006 Lyn McLean – Being a Wireless Wise Person – Preconception, Infertility, Children’s Health (Part 2) - Unstress with Dr Ron Ehrlich

Today, we bring Lyn McLean back on to dig down into some of the problems that people are carrying around with radiation in our pockets, resting devices on our laps, putting it next to our brains. Did you know that mobile devices are actually classified as a potential carcinogen, as in the potential to cause cancer? Tune in as we discuss radiation and wireless technologies and the problems it can cause for preconception and conception health, and a range of other topics.
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Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Hello, and welcome to Unstress. My name's Dr. Ron Ehrlich. Now, if you've followed the episode we did with Lyn McLean and Wireless-wise People, and her terrific book which I recommended, you may have read it. Today, we're going to get her back, because I wanted to dig down into some of the problems that people are carrying around this radiation in our pockets, resting it in our laps, putting it next to our brains. It's actually classified as a potential carcinogen. That is, it's got the potential to cause cancer. Now, that's a statement that rolls off the tongue pretty quickly and easily, but the implications, I think you'll all agree, is pretty serious.

Now as I said, her book's called Wireless Wise Families: What every parent needs to know about wireless technologies, but this is something, whether you're a parent or not, that every person needs to know about. Today we're going to be discussing some problems about conception, preconception, health, and a range of other things. I hope you do enjoy this conversation I had with Lyn McLean. Welcome back to the show, Lyn.

Lyn McLean:                          Thanks very much, Ron. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Now, Lyn, the last time we spoke we kind of defined what wireless radiation was, that it was in WiFi obviously, also in our telephones, laptops, tablets, cordless phones, baby monitors, we're going to come to that in a moment. You mentioned that it was actually being classified as a class 2B carcinogen, possibly cancer-causing. I wanted to focus on your book today, because this wonderful book, Wireless Wise Families: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Wireless Technology. Even if you're not a parent, you're a person, so you probably need to know what's in here as well, anyway.

Lyn, let's just talk about what this impact can have on preconception, post-natal, school-age children, et cetera. What's the effect of this radiation on the family?

Lyn McLean:                          Well, this is so interesting, Ron, and I'm really glad you asked that question, because what research is showing now is that children who are exposed to radiation before birth appear to have problems after birth. For example, children who were exposed to mobile phone radiation, when their mothers used mobile phones before they were born or just after they were born, by the time these children were aged seven, they started to show more behaviour problems and learning problems than unexposed [00:02:30] children or lesser exposed children.

These aren't problems like ADHD sorts of behaviour and, as I say, learning problems. So not only can it affect the fetus, but it can affect the child at least up to age seven. That was as far as the children had grown by the time the experiment was done, so who knows how much further into their lives it could potentially affect them. I think it's really important for mums to realise that what they exposed themselves to could affect their unborn child. That's not just behaviour but also things like exposed rats, for example, had things like delayed puberty or change to the nervous system, so we know that it's causing changes in fetus.

Now that's true with mums, but even dads can be affected by this radiation. We know that in today's society, there are lots of families that are having trouble with fertility. This wireless radiation has been associated with infertility because it'...