Case Study of a Dog Sensitive to Radiofrequency EMR
 

In a unique, unplanned study, one of the creators of Sunrise Redeemer made the discovery that their dog was sensitive to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation (EMR), as detailed below.

Case Presentation

The following study examines an intact male companion dog living in a suburban home with its owner. The dog recreated in a 1000 square foot organically-grown clover and grass lawn, fenced with decorative steel garden fence panels (not a privacy fence, or any type that would offer shielding from RF EMR).

The dog was not suspected of having any problems attributable to electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and this study was therefore unplanned and inadvertent.

When the dog’s owner discovered their own sensitivity to RF EMR, many steps were taken to reduce the RF EMR within the home and in the part of the dog’s yard that was most affected. RF meters were used to verify that the mitigation performed successfully reduced levels of RF EMR. Following the RF EMR mitigation, the dog exhibited unexpected, dramatic improvement and resolution of many health symptoms and behavioral issues for which a direct cause was never before determinable.

This study is especially important because although a dog can’t communicate with words, they can still indicate with other behaviors how they are feeling in the presence of RF EMR. Although the dog noticed that the screening was new in its yard, the dog also experienced the installation of the same screening in many rooms inside the home as well. Unlike a human subject, a dog cannot be influenced by the nocebo effects: The dog had no knowledge that the screening was intended to attenuate wireless signals. The dog didn’t have thoughts that it might feel better now that the RF EMR in its environment was reduced. The dog also was not aware when a wireless device became present in its environment again (i.e. someone accidentally bringing their cell phone in the house following mitigation), and thus, was not made anxious by such awareness, as a human trying to limit their EMR exposure may have been after discovering that an unknown and unwelcome cell phone was present.

This study is unique in that the behavioral issues and health symptoms from which the dog was suffering were not even known to be caused by EMR, and the EMR mitigation was not conducted for the reason of benefiting the dog’s health, or to perform any kind of study on the dog at all.

It is also fascinating to discover that multiple symptoms experienced by the dog have direct parallels with those experienced by humans in response to exposure to EMR, as explained in the discussion at the end of this study.

History, Health Symptoms, and Behaviors prior to EMR Mitigation

At age 5 years, 4 months, the dog presented with the following history, health symptoms and behaviors:

1) Phone call agitation. Prior to mitigation, the dog’s owner only made phone calls using their Bluetooth headset connected to their cellular phone. As soon as a call was made or answered, the dog became immediately visibly upset. The dog would continue to bark while the owner was talking, and usually had to be put in its kennel, where it often continued to bark anyway, until the phone call had ended.

2) Little jump upon entering yard. The moment the dog set foot into the backyard after going down the three steps leading down from the door wall, it did a short jump up into the air.

3) No relaxation in yard. The dog was never able to relax in its yard. It constantly paced back and forth along the fence, often barking for no apparent reason. The dog did not sit or lay down in its yard. It was always on the move.

4) Exhaustion in yard, staying in northern part of yard. When the dog was a puppy, the owner tried to play fetch with a ball in the yard. The puppy seemed so tired after only 5 minutes that it would sit or lie down by the fence in the northern area of the yard, just panting with exhaustion. The owner stopped playing ball outside with the puppy since it could play with toys and its ball for ½ hour or more inside the home.

5) Popping hips. Since the dog was about 6 months old, when it came in from outside and had its feet washed, its hips would sometimes make a popping noise when its hind legs were lifted. It didn’t appear painful to the dog. It was never able to be replicated for a veterinarian visit.

6) Mucus-like vomit. Sometimes, when the dog was left outside in its yard for more than an hour, it would vomit a clear, saliva-like mucus. This never happened when the dog was inside, so the owner thought it may be a response to cosmetic herbicides that volatilized or drifted into the yard from the neighbors’ spray that the dog may have licked. There were never any solid particles in the vomit indicating that the dog ate something solid out in the yard that made it sick.

7) Asthma attacks. Sometimes, while the dog was either lying down on the family room rug, or looking out the open front door, it would suddenly begin having trouble breathing, as if it were suffering an asthma attack, and just couldn’t inhale enough air. The attacks seemed to come out of nowhere and were unpredictable. Attacks happened both when the dog was playing with its toys, and when it was sitting/resting, without any observable catalyst.

