How Tablets Emit EMF Radiation And What You Can Do To Minimise Exposure

From smart TVs to the phone in your pocket, it can sometimes feel like every device we own is just a different size of screen. That being said, in the last two decades, tablets have found a wide and comfortable niche in people’s homes as a useful and practical alternative to a laptop or PC. In fact, many people even own a phone, tablet, and laptop, using them interchangeably depending on the circumstances.

However, no matter how amazingly useful these devices are, that doesn’t change the fact that they can and sometimes do have a serious impact on people’s health. That’s bad enough when it comes to adults, but this kind of technology has now become so pervasive and commonplace that many young children either own or, at very least, regularly use tablets for many hours a day.

Some would call this a problem, while others would suggest that it’s a good thing. After all, tablets can make an excellent educational tool, keep us entertained when we need entertainment, and can even be a great way to help people with communication-related disabilities to interact with the world. The truth, however, is that this isn’t an either-or. Tablets are useful, but they also come with downsides and you should very much understand those downsides in their full context before buying a tablet for yourself or for someone else.

Today we’ll be talking about the dangers of tablet screen time, what you can do to minimise them, and the best ways to reduce your EMF exposure from tablets.

Do Tablets Emit EMF?

EMF – for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the subject – stands for electromagnetic frequency and is a kind of radiation emitted by many of the devices we use in our day-to-day lives. Tablets, like any modern smart device with wireless capabilities, emit EMF radiation, and this can be something of a problem.

While the long-term risks of EMF exposure are not entirely clear, you should nonetheless avoid interacting too much with devices that emit large amounts of EMF radiation.

The reasons for this are complicated, and while we’ve dedicated quite a few words on this blog to explaining the risks of EMF, we’ll summarise it in short here: we don’t know what EFM does to your body. EMF radiation transmits signals through thin air and, in order to do that, it passes through you. We know for a fact that this can cause physical sensations in the short term (increased thermal absorption), but there’s no way of knowing what the long-term effects could really be.

After all, while EMF-emitting technology has been around in some shape or form for a number of decades, its modern prevalence is unprecedented. With so many devices being used all the time, the long-term effects are impossible to predict.

All of which brings us back to tablets. Now, technically speaking, tablets do emit EMF but it does depend on how you use them. We’ll talk more about this later when we discuss some basic methods for reducing your EMF exposure, but for now, suffice it to say that you should absolutely be putting some real thought into how much time you spend with that tablet.

Should You Use A Tablet?

Here at WaveWall, we’re not about telling you what to do with your life but presenting you with the facts and letting you make your mind up.

And the facts about tablets?

Well, while tablets can absolutely have negative health effects, that doesn’t mean you should give up on using your tablet entirely. Not only is it perfectly possible to mitigate the potential health impacts of owning and using a tablet, but giving up tablet usage isn’t necessarily practical or doable for most people.

After all, it’s not just our private entertainment and social lives that have found a space in the digital realm. For many people, work means interacting with technology, and while there are a number of ways to do that, tablets are by far one of the most effective.

What’s really important is finding a tech-healthy balance. Much like a work-life balance, a tech-healthy balance is all about limiting your screen time and encouraging yourself to do more activities that don’t require the tablet. Whether that’s going for long walks, taking up outdoor hobbies, or even just playing a few board games with the family, putting down the tablet for a few hours in the evening will go a very long way towards reducing your EMF absorption and improving your relationship with technology.

Should Your Children Be Using A Tablet?

For those who have children, screen time is a common problem. Naturally, there are psychological concerns about what might happen when children spend too much time indoors in front of a tablet, but there are also very real health concerns.

As well as potentially exposing you to EMF radiation, spending too much time in front of a tablet can damage the eyes and interfere with sleep. This can be very problematic for children and can have damaging effects on their ability to concentrate in school.

On the other hand, almost any educational professional would tell you that IT literacy is vitally important and one of the best ways to learn something is when you don’t realise that you’re learning. Put simply, while there are health risks, using a tablet can also be very good for children as it teaches them more about how to interact with tech, encourages them to actively read as part of activities and can even give them huge access to educational materials.

All this to say that finding that balance can be a real problem. Too much screen time and you risk impacting their health. Too little and you could be limiting their learning.

The Health Risks Of Regular Screen-Time

Alright, so here’s the part you’ve all been waiting for. What are the health risks of using a tablet?

