Modern society is full of technology. They surround us everywhere, from computers, tablets and laptops that we use to work, to “smart” phones that we carry with us, and movies that we broadcast via WiFi.
It would be difficult for many of us to imagine how you can spend 24 hours without using any wireless technology. Although these devices provide surprising convenience and are easy to connect, they must have large, bold warning labels on them, because their radiation was recognized by the World Health Organization as a possible class 2B carcinogenic factor, and more and more studies convincingly prove that these devices are causing serious problems with health.
Of course, children are more vulnerable to the effects of this type of radiation than adults, and unborn children are the most vulnerable of all. A study by scientists from Kaiser Permanente, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed that when pregnant women are exposed to non-ionizing radiation from magnetic fields, such as radiation from power lines, transformers, wireless devices and wireless networks, the risk of miscarriage increases by a staggering 48 percent.
Disturbing Results
In their study, Kaiser Permanente researchers monitored the effects of non-ionizing radiation on 913 pregnant women, as well as on their pregnancy outcomes, compared with 10–15 percent of miscarriages that usually affect pregnant women. They report:
Miscarriage occurred in 10.4% of women with the lowest measured exposure level (1st quartile) of non-ionizing magnetic field radiation on a normal day, and in 24.2% of women with higher measured exposure level (2nd, 3rd and 4th quartile).
The researchers asked women over 18 with a confirmed pregnancy to wear a small (slightly larger than a deck of cards) magnetic field monitoring device for 24 hours. Participants also kept a diary of their activities and were interviewed in order to better control possible interfering factors, as well as how typical their activities were on the monitoring day. Researchers controlled many variables that are known to affect the risk of miscarriage, including nausea/vomiting, a history of past miscarriages, alcohol consumption, caffeine consumption, and maternal fever and infections.
How Pregnant Women can Minimize the Risk
One of the proposals is for future mothers to keep cellular devices as far away from the abdomen as possible and not to carry them close to their bodies, for example, in their pockets.
- Another good idea is to use a hands-free headset whenever possible and keep smart wireless devices in flight mode when they are not actively used. It is important to try to minimize the time spent on talking on these devices, and if possible use an old-fashioned landline phone.
- Measure the magnetic fields of electronic devices found in your home. These include hair dryers, electric shavers, computers, televisions, microwave ovens, etc.
- Replace your bed frame with non-metallic parts to avoid permanent magnetic fields.
- Be careful when using strong magnets on your body or being close to them.
- Do not put a laptop on your belly, especially if you are pregnant.
- The last sentence is to turn off all mobile devices and routers at night since this is the time when our body repairs DNA damage.