|
Prior
to 1996, the wireless age was not coming online fast enough, primarily
because communities had the authority to block the siting of cell towers. But
the Federal Communications Act of 1996 made it nearly impossible for communities to stop construction of cell towers "even if
they pose threats to public health and the environment. Since the decision to
enter the age of wireless convenience was politically determined for us, we
have forgotten well-documented safety and environmental concerns and, with a
devil-may-care zeal that is lethally short-sighted, we have incorporated into
our lives every wireless toy that comes on the market. We behave as if we are
addicted to radiation. Our addiction to cell phones has led to harder
"drugs" like wireless Internet. And now we are bathing in the
radiation that our wireless enthusiasm has unleashed. Those who are addicted,
uninformed, corporately biased and politically-influenced may dismiss our
scientifically-sound concerns about the apocalyptic hazards of wireless
radiation. But we must not. Instead, we must sound the alarm.
----
Illa
Garcia wore jewelry the first day she went back to work as a fire lookout for
the state of California in the summer of 2002. The intense radiation from
dozens of RF/microwave antennas surrounding the lookout heated the metals on
her body enough to burn her skin. "I still have those scars," she
says. "I never wore jewelry to work after that."
Likely
Mountain Lookout, on U.S. Forest Service land with a spectacular view of
Mount Shasta, is one of thousands of RF/microwave "hot spots"
across the nation. A newly-erected cellular communications tower was only 30
feet from the lookout. "One antenna on that tower was even with our
heads," recalls Garcia. "We could hear high-pitched buzzing. There
were also three state communications antennas mounted on the lookout, only 6
feet from where we walked. We climbed past them every day."
Motorola
company manuals for management of communications sites confirm that high
frequency radiation from these antennas is nasty stuff. Safety regulations
mandate warning signs, EMF awareness training, protective gear, even
transmitter deactivation for personnel working that close to antennas. Garcia
and co-worker Mary Jasso were never warned about the hazards. This,
they say, demonstrates extreme malfeasance on the part of agencies and
commercial companies responsible for their exposure.
By
the end of fire season, Garcia and Jasso were so ill they were forced to
retire and the lookout was closed to state personnel. Garcia, 52, is now
severely disabled with fibromyalgia, auto-immune thyroiditis and acute nerve
degeneration. Medical tests confirmed broken DNA strands in her blood and
abnormal tissue death in her brain.
Dr.
Gunner Heuser, a medical specialist in neurotoxicity, states that Garcia's
disorders are a result of chronic electromagnetic field exposure in the
microwave range and that "she has become totally disabled as a
result." Dr. Heuser wrote, "In my experience patients develop
multisystem complaints after EMF exposure just as they do after toxic
chemical exposure."
Jasso,
who worked the lookout for 11 seasons, is also disabled with brain and lung
damage, partial left side paralysis, muscle tremors, bone pain and DNA
damage. Jasso discovered that all lookouts who worked Likely Mountain since
1989 are disabled. At only 61 years of age, she has lost so much memory that
she cannot remember back to when her first three children were born. She
fears that communications radiation may be a major factor in the nation's
phenomenal epidemics of dementia and autism.
Both
women say they have been unjustly denied worker's comp and medical benefits.
Their pleas for help to state and federal agencies have been fruitless.
Between them they have racked up over $150,000 in medical bills, although
there is no effective treatment for radiation sickness.
Twenty-two
other members of Garcia and Jasso's two families received Likely Mountain
radiation exposure. All now suffer serious and expensive illnesses, including
tumors, blood abnormalities, stomach problems, lung damage, bone pain, muscle
spasms, extreme fatigue, tremors, numbness, impaired motor skills, cataracts,
memory loss, spine degeneration, sleep problems, low immunity to infection,
hearing and vision problems, hair loss and allergies.
Jasso's
husband, who often stayed at the lookout, has a rare soft tissue sarcoma
known to be radiation related. Garcia's husband, who spent little time at the
lookout, has systemic cancer that started with sarcoma of the colon. Garcia's
daughter Teresa was at the lookout for a total of two hours during her first
pregnancy. Her daughter was born with slight brain damage and immunity
problems. "That baby was always sick," says Garcia. Teresa spent
only three days at the lookout during her second pregnancy. Her son was born
with autism.
