Transcript
A (0:00)
They realized that that iPad on the nightstand, they were only using it for music during the kids bedtime routine. All they had to do was put it in airplane mode. That was solved right there. So the lesson there is download all your stuff. Once it's on there, turn off the antennas and you can use the device without radiating yourself. And then they hardwired the laptop and turned off the antennas. And she called to tell me that her little guy slept through the night for the first time in his life. I said, how old is your little guy? And she goes, two and a half. And as parents, we know if the children aren't sleeping, we're all knuckle dragging, right? So for two and a half years, that family really struggled. And then, you know, I got off the phone that day. This was early on in my journey. I just started sobbing because with just one hour with her, we made life changing impacts for that entire family.
B (1:02)
If you're a parent of a child with autism, you are being called to rise with love, courage and clarity. This journey isn't easy and most parents aren't equipped, but you can be. This podcast is your invitation to rise higher because how you navigate matters. Hi, I'm Len and this is Autism Parenting Secrets, where you become the parent your child needs now. Hello and welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets. Today we're taking a closer look at one of the most overlooked environmental stressors affecting our kids, wireless technology. From WI fi to Bluetooth to cell phones, these exposures are absolutely everywhere. And for sensitive kids, they can make a real difference. So I'm joined today by Cece Doucet. She's the director of Massachusetts for Safe Technology and our frequent speaker and collaborator with Children's Health Defense. She's been a leading voice in helping schools, towns and families understand the science and to make practical, safer choices. Her work is empowering and incredibly timely. The secret this week is wireless safety starts at home. Welcome, cece.
A (2:18)
Thank you so much, Len. It's an honor to be with you and your listeners today.
B (2:21)
The honor is all mine and I'm excited for everyone to be able to hear your voice. I know we saw each other a couple weeks ago at the Children's Health Defense Conference, and I know there you were part of the presentations and a part of the messaging there. So maybe we start there with why were you at that conference and what was the key message you really wanted to convey there?
A (2:42)
Thank you. I was honored to moderate the wireless radio panel and the good folks at Children's Health Defense, led by attorney Miriam eckenfels. And Scott McCullough have launched a new project called 704 no More. And 704 is the section of the Telecommunications act from 1996. We won't get too geeky on you here, but that's the section that has led our local towns to believe we don't have a. As to where cell towers get installed. So what Children's Health Defense is doing is launching a new campaign called 704 no More. And they are mobilizing to come up with case studies and to come up with angles to go to the courts with to say, look, the FCC really is not a health agency. They should not be the ones determining if or where a cell tower can go in our community. So we need to restore local control. And so that is at the community level. So for anybody who wants, they can go out to 704no more, I think it's.org and learn more about that. But the things that we do have control over, I think are well worth spending the next few minutes talking about, because I didn't know anything about wireless radiation. And in fact, it turns out I. I was really on the wrong side of the fence with this. I'm in a small town in Ashland, Massachusetts, and we were starting to hear about this 21st century classroom when my daughters were in school. They're now 27 and 30, but when they were little, we're a little small town that doesn't have money. I mean, we were rubbing our nickels together just to get the basic materials in our classrooms. So good doobie parents, we jumped in and started fundraising, and we got wireless infrastructure, and we got iPads and smart boards and Chromebooks and, you know, all what we thought was gonna give our kids a leg up in our technological world. And then one night at Book Group, my girlfriend Wendy, who's an electrical engineer, she told us she was reading a book called Zapped by Ann Louise Gittleman. And she started sharing with us that there's something wrong with wireless. You know, it was Book Group. That wasn't the book our group was reading. So I just made a mental note of it and kind of filed it away. But then not long after that, it crossed my desk that the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in 2012, had put out a position statement to school superintendents saying, please don't let wireless into your schools. I was like, wow, what is this? So I'm a technical and professional writer by trade, and I just thought, hmm, is there any science behind this? And I was just astounded. Lynn, you don't even have to look far, you just need to know to look. And I found literally thousands of peer reviewed studies showing this man made radio frequency, non ionizing, non thermal, low level radiation is doing extensive harm. And back then there was an incredible document available called the Bioinitiative Report and it summarized many of the studies from around the world. And