5G/EMF/RF/ IOUT Electropollution: Existential Threat to Public Health, Companion Animals and Life on Earth? Part 2 of 3: Radio Collars
By Michael W. Fox DSc, PhD, BVetMed, MRCVS with Patricia Burke, Reprinted by permission
(In Part 1 of Dr. Fox, the Animal Doctor, began an overview of planetary electropollution.)
The use of the Internet via smartphones, laptops and tablets (users being warned to keep such devices away from various body parts) for mass entertainment, social media, gaming, pornography, market advertising and purchasing, public surveillance, spreading of disinformation and various cybercrimes and failures of cybersecurity systems are all escalating along with various military applications. 5G telecommunication systems are spreading coupled with the expanding smart/cell phone market.
This is not a neo-Luddite overstatement, but a call for sensibility by all users. Limiting daily use and market and consumer-driven content and trivial narcissistic postings would be a start. It is a boon especially for scientists and others monitoring and sharing data about the environment, endangered species and in telemedicine, disease diagnostics, monitoring and prevention, weather forecasts to support farmers and communities.
But the control, promotion and exploitation of the Internet by vested interests, commercial, political and ideological, are now well embedded. This calls for personal vigilance and disengagement apart from highly selective searches and communications germane to what Teilhard de Chardin envisioned as the common good derived from any technology, all of which come with hidden costs, risks and unforeseen consequences. Artificial intelligence in the foreseeable future for analytical purposes and to fact-check and make all internet entries verifiably truthful may be one appropriate application of data mining and analysis. Then the truth will set us free from the bonds of anthropocentric distortions of perception and conception, opening us to the noosphere as we engage with the sentient empathosphere of informed feeling, inspired by and connected with nature, other animals, plants, through greater understanding by way of science, silent contemplation, meditation, poetry and music which move us to compassionate action and humility.
The collective sensorium of this life community which the biosphere and solar radiation help sustain, creates a unifying connectivity of conscious, sentient life, notably this empathosphere at the emotional level of awareness. (14). It would be a great tragedy if anthropogenic electropollution were to disrupt such life-sustaining connectivity. Researchers have found that sweat ducts in human skin acted as “helical antennas,” the ducts acting as receptors for 5G radiation – allowing them to not only capture the radiation, but to concentrate and amplify it. ( 15, 16, 17). In addition, EMF radiation may cause effects at the cellular level, thereby impacting chromosomes, DNA, proteins and genes and the concentration of radiofrequency radiation from sub-terahertz waves in skin can trigger: a sensation of heat and a “sudden, acute pain response” reported by electrosensitive individuals.(18, 19, 20).
But healthy and empathic human connectivity will be a pipe dream if electropollution and its harmful effects on us and all living beings so far studied by scientists (see Addendum of additional reference citations) continue to be denied, and what Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ calls “tyrannical anthropocentrism.”
With the (debatable – Ed.) consequences of anthropogenic climate change challenging future generations of our species and of plants, and animals and the planet’s future, all polluting and life-harming technologies need to be curtailed for the common good and the good of the Commons. The life community will have additional survival and adaptation challenges as the Earth’s radiation-protecting electromagnetic field weakens and polar axis shifts and reversals. (21,22). Our planet may also be moving into a “warmer” region of the cosmos with more intense and different forms of radiation. Anthropogenic forms or radiation may confound those of our own biological evolution and adaptive abilities and that of other sentient life forms. Karam notes that cosmic supernovae and gamma ray bursts “have produced radiation levels that, while not lethal, are genetically significant, and these events may have influenced the course of evolution and the manner in which organisms respond to radiation insult.” (23).
It is assuring to have science affirm what Teilhard de Chardin declared: “How great is the mystery of the first cells which were one day animated by the breath of our souls! How impossible to decipher the welding of successive influences in which we are forever incorporated! In each one of us, through matter, the whole history of the world is in part reflected.” (23). As such composite beings of this biosphere we owe it to others, our ancestors, commensals and symbiotes including those within our own bodies, the reverential respect that is long overdue as we re-define ourselves as a planetary species, co-evolved, co-dependent and aware, giving more to life than we take and avoiding harm when and where ever we can. As the Anishinaabe Chippewa assert: Manaaji’idiwin—respect all beings and things.
Companion Animals And Radio Collars
Users of cell phones, tablets and lap-top computers are advised to keep such devices away from various body parts. Such warnings are predicated by The CDC stating, “We don’t know for sure if RF radiation from cell phones can cause health problems years later. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified RF radiation as a ‘possible human carcinogen.'” https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/cell_phones._faq.html
In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) from the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement adding radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (including microwave and millimeter waves) to their list of things which are possibly carcinogenic to humans.[3] IARC (31 May 2011). “IARC Classifies Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields As Possibly Carcinogenic To Humans” (PDF). Press Release (Press release). The American Cancer Society’s posting (Microwaves, Radio Waves, and Other Types of Radiofrequency Radiation, May 31, 2016 (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure.html) and noting that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has identified RF exposure as a possible carcinogen, emphasizes that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. National Toxicology Program have not yet formally classified RF radiation as to its cancer-causing potential.
These concerns raise the question of the safety for animals wearing radio collar devices, now widely used on various wildlife species for monitoring, research and conservation/management, and increasingly on livestock and companion animals. Global positioning system (GPS) and very high frequency (VHF) radio collar telemetry systems are widely used to provide high spatial and temporal resolution information for detecting wildlife and domestic animal location and movement.
Electronic shock and vibration-generating collars have been associated with cancer in dogs by several owners using such devices in association with electric “Invisible Fences” and to stop their dogs from barking. But further research would be helpful in confirming such associations as documented in the Canine Journal (https://www.caninejournal.com/community/do-shock-collars-cause-cancer/ Remote electronic training collars have been documented to have adverse welfare consequences to dogs and such stress could play a contributory role in some dogs developing cancer (See Jonathan J. Cooper, Nina Cracknell, Jessica Hardiman, Hannah Wright, Daniel Mills. The Welfare Consequences and Efficacy of Training Pet Dogs with Remote Electronic Training Collars in Comparison to Reward Based Training. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (9): e102722 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102722). See also Steiss, J.E., Schaffer, C., Ahmed, H.A., Voith, V.L., 2007, Elevation of plasma cortisone levels and behaviour in dogs wearing bark control collars. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 106: 96-106
So-called invisible, wireless, electric fences widely used to contain dogs on private property have been anecdotally associated with fear/anxiety syndromes, seizures, lymphoma and other cancers in dogs having frequent exposure to such non-ionizing radiation. More research is called for to determine the veracity of such concerns and in other species where such systems of containment are used. (Electric pulse training aids: more evidence needed, says the Companion Animal Welfare Council, Â Veterinary Record Vol 171, 257. 2012. http://dx.doi. org/10.1136/vr.e6093).
Footnotes and references at link: https://drfoxonehealth.com/post/electropollution-existential-threat-to-public-health-and-life-on-earth/
