I was talking this weekend to a friend who was saying she is concerned about the effects of radiation, doesn’t use cell or portable phones, baby monitors etc. It got me wondering about how the CGM actually works. Radio waves? Is it safe or potentially problematic? I know our pediatrician say not to let kids talk on cell phones. Does this work the same way? Hope not, since I wore it on my tummy while pregnant.
Usually I dismiss this stuff as quakery, but this friend is a scientist and it has all kind of made me wonder.
Thanks!
The DexCom 7+ manual states:
Maximum Output Power: 25 uW EIRP
Transmit Duty Cycle: 9.28 ms every 5 minutes
This means that a DexCom 7+ user is exposed to 2.6 seconds of radiation from the transmitter per day.
The typical RF output of a cell phone is 100 mW.
The DexCom 7+ radiation is 4000 times weaker than that of a typical cell phone.
Does this person also refuse to fly, hike in a mountain, go inside a brick structure? Does she have granite countertops in her home? I ask because these are activities/objects that are associated with radiation that CAN cause cancer.
You get the same amount of radiation when flying in the air for 2 hours as you do when you get a chest x-ray. The higher your altitude is the more radiation you get. Bricks are made of materials, some of which have radioactive properties. Some granites are radiation emitters.
There was an article in a medical journal that I want to tell you about, but first there are a few things that I need to explain before I get into it. The goverment has strict guidelines for radiation workers in order to keep us safe. They require us to wear what are called dosimeters. Dosimeters are badges that measure the amount of radaition that someone is exposed to. They are sent to a lab once a month or every three months (depending on your job). The results are sent back to the radiation safety manager. If you reach the allotted yearly radiation dose (which I have never heard of), then you are basically unemployed for the remainder of the year. This article was talked about by the radiation oncologist that I work for so I don’t know what journal, but do know it was a medical one. I have also googled this and there are a number of stories about this issue.
So this article talks about a radiologist who had very expensive granite countertops put into his kitchen. He had always taken his home and put it on his kitchen counter at night. When his results came back the next month, they couldn’t figure out why he had over a full year of allowable radiation exposure in one month. They asked him if he maybe left his dosimeter in one of the radiation rooms for a few days, etc. He confessed that he took it home after work every day. They then went to his home and measured the radiation output of this new granite countertop and found that it was quite radioactive. Not sure what happened after that, but the moral of the story is that you run into radiation exposure everyday. Do I say ignore it, no. But should you deny yourself a few conviences, no.
Personally speaking as a radiation therapist and professional, I don’t think you need to worry. Radiowaves have such a low frequency that I doubt they can interact with much.
If you want to read up on different eectromagnetic radiations, google electromagnetic spectrum. This classification includes x-rays, cosmic rays, light, radiowaves, and microwaves. It can give you more information for you to decide on.
Hope this helps and sorry about the long response, it just annoys me when people fuel fear.
From your healthy radiation therapist who exclusively uses cell phones and portable phones. 
Ursela
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You should not be concerned at all. If cell phones were an issue we would have literally BILLIONS of people with brain cancer in the world. These devices have been around for decades already.
I wish there were “like” buttons on here sometimes like there are on facebook! I was thinking the same things when I read this post about the friend. I start to worry about stuff and then decide that I can’t live worrying about everything! I’d be too stressed out all the time especially with worrying about D and what it brings daily!
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I been thinking about this issue too. Freestyle Libre 1 doesn’t use Bluetooth which i assume is where the radio frequency would come from.
The frequency on things like smart phones is very low. The damage is not that evident and automatic. But cancer has been connected to cell phones, and respectable people back this. Heck even the WHO considered it a possible carcinogen. It’s just a hard pill to swallow and people trust our “experts.” But our world is profit over everything else. But Devra Davis who worked under Clinton has extensive talks on this issue that anyone can see.
Kids shouldnt have phones next to their head, no one should in all honesty even manufacturers tell you not to do this.
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The post by Helmut sums up the facts why the very tiny amount of radio frequency energy from your CGM is nothing to worry about:
Bluetooth transmits on the 2.4 MHz band. Virtually all wireless routers do also (though many also transmit on 5MHz). So most people’s bodies are absorbing similar radio frequency energy at some level for most of the day.
But, it is a good question, and we should all ask such questions about our new technologies.
Mine uses BTLE - Bluetooth Low Energy.
My Omnipod uses a different (and more reliable) wavelength on RF (Radio Frequency) that is not BTLE.
Its true that not everyone is a fan of wireless signals continually being right up next to your face. But, wireless signals are everywhere. We don’t see a bunch of birth defects resulting from cell phones. But, for the cautions, its a thing to limit cell phone use.
That’s 15.8 minutes per year more radiation than already exposed to, channeled near vital organs, which reminds me of the old saying, “death by a thousand little cuts.” The key, of course, is to cut back where you can. One variable that concerns me is that the CGM-generated radiation feed is constant since the device is worn 24/7. Can that make a difference in the body’s ability to overcome the potential for adverse health effects?
Worry more about the other sources of radiation and how it can effect your cgm signal, rather than the other way around. Blue tooth is so weak it has a hard time going through windows.
The new type of electric meters that have remote reading capability, work on a very close frequency as our cgm, so it could potentially block your sensor from communicating with your pump or phone.
And after all that , mine didn’t effect anything.
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Is this the reason that when I walk by microwave popcorn in the grocery all the bags explode with popped popcorn?
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That happens cause ur hot
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Or could it be because I used to work at the long term atomic shell disposal and radiology lab in Tehran? Everyone said it was perfectly safe for Americans to work there.
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