8) Car agitation. The dog had great difficulty riding in the car. The moment the car was started, it began to bark. It chipped its teeth on the wire door of the traveling kennel from being so upset. The owner tried using both a muzzle and a special cap that covered the dog’s eyes, but neither seemed to settle the dog down in the car. The owner tried lavender scent to try to soothe the dog, but it had no effect. People the dog knew and liked even tried riding in the back with the dog to help console it, but nothing worked. The dog would especially act up at intersections where the car was stopped for a traffic light. The dog made loud, rhythmic barks that it just didn’t seem to be able to control. The dog would try to shred anything around with its teeth if it didn’t have its muzzle on.

9) Pain in forelimbs and toes, licking and biting in response.

Initial injury description: Several weeks before the dog turned 4 ½, it suffered an unusual injury at a state park. Its owner was taking photos of the dog lying down in front of a scenic landscape. When it was time to get up, the dog was limping and couldn’t seem to put any pressure on either of its forelimbs (wrists). The owner had to carry the dog 0.3 miles back to the car.

The dog’s forelimbs (wrists) were iced throughout the following days, and supports were worn for about a month. The dog was forced to rest in its kennel and prevented from rough play. It started showing some improvement in walking without limping, but it was obvious the dog was still in pain: When it went outside, it was especially noticeable that it took small steps, gingerly putting down each of its front feet while walking around. The dog no longer trotted or ran around the yard. It commonly licked its wrists and bit off the fur in lines along the wrist joint. It also bit fur off its toes right down to the base of the nail.

The dog did not go hiking again for 4 months. Prior to the injury, it used to go once a week and walk about 4 miles, but when it attempted hiking after the injury, it could only walk about 1-1.5 miles before it became obvious that its forelegs were hurting. Shortly thereafter, the hikes were discontinued due to the owner being disabled by Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), and not being able to leave their shielded home in order to have the best chance at making a full recovery.

Visit from particular person exacerbated foreleg and toe pain: Whenever a certain person came over to visit, the dog expected to play indoor ball with them. However, the dog would always lick and bite up its wrists/toes after the person went home. The owner thought it was because the dog was just too rambunctious with this person over, and was hurting its wrists from all the spinning around and rougher play.

To prevent further injury, the owner began forcing the dog to stay in its bed for the first part of this person’s visit, long enough for the dog to calm down. Then the dog was let out of its bed, but the person did not play ball with the dog. The dog still licked and bit up its wrists/toes within an hour or two after this person left.
 

EMR Mitigation Performed

When the dog’s owner observed the correlation between the EMR levels in their environment and their own ongoing health symptoms, they took the following remediation actions to make their home safer, without even thinking that changes might also help their dog.

• The owner stopped using a cell phone and requested that no one brought one into the home. The owner switched to a standard copper landline for telephone service.

• The home’s wi-fi internet router was disabled, and the owner used an Ethernet cable to connect to the internet.

• The owner made certain the wi-fi and Bluetooth was disabled in any devices, equipment and appliances in the home that emitted these signals.

• 7’ high aluminum mesh RF shielding (AM Signal Protect from Safe Living Technologies, Inc.) was installed around the part of the backyard affected by microwaves emitted by two different neighbors’ smart electric and gas meters.

• The owner verified with RF meters that there were no other RF-emitting devices inside the home.

• The owner confirmed with a directional RF meter (Gigahertz Solutions HF 38B) that the outdoor mesh RF shielding reduced the neighbors’ smart meter radiation from levels of around 200 µW/m² to 5 µW/m².

 

Changes to or Resolution of Health Symptoms and Behavior After EMR Mitigation

Each numbered item below corresponds with the numbered items in the “History, Health Symptoms, and Behaviors prior to EMR Mitigation” section.

1) Phone call agitation. When the owner talked on the landline (instead of a cell phone with a Bluetooth headset), the dog no longer barked or had to be put in its bed. The dog would relax in its chair while the owner talked on the phone, lie down on its rug by the owner’s feet, or enjoy another part of the house. The dog was no longer distressed by phone calls.

2) Little jump upon entering yard. The dog stopped doing the little jump into the air when it was let outside.

