our house.
(27:24) But the reason I give that background is because I believe that people really believed that. But then there was a lot of science emerging. I mean by the time I in 1987 it had been you know 40 years since the end of World War II and the 1940s 1950s 1960s the military both the US and Soviet had done tremendous amount of research into this because they were concerned about their militaries and all of these and so the body of science that's a great point wasn't the microwave created by the Russians for like a portable military device to heat
(27:59) food wasn't that initially then it was banned I am not aware of that origin. Supposedly the scientist who discovered it, the candy bar melted in his pocket. That's the story I've read. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if it were a military invention.
(28:18) And I actually don't know which came first, the microwave or the television, because they're very, very similar, just very different power levels, obviously. Just quickly to wrap back to finish that point, I believe that people honestly like for hundreds of years believed this stuff was safe and there wasn't enough of it in the environment to really change anybody's mind or make it a pressing social issue.
(28:39) And but as the technology started it spreading and as the science continued evolving, there was I believe very significant corporate interest aligned against legitimizing the reasonable conclusion that the of the story the science is telling us. And overpowered goes into great depth about how business has corrupted EMF science.
(29:04) empowered the new book because again it's more about protection but I do include a chapter in there about it as well because I think it's very important to the story. It's very similar to how big tobacco fought back basic regulations for decades and decades on something where the public health science was obvious to and like you're inhaling tar. Yeah.
(29:27) You know like how is this 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette I believe. Yeah. Including from Yeah. And so and I cite some of this work in empowered uh there's multiple reviews of the science that correlates funding source to conclusion right so like if a wireless company is funding a study it's 73% likely to show that EMF is fine if the source is public funding it's like 85% likely to show negative health effects and so at a certain point Yeah, the switch flipped, right? So, I think it started with just a basic assumption that turned out to be very very wrong
(30:09) that this stuff was safe and then as things started to change, the money got behind reinforcing the status quo. Mhm. Yeah. It's so true. We saw Dr. George Carlo. Do you know him? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. He Carlo. Yeah. Dr. George Carlo. Yeah. He started the safe wireless initiative years ago and wrote a book called invisible hazards of the wireless age. That was a while ago.
(30:36) A very well-known book. Yeah. He actually was hired by the telecommunications industry to fund a was it 25 year study or 10 year study. It was a very long study with a group of scientists. Basically, they wanted him to prove that it was safe. And of course, he found out the opposite.
(30:56) And when he brought the reports to them of the findings, he was cut off, the study was cancelled, everybody was fired, and somebody tried to burn his house down. And he really, if you ever hear him give a talk, it's like riveting. There's multiple story. I don't cover that level of drama and empowered, but in overpowered, you know, because my father was friends with a lot of these people. Yeah.
(31:22) So, we cover a lot more of that in Overpowered. Okay. Yeah. No, I love the hands-on. It's it's gets so interesting to get into, you know, the conspiracies, you know, whatever you want to call it, but that I should say the truth behind a lot of this, but at the end of the day, I love that you made such a practical tool. That's what we behind, too.
(31:46) Because you know when Ron and I started and down this path, we would give talks and we get so much into the chemical and how it's made and this and people are like, I don't care like just tell me what how to avoid it. What do I need? And that's gotten more and more, you know? Well, so if I may, this was something I thought of earlier and then and then got sidetracked by your guys's charisma.
(32:06) We were talking about just the wide variety of overwhelming quantity of toxins in our environments. And one of the reasons I mean obviously one of the reasons I focus on EMF is because of the legacy of my father and my work with him. But another one of the reasons I like focusing on EMF is because it is fundamentally different from many other types of toxins and not all but many other types of toxins in our environment in that you can really control how much of this you're exposed to with personal behavior. Now you can't control all of it. I want to underscore that for everybody. There is no going to a zero
(32:46) EMF lifestyle unless you want to move to the Sahara Desert and live like you're in in like the 1850s. If you're living in modern society, even in a rural area, if you're living in modern society, you're getting exposure, but you still have a tremendous amount of control over how much of it you're exposed to.
(33:10) And just learning about Give us a list of some free things that people can do without spending a dime. Yeah. Well, that I mean the big one is not carrying your phone in your pocket or putting it into airplane mode if you do. The cell phones are tremendously highowered devices. They need to be able to communicate over miles, right? Your laptop doesn't need to communicate over miles to your Wi-Fi router, but your cell phone needs to communicate over miles if that's where the closest tower is.
