Car Radiation

Are EMFs in Conventional Cars and Hybrids a Real Health Threat?
Do You Need EMF Car Protection?

Car Radiation is inevitable, as cars are electronic in nature. Although the conventional car burns oil for energy, while the electrical car and hybrid car utilize mainly electrical current, the very essence of a car and its traditional motor are based on electrical current.

Within metal, electricity becomes trapped. Instead of electrical currents dissipating, a metal container (such as a car) tends to keep those frequencies in. This works to concentrate the electromagnetic frequencies within the interior of the car.

Why are EMFs in Cars a Concern?

There are many adverse health symptoms associated with both short-term and long-term EMF exposure. For car radiation, the excessive drowsiness caused by exposure to EMFs is one of the most dangerous.

Recent studies at Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation in La Jolla, California found that high levels of electromagnetic radiation (EMRs) from automobiles caused drivers to get sleepy while driving. Drivers exposed to high levels of car radiation fell asleep 52 minutes faster than drivers who were not exposed to such high levels of radiation.

In addition to sleepiness, short-term car radiation exposure while driving has been found to contribute to headaches, neck stiffness, dry eyes and blurred vision, ringing in the ears, irritability (think road rage) and spaciness.

Long-term car radiation exposure could lead to increased risk of various organ cancers, especially for hybrid drivers who tend to be exposed to high levels of EMFs from underneath their seats.

It is well known that truck drivers have a high incidence of kidney cancer due to the high voltage wiring that runs underneath their seat.

Cell Phone Use in Cars Increases Driving Accidents

While car radiation exposure happens just from driving a car, cell phone use while inside a car increases the overall levels of car radiation. What’s more, studies have shown that cell phone radiation is amplified when used inside a car. This is due to the car’s metal frame trapping the radiation inside the car and not allowing it to dissipate.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, you are four times more likely to have an accident if you use a cell phone while driving. Here is what RoSPA has to say on driving with a cell phone:

Drivers who use a mobile phone, whether hand-held or hands-free:
• are much less aware of what’s happening on the road around them
• fail to see road signs
• fail to maintain proper lane position and steady speed
• are more likely to ‘tailgate’ the vehicle in front
• react more slowly, take longer to brake and longer to stop
• are more likely to enter unsafe gaps in traffic
• feel more stressed and frustrated
They are also four times more likely to crash, injuring or killing themselves and other people.- RoSPA

Hybrid/Electric Car EMFs vs Regular Car EMFs

Hybrid cars do expose passengers to higher levels of EMFs that conventional cars. Although the car companies argue that Hybrid Cars often have lower EMF levels than traditional cars, this is not usually the case, as the Hybrid will house a large battery in the front of the car and a smaller battery in the back, with both batteries utilizing the more harmful alternating current (AC) as opposed to the direct current (DC) of conventional cars.

In addition, EMF levels in Hybrids tend to concentrate around the foot of the driver as well as the waist. Although authorities claim that since EMF levels do not accumulate above the waist to affect higher organs there should be no increase of concern, the fact is the kidneys as well as the reproductive organs of the driver are exposed to these higher radiation levels.

In addition, rear seat passengers are exposed to the rear battery emissions. In many instances, rear seat passengers are children, making the exposure of EMFs even more of a concern, as children’s rapidly duplicating cells are more prone to damage from radiation exposure.

Newer Cars Have Higher EMF Levels

Car radiation is higher in newer cars due to the increase of technology within the car. No longer just a radio, cars now house complicated computer systems and wireless technologies.

Both GPS Tracking and Bluetooth technology utilize the same wireless RF radiation that cell phones and cell towers use. There addition of GPS into the car elevates the amount of microwave radiation being brought into the car from satellites in space, while the built in Bluetooth emits wireless radiation into the car cabin from the dashboard.

Check out our EMF Protection Guide to learn more about how to protect from car radiation.