Becker reasoned that the physiological control system he had described would be influenced by external electromagnetic energy because the system was electrical in nature. He presented supporting experimental evidence in November 1961 at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology symposium on magnetic fields, where he described correlations between changes in the geomagnetic field and admissions to psychiatric hospitals (subsequently described more fully). In a literature review he concluded that the geomagnetic field could regulate living organisms, even though the underlying mechanisms were poorly understood.

Following a laboratory study in which he found that artificially modulated magnetic fields altered human reaction times, Becker agreed to a congressional request to testify in favor of a pending bill that would create pre-market safety regulations regarding permissible levels of electromagnetic energy emitted by commercial devices. He urged a cautionary approach, and presented a supporting analysis in a report for the Joint Technical Advisory Committee of the IEEE.

In 1972 he delivered a paper at an annual convention of the IEEE in which, based on considerations regarding the body’s cybernetic control system, he warned against “the continuous exposure of the entire North American population to an electromagnetic environment in which is present the possibility of inducing currents or voltages comparable with those now known to exist in biological control systems.” Subsequently he reported experimental studies in which animals were exposed for relatively long times to artificial electromagnetic energy. Employing energy levels comparable to those in the general environment, he found that continuous exposure to the energy for periods of weeks or months caused altered growth rates in mice, deficient bone healing in rats, stress-related changes in the neuroendocrine system in rats, and chromosome changes in tumor cells. He published explanations of his work and that of others who found similar results, and in several publications discussed the implications of the animal studies with regard to human health risks. In a New York hearing on the safety of high-voltage powerlines, he testified in favor of independent research regarding the health risks of artificial environmental electromagnetic energy, and was cross-examined for four days. He gave similar testimony before a congressional committee. Becker was the first to use the term “electromagnetic pollution.”