(33:41) And the cell card is just the modem is just one of the wireless connections in your phone, right? Cuz it also has Wi-Fi. It also has Bluetooth. It also has NFC, a near field communication, like for Apple Pay and Google Pay. It has GPS. So, it has multiple wireless connections. The cell one is the most powerful, but again, not the only one. And they're all additive.
(34:06) And when it's right against your body, you're getting the maximum possible dose of it. And if you're carrying it in your pocket, odds are you're not carrying it in your pocket for 10 seconds. You're probably carrying it in your pocket for hours, day in and day out. And it's also right near your reproductive organs, which are particularly vulnerable, especially on men because they're outside of the body.
(34:33) whereas ovaries are at least have some shielding right of the the body itself. So it's a massively powered device. It's directly against the body for extended periods of time. And I personally believe that for most people, carrying their cell phone in their pocket is the single largest source of EMF in their lives until they stop carrying it in their pocket or put it into airplane mode.
(35:04) Is airplane mode enough or do you have to turn off your Bluetooth, turn off everything on the phone? Depends how you've set up your phone. So when I say airplane mode, I do mean all of them. Okay. Okay. And by Bluetooth, Wi-Fi off. Yeah. Yeah. Every phone I've ever gotten by default, that's what happens because that's what's supposed to happen on an airplane.
(35:27) But if you start training your phone, so you put it into airplane mode, but you turn on the Wi-Fi, then it can start changing its behavior. So, you definitely want to make sure that you're doing full airplane mode. That said, if all you can do is turn off the Wi-Fi, but you still have to keep the phone on, that's better than having both the phone and the Wi-Fi on.
(35:52) Okay, that's such a great knock out is helpful to your total exposure, right? If you need to make a call and that's it. Turn off the Wi-Fi, turn off the Bluetooth, you can't turn off that other one you mentioned. Well, the Google privacy, if you turn on your privacy, you basically shut off any location tracking. Correct.
(36:10) Like, does the turning off of privacy locations? I'm saying location. Yeah, I'm not an expert on this. I'm actually running a webinar on Thursday with someone who is company called above above phone that we sell in the shield your body store that is a deled Android phone. And when I hear him talk about how these phones work, even when you think you're protecting yourself, why not protecting yourself? And can I say about the privacy issues too, a little tip for listeners, if you go into your settings and then you scroll down to where all your apps are, go in and turn off all the microphones
(36:44) and cameras on apps that you don't actually need at that moment. Like I do that constantly cuz boom, I'll be on Instagram. I need to put the camera and mic on to record something and then maybe forget to turn it back off.
(37:02) So, it's a constant going in there and just make it like a healthy habit that you do daily or every couple days. And the tracking, what I've discovered is if you go into settings, privacy, you can go into location services, turn that off. I don't think you have any tracking because your map won't even work. Your map I don't I just don't believe that.
(37:21) I certainly don't believe it from Google and I don't think I even believe it from Apple that it's actually turned off that it's fully fully turned like I'm sure it disables a bunch of the functionality but I mean that's just not how these companies operate. It's not how the technology is built. They want your data. They make money off that's how they make money.
(37:39) They make money off of seizing your data and radiating your body. So R do you have the latest and greatest mobile phone or do you have an old phone? I do not. Uh, you have a flip phone? No, I don't. I need a smartphone. I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S22. So, that is I think 3 years old at this point. Okay. And before that, I had an iPhone 6.
(38:04) Oh, you're like six for dear life. Yeah, I had that for like five years. So, I've gone through two smartphones in eight years. I don't plan to to move on yet. Yeah, I think we're all the same there. Like I hang on as long as I can until you can't download certain apps anymore because your iOS is too old and your phone doesn't support it. That's usually when I go, "Okay, I have no choice." Yeah.
(38:29) And my camera is fantastic on the S22. I mean, I'm sure it would be better if I got the S25, but you know, it's fantastic. You're never going to stop coming out with newer and newer. I think every time they come out with a newer version, you're giving up more, right? You're giving up more privacy that they're more powerful.
(38:47) What do you think about that scandal, I guess I'll call it, that happened a couple years ago when they were finding out the iPhone 12 was emitting really high levels and then they did a patch of an update. Was that legit? I was like, how would the software update? Yeah, I remember this.
