No, as of now we are currently cell tower free. But, I'm not at all hopeful that it will remain that way. The really interesting thing is when you speak out and advocate for your child, you'll find really two groups of people. Those who fully support you, and those who don't. We were really fortunate that the people who understood and supported the real impact and concerns that a cell tower will have on a child like Noah, outweighed the criticism, and in turn I found myself becoming even more educated than I ever was before on the issue. Experts and professionals in the field reaching out to me via email and phone to lend a hand and their support with keeping Noah safe from RF harm. And while they they likely feel like their hands are as tied as mine have become, they've offered tremendous support and reassurance that EMF, EMI and RF are very real problems.
The ironic thing is none of this would have been on my field of vision if hadn't been for Noah. I probably would have been one of those people who would have been like a cell tower? What's the big deal about?
I wouldn't have even given it a second thought. But Noah changes everything. From the moment he was born it changed everything. How I seen the world, I how seen others, how others react towards me, and the things I had to learn to care about. Ten years ago I probably would have been voted least likely to become an advocate of any kind. I was in my own little world then - and now Noah is my world. The really frustrating thing is when you have to come to grips with understanding that you are just one person, who can't move a mountain alone. The feeling of being powerless leads to feeling helpless.
But I can make other people aware. Noah has a beautiful blog dedicated to our life's experiences, and it serves as a tool for so many who find it and read it, regardless of what they decide to take away from it. Maybe it makes someone think about something they hadn't before, or makes them feel something they didn't know existed within them, or offers comfort and understanding on a difficult day. And so I continue to talk about many of the things that effect special needs children and families and one of those is cell towers and radio frequency, and electric and magnetic fields and how they can interfere, known as EMI, with medical equipment and wreak havoc on a child's neurological sensory sensitivities like Noah.
And it's taken me years to figure out these things, I didn't just wake up one day and think to myself, let's fight a cell tower today. I've learned over the years what can create interference with Noah's devices; a large antenna that a neighbor would install on a rooftop, a weather station... and now in the land of smart meters. Which has grown complicated for us in the last few months since our meter caught fire and we've been dealing with Excel switching it out for something that would cause less or no interference - something they have been resistant to doing. While our meter has been switched out "less powerful" smart meter, that isn't reporting every five to ten seconds, I still have a model of a smart meter, that still reports frequently... just not as frequently. I've also witnessed Noah's triggers around certain electronics, devices, gadgets... among a host of lots of other sensory triggers. I didn't learn all of this overnight. I've spent countless hours troubleshooting problems that come along with special needs parenting. Dwelling on solutions to problems not knowing how to solve them or what was causing these problems for Noah. Trial and error. Sometimes the answers didn't come for months. I had no idea what was causing the buzzing and static on Noah's devices before we moved to our current home until one day I opened up the window in the master bedroom and looked at an antenna on my neighbor's roof that had been installed sometime over the winter and held up a receiver to the window and realized how much more intense the interference was with Noah's devices.
I look back on things now - like how sick Noah would get in the car as an infant, toddler and even young child having no clue as to the cause, and realizing how sounds and vibrations and noises, things that I couldn't even hear - that he could rocked his world into a gag and vomit reflex. Your life becomes incredibly complicated when you have a child with severe disability.
A company called I Am Cell Aware reached out to our family after they heard about the cell tower being built in our neighborhood and sent out two phone deflectors in the mail. We also received a RF meter which I'm sure will be put to good use for before and after readings of our home if we're about to have a cell phone tower built on top of us. There was a dramatic drop in RF before and after the installation of the I Am Cell Aware deflector. So dramatic in fact, a reading from 66.30 to 0.036. A huge decrease in the RF that our cell phone was transmitting. Granted for me, cell phones really aren't a big part of my day. I operate primarily by landline and rarely use my cell phone. It exists solely in the car - and I'm lucky if it even has a charged battery. But in my case it is necessary in case Noah were to have a medical crisis while we're on the road or if we break down. We don't live in a society anymore where someone would pull over to the side of the road to see if we needed help, or to give us a ride without me calling and paying for help. It's sad, but it's reality. However, Noah's daddy uses his cell phone much more than I do, because he's a semi-truck driver and needs it to coordinate his deliveries. So, I'm much relieved that this deflector is actually making a difference.
It's ironic as I look back when I was working before Noah's birth and relied more heavily upon my cell phone than I do now, and remember how hot the ear I primarily held it to got, and how my ear literally ached or felt like heat was generating into it. And I never ever ever gave it a second thought, not once.
But I keep thinking people will never ever hand over their cell phones, or drop the technology they have become so overly addicted to, but if a simple deflector like that an reduce RF, then why aren't we focusing more on biologists, physicists and engineers that could put their heads together and find ways to still allow for technology to thrive without making us sick or interfering with already medically compromised and those in the disabled community like Noah.
I Am Cell Aware has created a promo code to assist Noah. If you use the code "Noah" 20 percent of sales will be donated to him and spreading awareness about how RF impacts many children with neurological conditions like Noah. We thank them, and so many other organizations and individuals that continue to reach out to us with such love, understanding and sincere desire to help. You can purchase your cell phone deflector here.
Still want to learn more about how EMF is effecting you and your children? Here's a great TED talk:
https://www.emfanalysis.com/tedx-wireless-wake-up-call/
I loved this cartoon from Katie Singer in Radiant Times:
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.