November 9, 2019: Too good not to share! This week, various mainstream news outlets reported on a recent study by JAMA Pediatrics proving that too much screen time is hurting children and negatively impacting children’s brain development.
Children’s “brains developed slower the more time they spent looking at a tablet.”
Below is information from Cece Doucette, a mother and Technology Safety Educator, who for years worked on bringing wireless devices into schools until she learned from an engineer that the radiation from the wireless devices was harmful to children and adults (cancer, DNA damage, infertility/miscarriage, migraines, fatigue, insomnia, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds, behavioral problems, memory/concentration problems, anxiety/depression, suicidal ideation, etc.)
Ms. Doucette was interviewed by Boston 25 News this week and said: “We know scientifically that this radiation penetrates a child’s brain far deeper than it does an adult’s.”
Limit Screen Time at Home
Parents should remove wireless devices or at the minimum reduce the time a child spends using screens. For instance, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that families AVOID digital media use in children younger than 18-24 months. How often do we see infants/toddlers in shopping carts cuddling cell phones?
Limit Screen Time in Schools/Day Cares
If parents/grandparents are concerned about increasing wireless radiation in schools–AND THEY SHOULD BE CONCERNED–they should go to their local school boards, educate the school board members, then ask for change. The same for day cares.
Resources For Parents and Grandparents
Below are resources put together by Cece Doucette. For example, parents can ask that devices in schools be hard-wired, that Wi-Fi be turned off when not in use, and that schools ban the use of cell phones during class.
These are actions being taken in other states/countries. For example, it was recently announced that schools in Australia are putting restrictions on cell phones, tablets, ear buds, etc. in schools “to improve the health and well being of students.”
Wisconsin’s ACT scores are dropping. Could wireless technology be a major factor in the decline? Probably.
Continue reading to learn how to take action because nothing is more important than the health and safety of children.
A Bit About the Interview
Fox News contacted me last night after a new article came out in JAMA Pediatrics, “Associations Between Screen-based Media Use and Brain White Matter Integrity in Pre-School Aged Children.”
The assignment was for a one-minute story on screen time and we’re grateful they ran a two-minute piece that included radiation exposure too (a subsequent story ran later that night but the clip isn’t yet available — they recommended airplane mode and hard-wiring :-).
Note: if the story link doesn’t work, try copying and pasting this in directly: https://www.boston25news.com/news/plugged-in-too-much-screen-time-could-be-harming-children-s-brains/1005520155.
Helpful Resources for Safe Technology Conversations
Below is additional information they couldn’t fit into the story. Please consider using these resources and solutions to help engage your community in the technology safety conversation.
Far too few understand the growing hazards of today’s technology, both with excessive screen time and the toxic radiation emitted by every wireless device, cell tower, small cell and utility “smart” meter.
Until public policy catches up to the science, it’s up to us to become informed on technology risks, protect ourselves and our collective children, and ensure safe technology in our communities.
Consider forwarding this email to loved ones, your health care providers, colleagues, civic groups, schools, and public servants at the local, state and federal levels to start this critical conversation.
Screenagers
When Dr. Delaney Ruston’s children began asking for smart phones, she wanted to know more about what the ramifications might be as both a parent and a physician.
Dr. Ruston is also a documentarian so she produced the original Screenagers film a couple of years ago to address the social and emotional impact of screen time, as well as digital addiction.
She only licenses Screenagers for community screenings so folks will come together and have a base from which children, parents and educators feel empowered to discuss growing up safely in the digital age.
Dr. Ruston has just released a sequel, Screenagers The Next Chapter: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience. Ashland High School, MA and the Decisions at Every Turn Coalition are presenting this to our community on Thursday, December 5 from 7-8:30 p.m., 65 East Union Street, Ashland, Massachusetts.
It is open to the public so all are welcome to attend for free or you might find it is being scheduled in your community as well. If not, you may wish to suggest it be brought in.
Companion Film: Generation Zapped
The award-winning film Generation Zapped is a natural follow-on to the Screenagers series.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Generation Zapped is a beautifully done film featuring leading world scientists, doctors, public health experts and patients who explain the biological impact of wireless radiation and how we can lessen our exposures.
