What is our generation's smoking?
therealbrandonwilson • 8 May 2024 •
I'm working on the presentation that my business partner and I will give at an event next month. My working title is "What is our generation's smoking?"
In 1965, 42% of the US adult population were smokers. There were newspaper and magazine ads with doctors promoting cigarettes. No one except the tobacco companies knew how bad smoking is. But it's not one cigarette or one pack or one carton that will kill you. It is a slow poisoning over decades. Contrast this with a sign I saw recently at a gas station:
I started thinking about what could be our generation's smoking. What is something we have in society today that we don't think is harmful that we will find out in future decades was a bad idea? My answer is artificial electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs).
Most people would agree that smog, a portmanteau of smoke and fog, is not good for health. We are now faced with a new type of smog called e-smog, which occurs in all areas where electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields are present. Think of all the wireless signals bouncing around you at any given time: WIFI, cellular (4G/5G), satellite, Bluetooth, radio, internet-of-things wireless devices, etc.
Our species, Homo Sapiens, evolved out of Africa around 200,000 years ago. The first satellite was launched in 1957. WIFI was invented in 1996, and Bluetooth in 1998. The first iPhone debuted in 2007. The hyper novelty of artificial EMFs is something we have not evolved to handle.
Comments
How can we evolve to handle such health hazards? Is it possible for humans to become immune to the dangers of smoking and EMFs, given a long enough stretch of exposure?
It’s likely to be vaping. Too many cheap chemicals are probably in those and we won’t know the real impact for years.
Screens and monitors invite us to sit for long periods and bathe our heads in EMFs.
@jasonleow Sitting is definitely another hazard of the modern lifestyle. @haideralmosawi Evolution takes time, and even then, certain biochemical and electromagnetic constraints will cause the human body to succumb to disease from toxic exposure. @tao I saw one study that suggests vaping is actually worse than smoking. @Winkletter The dastardly phone is the biggest culprit.
I think sitting/sedentary lifestyle is another potential candidate.