Garcia
and Jasso have a terminal condition known as "toxic
encephalopathy," involving brain damage to frontal and temporal lobes.
This was confirmed by SPECT brain scans. Twelve others in the two-family
group who also had the scans were diagnosed with the affliction. "All of
us with this condition have been told that we,re dying," says Garcia.
"Our mutated cells will reproduce new mutated cells until the body
finally shuts down."
Nuclear
bombs on a pole
Painful
conditions endured by the families of Garcia and Jasso are identical to those
suffered by Japanese victims of gamma wave radiation after nuclear explosions
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Five decades of studies confirm that
non-ionizing communications radiation in the RF/microwave spectrum has the
same effect on human health as ionizing gamma wave radiation from nuclear
reactions. Leading German radiation expert Dr. Heyo Eckel, an official of the
German Medical Association, states, "The injuries that result from
radioactive radiation are identical with the effects of electromagnetic
radiation. The damages are so similar that they are hard to
differentiate."1
Understanding
what happened at Likely Mountain is critical to understanding the public
health threat posed by RF/microwave radiation in the United States. The
families of Garcia and Jasso, plus previous lookout workers and multitudes of
tourists who visited Likely Mountain for camping and sightseeing, were beamed
by the same kind of high frequency radiation that blasts from tens of
thousands of neighborhood cell towers and rooftop antennas erected across
America for wireless communications. The city of San Francisco, with an area
of only seven square miles, has over 2,500 licensed cell phone antennas
positioned at 530 locations throughout the city. In practical terms, this
city, like thousands of others, is being wave-nuked 24 hours a day.
The
identical damage resulting from both radioactive gamma waves and high
frequency microwaves involves a pathological condition in which the nuclei of
irradiated human cells splinter into fragments called micronuclei.
Micronuclei are a definitive pre-cursor of cancer. During the 1986 nuclear
reactor disaster at Chernobyl in Russia, the ionizing radiation released was
equivalent to 400 atomic bombs, with an estimated ultimate human toll of
10,000 deaths. Exposed Russians quickly developed blood cell micronuclei,
leaving them at high risk for cancer.
What
they wouldn't tell us
RF/microwaves
from cell phones and cell tower transmitters also cause micronuclei damage in
blood cells. This was reported a decade ago by Drs. Henry Lai and Narendrah
Singh, biomedical researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr.
Singh is famous for refining comet assay techniques used to identify DNA
damage. Lai and Singh demonstrated in numerous animal studies that mobile
phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels
well below the current federal "safe" exposure standards.2
The
telecommunications industry knows this thanks to its own six-year, wireless
technology research (WTR) study program mandated by Congress and completed in
1999. Gathering a team of over 200 doctors, scientists and experts in the
field, WTR research showed that human blood exposed to cell phone radiation
had a 300-percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei.3
Dr. George Carlo, a public health expert who coordinated the WTR
studies, confirms that exposure to communications radiation from wireless
technology is "potentially the biggest health insult" this nation
has ever seen. Dr. Carlo believes RF/microwave radiation is a greater threat
than cigarette smoking and asbestos.
In
2000, European communications giant T-Mobile commissioned the German ECOLOG
Institute to review all available scientific evidence in regard to health
risks for wireless telecommunications. ECOLOG found over 220 peer-reviewed,
published papers documenting the cancer-initiating and cancer-promoting
effects of the high frequency radiation employed by wireless technology.4 Many
corroborating studies have been published since.
