\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone asks me,<\/span> \u2018What\u2019s up with this straw?\u201d Sandra Fernandes says in the voice-over for a November 2025 Instagram Reel<\/a>.<\/p>\n The influencer<\/a>, who describes herself as a \u201cdetox coach,\u201d \u201cwellness leader,\u201d and \u201cholistic momma\u201d in her Instagram<\/a> bio, is drinking water out of a peculiar-looking, curved metal straw<\/a>. With her lips pursed above a hole at the top, she looks a bit like one of those MySpace<\/a> girls who took fingerstache selfies<\/a> in the early 2010s.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just any straw,\u201d the voice-over continues. \u201cIt\u2019s my frequency straw.\u201d Fernandes then demonstrates its function, placing the straw between a phone charger and a small device she says is an electromagnetic frequency detector. She claims the EMF signal \u201cstops instantly.\u201d \u201cWhen you drink with it, whether it\u2019s your smoothie, juice, or water, you\u2019re literally drinking protection,\u201d she says. Those who are interested, she says in the caption, can comment \u201cstraw\u201d below.<\/p>\n Fernandes is promoting an \u201cEMF straw,\u201d a trendy wellness product that users claim can protect against supposedly dangerous electromagnetic frequencies that come from products like cell phones, hair dryers, and microwaves. On Instagram and TikTok, there are dozens of videos of women with balayage hair and the word holistic<\/em> in their bios singing the praises of such straws, claiming they can restore energy, heal the gut, and boost the immune system. The peculiar design, which features a hole in the middle of the straw rather than on the top, briefly went viral on TikTok<\/a> a few years ago, with some beauty influencers claiming the product prevented mouth wrinkles. (It doesn\u2019t.<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s infused with 11 harmonic frequencies: one for grounding, one for immune support, and eight tuned to your body\u2019s major organ systems,\u201d the Detox Mentor, an influencer with more than 300,000 followers, writes in an Instagram post<\/a> from last October, adding that it doesn\u2019t only \u201chelp block EMF radiation,\u201d it also \u201charmoniz[es] your cells and recharg[es] your energy from the inside out.\u201d (None of the Instagram influencers I reached out to responded to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n The EMF straws are part of a broader industry of so-called \u201cEMF-blocking\u201d or \u201c-neutralizing\u201d products, including stickers, jewelry, clothing, glasses, and bags. Though none of these products are FDA-approved, the industry is gaining traction among health and wellness influencers, with NHL and UFC athletes collaborating<\/a> with the EMF protection company AiresTech and Russell Brand promoting a $239.99 EMF-repelling \u201cmagical amulet\u201d in a 2024 video<\/a>. According to Google, searches for the term \u201cEMF radiation protection\u201d went up 1,300 percent in the US in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n The Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly issued complaints against such products for deceptive advertising, saying in a 2011 press release<\/a> that \u201cthere is no scientific proof that so-called shields significantly reduce exposure\u201d from EMF-emitting devices. A 2021 BBC investigation<\/a> of supposedly radiation-blocking phone stickers also found that such products did not have any measurable effect.<\/p>\n As with most pseudoscience, there is a grain of truth in the concern over electromagnetic radiation. Prolonged exposure to high-frequency<\/em> radiation produced by x-ray machines or the UV rays emitted by tanning beds is known to cause damage on the cellular level, which is thought by many researchers to raise the risk of certain types of cancer.<\/p>\n But consumer panic largely focuses on the lower-frequency, non-ionizing radiation used by or emitted by everyday electronic devices. And while research into the health effects of cell phones is ongoing, according to the National Cancer Institute<\/a>, \u201cfew studies have reported evidence\u201d of a relationship between non-ionizing EMFs and cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n