3) No relaxation in yard. The first day the RF shielding screens were installed, the dog laid down in its yard and did not pace along the fence! Since the installation, the dog is now comfortable sitting or lying down on the clover and grass lawn in its yard.

4) Exhaustion in yard, staying in northern part of yard. Although the owner no longer plays ball outside with the dog, the dog has stayed outside in its yard for up to 3 hours at a time, switching between running/trotting around the perimeter, doing “zoomies”, and resting, without ever appearing that it was exhausted. It is notable that the dog no longer chooses the northern edge of the yard to rest---it prefers a central area of the yard instead.

5) Popping hips. The dog’s hips rarely make the popping sound anymore. The only time it happens is if the dog has been out in the yard for a couple hours at a time.

6) Mucus-like vomit. The dog has not vomited the clear saliva-like mucus again.

7) Asthma attacks. The only place the dog still occasionally suffers asthma attacks is at the open front door. It has not had an attack on the family room rug since the RF EMR mitigation.

8) Car agitation. The dog has not ridden in the car since remediation was performed, so there are no results to report as yet.

9) Pain in forelimbs and toes, licking and biting in response. The dog no longer licks/bites its wrists/toes following a visit with the weekend ball-playing visitor. The only times it has happened again is when the dog was accidentally exposed to a cell phone.

Discussion of Numbered Symptoms

Each numbered item below corresponds with the numbered items in the “History, Health Symptoms, and Behaviors prior to EMR Mitigation” and “Changes to or Resolution of Health Symptoms and Behavior After EMR Mitigation” sections.

Symptom 1: The dog’s agitation during phone calls appears to have been caused by RF EMR originating from the owner’s cell phone, Bluetooth headset, or both: The owner had assumed that because the dog was sometimes rather needy for attention, that the dog was upset when a cell phone call was being conducted because its owner’s attention was directed elsewhere. Once the owner started using the new landline and no cell phones were permitted in the home, the owner discovered that the dog did not bark when landline calls were made or received. This result is indicative of the fact that either the Bluetooth signal from the headset, the wireless transmissions from the cell phone, or both, were clearly causing some kind of discomfort for the dog, and causing it to bark repetitively when the phone was in use. When the owner used the landline phone, it did not evoke these feelings of distress in the dog.

Symptoms #2-6: 2) Little jump upon entering yard; 3) No relaxation in yard; 4) Exhaustion in yard, staying in northern part of yard; 5) Popping hips; and 6) Mucus-like vomit)

It appears that symptoms #2-6 were all caused by the dog’s exposure to the RF signals from electric smart meters:

The electric utility servicing the region containing the dog’s home uses smart electric meters to automatically take electric meter readings and wirelessly transmit the readings to the utility. Two smart electric meters on neighbor’s homes pointed directly into the dog’s yard. One meter was centered with the yard, directing RF EMR into the yard from the south from about 15 feet away from the edge of the dog’s yard. The other meter emitted RF EMR from the west, and was positioned about a third of the way into the dog’s yard starting from the south side, and was about 40 feet away from the edge of the dog’s yard.

To test the emissions from the smart electric meters, the dog’s owner used a Gigahertz Solutions HF 38B RF meter, which translates the RF signals into audible sounds. The HF 38B provides a numeric value for the intensity of the signals, in the unit of µW/m². The HF 38B also has a long directional antenna, necessary to capture the full length of the wave emitted by smart meters (other RF meters merely capture only a portion of the wave and therefore cannot accurately measure its intensity).

The owner determined with the HF 38B that the smart electric meter on the southern neighbor’s house functioned differently than the meter on the western neighbor’s house, the owner’s house, and other meters on nearby homes, despite being the same model number and having the same outward appearance.
The meter on the southern neighbor’s home was different in that in addition to the pulses occurring every 10-15 seconds that were “heard” on other neighboring smart electric meters, there was a constant signal that remained on 24/7. The owner was never able to find a similar sound sample to the repetitive droning sound coming from the neighbor’s smart electric meter. Pointing the HF 38B ten degrees higher than the source of EMR (the smart electric meter), per this RF meter’s usage instructions, the southern smart electric meter emitted RF EMR at a consistent intensity of about 200 µW/m² at the southern edge of the dog’s yard, which steadily decreased to about 30 µW/m² at the northern edge.