By
2004, 12 research groups from seven European countries cooperating in the
REFLEX study project confirmed that microwaves from wireless communications
devices cause significant single and double strand DNA breaks in both human
and animal cells under laboratory conditions.5 In 2005, a Chinese
medical study confirmed statistically significant DNA damage from pulsed
microwaves at cell phone levels.6 That same year, University of Chicago
researchers described how pulsed communications microwaves alter gene
expression in human cells at non-thermal exposure levels.7
Because
gamma waves and RF/microwave radiation are identically carcinogenic and
genotoxic to the cellular roots of life, the safe dose of either kind of
radiation is zero. No study has proven that any level of exposure from
cell-damaging radiation is safe for humans. Dr. Carlo confirms that cell
damage is not dose dependant because any exposure level, no matter how small,
can trigger damage response by cell mechanisms.8
Officials
at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of
Health closely reviewed the damning results of WTR studies, which also
revealed microwave damage to the blood brain barrier. But these officials
have chosen to downplay, obfuscate and even deny the irrepressible science of
the day. Raking in $billions from selling spectrum licenses, the feds have
allowed the telecom industry to unleash demonstrably dangerous technology
which induces millions of people to become brain-intimate with improperly
tested wireless devices9 and which saturates the nation with carcinogenic
waves to service those devices. Dr. Carlo says that even the American Cancer
Society is in bed with the communications industry, which infuses the Society
with substantial contributions.10
Two
ways to die
Medical
science illustrates that there are two ways to die from radiation poisoning:
Fast burn and slow burn. Nuclear flash-burned Japanese had parts of their
flesh melt off before they died in agony within hours or days. People have
also quickly died after walking through powerful radar beams, which can
microwave-cook internal organs within seconds of exposure.
Slow-burn
radiation mechanisms are cumulative, progressive, ongoing and continual.
Thousands of Japanese nuke bomb victims died painfully years after exposure.
The slow burn process of RF/microwave exposure is manifested by cancer
clusters commonly found in communities irradiated by cell tower transmitters.
Recent Swedish epidemiological studies confirm that, after 2,000 hours of
cellular phone exposure, or a latency period of about 10 years, brain cancer
risk rises by 240 percent.11
Communications
antennas now blast the human habitat with many different electromagnetic
frequencies simultaneously. Human DNA hears this energetic cacophony loud and
clear, reacting like the human ear would to high volume country music,
R&B plus rock and roll screaming from the same speaker. Irradiated cells
struggle to protect themselves against this destructive dissonance by
hardening their membranes. They cease to receive nourishment, stop releasing
toxins, die prematurely and spill micronuclei fragments into a sort of
"tumor bank account." This is precisely how microwave
radiation prematurely ages living tissues.
Nuking
the crew
The
constant roaming pain is intense for 32-year-old Kenneth Hurtado of Southern
California. He's been to hell and back, starting with a seven-pound tumor on
a kidney, diagnosed in 2002. The cancer spread to his brain. His first brain
tumor was removed by craniotomy, the second by the cyber knife. In 2005,
cancer nodes were found in his lungs. By 2006, the cancer had metastasized to
his legs. This year he is battling three excruciating tumors on his spinal
cord. Hurtado hates his seizures. His last one came on while he was driving.
"It's like the devil taking over your body," he says.
Now
unable to work, Hurtado says he was relatively healthy in 1998 when he began
a career as an installer for a large international corporation manufacturing
electronics equipment for wireless providers. At the base of cell towers
there is an equipment "hut" where installers assemble the radios,
amplifiers and filters which generate man-made microwave frequencies and route
them up to transmitter antennas through huge cables. Mounted on sector
supports aptly named alpha, beta and gamma, the antennas send and receive
these carcinogenic radio waves and their pulsed data packets at the speed of
light.
Posted
on locked fences around the huts are "danger" warning signs.
Hurtado says, "You look around these sites and you find many dead birds
on the gravel. They can't take the radiation and they,ll just die. You don't
have to ponder that too long to figure it's bad."
Hurtado
doesn't know how much radiation he got on the job. He says there are at least
four connection spots inside the hut where radiation can leak. He could not
avoid the "heat" when he turned the radios on for testing and he
wonders if his cancer is the result. "When I first got hired, we had
safety meetings, but they pretty much minimized the hazards," he
remembers. He was issued no electromagnetic safety clothing and it was not
until 2002 that he got a radiation meter to wear. "The meter is supposed
to warn you if you are getting too much radiation," he says, "but I
put mine on a stick and placed it next to antennas and the alarm never went
off."
A
medical report in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Health confirms that workers exposed to high levels of RF/microwave radiation
routinely have astronomical cancer rates.12 The report notes
that, for these workers, the latency period between high radiation exposure
and illness is short compared to less exposed populations.
Hurtado
says there are many industry workers who are dangerously over-exposed.
"I've talked to guys on power crews who have to climb around the
antennas and they,ve told me that before a work day is half over, they start
feeling really sick." He adds, "In my mind they are getting
cooked."