(39:05) But well, how could a software because the software controls the cards and so it could throttle communication protocols so that the radi right because the more data you have to transmit and the further you have to transmit it the more radiation your phone is giving out. So that's why your phone emits more radiation when you have two bars than when you have four bars.
(39:30) And it emits more radiation when you're streaming Netflix than when you're sending an SMS. And so you can control a lot of that through software. And that's how they would do that. And in answer to your question, what did I think? I was like, yeah, no kidding. Because so I do talk about this in the book. A few years ago, the French government did an audit of 300 different cell phones that were currently on the market, and they found that 88% of them, almost nine out of 10 of them, emitted more radiation than they said they did, and several emitted more radiation than
(40:09) was legally allowed and had to be pulled off the market. And people can read about this. I talk about it in empowered, but if you just Google phone gate, it'll come up because that's the name that the scientist who wrote about it gave it. It touches on something I hinted at earlier and that I go into depth in on the book, which is I said that the the FCC regulations are just not enforced. And it's because they're not enforced.
(40:38) People think that when the FCC regulates how much radiation a cell phone emits, that means the FCC tests how much radiation a cell phone emits. But they don't do that. The manufacturers themselves do the testing, which means they completely control the environment. They completely control the test setup and they get to create results that are the ones they want to show people. And that means they're not real life results.
(41:07) And around the same time as the thing that you were talking about, Lisa, I believe it was the Chicago Tribune commissioned private testing of an iPhone and showed that it was emitting something like double what the manual said it did. And then Apple sued them saying their test was invalid because that's how these things end up.
(41:31) None of these phones are tested in any sort of way that you would think, okay, that's a legitimate test because they don't have to be. And they just get a slap on the wrist if, like you said, when they exceeded it. Oops. Okay. Slap on the wrist. There's no That wasn't even a slap on the wrist. That was a software update. Yeah. A slap on the wrist to them.
(41:49) I mean, hund00 million isn't even a slap on the wrist to them and they didn't have to pay anything. So much. Yeah. With the God, the opioid epidemic, PAS, you would mention tobacco. It's hard when these corporations aren't held liable, so why wouldn't they try to get away with things? That's why understanding the topic of EMF is important. Even if you don't feel comfortable or want to get deep into the science, at least understanding what this is, what it does to you, where it comes from, and how to reduce your exposure is so important because nobody else is going to protect you. And that's why I call this a
(42:25) survival guide or a self-defense manual because there are other people and other organizations out there that are really working for positive change. The Environmental Health Trust is one, but that's just one. There's others as well. The Environmental Health Trust is among the parties that brought suit against the FCC, forcing them to re-evaluate their cell phone radiation.
(42:51) So, there are people trying to accomplish this type of change, but you can't assume they're going to win. And it's certainly not going to happen quick, which is why you have to take the self-defense approach to this environmental toxin that is ubiquitous. It is ubiquitous and it is growing every year, right? Where can you go? Like you said, your home is probably wireless, your like you said, your Ring doorbell, your cameras, your smart TV, your your children's gaming devices, your laptops, your So don't let your kids use AirPods. So getting back to Ron about what are the or no you Lisa what are the free things
(43:24) that you can do not carrying your phone in your pocket or putting it into airplane mode if you do don't use AirPods and don't let your kids use AirPods this is amongst these technologies right that's just completely untested except you can think of them as mini Wi-Fi routers that are right next to your brain for hours at a time and that's not good and there's no way to use them more safely as I talk about in the book about a safer use of this stuff. I mean, first off, you want to minimize how much of it you use, right? So, if possible, don't
(44:00) use a Ring doorbell. Just use a doorbell doorbell, right? I mean, that's what we have. But once you're using it, there's uh two ways to use it more safely. One is to create more distance, which we just talked about with the cell phones, right? Why you don't want them in your pocket. create more distance because the power of the radiation diminishes exponentially with distance.
(44:24) And then the other is to use shielding products like the ones I talk about in Empowered and sell in my store, Shield Your Body. And shielding works just like a window shade or just like sunblock. And so it blocks and deflects radiation. But in order for shielding to work, it has to go in between the source of the radiation and your body or whatever you're trying to protect.
(44:52) There's no way to use AirPods at a greater distance and there's no way to put shielding in between the AirPod and your head. There's literally no way to use them more safely and you can't use them in airplane mode, right? I mean, so there's no safe way to use that technology. The aerot tube headset you sell on your site, correct? Yes.
