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Translator: Hélène Vernet
Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
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I'd like to begin
by asking a few questions.
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Who knows if they have a wireless
smart meter on their home?
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Okay.
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And who has their smartphone
in their pocket right now?
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Great.
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And who's read the fine prints
in your owner's manual
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that says that the smartphone should never
be within about an inch of the body?
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(Laughter)
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So today, I'm going to speak to
why we can no longer assume
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that our wireless technology is safe.
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Technology has allowed us many benefits.
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It has connected us
to people and to places,
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and it has brought us convenience
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that few could have imagined
just 10 years ago.
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It's also brought us
tremendous economic benefits.
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If we can look at how technology
has increased in our lives
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in just the last eight years ...
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It started with the iPhone,
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and then tablet computing,
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ubiquitous Wi-Fi,
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the smart meter and the smart home,
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and wearable tech,
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and now the Internet of Things.
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If we could imagine how this would look,
it would actually look like this:
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This is an artist's rendition of what
Wi-Fi in our public spaces looks like.
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We could actually hear
what microwave radiation sounds like
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with a device like this.
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So if anybody would like to hear
what their smartphone
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or their smartwatch sounds like,
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come and see me at the end
and I can show you.
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But how does this affect our bodies?
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That's the question I want to ask
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because this exponential rise
in microwave radiation can have effects,
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and that's what scientists and medical
doctors around the world are now saying,
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especially when it comes to children,
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because they're going to be
affected by this their entire lives.
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But today, I also want
to share a few solutions.
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I want to give everyone here
things that you can do in your own lives
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in order to reduce this type of exposure.
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So I actually got into this topic
about five years ago.
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Before then, I was a young
technology enthusiast.
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I always used my smartphone and Wi-Fi.
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I've worked in Silicon Valley and have
a master's degree in engineering.
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So if anyone had told me that wireless
technology could have health effects,
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I would have thought they're crazy.
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So if you're thinking that
right now, I can relate.
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But this all changed for me
over the period of about one week.
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I started to experience headaches,
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ringing in the ears,
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insomnia,
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and a fatigue and brain fog
that I'd never experienced before.
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And I shared this
with a colleague at work,
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and she said the exact same thing
happened to her husband
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when a wireless smart meter
was installed in their home.
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So I went home that evening
and I checked downstairs,
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and sure enough, we had
a bank of wireless smart meters
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installed right below our bedroom
in San Francisco.
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So this started me on a journey
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to learn as much about this topic
as I possibly could.
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I now have a website about this,
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and I'm contacted by people
all around the world, every day,
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who are experiencing
the exact same things.
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It can be when they have
a wireless smart meter installed,
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or a new Wi-Fi router,
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or even a cell tower placed
across the street from their home.
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These are the common symptoms
that people start to experience.
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This is actually from a published paper
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on the health effects
of wireless smart meters.
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So, just here in the Bay Area,
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I'm in touch with dozens of people
who've had their lives changed by this:
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medical doctors,
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high school principals,
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teachers and students,
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IT professionals,
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and even entrepreneurs.
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These are people who had a normal life,
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and then over a short period of time,
went to where they could no longer work,
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where they could
no longer go to an office.
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Some of them actually
have had to move out of their homes
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because they can't be in an environment
which is normal now for most people.
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I've been in touch with people
around the world
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who've become homeless
because of this.
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There are many people
that's actually happened to.
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And, unfortunately, I know of people
who've actually taken their lives
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because there's essentially
no place they can go,
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and this is something
that society does not yet recognize.
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My own life has been
tremendously changed by this.
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After that first exposure
to wireless smart meters,
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now I can no longer be in an environment
with strong Wi-Fi for very long.
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So I can't go to my work
the way I used to be able to.
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Most environments are now
essentially toxic to me.
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So even finding a safe place to live
has become very difficult.
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Imagine not being able
to live in an apartment building
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where everyone has Wi-Fi,
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or to be able to live
next to a cell tower.
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This is actually a proposed
cell tower here in Berkeley.
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The residents have actually
stopped it for now,
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but most churches and most schools
now have cell towers on them.
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And so it exposes the people around them
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and of course the students
who go to those schools.
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This is a cell tower in San Francisco:
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that brown thimble on top
of the telephone pole is a cell tower.
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And these are being placed
every couple of blocks.
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So you could have an amazing home,
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and then one week,
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a company can come and put
a cell tower right outside your window.
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So this is something that's happening
throughout the Bay Area,
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and it's going to be happening
throughout the United States.
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So it makes it so that people like myself
have a hard time finding a place to live,
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but it also is ratcheting up
the exposure of the entire population.
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So you might be asking,
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perhaps some people
are being injured by this,
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but if you're not feeling it,
it's probably not that big of a deal.
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I think that's a very common experience.
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But it's not as simple as saying
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that just a few unfortunate people
are being affected by this.
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Because what the science shows
is that we're all affected on some level,
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whether we can feel it or not.
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And the reason is because essentially,
our bodies are electric.
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Every cell in our body communicates
using tiny electric signals.
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It's how our nervous system operates.
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So to think that we could
put an exponential amount
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of microwave radiation
into our environment
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and not feel effects, is simply false.
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To illustrate this, I actually
had many friends come to me
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when I started to experience
this, and they would say,
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"Jeromy, are you sure you aren't
making this up in your head?"
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and I thought this too myself,
at the beginning.
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But then, a year or two later,
they would come to me and they'd say,
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"You won't believe it, but now I'm feeling
pain in my arm when I use my cell phone,
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or when I put it to the head,
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or when a new Wi-Fi router is installed."