The neighbors agreed to shut off their power from the circuit breaker to verify that the signal wasn’t coming from any other wireless device in their home. With their electricity shut off, the droning sound was still present in the same intensity, and was verified with the directional antenna on the HF 38B to be coming out of the smart electric meter.

After performing detailed research regarding the functioning of the particular model of smart electric meter, the owner determined that the one on the southern neighbor’s home is what is referred to as a “collection meter.” It collects the data from other meters in the area and transmits the meter readings for all of the meters to the utility. The collection meter has an internal router enabled.

Fortunately, the shielding mesh called “AM Signal Protect”, from Safe Living Technologies, Inc., installed on the southern side of the dog’s yard, and about half of the western side, worked well. This RF shielding mesh was able to lower the southern meter’s router emissions near the southern side of the yard from 200 µW/m² down to 5 µW/m².

Symptom 2:  The dog’s little jump upon entering yard was the “shock” of entering the strongest beam of RF EMR from the southern electric meter’s internal router: It was discovered with the directional antenna of the HF 38B that just after going out the door wall and down the three steps to the yard, the dog was right in the path of one of the most intense beams of RF EMR from the electric smart meter. Per the owner’s studies of the white papers about this particular model of smart meter, and the owner’s direct observations of the intensity of the RF EMR coming out of the smart meter at different points in the yard, the most intense amount of RF radiation is emitted in the forward direction in front of the meter. There are also two beams of medium intensity coming from each side of the meter, and a less intense beam that goes through the house from behind the meter. The moment the dog got to the bottom of the steps and walked a couple feet, it would have been blasted with the intense router signal, which is likely what made the dog jump with all four feet every time it got to this point. The fact that the dog stopped doing the little jump once the shielding was installed lends support to this explanation. The dog now goes down the steps and calmly enters the yard with no change in behavior.

Symptom 3:  The dog’s inability to relax in its yard appears to have been due to the continual smart electric meter radiation, which kept the dog in an excited state: Considering that the dog’s entire yard was polluted with emissions from two different neighbors’ smart electric meters, and one of these meters contained a powerful router that was continually emitting high intensity RF EMR 24/7, it is not surprising that the dog was unable to relax. The fact that the dog’s behavior changed immediately after the installation of the RF shielding mesh supports this explanation. The dog now regularly sits and lies down on the grass. The dog rolls around and stretches its legs, looking content. The dog can stay relaxed the majority of the time it spends alone in its yard (1/2 hour to 3 hours per day). The only things that upset the dog while in its yard are airplanes (likely due to the radar that also causes noticeable health symptoms in its owner) and commercial vehicles (which contain GPS trackers that also cause health symptoms for its owner

Symptom 4:  The dog’s suffering from exhaustion in its yard, and staying in northern part of yard appear to have been a response to the RF EMR from the smart electric meters: Although the dog does not play ball in the yard anymore, which used to be the trigger for its symptoms of exhaustion (heavy panting, not able to get up to go after a ball), it does trot around enough for long periods of time that if it were going to suffer from exhaustion, it should have continued to happen. The dog used to stop playing ball after only a mere 5 minutes when it was a puppy, and it wasn’t because it didn’t want to play (ball is this dog’s life!). The fact that when the dog was suffering from an exhaustion attack, it always positioned itself at the far northern side of the yard, is important. Because the southern part of the yard was so polluted with RF EMR from two directions, it is as if the dog realized it didn’t feel as bad over on the north side, which definitely had lower RF readings than the south side. The southern electric meter’s internal router was only about 1/6 of the intensity on the northern side of the yard as compared to the southern side. The dog now enjoys resting in the central portion of the yard and no longer lies down at the far north end anymore, a further indication that the dog no longer feels a need to avoid the southern portion of the yard.

