How much health are we willing to give up in the pursuit of better, faster technology? Are we about to be sacrificial lambs in the global human experiment of 5G technology?
These are big questions which need comprehensive investigation and transparent answers beyond progress and convenience. Who better to help us navigate through the quandary of 5G technology than Nicole Bijlsma who lives and breathes the research connected to environmental influences on health.
Nicole expertly navigates us through the knowledge gaps in research when it comes to 5G and why we all need to be aware of the potential biological effects to human health as well as the impacts it poses to our privacy and security.
Covered in this episode
[00:52] Welcoming back Nicole Bijlsma
[01:48] What is 5G technology?
[04:12] There's a lack of health-driven research
[05:21] How 5G differs from current technology?
[06:40] Understanding the preceding generations of technology
[08:27] The biological effects of EMF
[15:48] What do we know about how 5G affects animal, plant and human life?
[17:51] A threat to personal security and privacy
[20:17] Can 5G be stopped?
[24:44] Recognising electrohypersensitivity
[28:10] What are other countries doing about 5G?
Andrew: This is FX Medicine, I'm Andrew Whitfield-Cook. Joining us on the line again today is Nicole Bijlsma. She's a building biologist. She's a best-selling author of Healthy Home, Healthy Family. And a Ph.D. candidate, and Principal of the Australian College of Environmental Studies, which she established in 1999, to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment.
Nicole is an accomplished naturopath and acupuncturist, who's published in peer-reviewed journals and lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years. She's written extensively for Body+Soul newspaper and is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields, and toxic chemicals. She lectures in Australia and abroad, about environmental health issues. Welcome back to FX Medicine, Nicole. How are you?
Nicole: I'm really well. Always excited to speak to you.
Andrew: Now, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. But we're in a bit of quandary right at the moment, because 5G technology is about to roll out in Australia. What's 5G?
Nicole: Great question. Well, it's a new generation in mobile wireless communication that will give rise to what they're referring to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry Four.
So 5G promises greater reliability, message connectivity, faster network speeds, better coverage, and virtually no latency. And this, of course, will give rise to autonomous systems, self-driverless cars, and artificial intelligence, and completely revolutionise every aspect of our lives. Because the way we live, we work, and travel, everything we own, and buy, from our cars to our appliances, will contain antennas and microchips that will be connected wirelessly as part of the Internet-of-Things.
Andrew: So this really is the sort of coming of age of the ponderings and writings of Sci-Fi writers like Isaac Asimov, and...oh, forgive me, I can't remember his first name but Hamilton. We really are into this Sci-Fi era.
Nicole: Exactly, right. But the issue is that there's no requirements for the telecommunications to prove or even research it. There's no independent research going on at this point in time, to investigate the impact of these high-frequency millimetre wave radiation, which was developed by the military, as a weapon and for crowd control, many decades ago. There's no research on its impact of exposing the entire planet. And we're talking, an infrastructure that's very different to the existing 4G/3G networks. It's not like cellphone base stations that radiate a radius around the cellphone's base station, around 400-metres. It's like millimetre wave beams that come from these small cell antennas, which will be fitted every 50 to 250 meters from every home in high-density areas, and 20,000 satellites in the magnetosphere. The impact on the terrestrial radiation, the Schumann resonance, the magnetic field is essentially unknown. I mean we're playing God, here.
Andrew: This is quite amazing. Because I remember looking up 5G, when I first heard that it was coming to Australia. And the only information, really, that I was seeing was information from the technology providers, themselves. And maybe a few, you know, PC mags and that sort of thing. There was no research that I could see.
Nicole: No, there is no research. And, you look at the, what the government has put out in so far as that they've established a 5G working group in 2017 consisting of industry bodies and key industry players along with the government departments, to coordinate the implementation and rollout of 5G. And there's not one person there involved in...a health expert, not one health expert. This has already been preplanned years before.
The government actually wants to be a first-adopter country, which means that we'll be rolling it out sooner than most Western countries.
Andrew: Right.
Nicole: Just like cellphones. We were the guinea pigs. And they want to make sure the coverage covers 99% of the Australian population by 2021.
Andrew: How does 5G signalling differ from our existing coverage?
Nicole: So basically, 5G uses, still is using radiofrequency electromagnetic energy. But it's much higher up the electromagnetic spectrum, so the wavelengths are incredibly a lot smaller. Similar to what you find, say, for example, in microwave ovens, much, much smaller. That's why they have to have the infrastructure so close to the home. Because it's so...such a small wave that it doesn't penetrate long distances and that's a huge problem.
