Controversial claims of an unknown energy weapon, claimed to have been used against US

embassy workers in Cuba and elsewhere, have reignited the debate over whether radio

frequency can actually harm living tissue.

Today we look at what radio can and cannot do, and exactly how and why it has come to

be blamed for this alleged mystery illness.

Up next, on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Havana Syndrome, Microwaves, and Hearing RF.

Our world is filled with pseudoscientific ideas about radio being harmful.

Whether it's the idea that 5G causes COVID-19, that smart utility meters cause cancer,

or that Wi-Fi or cell phones cause just about anything, it's a constellation of related

beliefs that science communicators are constantly having to combat.

There must be a dozen Skeptoid episodes on the various manifestations of radio paranoia,

and yet this particular failing of public science literacy is complicated by a few miscellaneous

facts about radio that appear to poke holes in the science communicator's overall point,

which is that radio frequency can't interact with or harm living tissue.

Today, we're going to look at some of these, and find out if the science fact that radio

won't hurt you stands up to scrutiny.

Whether you call it RF radio frequency, or EMF, electric and magnetic field radiation,

it permeates the entire universe.

Every radio source in the cosmos sends out concentric radio waves that expand like

ripples on a pond, but that quickly diminish with distance.

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