The 49ers vs. electromagnetic fields
The San Francisco 49ers football team had a tough 2025 season due to player injuries. Hamstring and calf tears, high ankle sprains, and ligament and tendon ruptures were responsible for sidelining several players.
While these soft-tissue injuries are common in a typical football season, it’s the amount suffered by the 49ers that has caught the attention of many people, including Peter Cowan.
Mr. Cowan is a holistic health practitioner who posted to social media what he believes is the explanation for the 49ers' injury woes. The team’s practice facility is adjacent to an electrical substation, and he asserts that low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted from the substation are to blame.
Cowan suggests that repeated EMF exposure can degrade collagen in tendons and ligaments, which attach muscle to bone and bone to bone, respectively. With degraded collagen, these soft tissue structures lose integrity, leaving them vulnerable to tears and ruptures.
There are no studies or data that support this theory, and several physicians have publicly debunked it, including professors of epidemiology and radiology as well as sports medicine specialists.
The pushback against Cowan's assertions hasn't stopped players and sports journalists from talking about it. George Kittle, who suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear, stated that during his rookie year, there used to be trees between the facility and the substation, and the leaves at the top were perpetually dead. The trees were later removed.
Says Kittle, “So I think all we're saying is, as players, it's like, we would just like to look into it to make sure it's not something. That's what I would just appreciate.”
I, too, want to learn if this theory is valid or if Cowan will merely be dismissed and regarded as a “woo-woo” practitioner vying for his five minutes of fame.
Your thoughts?
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Slipstream
A couple in our neighborhood received a notice from AT&T and the City of Long Beach in 2021 stating that a pole in front of their house had been designated as a future 5G cell tower location. They researched 5G-related studies and found that there could be negative health effects from being that close to a 5G cell tower. The deck was stacked against them, but they found a lawyer who agreed with them, and they took on the years-long battle. Their story went nationwide, and after going toe to toe with the big guys, they eventually received a notice that the 5G cell tower was not going to be put on their pole. This was a real David and Goliath story.
If the 49er players got together and followed our neighbors' route, they might just get a new stadium in a safer location.
Evangel
It's no different than when the NFL dismissed and scorned all the studies that proved that playing football caused CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
The negative impact of EMFs (radiation) on our bodies has been long studied and documented. But people who warn us about it are called kooks. Even iPhone warns its users about RF (radiation from radio/WIFI frequencies)—a subset of EMFs. On iPhones, you can go to Settings>General>Legal & Regulatory to read about RF exposure. If carrying a small phone in your pocket can damage your tissue, EMF exposure which is far more powerful can do damage if you are within the field of exposure.