But it is a radiofrequency and the reality is, there is sufficient data as to the biological effects of the existing wireless technology, 4G, 5G, etc., and its impact on human health, so that's the issue. We already know how the existing wireless technology and radio frequencies affect human health at a cellular level. And, yet, we're introducing much higher millimetre wave, as in millimetre wave radiation, that's used in the military as a weapon, and exposing the entire planet. I mean, as a researcher, how do I do research on this if there's no control? This is a human rights issue.
Andrew: I think the problem is that when you say it's a human rights issue, it's already here. It's been bypassed.
Nicole: It has.
Andrew: Yeah, so…
Nicole: And it's very different to the last, the five generation. So, if we go back to the first generation of mobile wireless communications, that was deployed in around 1983, and it was using analog mobile voice. Which is the old brick cellphones, which cost a fortune. Remember, they were thousands of dollars?
Andrew: Yeah, three and a half grand, yeah.
Nicole: The second generation came in '91. And that was the first with digital mobile voice, digital pulsed signals, and they're the ones that have the biological effects. So that was introduced in Australia, in around the early 1990s, '91, I believe. And that included Short Message Service, or SMS, or texting ability.
The third generation was the beginning of the smartphones and enabled you to access the internet. And that was launched in around early 2000, in Western countries. And, of course, that required the deployment of these quite diffuse mobile phone base stations. And it was from about 2000 onwards when the general public more, and more of us had these phones.
Fourth-generation was around 2009, 2010, and that involved much better ability to watch movies on your phones, and, you know, the data capacity was much higher so, now, we can use our phones sort of like we do the internet, like we did our computer.
Fifth completely different, as I mentioned, completely different infrastructure, almost total connectivity. I mean really, what we're talking about is being able to download 600 feature films a minute. Because, clearly, that's what we all want in our lives..
Andrew: Yes.
Nicole: To disconnect more from our families. And it will be at least a 100 times faster than the existing 4G network.
Andrew: So we're talking about wavelength, here?
Nicole: Yes. However, sunlight/UV’s even shorter, again. So it's not so much the frequency here, it's actually the power output and the data on the wave that appears to be causing the biological effects.
We're actually not sure what, is it that the electromagnetic field that causes the...what's in the field, whether it's the data riding on the field, dirty power, the frequency itself. Unless it's non-ionising radiation, you know, x-rays generate that can, of course, dislodge photons. But we do know non-ionising radiation can cause cancer indirectly because of its impact on voltage-gated calcium channels in the brain, in the heart, and in the testicles, where these voltage-gated calcium channels are primarily located. And, they're the symptoms associated with electromagnetic sensitivity.
So we know how it affects the body at a cellular level, these radio frequencies in wireless technology but we don't know what it is about the wave that's causing those biological effects.
Andrew: Right. But if we know that we're affecting calcium ion gated channels, then, for instance, in the brain, we're talking about NMDA receptors and we're talking about neuro-hyperexcitability. So it's, I guess the issue that we're going to face is, it won't be an acute thing, that you hold a phone up to your ear and you suddenly get an issue. I guess it's another instance of, you know, what's going on is already here. We have to deal with it and try and disprove it?
Nicole: Well, that's the problem and you're exactly right. With most people who develop electromagnetic sensitivity, and I'm here to tell you, that is all of us, it is just a matter of time. Probably, the most important document any clinician can get, there'll be a few that I'll highlight, maybe four or five…
Andrew: Great.
Nicole: That I think all clinicians need to access to be able to identify electromagnetic sensitivity and the symptoms, as they gradually come on, and be able to diagnose and treat it.
Obviously, the most important document I've ever come across that I think is amazing to show that insidious effect, was that between 1960 and 1996, the Russians made a requirement that anyone involved in the electrical industry or exposed to any form of electromagnetic fields as part of the occupation had to be tested for health, you know, assessed medically every year.
So they've got this data of 36 years of thousands of workers involving these large-scale occupational exposures. And they came out with this report, which was translated by the Germans in 2016 and it's called, and you can get it on the internet, Health Implications of Long-term Exposure to Electrosmog, by Karl Hecht , H-E-C-H-T.
It's a brilliant document because it shows these gradual symptoms developing after, you know, years of exposure. And basically, in a nutshell, it says if you're exposed to electromagnetic fields, whether it's AC magnetic fields from currents. Say, if you're sleeping near a meter panel. Or you know, you're forgetting to enclose a motor like, you know, your meter panel will be the most important example.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nicole: Then, if it's 20 minutes or less a day, it had no impact, even if it was every day. So if you're exposed to 20 minutes or less a day, no side effects. But if you're exposed for two hours or more per day, to an AC magnetic field or radio frequencies, within existing exposure standards, within 5 to 10 years, you will show these impacts on the parasympathetic nervous system.