(45:11) So, but any wired headset is better than a wireless headset. But then within wired headsets, there are anti-radiation ones like the air tubes I make and sell. And those replace the wire with air silicone air tubes. Those are great. I recommend them. Love them. Love those. You don't lose any quality. At least I haven't ever noticed it. Right. You don't lose. People think they're gonna have to die.
(45:36) They're not as good as my Sennheis these are Sennheisers. They're not as good as anywhere close to this, but yeah. No, but I mean I love them. I use air tubes and I use them for calls and podcasts. For those who want to preserve audio fidelity and anyone who's watching on video can see this, this is one of my products.
(45:55) It's called the hard this white thing here. It's a cell phone radiation filter for your headphones. Oh. So, so you can use any H hard headset anti-radiation device and you can use any pair of headphones or earbuds with it and it'll filter out. So, it has the same impact as using ear tubes except you can use whatever 3.5 mm headphones or headset you want. Oh, nice.
(46:29) So, what's the price point in US dollars? I believe the hard is about $45 and the air tubes very nominal. Very nominal. Air tubes are about the same. Yeah, I think they're both about $45. Yeah. And do you sell the Faraday cages for meters? For meters? No, I don't sell those. Okay. I do talk about them in the book and explain how they work.
(46:51) Those are super valid technology, right? Anything that's based on shielding has a chance. And so in the book I actually there's a whole chapter explaining what shielding is, right? Because a lot of consumers if they're just looking for EMF protection, they're going to find a lot of different things online like you said pendants. Yeah.
(47:15) And so I have a whole chapter explaining what shielding is and how it works. I mean this is technology that now goes back this is almost 200 years. Michael Faraday invented the Faraday cage in 1836. And this is the same basic technology except the Faraday cage a it was made out of very very thick metal.
(47:34) We now can engineer very very fine metallic weaves but also the Faraday cage is designed to completely surround something whereas the vast majority of EMF shielding products are just designed to shield in a very specific spot and to deflect in the other direction. So, but it's the same technology that's been in use now for like I say almost 200 years and that stands apart from other forms of products that claim to provide protection.
(48:05) Do you sell anything for your router? I mean, we have an automatic that we turn off, but do you have a fabric or a casing to put on your router? Yes. Oh, you do? Okay. Yes. The signal tamer. Signal. That's like a sleeping bag for your Well, I shouldn't call it a sleeping bag because it doesn't put it to sleep. It's like a pouch, but it's a full pouch for your Wi-Fi router. And you cover the router with it and then you uncover it just like a little bit like you're rolling up the skirt and until you get the coverage that you want in your home.
(48:33) And so in practice, you're cutting out 85 90% of the radiation because people don't realize just how overpowered these Wi-Fi routers are. The same Wi-Fi router standard was designed to power an office of 100 employees. Oh wow. But it's the same technology that you have in your, you know, thousand foot home where you have four people living. And so these are just super overpowered devices.
(48:59) So you can slash the radiation and still enjoy wireless. Beyond that, we also carry the JRS eco router. Oh yeah, I think we talked about that last time. Mhm. Is a low EMF Wi-Fi router. So instead of actually using shielding, Yan Rutker, the inventor, actually just went in and reprogrammed the firmware because that's the kind of guy he is.
(49:24) Instead of like pinging 10 times a second, it pings once a second. And instead of constantly transmitting signals, it's only transmitting when there's an active connection. And you can actually use a dial on the side to fine-tune how much power you want it sending out. Okay? If you feel like you're not getting enough, so you don't need to use shielding.
(49:48) Basically, it's 90% less EMF when you're using it and 100% less EMF when you're not using it. And is it a wire connection as well in addition to being wireless? Is it dual? Yes, it is. It's dog. You can switch it. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Right about the time this episode's coming out, the new model will be up on the website. Excellent. Great. Okay. So important.
(50:11) Oh, and also the book Empowered does explain how to hardwire your own home, giving step-by-step instructions, as well as alternatives if you don't want to run Ethernet cables around your whole house. They're power line adapters that you can use so you can use your electrical circuitry to conduct the internet around your house. That's actually what I use here because I have solid concrete walls.
(50:35) I don't have drywall and it was just the project would have been crazy and so I just used the power line adapters to to hard wire my home. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. I say listeners ours said turning your phone on airplane mode and then also turning that router off wireless router off at night and or shielding it at night or or and or during the day something with the router.
