Sunday night I enjoyed an edition of Report, an Italian TV show, which presented a translated edition of Paul Kenyon’s “WiFi: a warning signal”, a BBC show. Kenyon’s thesis was straight forward: we know little about the biological effects of electromagnetic fields (RF). Studies reported controversial findings on the issue. In this situation we should adopt a precautionary approach against radio technologies. I fully agree with this thesis, full stop.

In this post I am not going into the debate of the scientific evidences in favor or against the bio-effects of RF. I simply accept that we do not know enough and the we should be cautious. My point is that radio signals are all around us and it is almost impossible to protect ourself from this electrosmog, or is it? As I studied environmental protection in my high-school degree, I believe we should follow some simple guidelines to reduce exposure to radio waves. To be more precise, we should reduce the dose of electromagnetic energy that we receive each day.

Some simple things that we can do at no cost:

– Turn off unused electric/electronic appliances (standby mode is not good);

– Place cordless phones and its base station far from bedrooms (especially DECT phones);

– Turn off the WiFi router when unused and during night time;

– Do not keep the mobile phone in the pocket when we are indoor (we can place it at a arm’s reach when we are home or in the office);

– …

Ok, fine, I can turn off the WiFi antenna, but what about the neighbor’s antenna, which is always on? And what about the GSM mast tower sitting 100 meters from my bedroom’s window? Well, in this case things are slightly more complicated. But still there are shielding solutions that we can put in place. In particular there are metallic nets and sheets that we can put on the walls that reduce substantially the signal strength of the microwaves reaching our appartment. The caveat is that these layers needs to be grounded with proper wiring otherwise they accumulate static energy and they loose their beneficial effect.

Also, there exist a carbonic paint for the walls that has a shielding effect. It is called Yschield, produced by a German company.

In summary, while we wait for a definite answer on the biological effects of these radio-waves, we better be cautious and reduce the amount of RF energy that our body takes each day. Just in case 🙂