Just like adults, children and teens are exposed to EMFs in their homes from many sources, including smart meters, cell towers, electric wiring, wi-fi routers and a growing list of smart devices. At school they may be exposed to many more—computers and laptops, wireless printers, the cell phones and fitness trackers of their teachers and fellow students, in addition to cell towers installed on or near school grounds.
Let’s get real intelligent and learn about the effects of EMFs on the health of children and teens ... and what you can do to protect them.
Some radiation-emitting products are made just for babies. Wireless baby monitors have been around for a while. Some new products on the market are smart changing pads, smart wearable onesies, smart cribs, and smart diapers with wetness sensors. One online seller of these products advertises that they are “Smart Products for Intelligent Parents and Healthy Babies”.
Parent checking diaper on smart phone
Children and teens are more vulnerable to EMFs
Children and teens are generally at risk for the same symptoms and diseases linked to EMF exposure as adults, and for the same basic reason: damage to their body at the cellular level (see here). However, what has become clear from years of scientific studies is they are more vulnerable to EMFs than adults.
The four reasons why children and teens have higher health risks are:
1. Their heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner. This means that the same amount of radiation penetrates more deeply into their brains than adult brains and can reach the most sensitive parts.
2. Their brains have a higher water content. The higher extracellular water content of children’s brains means their brain tissues are more conductive, spreading radiation more widely and potentially amplifying the damage of exposure to EMFs.
3. They are growing. One of the cellular-level effects of EMFs is DNA damage. Because they are growing,
children’s cells are undergoing mitosis (the process of
dividing and multiplying) more rapidly than adults, and
thus DNA damage replicates more rapidly for them.
4. They are younger and have longer lifetime exposure. Greater cumulative exposure means they are more vulnerable to the long-term negative health effects of EMFs, like cancer. And with rapid advances in EMF-emitting technologies, they are increasingly exposed at earlier ages.
deeply into the brains of children