Symptom 5:  The dog’s popping hips appear to be caused by RF EMR exposure from the smart electric meters: Since the installation of the RF shielding mesh, the dog’s hips only pop if the dog has been outside for several hours at a time. They don’t pop when the dog has just been out for a short time (less than ½ hour). The fact that it still happens on occasion when the dog has spent a lot of time in the yard could be due to the fact that the RF shielding mesh is not 100% effective. Studies have shown that even very low levels of RF EMR, at only one or two microwatts per meter squared (µW/m²) can be more biologically active (cause more health effects) than a higher intensity. It is possible that the dog’s exposure to the signals from the smart electric meters that were originally causing the hip popping every time the dog went outside, have a cumulative effect, whereby the low levels experienced over a few hours can cause the muscle tightening which causes the hips to make the popping sound upon lifting the hind legs.

Symptom 6:  The dog’s mucus-like vomit appears to have been the result of nausea induced by the RF EMR from the smart electric meters: Considering that other factors have stayed the same (i.e. drifting and volatilizing cosmetic herbicides from neighboring properties that cover the dog’s organically grown clover and grass lawn are still an issue), and that the dog has not vomited mucus-like vomit again since the installation of the RF shielding mesh, it appears the dog was being made sick by the RF EMR coming from the smart electric meter.

 

Symptom 7:  The dog’s asthma attacks appear to have been caused primarily from wi-fi and RF emissions from newer cars. The most common place the dog appeared to suffer asthma attacks was on the family room rug. This location happened to be right near the computer’s wi-fi. Since the computer’s wi-fi had been turned off, the dog did not have any more attacks on the family room rug. The only place it still occasionally suffered was when it was sitting at the front door, looking out the storm door, and a car passed by. It is possible that with all the RF transmitters/sensors on newer vehicles (about 12-15 on some cars), that something is triggering an attack, similarly to how the computer’s wi-fi triggered one. However, the owner has been unable to test this hypothesis with any RF meters because of the low frequency of asthma attacks and unpredictability of their occurrences.

Symptom 8:  The dog’s agitation riding in a car is likely due to the multitude of exposures suffered while in a vehicle on the road, which are not able to be mitigated like its home environment. The dog’s owner used to have the Bluetooth turned on in their car because it would automatically pair with their cell phone. The dog was always relaxed in its kennel in the back seat until the car started. The owner thought it was just the dog’s anxious response to the car getting ready to go, but it could have been the Bluetooth signal that the dog found distressing.

The dog had particular trouble relaxing at intersections. The dog’s owner now realizes that intersections are one of the most dangerous locations on the roads for exposure to EMR (besides all the cell towers along the highways, and small cell transmitters along smaller roads, often in rural areas). The intersections have cellular masts, transmitters for utilities, wireless cameras, etc.

It is not surprising that blocking the dog’s vision with a special cap had no calming effect, since its distress was not likely caused by what it was seeing, but what it was feeling.

The dog has not been in a car again since EMR mitigation was performed in its home environment, so it is not known if the dog has recovered enough from its sensitivity to show any improvement.

Symptom 9: The dog's pain in its forelimbs and toes, and licking and biting in response appears to be exclusive to exposure to RF EMR in the frequencies used in cellular communication (i.e. cell towers, masts, and cell phones).

The dog commonly had toes with fur bitten down near the nails; and forelegs with a horizontal line across the wrist joint where fur had been neatly bitten off. If the dog wasn’t biting its toes or wrists, it was often licking them, which is also indicative that the dog was in pain in these areas.

After all internal RF and microwave signals were eliminated from the dog’s home environment and the RF shielding screens were installed in part of the backyard, the dog stopped licking and biting its wrists and toes and the fur grew back.

In the first 6 months after mitigation, there were three exposures of a cell phone in the home. In all three cases, the phone was turned on, but was not being actively used for calling, texting, or data. The only emissions from the phone would be the periodic pulses to communicate with the nearest cell mast or tower. The first exposure was the owner’s phone. The owner turned it on for the first time about 3 months after mitigation, merely to retrieve phone numbers so that it could be turned off indefinitely. The phone was only on about 20 minutes, and it was used upstairs while the dog was downstairs, but this was still enough for the dog to lick its wrists later that night, although it did not bite them. The second and third times were a person that accidentally brought their phone inside the house, and had it in their pocket. The dog was near the phone in each of these two cases, within a few feet to 20 feet away, for about 15-20 minutes. The dog did bite up its wrists shortly after these closer range exposures.

The dog was also accidentally exposed a few times to neighbors’ cell phones while enjoying the yard, when its owner didn’t notice in time to bring it inside. Again, it either licked or bit up its wrists and toes after these exposures.

