Low-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage at levels…

Low-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage at levels regulators call "safe." We have a real world case study proving this: An NFL team whose practice facility sits next to a massive electrical substation. THREAD 🧵 peteranthonycowan.substack.com/p/could-chroni…

The San Francisco 49ers are statistically the most injured team in the NFL over the past decade. Since moving to Levi's Stadium in 2014: Top-5 in Adjusted Games Lost for 10 of 11 seasons 7-8 full Achilles/patellar ruptures (league avg: 2-3/year TOTAL) 40+ major hamstring/calf tears High-ankle syndesmosis injuries every single year No other franchise comes close.

None of the usual explanations (turf, scheme, bad luck) hold up. Only one variable is unique, and the players know it in their guts. In early 2025, retired guard Jon Feliciano let it slip: "Players have joked around about there being an electrical substation right next to the practice field and how that has led to the Niners' injury problems."

Chase Senior@Chase_Senior · Oct 28, 2025

Why do the 49ers suffer so many injuries? It's a question nobody has an answer to. One theory that is interesting (if you want to get nerdy and holistic) is something Jon Feliciano brought up: How players have joked around about their being an electrical substation that's right next to the practice field and how that has led to the Niners' injury problems. If you're a believer in EMF (Electromotive Force) being harmful, which has gotten a lot of attention of late, it's a fascinating theory. There have been a lot of studies how cell phones, blue tooth, wireless earbuds, etc emit a lot of EMF and that it can be harmful to people. Who knows. Working on a show on all of this now and wanted to pass this info along. #49ers

I went to the 49ers' practice fields with a gaussmeter. At 11am on a quiet Monday, well below peak load, it read 8.5+ milligauss at the far edge of the fields. Inside the facilities (weight room, film room, recovery areas), potentially 10–25 mG, spiking higher during peak grid demand. Typical background exposure is 0.5-3 mG.

Chronic ELF exposure is degrading the collagen integrity in the players tendons, ligaments, and muscle-tendon junctions. The damage is subtle, until a routine cut or block ends in catastrophic rupture. The injury pattern matches the biological fingerprint of prolonged ELF exposure documented in peer-reviewed research.

Why hasn't anyone investigated? If the 49ers asked PG&E or any engineer, they'd hear: "It's perfectly safe. Federal guidelines only recognize harm from EMFs when it causes measurable heating." Those guidelines were written last century and ignore thousands of peer-reviewed studies on non-thermal biological effects. The explanation lies in a part of physics the guidelines never considered, and it starts with the mitochondria.

This is Part 1 of a 4-part series. Part 2 will dive deep into the mechanisms: How ELF fields disrupt mitochondrial function The cellular dehydration process. Why collagen specifically becomes fragile Read the full article with injury data, sources, and appendices, and subscribe to follow the series: peteranthonycowan.substack.com/p/could-chroni…

Since this took off, I guess I'm supposed to promote something. Check out my Sunlight app sunlightis.life

And my substack: peteranthonycowan.substack.com

And the wellness biz since we're here, since this is where I deal with EMFs: livingenergywellness.com

Here's the Instagram post: instagram.com/reel/DTObAStks…

Continuing the thread:

Peter Anthony Cowan@living_energy · Jan 8, 2026

The 49ers spend days on end in their facilities under elevated magnetic fields—levels thousands of studies link to biological effects, yet official guidelines say it's “perfectly safe” because they only look for heating. This blind spot goes back to the Cold War. THREAD 🧵

Part 3:

Peter Anthony Cowan@living_energy · Jan 9, 2026

Part 3 of my 49ers/EMF series — and I believe the most important one. This lays out the biological mechanisms at the crux of their statistically improbable injury rate: how chronic exposure to environmental stressors is remodeling their connective tissue. Thread 🧵 peteranthonycowan.substack.com/p/how-invisibl…