(50:59) That's another biggie because you don't have to be exposed eight hours while you're sleeping every night. It's completely useless exposure when you think about it. You're not benefiting from that. In fact, you're harming yourself and you don't have to do that. It's not like you're on your computer in the middle of the night. So, I love how you're quote unquote empowering people to live a better life without listening hiding in the woods against the other one, you and your dad's.
(51:23) So, the big thing, can you leave listeners with kids and why this is so important for babies and children? Because we see little kids all the time now on their wireless devices non-stop. You can't go out to dinner where the kids not get the iPad slapped in its face and you know, everywhere you go, that's the new babysitting tool.
(51:43) So yeah, the younger you are, the more vulnerable you are to damage from these toxic forces. Obviously in uterero, you're going to be the most vulnerable. Other science that I cite in the book about miscarriage rates for women with higher EMF exposure being almost three times higher than the control group. And that's just one example. There's an overpowered we talk actually a lot more about this linking it not just to obvious birth defects but increased EMF exposure in uterero leading to incidence of asthma at the age of 13 right so these can be delayed onset health effects the younger you are the more vulnerable I used in uterero is the most
(52:24) but then at babies and then kids and even teens and there's a few reasons for this I'll cover some of the big ones A, they're smaller. The same amount of radiation. If that penetrates a half inch into me, that's a lot less of a percentage of my body than a half inch into a fetus or a baby or a child or even teenager. Yeah.
(52:56) Their cells are dividing much more rapidly. So any cellular damage is going to replicate much more rapidly. Yeah. And they have much longer to live with the impact of that damage. Right. So if I have a damaged cell now older, if I have a damaged cell now, right, I mean I'm going to have to live hopefully 40, 50 years with it. whereas a 5-year-old is going to have to live for, you know, 70, 80 by then, who knows, 90, 100 more years with it, right? And so there's more time for that damaged cell to yield more damage on the other side to yield disease outcomes. And so those are three of the reasons why I mean
(53:41) there's plenty of others that get more involved in the science. You know, brains are wetter, the blood brain barrier, correct? That uh Yes. So bloodb brain barrier leakage is another one of the wellestablished health effects.
(54:00) I mean you guys probably know a lot more about the impact of that than I do, but the bloodb brain barrier keeps a lot of important things out of your brain when EMF exposure makes it more permeable. So things that shouldn't be getting into your brain are getting into your brain and that has all sorts of negative outcomes, right? And the stress and anxiety, you know, I don't know if you've read the reports about like teens today, the stress and anxiety and depression is astronomical right now.
(54:26) And if you meet a teen, I mean, every time I talk to a teen, like we have a lot of friends with teenage kids, they'll tell you, "Oh, yeah, our generation is really, really stressed. Oh, yeah." Or this one's on an anti-depressant or behavioral drug or whatever. Like, it's real. It's a real issue. I think it's from just non-stop screen time.
(54:46) Not only I think when the phone is the source of so many different toxins, right? So it's the EMF, it's the peer pressure, it's the addictive technology design, it's the cyber bullying, it's the non-stop accessibility. So you have all of these multiple forces represented in that one device that when it yields negative outcomes like suicidal ideiation, I think it's very hard to tease apart, you know, how much of that is EMF, how much of that is Facebook, how much of that is the bully at school, right? And what it really is is that phone, you need to put some guidelines around it. You need guidelines, parents. Don't be
(55:27) like you're you're not here to be your your kid's best friend and give them everything they ask for. You need to have ground rules. it's protecting them and they'll be happier and healthier cuz it's really sad. I feel bad. We run and I always say I'm so glad we didn't grow up with phones.
(55:45) I can't even imagine like we feel it as adults, right? You'll scroll through and like next thing you know an hour went by and yeah, I was just on a podcast cuz I'm on podcast now talking about the book. So, I was just on another one with a couple of hosts that are more or less my age, and the conversation started kind of like this, and then we got in down memory lane about corded phones and how when you were on a call, you had to kind of like dance around when the other person was trying to pass you in the house.
(56:10) With the long horde, the long Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Remember when we upgraded to a room? I like how Lisa and I are pretending like we have no idea what that is. When was it? I I don't remember that. Call waiting. I remember call waiting all the time. Someone would be trying to call. I remember when that was invented. Right.