Hurtado
suspects that, since the early days of the wireless buildout, there has been
illegal activity related to public exposure from transmission sites.
"I'm pretty sure," he says, "that some of the carriers are
exceeding FCC exposure limits. They can turn the radios and amplifiers up to
get a bigger footprint and they don't care if the alarms go on once the
installers are gone." Regulatory inspectors could identify violators
because channels can be spectrum analyzed. "But," he says,
"there is just no one to check and I believe that the public is getting
way too much radiation now."
Regulators
asleep at the wheel
The
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the single agency with authority to
regulate the broadcast/communications industry, has neither money, manpower
nor motive to properly monitor radiation output from hundreds of thousands of
commercial wireless installations spewing carcinogenic waves across the
nation. The FCC admits that physical testing to verify compliance with
emissions guidelines is relatively rare.
Critics
say that FCC appointees, with virtually no medical or public health
expertise, represent an old-boy network and a cheering squad for the
telecommunications and broadcast industries. The Center for Public Integrity
found that FCC officials have been bribed by the industries with such perks
as expensive trips to Las Vegas.13
Dr.
Carlo confirms that there is no regulatory accountability. He says, "You
have to go to those base stations and independently measure what is coming
out of them because we have had many instances where you have an antenna that
is allowed by law to transmit at 100 watts and we have seen up to 900 to 1000
watts. You can turn things up when nobody is looking."14
Neighborhood
groups monitoring the broadcast/communications antenna farm on Lookout
Mountain near Denver, Colorado, have consistently found that, despite
protests to the FCC over nine years, radiation on the mountain has been
measured at up to 125 percent of exposure levels permitted by federal law.15
Lethal
exposure guidelines
Even
if there were reliable compliance monitoring, many experts say that FCC
public exposure guidelines for RF/microwave radiation are deadly because they
are based on the obsolete and unfounded theory that only power density hot
enough to flash-cook tissues is harmful. This puts FCC at odds with current
scientific knowledge regarding the minimum exposure level at which harm to
living cells begins.
Myriad
symptoms of radiation poisoning can be induced at exposure levels hundreds,
even thousands of times lower than current standards permit. Russia's public
exposure standards are 100 times more stringent than ours because Russian
scientists have consistently shown that, at U.S. exposure levels, humans
develop pathological changes in heart, kidney, liver and brain tissues, plus
cancers of all types.16
Norbert
Hankin, chief of the EPA's Radiation Protection Division, has stated that the
FCC's exposure guidelines are protective only against effects arising from a
thermal (flash burn) mechanism. He concedes that, "the generalization by
many, that these guidelines protect human beings from harm by any and all
mechanisms, is not justified."17
Thus,
public microwave exposure levels tolerated by the FCC and its industry-loaded
advisory committees are a national health disaster. Yet, for pragmatic and
lucrative reasons, federal exposure limits have been deliberately set so high
that no matter how much additional wireless radiation is added to the
national burden, it will always be "within standards."
The
FCC regulatory mess comes into focus with the Likely Mountain case. Jasso
says that when she and Garcia contacted the FCC regarding their radiation
injuries, they were met with an appalling lack of expertise and concern.
"FCC has no answers," Jasso says. "Their exposure guidelines
are convoluted and nonsensical. They refuse to address problems of multiple
antennas, field expansion, human body coupling and blood reversal because
they want to avoid regulatory problems at telecommunication sites." She
adds, "FCC will fine a licensee thousands of dollars for not having a
light installed on top of a telecommunications tower, but they have not
issued even a warning letter to their licensees for the injuries that
occurred on Likely Mountain. They say injury cannot occur because their
licensees are regulated."
Catch
22
When
Garcia and Jasso filed suit against companies operating microwave
transmitters on Likely Mountain, they could find no attorney who would take
their case and they were forced to proceed pro se. In August, 2007, a
California district court denied their claim, mainly on the grounds that they
had not proven that the defendants had exceeded FCC exposure guidelines. Under
federal law the shattered health of 24 people, plus medical testimony, is not
sufficient proof of negligence and liability.
Since
FCC provides no enforcement monitoring at transmitter sites and since the
radiation industry is not required to prove with consistent documentation
that it is compliant, injured parties have little chance of proving
non-compliance because the damage to their health often becomes obvious
months or even years after their exposure.
