To worry about mobile phones and wifi ESP for developing babies

[Faffyduck]

I hope I am BU actually

And hoping you'll reassure me with good reasons exactly why I am BU

I suffer with anxiety and it just latches on from one thing to the next tbh - a constant need to prove to myself that I'm being silly

Be gentle

Yea mine is perfectly healthy and 2. I still don't seem to stop worrying.

It's not like it's even escapable. We live in flats - even if I turn ours off there's plenty of signals still in the air

Well my son is doomed then, as he spent a good part of his infanthood with a mobile phone in his basket beside his head - I used a white noise app to settle him to sleep!

I think there isn't really any escape from wifi in modern life, but I do sympathise as I know what it's like to have that awful churning anxiety about things which we can't control.

That's it really - anxiety about things we can't control.

And I feel a bit annoyed we have no control over it, most things that affect our health we get some degree of control over - but not pollution or wifi signals

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There's no evidence that WIFI signals cause any harm to anyone.

Is there any evidence that they're safe for everyone though? I think that would be more reassuring

Surely if there isn't any evidence to say that they are unsafe, they are (by definition) safe?

It's no different to the fact that we have radio waves all around us as signals that the radios pick up. People have been listening to the radio for 100 years now. These electromagnetic waves are not at frequencies which have an effect on the human body. (that was a long-winded way of saying, "don't worry - they really don't harm us") for the anxiety - this issue is really okay so don't worry!

Every time you get in a car, even for a short journey, your risk of coming to harm dwarfs so many other things that we worry about.

Every adult alive has grown up with some sort of signal in the air. Radio, TV, wifi, mobiles. And we're living longer than ever.

Could I suggest Mindfulness as a way of coping with anxiety, OP?

Aermingers - that's a helpful thought actually

Stargirl - I actually do try a little. I find it difficult/frustrating as I feel eager to think about the future rather than notice the moment but agree it's a helpful method for combatting anxiety

I know we've had it for a long time but it seems to be unavoidable now - if you walk into a shop it has wifi, if you take a train, if you catch a bus, if you do anything really - there's a signal and so many altogether, do they not accumulate? Perhaps making it a stronger signal/bigger risk

We used to think asbestos was wonderful as a society... We were wrong.

When I was growing up we had leaded petrol and passive smoking. Every generation has been exposed to less than desirable circumstances and hazards.

Good point LIZS

I think what I probably need to get my head around is that there's always going to be something we find out later we could have done something about.

I worry over the increase in autism and learning difficulties atm. For former generations I think once the baby popped out you generally if it was healthy were sure it would develop fine, whereas now nobody really knows for sure till past 3.

But then physically we have it much better - kids don't succumb so frequently to illnesses, it wasn't uncommon for my grandmothers generation to lose a child to a childhood illness for example. Better sanitation and access to healthcare etc

For former generations I think once the baby popped out you generally if it was healthy were sure it would develop fine, whereas now nobody really knows for sure till past 3.

Yes but former generations didn't know anything about autism. Children with learning difficulties were just called slow or simple and sent to a special school if they went to a school at all.

There is no evidence to show that there is any problem with WiFi signals. We all grew up with TV and Radio signals in the air.

Wifi signals do not accumulate, it's not like snow!

I'm still not sure that the awareness explains the increase tbh

It has to be something environmental also - I can count on one hand the number of kids I knew with autism back in the 90's

I need several more hands to count the number of people I knew growing up who have now got children with autism/LD's

How do they not accumulate? Surely more of something means more of something?

I don't think it lingers and builds up each time it's turned on, but I think there's a lot more about now?

Signals and radio waves do not just stop and 'build up' they dissipate over distance. That's all wifi is really. That's why I used the snow analogy. Snow accumelates. Dust accumelates. Radio signals do not, otherwise we'd still be listening to radio programmes from the 1920s.

Sorry I can't be more technical, but it's a long time since I did O Level Physics.

Here's some Ben Goldacre, he's always good on this kind of stuff!
www.badscience.net/2007/05/so-simple-a-child-could-spot-it/

Ok, I'm not sure if I have understood or not

I understand your point that they don't hang about or we would still listen to old programmes

But doesn't my point that more signal available now mean more signals in the air?