Precautions on Flying with WiFi in Aircraft

Somewhere in the last 5-7 years the airlines have decided that the passengers will be happier if they can continue on their electronic devices while enroute to their holiday or business meetings.

When I brought this up at a dinner party in Washington, DC, the most common response was, “Oh no! I need the break from answering to everybody (continuous connectivity).”

And since the electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) in any moving, metal container—auto, bus, elevator, train, or plane—is always the highest levels, what does this mean for radiation exposure to airline passengers?

I have a very personal interest in the subject. Now I know the airlines will claim that the EMR is within the “safety guidelines” of the regulating bodies (FCC, ICNIRP).

Those guidelines were devised in the early ‘90s by putting a saline solution in a plastic mannequin head (a 200# male!) and measuring the rise in thermal heat while holding a cell phone an inch from the plastic head for 6 minutes.

A 6th grade science fair student would recognize that the world standard for non-ionizing radiation has nothing to do with today’s reality, certainly not the substance of the brain, today’s pervasive e-smog, nor an ordinary (5+ hrs/day) use of phones.

The FCC has been directed twice by the Government Accounting Office to examine the current research on radiation and to update their 1996 standards. The agency delays any response for years, and then returns with, “It’s all fine.” They make no changes in the standards of radiation levels. The latest round on their outdated standards was in 2021 when the FCC lost the case brought by the Environmental Health Trust and the Children’s Health Defense.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC’s decision to retain its 1996 safety limits for human exposure to wireless radiation was “arbitrary and capricious”. The court ordered the FCC to provide a reasoned explanation for its decision to retain its testing procedures for determining compliance with its guidelines, address the impacts of radiofrequency (RF) radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, and the ubiquity of wireless devices and other technological developments since the last update of its guidelines.

Has the agency done anything? Crickets… This is the agency that set the standard 30 years ago for what is supposed to protect the public. Truly, it’s the standard for a “captured agency”– controlled by the industry it is supposed to regulate.

Here was my terrifying experience with WiFi in an aircraft in February ‘23—then I will pose the ever-higher risk to infants and children.

For years now, I was always the last one to board the plane. After I boarded, they slammed the doors shut and told everyone to put away their electronics. I was avoiding 30-45 minutes of sitting with everyone texting Mom or the Boss that they had boarded with the signals bouncing around the metal container.

Even with 3 layers of shielding material on, on a Luthansa flight from Frankfurt to Luanda in February ’23 my heart was jumping all over, threatening a seizure. (I pay close attention to all bodily actions due to having lived with fibromyalgia 25 years ago.)

I had in the cabin with me a PEMF mat that I put on twice during the 8-hour flight to calm down the heart–or I would have been DOA–Dead on Arrival.  Yes, Pulsed EMF is healing, in this case, calming the scrambled electrical impulses of the heart.

That flight to Angola was after 17 hours in a plane from Mexico and in airport lounges in Mexico City and Frankfurt.  Never again will I be on a flight more than 6 hours without having a break with my bare feet on the earth. I’ve declined annual visits to the grandkids since that flight.

The health of the airlines crew has to be jeopardized with this practice of WiFi beaming through the cabin, which threatens everyone onboard. The Delta crew I talked with on my first encounter with this was very unhappy and said management wasn’t listening to their concerns.

In my research on deaths on airline flights (1 death in every 600 flights), the most common cause is neurological. And, no, a neurologist on board wouldn’t be helpful.