Whether you’re worried about your health or your children’s, the only way you can solve the problem is to really understand it. That’s why we’ve put together some of the most common screen-time-related health problems so that you can see what the risks really are. We’ve also provided some handy solutions to help you find that tech-healthy lifestyle you’re looking for.

Poor sleep

Poor sleep is very often the result of blue light exposure. Late-night exposure to blue light tells our eyes that it’s daytime, releasing chemicals in the brain that stimulate us and encourage us to wake up.

Avoiding any tablet use near bedtime will seriously improve sleep patterns. The best way to achieve this is to charge your devices in another room to reduce all temptation of device usage near bedtime.

Vision problems

Staring at small objects up close for long periods of time isn’t good for anyone’s eyes – particularly not for children. In recent decades, doctors have noticed a growing trend in short-sightedness as a result of adults and children spending more time staring at screens up close. The stress of focusing on something so small, so often actually changes the shape of the retina requiring people to wear glasses if they want their vision back. The best way to reduce this is to limit screen time to periods of one hour at a time and make sure to get lots of fresh air and daylight

EMF Radiation

There are a wide range of health conditions that could be linked to EMF radiation. From anxiety to migraines, EMF appears to play a contributing factor in all kinds of ailments, which can make diagnosis nearly impossible. That being said, there are some great ways to cut down your EMF exposure, particularly if the bulk of it comes from a phone or tablet.

Phones Or Tablets: Which Is Worse?

One thing we like to stress is that reducing radiation absorption is all about minimising your exposure rather than cutting it down entirely, and to that end, it’s good to understand which sources of EMF are going to be stronger emitters than others.

In the battle between phones and tablets, it might seem like a close competition but when you account for usage habits, there’s a clear frontrunner. While tablets do emit EMF through things like WiFi, wireless charging, and Bluetooth, mobile phones do all the same and more.

Remember that traditional phone calls and texts also emit EMF and they do so in very close proximity to your head. On top of that, while a tablet is portable, a phone is designed to be carried in your pocket wherever you go. In the long run, your phone is absolutely going to be a worse offender.

What does this mean in practical terms?

Well, fortunately, all the advice we’ve given about reducing tablet exposure is also valid for phones. If you’re not using your Bluetooth and internet then turn them off. That low-level EMF won’t mean much in the short term, but over the course of the months and years in which you’ll be carrying around your phone, it absolutely adds up.

Reducing EMF Exposure

Here at WaveWall, we provide lots of information about ways you can reduce your exposure to various forms of EMF radiation. When it comes to tablets, the answer is actually quite simple.

Aside from the obvious tips about limiting your usage and not charging your tablet in the same room where you sleep, you can actually make some significant changes to your settings that will almost entirely cut down your EMF exposure depending on what you’re doing.

Firstly, you should turn off Bluetooth whenever you’re not using it. Not only will this dramatically improve your tablet’s battery life, but it will also cut down on EMF as your tablet will no longer be trying to detect devices it can connect to.

Similarly, if you don’t need to be connected to the internet then turn that WiFi off. Remember that any wireless connection to your tablet is a source of EMF radiation. Minimising the number of wireless connections will minimise the radiation.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, ensure that every smart device you own is protected with an EMF shielding case. An EMF shielding case is an affordable, effective solution that will help give you the peace of mind you need to continue using your tablet.

Final Thoughts

Tablets are such a ubiquitous and useful piece of modern technology, that it’s almost impossible to think of just getting rid of them. At the same time, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be cautious and careful about how we interact with any technology we use. By taking some sensible precautions and improving our awareness of how technology integrates into our lifestyles, we can take control over our tablets and significantly reduce the impact of EMF.

On a more general note, avoiding EMF radiation in 2023 is a huge challenge but minimising your exposure is not so hard. If the changes we’ve talked about in this article are difficult with regard to your tablet, then remember that there are many other areas in which you could probably cut back your EMF exposure.

At the end of the day, it’s all about balance. Very low levels of EMF radiation probably aren’t going to cause you any serious harm in the long run. Furthermore, it’s hard to make lots of changes simultaneously and trying to change everything at once might lead to changing nothing at all. Ultimately, it’s best to make these changes one at a time and always understand how it’s going to impact your life.

For more information about the dangers of EMF radiation, the need for good EMF protection, and other ways that you can live a tech-healthy lifestyle then follow the WaveWall blog for regular, exclusive content. You can also check out our store for the very best in EMF shielding cases for all your tech needs.