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So this is something where
when people have more of an exposure,
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more people are being affected.
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And it's not just headaches and insomnia,
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it's much more serious things such as:
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infertility, DNA damage,
and eventually cancer.
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This is what the research
is starting to show.
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And you don't have to take my word for it.
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I encourage you to start
researching this for yourselves.
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If you simply Google "EMF research,"
this is a screenshot of what you'll find.
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The World Health Organization
is the first link there,
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and they actually, in 2011,
came out and said
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this wireless technology
is possibly carcinogenic.
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Now there are scientists around the world
that say it's most likely carcinogenic.
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The third link there
is actually my own website.
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It's there because the last five years,
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I've gathered research
from around the world
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that shows that we now
have enough evidence
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to at least take precaution
when it comes to this technology.
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So, isn't this regulated?
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And this is one of the most
interesting things I've found:
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The Federal Communications Commission
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is who is supposed
to be regulating wireless technology.
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But if you look at the regulations,
they're almost 20 years old.
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So that means our most advanced technology
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is using science
that's at least 20 years old.
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But not only that, they're based
on a concept which is nearly 50 years old,
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which says if microwave
radiation does not heat us,
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then it can't possibly hurt us.
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But there are now hundreds of studies
that show that this is false.
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So how is it that we have
a regulatory body
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that's not protecting the public?
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Well, like many public health
issues in our country,
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you end up having industry
influencing the regulatory body,
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and that's what's happening here.
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So you have a revolving door
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between the wireless lobby
and the FCC Commission.
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So that's what's happening.
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Plus, the science is heavily
influenced by industry funding.
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This is a study by Dr. Henry Lai.
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He looked at 326 studies
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based on the biological effects
of cell phone radiation.
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He found that about half of the studies
showed effects and half didn't.
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That's pretty normal for this type of research.
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But what he found that was interesting
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was that if you looked
at who funded the studies,
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70% of the independent
studies showed effects,
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and only 32% of the industry-funded
studies showed effects.
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So you see that there's an influence
in money on this topic,
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just like many other topics.
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Tobacco is another one where essentially
the industry funded science
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that was going to show
their products were safe.
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So, that's the bad news.
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And now, I want to share some good news,
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and that is that
there are solutions for this.
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We are going to have to have the industry
start to create safer products,
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but there are ways that we can
both protect ourselves
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and move industry forward.
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So one of the primary things we can do
is to move towards fiber optics
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because this is a way
that we can make our homes safer,
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our businesses and our schools.
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So fiber optics are safe, they're secure,
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and they're one of the fastest
things we can use.
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Another way we can go is to design
products which are safer.
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So currently we have product designers
and engineers working together,
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but we could bring in biophysicists
and biologists to work together
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to create products that don't just emit
right underneath the FCC regulations,
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but emit the least amount of any type
of electromagnetic fields as possible.
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If smart meters had been designed
to use either fiber optics
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or to emit just once or twice a day
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rather than the 10,000 times they do emit,
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then I wouldn't be standing here today,
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and thousands upon thousands
of people around the world
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would not have been
injured by smart meters.
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So what are some things
that all of us can do?
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This is one of the most important things
because everyone wants to know
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how to essentially protect
themselves and their families.
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So, the first thing is to make sure
we use our cell phones wisely.
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I mentioned that you don't want
to put the cell phone
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within about an inch of the body.
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The industry is telling us this now.
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So make sure you use speakerphone,
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get an air-tube headset;
and when it's on the body,
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make sure that you put it
on airplane mode
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when it's either in the pocket
or sometimes in the bra.
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And when it comes to kids, we don't want
to have kids use cell phones.
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But if they must, then please,
teach them how use these wisely.
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We can wire our homes.
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Most people don't need
Wi-Fi in their home.
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So move towards Ethernets,
move towards fiber optics.
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And if you must have Wi-Fi,
make sure you turn it off at night.
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You can get a simple timer
so you don't even have to think about it.
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When it comes to kids,
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we want to reduce their exposures
as much as possible.
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So if they use an iPad,
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put all of the data on the iPad,
and then turn the Wi-Fi off.
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In schools,
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I simply do not think we need
to have Wi-Fi in schools
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because we're filling those classroom
with microwave radiation.
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We can have amazing technology,
but it can be wired.
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And this is where I think
we're going to have to go.
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When it comes to the smart meter
and the smart home,
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I recommend you to opt out.
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I've had wealthy early-adopting
families contact me
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who went all in on the smart home,
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and they ended up getting sick
within a few months.
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So this is something
that affects families,
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and I just recommend
that you don't go down this path
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because it's a technology we do not need.
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And one of the last solutions
I want to get today
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is to create a safe place to sleep.
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Because this is one
of the most important things.
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Because this is
when your body rejuvenates,
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and it's when you can make sure
that everything's off.
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So turn off all your wireless
devices, unplug things.
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If you have a baby monitor,
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I actually recommend that you turn
that off, especially at night.
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I just do not recommend those for kids.
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And if you do these things,
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I know many people
who've ended up sleeping better;
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they are much clearer during the day,
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and their fatigue is much less.
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So this is something I recommend
everyone can do.
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So in conclusion,
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I want to say that this
is a problem that we can solve.
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There are tremendous people
around the world
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working on this right now.
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And I believe we're coming
to a tipping point
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where enough people realize
that this is an important topic,
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and that there are solutions.
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So I recommend that you share this
with the people who are closest to you.
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Because if enough people
wake up to this issue,
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then industry will start
creating safe technology.
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And once they do that,
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our entire society can move
towards a healthier future.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