After these observations, the puzzling phenomena of the dog licking and biting its wrists and toes every time the same weekend visitor came over, even when the dog did not engage in any physical activity, was finally explained. This person always had their cell phone with them during the visit. As soon as this person stopped bringing it inside the house, the dog could freely play ball, frantically chasing it around and twisting and turning its body, with no later ill effects.

The owner later discovered that there was a cell phone tower located about 1 mile from the trails the dog traveled the day the state park at which the initial debilitating injury occurred. However, the owner was never able to visit the park again to take any measurements of the intensity of EMR to see if the radiation from these antennas could have been the catalyst for the dog’s severe wrist pain.

In any case, it is clear the dog suffers pain in its toes and wrists in the presence of cell phones, and most likely also would in the presence of cell towers or masts, since these antennas emit the same frequencies as the cell phones do.

 

Discussion of this Dog's Possible Predispositions to Sensitivity to EMR

The owner determined that there was a cell tower 1600 feet away from the property on which the dog was born and raised for the first 8 weeks of its life. The dog’s dam was the family dog of 7 years, residing on this property all that time. The sire had lived there almost 2 years. Studies have indicated that damage from pesticide exposure harms offspring of an exposed mother, and continues on for at least another generation (i.e. a grandmother’s exposure can continue to cause health issues in her grandchild). It is possible that the changes to the body caused by exposure to EMR could similarly be passed on to the next generation. Being exposed as a fetus and for the first 8 weeks of life also could have contributed to the dog in this case study’s sensitivity to EMR. The dog was also transported to the owner’s home via airplane. The dog was in the cargo area for about a two-hour flight, which may have exposed it to high intensities of radar. It is also possible that none of these prior events caused the dog to be sensitive to RF EMR. Considering the extent of the smart electric meter radiation into the dog’s yard, and the severe health effects it was causing the dog, it is possible this source of EMR was the point of toxic overload for the dog that caused it to be sensitive to multiple frequencies of RF EMR.

Discussion of remarkable similarities existing between the dog’s symptoms and common human symptoms from exposure to RF EMR:

Nausea, excessive salivation and vomiting are common human symptoms. One can presume the dog probably felt nauseated before it vomited (symptom #6).

Many people assume asthma is a symptom experienced only due to exercise or exposure to some particulate matter in the air: They don’t realize it is a very common human health symptom in response to exposure to RF EMR, especially wi-fi and cell phones, which apparently can also affect dogs in the same manner (symptom #7).

Another very common human symptom is wrist pain. Many people assume that because they notice a correlation between being on their computer and experiencing more wrist pain, that they have carpal tunnel or some other issue related to typing or using a mouse. In reality, their pain is caused by RF EMR, often from the wi-fi from their router and computer, or their wireless keyboard and mouse. Fingers are often affected as well, and may feel itchy, especially cold-sensitive, or feel as if something is underneath the nail, or that the nail is partially torn off. Perhaps these were the types of sensations the dog was feeling that caused it to lick and bite its wrists and toes (symptom #9).

Before the RF shielding was installed, in response to the smart electric meter radiation, the dog’s owner experienced issues with one of their hips. They experienced an uncomfortable sensation, called dysesthesia, similar to the pins and needles sensation when a leg falls asleep, accompanied by a mild burning feeling. It could be felt in the middle toe all the way up the leg into the hip, and made walking painful. Sometimes, the owner’s hip would click/pop with each step when the owner was in the backyard near the meter because a muscle was drawing that leg up too tightly. The owner experienced this sensation and hip popping for many years, after it began following a severe auto accident, but never before realized that RF EMR was exacerbating it. The owner also never realized it was possible for these symptoms to dissipate completely until the RF EMR mitigation was performed. Although it is not possible to know whether the dog experienced anything like dysesthesia, it is clear that one of its muscles is clearly acting like that of the owner’s, drawing up the leg too tightly, and causing a restriction when the leg moves, which makes a clicking/popping sound. The hip clicking/popping was not painful for the owner (unlike the dysesthesia, which was uncomfortable enough to become painful after a short time), nor did it seem painful for the dog (Symptom #5).
 

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