So and basically they show these gradual declining neurodegenerative functions, which are the symptoms of electromagnetic sensitivity. So immune gene changes, break down of the alpha into theta and occasional delta rhythm within the brain. Sleep disorders. Disorders of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which of course, amongst people with chronic illnesses, they these HPA issues. Like you meet a mould patient, all have these issues.
Arterial hypertension, and changes from bradycardia to tachycardia, so fast and slow heartbeat. You have these what they call these vagotonic shift in the cardiovascular system and it's gradual and it's insidious, and a hyperactivity of the thyroid gland. So that results then in the hair loss, erectile dysfunction. It results in tinnitus in a lot of patients and an increased susceptibility to infection. So they’re objective findings.
Andrew: This is another answer to the things that, you know, we already know that's happened with the 3G/4G technology, with regards to our obsession with chronic-use of technology not just causing disconnectedness but also affecting, you know, behaviour and cellular function. We've previously attributed it to the light and just this, you know, for instance, a chronic stress, like the war games or the stressful type of things that we see online, rather than the technology itself causing these biological effects.
Nicole: Yes, absolutely. And, of course, you know, you mentioned blue light. We haven't even mentioned that, yet. That's one of the mechanisms by which you are tricking the body into thinking it's daytime instead of night time.
Andrew: Right.
Nicole: And the problem is with the green movement, you know, I take the mickey out of the green movement in the first chapter of my book. You know, introduced...getting rid of incandescent lightbulbs, which is the healthiest forms of lighting, in terms of no emissions of radio frequencies, etc.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nicole: To LEDs. Most of those LEDs emit huge amounts of blue light. So we've introduced the lighting in our home at night time that is suppressing melatonin and stuffing up our circadian rhythm. Just the lighting. Never mind all the LEDs in your digital devices.
Andrew: I have, indeed. I'm guilty of doing that myself. When I revamped our bathroom, I put in these, I think it was 13-watt LEDs. And I remember the rear neighbour saying, "I thought there was a fire or something going on." Because he said it was like lightening when we turned the bathroom light on. And like, now, I wish, you know, indeed, I may do this in the future, is, change them to a dimmer switch. I understand you can get, you know, LEDs now, which you can change from white to yellow and decrease their incandescent...their lumens, is that correct?
Nicole: Yes, you can. There are LEDs…
Andrew: So is that decreasing their blue light, when you get the yellow-light ones, the warmer white?
Nicole: Yeah. You need to confirm that with the manufacturer, that they do that. Because they should be able to give you a chart to demonstrate what lighting they have. I have filament lighting. It looks like the old incandescent lightbulbs but it emits this, it's like this orange glow.
Andrew: So how else do EMFs affect the body, particularly 5G?
Nicole: Okay. Well, that's a good question in relation to 5G because there's very little research on 5G and its impact on human health.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nicole: So but what is very well established in relation to 5G is that since the 1960s, they're very aware that it's well-established that 5G and millimetre wave radiation causes cataracts in animal and human studies. And this is because the eyes lack sufficient blood flow to dissipate heat effectively. So… and, of course, cataracts are the number one cause of blindness in the world, so we know it can cause blindness.
The other issue, health concern that we are concerned about is, with 5G, the sweat ducts in the skin, we have two to five million sweat ducts in our skin, throughout, the largest organ of our bodies. They act as chemical antennas to these frequencies and they've been shown to absorb high-levels of this radiation.
Now, we know the skin is very strongly connected to the sympathetic nervous system, to reflect our states of stress, and emotion, and fear, and pain, so we are concerned what impact will they have on our neural response and, you know, the downstream effects of that. We don't know.
The other issue that's been raised in the scientific literature, about health concerns, in light of, as I said, there's been very little research on it. Is that we know that these beams of radiation, that very small millimetre wave radiation may result in what they call Brillouin precursors, which are very fast pulses of radiation that travel deep within the body. And it can take, it'll take decades to establish the impact of exposing the generation-to-be to electrosmog from the cradle to the grave. Because we essentially don't know and there's no independent research currently going on to actually establish what impact it will have on human, animal, or plant life.
