I'd argue that asbestos is a great example, because it shows that in reality it's not the unknowns that harm us, but willfully ignoring the knowns. It's like smoking--the harms were known for a long time. Smoking was considered unhealthy even in the 19th century. Rather, it was the culture that chose to ignore and discount the evidence.
What's different about EM exposure is that it has been heavily studied, yet from theory to experiment there's scant evidence of significant harms. Certainly not at the scale of asbestos, smoking, or other historic or current risks.
I think lesson is that most real risks are knowable and right in front of us. But the way fear works, we tend to think it's hiding around the corner, hidden. So we obsesses over EM emissions rather than regularly testing for lead in our houses or, as a community, our food supply.
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I'd argue that asbestos is a great example, because it shows that in reality it's not the unknowns that harm us, but willfully ignoring the knowns. It's like smoking--the harms were known for a long time. Smoking was considered unhealthy even in the 19th century. Rather, it was the culture that chose to ignore and discount the evidence.
What's different about EM exposure is that it has been heavily studied, yet from theory to experiment there's scant evidence of significant harms. Certainly not at the scale of asbestos, smoking, or other historic or current risks.
I think lesson is that most real risks are knowable and right in front of us. But the way fear works, we tend to think it's hiding around the corner, hidden. So we obsesses over EM emissions rather than regularly testing for lead in our houses or, as a community, our food supply.