so I started looking through the Bioinitiative report and wow, you just look at the table of contents and they're talking about cancers and infertility and neurotoxicity and Dr. Martha Herbert, who many of your listeners may already know, Dr. Herbert, she's just so incredible. And how nice was it to put our arms around her at the CHD conference and give her a big hug and reconnect with her there. But with her documenting hope and what she put in the bioinitiative Report, I was able to read through that and go, wow, we have really got to get a handle on these environmental experiments exposures. So I'm so very grateful for all the doctors and scientists. And when I finally wrapped my head around this, I went to my schools and I thought I would raise my hand and say, hey folks, we have a problem here. And I thought they would clear the building like we do if there's a gas leak in the science lab or something, right? But I got back crickets. And so I kept digging and I found that the French National Library in 2008 took wireless out because of health concerns. I saw that schools in Italy and Belgium and Israel were already taking wireless out of the classroom. So I'm like, wow, you know, everyone's going to love this, I'm going to share it, we're going to fix it. But boy, was I mistaken. I sadly discovered that most of our public servants are not public leaders. They seem to be enmeshed in systems that keep them in a silo that they can't often step outside of it without fear of retribution to their jobs. Right? So it's really a rock and a hard place. But we did manage to have these conversations with my children's schools. And Ashland Public Schools became the first in the nation to even post a sign in our classrooms with best practices for mobile devices that says turn these devices off when not in use. Turn WI fi on only when needed. So don't leave these laptop carts and tablets now just sitting there pulsing away. And always use the device on a solid surface and keep your distance from something that's radiating. So I think what got my schools to take action on this was when we brought up the legal aspect of this because who would know that in the legal section of your device there is a disclaimer in there saying keep it away from you? And nobody's ever read that. So real quick, for anybody listening who's not driving in your car, but if you have an iPhone, for example, you can go right into the settings, from settings, go down just a little bit and hit general and then scroll down to the bottom and you'll see legal and regulatory go on to the next screen and about four down from the top you see RF exposure. That's the radio frequency radiation. Sometimes it's called wireless radiation, Sometimes it's called EMFs or electromagnetic fields. But it's really all this man made radiation. And at the bottom of the first big paragraph, they say we tested this at a distance, distance from the body. What they're not telling you though, is for all these many services, for convenience that they've given us, there's a separate antenna mounted in that device. So you've got a separate antenna for cellular and data, for Bluetooth, for WI fi, for hotspot, for locator, for 5G, and any other fun little doodads they've given us. And each one of those is set separately. Pulsing microwave radiation to send and receive the data. So you go down a little further in their disclaimer and it says to reduce your exposure. Basically, once you know, don't touch something that's radiating, it's a really bad idea. They say to reduce your exposure, use a hands free option like the speakerphone, which is a good first start, or the headsets. Well, we want to be very careful, especially, especially those earbuds because you're literally putting a microwave transmitter on both sides of your brain. So it's talking through your brain with microwaves and then it's connecting to your device that maybe you've shoved in your bra or your suit pocket or your shirt pocket or your yoga pants waistband or your back pocket. And by the way, we're now seeing colon and rectal cancers doubling and quadrupling even among the young. And breast cancers for men and women. And we see hand cancers, we see a spiked increase in glioblastomas, which are the very highly deadly brain tumors that used to be unheard of years ago. So glioblastomas, acoustic neuromas, thyroid cancers, we're literally microwaving ourselves. And it's invisible and it's cumulative over time. So you might not feel it today, but tonight might be the tipping point right where your body's just raising the red flag going, dude, I can't do this anymore. And I know Dr. Martha Herbert talks about that. There's an award winning film called Generation Zapped that was released in 2018, but it's still, I think, one of the best ways to meaningfully open this conversation. So have a potluck supper, invite your friends over, invite the adolescents. Right. Invite the parents of the kids that your kids hang out with. Break bread together. Everyone brings a dish, they feel like they're part of something. And then watch Generation Zap together. And a little bit of my work with the schools was featured in there. And then Dr. Martha Herbert was featured in there. And she talks about that tipping point, right? Where as you know, as a dad of a child on the spectrum, there are so many environmental factors. And because this one is invisible, it's really easy to just go, meh. I'll deal with that later.