Andrew: Right. So okay, so I'm just going on that issue of cataracts. If this is a known issue, an increase in cataracts, and we are then implementing 5G with this prior-armed knowledge, could the argument be made in the future, and let's face it, it's going to happen. So the only thing that we can then do in the future is change our behaviour or/and what we're using. If we know these issues now, and an increase in cataracts is then seen in other, in populations that would otherwise not encounter these, is that a reasonable argument to say, "See, I told you so. We now need to change?" We now need to, you know, divert to some other technology. Do you think that's a strong enough argument? And would governments listen? Or do you think it's just this technologically driven machine that money drives them, you know, the cogs of the Western World, and we're in it? Are we're just going to have to put up with it?
Nicole: This has been done because they're saying that the public want this and it's being driven for security. So one of the largest concerns I have about the 5G network is it represents the greatest threat to our freedom in the history of humanity, and that's a huge statement.
But every appliance in your home, your phone, computer, smart meter appliances, and everything will record data about you.
Andrew: Right.
Nicole: Your choices, and your activities in real-time via the 5G network. The ability to hack into the network is evidenced by the growing number of incidents, where you hear about intruders hacking into wireless baby monitors, talking to your babies whilst they're sleeping.
Andrew: Yep.
Nicole: Intruders using digital devices to hack into and disable your home security while they're outside, in their car. And, of course, the power distributors could shut down your heating and cooling systems, remotely because they have power through the grid.
There was a very important report that came out very recently this year, called the, "2019 Corbett Report," C-O-R-B-E-T-T. And it's basically the intelligence community openly admitting 5G provides the ideal platform to spy on citizens in the name of national security. Privacy and security will be non-existent. Non-existent. Everything you do can be tracked in real-time and that is the real issue that we need to be marching on the streets.
Andrew: So what do we really need to do then? Like, is there a technology ombudsman? Who do we need to be complaining to, to get our message out there?
Nicole: Well, I've got on my website, there's a page on what you can do, how to take action against 5G. Sign the petition, the link, there's about 50,000 signatures on that and that's an Australian petition.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nicole: There's also a lot of stop-5G Facebook groups, and I've got a link to that, as well. If you just type in, "Stop 5G," in your area, there's likely to be a group.
There's a great radio interview on my website with Ray Broomhall, who has stopped 400 cell, many small cell towers based on the criminal code. So it's not based on health that he's stopping these towers. It's based on the invasion of your privacy and your sight of electrosmog.
So if you can prove you're electrically sensitive and get your doctor to verify that? That is often, in a court of law, sufficient to indicate that you should not have any electrosmog beaming from other neighbours, into your property. So he's been able to stop quite a few towers based on that. So, listen to that radio interview, "How to take action against 5G with Max Igan in conversation with Ray Broomhall." And he's doing amazing work.
Andrew: As are you. And I've got to say, we will definitely be putting up all of these resources, on the fxmedicine.com.au website. Please comment on other social media platforms. Nicole Bijlsma, Please follow this woman, she is incredible, vanguard of our health. What other resources can you give us?
Nicole: Well, there's a whole lot of videos that I post on my 5G and the Internet-of-Things, on my website, so have a look at that, "What is 5G?" "5G Exposed." And these are 2019 videos. Some are 2 minutes long, others are 40 minutes. Arthur Firstenberg, "5G, Birds, Bees and Humanity," wow, that's really descriptive but very factual, so definitely well worth watching. There's about four videos I've got on my platform, where you can learn more information.
But probably one of the best reads is by Professor Martin Pall, who's a leading researcher on, who discovered how radio frequencies affect the body at a cellular level, the voltage-gated calcium channels. And he wrote this amazing really detailed document on, 5G: Great risk for EU, U.S. and International Health! And it's quite a detailed document on his explanation as a professor in research on electromagnetic fields, on how it harms human health.
Andrew: Nicole, I have to say, one of the things that I love about you is that you back every single thing you say up with data, research, investigation into issues. And I urge everybody who's listening to this, they've got to get your book, Healthy Home, Healthy Family, because it's not a book, it's a seminal textbook. I think it should be a mandatory read for every person, not just an integrative practitioner but every person who's interested in the healthy family, healthy home.
Nicole: Yeah. No, I definitely like to get my head stuck in the research and have a look at what's going on. And, look, even on the page on 5G on my website, you'll see the government's document on mobile telecommunications association, this year, 2019, and the 5G enabling a future economy by the Australian government. And you've got it straight from the horse's mouth, what their intentions are. And that's what scares me. I mean I'm reading what the government is saying about this and comparing it with leading researchers and going, "There's something really wrong, here." And that's why our clinicians need to be able to diagnose EHS and give good information, to be able to educate them as to how to reduce their exposures, it's so important.
