“From d’Arsonval’s dizzy volunteers in 1890s to Schliephake’s ‘microwave syndrome’ in 1932, scientists kept stumbling over the same warning: radio waves alter nerves, blood flow, and DNA long before they cook tissue. Yet every one of those red flags was stripped out when ANSI C95.1‑1982 was rubber‑stamped into the 1996 FCC rules.”
The Pre‑FCC Alarm Bells
⚗️ Jacques‑Arsène d’Arsonval (1893)
- What he did: Ran 3–10 MHz currents through animals and volunteers; subjects reported vertigo, phosphenes, and pulse changes well below any heating threshold.
- Why it matters: First systematic proof that high‑frequency EM fields modulate physiology without shocks or burns.
- Primary source: Action physiologique des courants alternatifs à grande fréquence (Comptes Rendus, 1893). (academia.edu)
⚡ Nikola Tesla (1891)
- What he did: In his landmark lecture Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency… he passed hundreds of kilovolts around his own body, noting prickling skin and “powerful effects” in the absence of heat.
- Why it matters: The era’s star innovator explicitly warned HF currents are “not absolutely harmless,” contradicting the later “only heating hurts” dogma.
- Primary source: American Institute of Electrical Engineers lecture, May 20 1891. (tesla.nutesla.com, teslasciencecenter.org)
🧠 Archie Frederick Collins (22 Feb 1902)
- What he did: Published “The Effect of Electric Waves on the Human Brain” in Electrical World & Engineer; beamed 400 kHz spark‑gap waves into excised animal and human brains. The tissue’s conductivity jumped as though it were a radio coherer.
- Why it matters: First deliberate attempt to document a non‑thermal neural interaction with radio waves.
- Primary source: Electrical World & Engineer, Vol 39, Issue 8, p. 334‑336. (archive.org, narberthhistory.org)
🩺 Dr. Erwin Schliephake (1924‑1932)
- What he did: Pioneered 1‑m short‑wave therapy; by 1932 he coined “Mikrowellensyndrom” after staff developed headaches, fatigue, and cardiac irregularities—symptoms appearing long before tissue heating.
- Why it matters: Introduces the occupational disease concept nearly 40 years before Cold‑War embassy‑worker studies revived the term microwave sickness.
- Primary source: Kurzwellentherapie (1932) and subsequent papers. (discovery.ucl.ac.uk, gorce24.pl)
Ignored by ANSI C95.1‑1982
🔍 When the IEEE/ANSI committee drafted C95.1‑1982, it cherry‑picked only the endpoints that showed thermal harm. D’Arsonval’s vertigo? Tesla’s cautions? Collins’s brain coherer? Schliephake’s microwave‑sick nurses? All erased.
The result: a heat‑only guideline inflated enough to green‑light every cordless‑phone and early‑cell‑phone rollout.
Rubber‑Stamp to Federal Rule (1996)
📜 Congress folded C95.1‑1982 wholesale into the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Section 704 then stripped states and towns of any power to challenge tower placements on health grounds, locking the obsolete heat limit in place.
Courtroom Reality Check (2021)
🧑⚖️ Environmental Health Trust et al. v. FCC — On August 13, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) ruled that the FCC’s decision to retain its 1996 limits was “arbitrary and capricious.” The panel blasted the agency for:
- ignoring more than 11,000 pages of peer‑reviewed evidence on non‑thermal harms,
- failing to address impacts on children, the environment, and long‑term exposure,
- overlooking the rise of Wi‑Fi, 5G small cells, and wearable tech.
📉 Translation: a federal court confirmed exactly what the historical record shows — the FCC never updated its science. The guidelines remain frozen in 30‑year‑old thermodynamics while biology raced ahead.
What Happens Next
- Enforce Public Law 90‑602 – reinstate the mandate for continuous RF‑health research.
- Repeal Section 704 – restore local authority to protect community health.
- Mandate Li‑Fi & Space‑Based Broadband – move data off the Schumann cavity and back into the light.
Call to Action: Join the #TrumpRepeal704 petition and demand Congress update RF limits with the evidence that’s been on the record since 1881.