Ashland Public School’s Best Practices for Mobile Devices are featured in the film as a first-in-the-nation precautionary initiative.
Generation Zapped won Best Documentary at the D.C. Independent Film Festival, the Women’s Film Festival, and was selected for the United Nations Association Film Festival among others.
Schools are beginning to show Generation Zapped, and it is also screened at public libraries, town halls, universities, houses of worship and other community venues around the world (and even at the Massachusetts State House, the National Institutes of Health and Google headquarters!).
Generation Zapped can be downloaded on-line for private viewing, or licensed for public screenings.
I would be honored to help you co-host a screening if you’re near Massachusetts. I can fill your guests in on new studies that have come out since the film’s release, and how others are successfully transitioning to safe technology.
The Science of Biological Impact
If you decide to speak to your schools and town about the biological effects of wireless, it may be helpful to share the peer-reviewed, published scientific studies showing wireless radiation is a neurotoxin, a leading factor in our epidemic of anxiety and depression, and our skyrocketing rates of autism.
Other studies link wireless radiation to child and adult cancers, infertility, ADD/ADHD, behavior issues, learning disabilities, insomnia, headaches, nosebleeds, anger, pain, skin abnormalities and more.
The Industry
It may also be important to share the New York Times articles that report Silicon Valley executives are sending their children to schools with no technology and having their nannies sign contracts that there will be no screens around their children.
The Harvard report, “Captured Agency: How the Federal Communications Commission is Dominated by the Industries it Presumably Regulates,” explains why nobody has our backs on this at the federal level.
Captured Agency teaches us the FCC is now staffed by former wireless industry executives and appears to be using big tobacco tactics to suppress evidence of harm while promoting toxic products to an unsuspecting public.
The FCC has no independent biomedical or scientific expertise, yet they set the public radiation exposure limits and are not listening to the world’s experts on the dire risks of those exposure levels.
So, until public policy catches up to the science, it is up to us to learn to protect ourselves and our collective children.
The message is not “no technology” but rather “safe technology”. With a little education we can learn common sense strategies to greatly reduce our exposures.
Wireless Education Courses & Information Cards
The non-profit Wireless Education was established so others would have a quick, easy, reliable resource to turn to for the peer-reviewed, published facts along with safer technology solutions.
We have built a Schools & Families Course and a Corporate Safety Induction Course. Each can be taken in about a half hour on-line and provides a tip sheet at the end to print out with handy reminders. There is a small course fee to help keep this educational charity operational.
We suggest each adolescent and adult in a family take a course to level-set with the facts up front. (Those responsible for risk management at work will also benefit from learning the legal risks of exposing employees to wireless radiation via the Corporate Course.)
Then have a conversation about first steps you and your loved ones or colleagues might take toward safe technology and build long-term solutions from there.
If you haven’t taken the courses yourself yet, you may find they are a terrific condensed resource that will save you the struggle of having to convince others this issue really exists. We hope the courses will make it easy for you to share the safe technology message widely.
We also have a Wireless Education information card and some find it helpful to hand these out when speaking to others about the need for safe technology so they have somewhere to go to learn that isn’t too overwhelming.
You’re welcome to send the info card file to a print shop and have a set of your own cards printed to distribute (the card file itself is free to access; donations are appreciated by those who can contribute if you find this resource useful).
The Urgency
Toxic 4G/5G small cell antennas are being installed in neighborhoods right outside homes at the curb pulsing radiation at us 24×7. In addition, more and more of the products we bring inside our homes are also pulsing toxic radiation from wireless antennas for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Many are forming community groups to educate and protect their towns. The 5G Crisis website provides a list of such groups, info for starting a new group, and a tool kit to help at every step.
Nobody’s going to fix this but us, so I hope you’ll take advantage of these resources to do what you can from where you are. It’s a lot easier to transition to safe technology when those around you are educated too and you can work together.
Kind regards,
Cece
Cecelia (Cece) Doucette, MTPW, BA
Technology Safety Educator
Understanding EMFs
Wireless Education
HiBR Conference @ NIH
Expert Forum on Wi-fi in Schools
Municipal Presentation on 5G & EMFs
Additional YouTube EMF Talks
Generation Zapped Award-Winning Film
2019 EMF Conference for Health Practitioners
Wisconsin For Safe Technology 