And that's why, you know, having these talks and webinars, etc., and talking to your community is such an important thing. Because I mean, otherwise, I'm sitting here, in my office, and it just doesn't get out there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nicole: So it's commendable that you're doing this and educating clinicians because it's, it's ongoing and what's happening, they need to understand. I mean I've had my head in this for two decades now but, yeah, really important that you get it out there, what you do is fantastic.
Andrew: You mentioned diagnosis just before, and I just want to quickly cover this. How should we be diagnosing issues with EMF?
Nicole: Okay, there have been some great documents on this. There's three. The Austrian Medical Association in 2012, set the guideline of the Austrian Medical Association for the diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems. It's on my website. And in my book, I talk about it, as well, how to diagnose.
The second one is by Professor Dominique Belpomme, a French researcher who's a specialist in chronic fatigue. In 2015, he wrote a paper called, Reliable disease biomarkers characterizing and identifying electrohypersensitivity and multiple chemical sensitivity as two etiopathogenic aspects of a unique pathological disorder.
Andrew: Just a light read.
Nicole: That's 30 pages long. It's brilliant. But it's really, really good for clinicians. And the last one is the European Academy for Environmental Medicine. In 2016, wrote a great paper, "EUROPAEM, P-A-E-M, EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses.
Definitely, get those. They are excellent and, in short, they talk about that EHS is a chronic inflammatory response like mould, like so many other chronic illnesses. Characterised by oxidative stress, so they use nitrotyrosine marker for peroxynitrite production, circulating autoantibodies against our myelin. Hyperhistaminemia, so high levels of histamine in the blood. Because EMFs cause degranulation of mast cells on the skin. This is why 5G is even more concerning because it targets the skin.
And, of course, metal loads. When people have higher levels of metal in their body, especially incompatible metals like titanium, and stainless steel, it sets up a battery effect and can cause galvanic corrosion. So there was an interesting medical seminar happening in Germany a few months ago, about the work of Vera...I can't remember her last name. She died this year, unfortunately. She's the lead researcher on toxic metals and really looked at the side effects associated with it, but it increases susceptibility to EMF. They also decrease urine melatonin and hyper-perfusion of certain parts of the brain, it's the characteristic signs of electromagnetic sensitivity.
But the symptoms are classic, classic, so we talked about them. You know, we've got things like fatigue, because it targets the heart you're looking at things like chest constriction. I've mentioned bradycardia and tachycardia, postural orthostatic tachycardia…
Andrew: POTs?
Nicole: So if they get up and they're really dizzy.
Andrew: Yep.
Nicole: And brain fog, poor concentration, short-term memory loss, dizziness, confusion, dyslexia in adults is really, really common as well. But headaches is classic, especially in children. And sleep disorders is rife. Sleep disturbances that are not explained by stress, or noise, or too much light in the bedroom, always think electromagnetic fields. And, of course, long-term fatigue. Some of my clients get tinnitus and Meniere's syndrome, and others get fibromyalgia, but nearly all of them are chemically, light, noise, and smell-sensitive.
Andrew: Just as a wrap-up question, Nicole. What are progressive countries doing then, about 5G?
Nicole: Well, there's been a lot of movement internationally on this because of concerns that have been raised. You've got the International 5G Appeal, launched by 230 scientists and doctors from 41 countries, calling on the European Union to halt the rollout of 5G, so have a look at that.
Of course, Professor Martin Pall's report, "5G rollout is an act of insanity." And there's a video link. The U.S. senator Richard Blumenthal, raised concerns about the lack of research on 5G. The Russian Ministry of Defence refused to transfer frequencies with 5G, to delay the rollout, so they've delayed it.
And what's at stake for the U.S.? Their city officials have stated their opposition. Florence, in Italy, in March this year, refused the 5G infrastructure, based on the precautionary principles. And said that internet's existing stance lacked the global authority on EMF exposure standards, it was not adequate. I think we all know that.
Brussels and Belgium, the Environmental Minister, in April, this year, Céline Fremault, halted the 5G development on the basis that its citizens were not to be used as guinea pigs. And in April, we had the Netherlands express concern over health effects from the 5G network, and that was from the House of Representatives. There's a whole lot going on overseas, about this.
Andrew: Absolutely amazing that 5G in Australia is already here. So as you say, our citizens are guinea pigs.
Nicole: We are guinea pigs.
Andrew: Yeah. Nicole, I thank you so much for taking us through these real current issues with 5G technology. And I, again, I admire and applaud your work for raising all of these health issues to maintain a healthy home, and a healthy family. And, indeed, in this case, we're going to have to try and regain it off of the authorities who are making these decisions, supposedly for us.
Nicole: Thank you for having me on.
Andrew: This is FX Medicine, I'm Andrew Whitfield-Cook.
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