Overview
- Independent researcher Peter Cowan’s viral post linking low-frequency EMFs to tendon and collagen damage has drawn over 22 million views, with George Kittle’s non-contact Achilles tear renewing attention.
- Injury metrics show San Francisco has been among the NFL’s most-injured teams, including leading the league in adjusted games lost over the past decade, though other franchises without adjacent substations rank close behind.
- Scientists and medical physicists quoted across outlets call the proposed mechanism unproven or unlikely at typical exposure levels, citing contradictory experiments and World Health Organization guidance that any low-level EMF effects are likely small.
- The Mission Substation has operated next to the Santa Clara practice fields since 1986, and the 49ers have practiced there since the late 1980s, including seasons when the team was comparatively healthy.
- Agents told the Washington Post some players have raised concerns, with a minority discussing potential implications for practice location, while the team and city utility have offered no definitive new measurements or data.