(56:29) Right. That was actually so funny. I love it. We grew up really simpler time. Answering machines. We had, you know, it wasn't even voicemail. It was actually these machines with little tape and stuff. Yeah. You had to change, you had to play the tape. Yeah.
(56:48) I think people were generally calmer and happier and you know, we were outside more. or we had nothing else to do. So, I think we need to get back to that. I think we need balance. We're just the pendulum has swung so far, you know, and like with all these advances, why are people happier? Why are people more depressed and more overweight and all of this than ever? So, it's something that we all need to take a good heart. Yeah.
(57:07) When we talk about toxins, social forces can be toxins as well. 100%. And again, I think it part of it is I mean, when we look at things, it's easy for us to feel like, "Oh my god, that crap is toxic." But the other side of it goes back to what I was saying earlier, which is it's not just that. It's how quickly things are changing and how there's no stability and how there's like nothing you can just like get a baseline around and that's disruptive to every aspect of life.
(57:40) physiological, biological, physical, mental, emotional. So it's all of these forces. I believe the real toxicity is coming from the rate of change in our environments. Not giving any any grace to biology to have time to catch up, right? That's so well said. Great thing to leave listeners with.
(58:06) If you had anything that you hope every listener walks away with understanding after reading your new book, Empowered, what would that be? Oh, well, that you are in control. Again, you're not in control. You can't get to zero, but within the range of reasonable outcomes, you have a tremendous amount of control.
(58:30) Protection products can help, but it's really the knowledge and the behavior that really helps and that sets the groundwork for everything you can do in your life. EMF can be very scary for a lot of people, especially when they come to it because the science is so like we started with like it's every it's we see the effects in every biological system that's over and you can't see it, you can't smell it, you can't touch it, you can't taste it, but everything emits it and all the tech you love emits it and your kids are addicted to it and so it just becomes this overpowering force and it can be
(59:01) easy to be really intimidated, can be easy to be afraid and it can be easy to hesitate to take action. And empowered exists to really demystify the process of empowering yourself to demystify the landscape of information from misinformation and to help people decipher what is real protection and what is snake oil. There's a lot of snake oil out there. I see some crazy things.
(59:32) That'll be another show. But we need to have you back talk about snake oil products to be aware of. And also, I love what you said and just knowing that not only are you in control, that every little thing does matter. So, yes, people get overwhelmed, especially with chemicals and things. They'll say, "Uh, it's too much. I can't do it." Well, just do one thing.
(59:50) Just change that laundry detergent to a non-toxic. Just reduce, you know, turn your phone on airplane. You don't have to. Rome wasn't built in a day. And I think that's where people get overwhelmed. Just like a diet, you know, you're not going to lose 20 pounds in a week, but you're going to take this baby steps and then before you know it, you're reducing your toxic body burden and so you're going to be getting closer to the finish line with every Yeah, exactly.
(1:00:15) Very well said, Ron. Did you have any last words? I was taking away I feel so empowered right now. Right. So, it's great. From overowered to empowered. Yeah. So, thank you for your work, Ari. You really are a catalyst out there for change. So, we appreciate you. Thank you. And if I if I may, yeah, the book is Empowered.
(1:00:32) It comes out on September 15th and your listeners can sign up for the weight list at shieldyoubody.com/mpowered. And on launch day, we're going to have really special pricing because we really want to tweak the Amazon algorithm. So, if you want this information, you want it to reach more people and you want to get it at a super great price, sign up for the weight list at shieldyoubody.com/empowered and you'll get the buy link as soon as it's available.
(1:00:59) Perfect. And that's a perfect gift, guys. It'll be just in time for the holidays. So, thank you so much for being with us today, R and friends. You can learn more about ours work and find everything you need to protect yourself from the dangers of EMS and reduce your daily exposures at shieldyoubody.com.
(1:01:16) And we'll put the link to this and his book in the show notes. Yes. And as always, you can find those show notes at healthyomehacks.com. And please, if you are not subscribed to the show, make sure you subscribe and also give an amazing rating for R and the work that he's doing for this show. Thanks everyone.
(1:01:34) We appreciate you and thank you R. Thanks so much. Thank you guys so much. Have a good day everyone. This episode of the Healthy Home Hacks podcast has ended, but be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you've always dreamed of.
(1:01:57) And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode. [Music]