The
court worried that the Garcia-Jasso case highlights "the conflict
between the FCC's delegated authority to establish RF radiation guidelines
and limits and plaintiffs, attempt to establish that wireless facilities like
the one at Likely Mountain are ultrahazardous."So, while current science
provides ample evidence that FCC's guidelines are ultrahazardous, the
radiation industry hides behind FCC incompetence, simply because FCC retains
exclusive authority to set the standards.
The
FCC's disastrous authority is calcified by the Telecommunications Act (TCA)
of 1996. The telecom industry is infamous for lavish "donations"
which keep legislators on its leash. Anticipating a national radiation health
crisis and the public backlash that would follow, the telecom lobby blatantly
bought itself a provision in the law that prohibits state and local
governments from considering environmental (health) effects when siting
personal wireless service facilities so long as "...such facilities
comply with the FCC's regulations concerning such emissions." Many say
the TCA insures that America's war on cancer will never be won, while
protecting gross polluters from liability.
On our
own
After
passage of the TCA, a group of scientists and engineers, backed by the
Communications Workers of America, filed suit in federal court. They hoped
the Supreme Court would review both the FCC's outdated exposure guidelines
and the legality of a federal law that severely impedes state and local
authority in the siting of hazardous transmitters. In 2001, the Supreme Court
refused to hear the case. The group's subsequent petition to the FCC asking
the agency to bring its exposure guidelines current with the latest
scientific data was denied.18
This
is where we stand today. The public has no vote, no voice, no choice. Chronic
exposure to scientifically indefensible levels of DNA-ravaging radiation is
now compulsory for everyone in America. This is why Garcia and Jasso are ill
today; this why the industry enjoys unchallenged power to place dangerous
transmitters in residential and commercial areas with unsafe setbacks and
this is why untold thousands of Americans in buildings with
transmitters on the roof are given no safety warnings, though they
work and dwell in carcinogenic electromagnetic fields. In the meantime,
the radiation industry rakes in $billions in quarterly profits, none of which
is set aside for to pay for the national health catastrophe at hand.
Every
citizen is now condemned to protect and defend himself against radiation
assault as best he can. There have been a number of lawsuits against the
radiation industry since cell towers began going up in backyards across the
nation. In 2001, a group action lawsuit was filed in South Bend, Indiana,
by families living in close proximity to towers. The complaint describes
health effects suffered by the plaintiffs, including heart palpitations,
interference with hearing, recurring headaches, short term memory loss, sleep
disturbances, multiple tumors, glandular problems, chronic fatigue,
allergies, weakened immune system, miscarriage and inability to learn.19
The
South Bend suit was settled out of court on the basis of nuisance and
decreased property values. Health claims don't hold water if emissions are
within FCC exposure standards. This case is valuable for understanding the
lunacy of FCC standards. The sick families enlisted the help of radiation
consultant Bill Curry, who honed his expertise as an engineer for Argonne and
Livermore labs. Dr. Curry found that one of the towers was irradiating homes
at over 65 microwatts per square centimeter.20 This power density is
well within federal exposure standards, which allow any neighborhood to be
zapped with at least 580 microwatts per square centimeter, or higher,
depending on the frequencies. If the families were sick at 65 microwatts/cm2
what would they be at 580? Considering that the Soviets used furtive Cold War
microwave bombardment to make US embassy personal radiation-sick at an
average exposure level of only .01 microwatts/cm2, America's clear and present
danger is obvious.21
How
radiation sick is America?
Since
the wireless revolution began wave-nuking the U.S. in the 1990s, there have
been no federally funded health studies to assess the cumulative effects of
ever-increasing communications radiation on public health. There is no
national database enabling citizens to study the location of transmitters in
their areas. Local and state governments can offer no information on how much
commercial wireless radiation is contaminating their populations. When trying
to find out who owns a tower or which companies have transmitters on that
tower, citizens usually hit a brick wall.
Dr.
Carlo heads the only independent, post-market health surveillance registry in
the nation where people can report radiation illness. 22 Dr. Carlo says
the registry has heard from thousands of people who believe that their
illnesses, including brain and eye cancers, are due to telecommunications
radiation from both wireless phones and tower transmitters. In the last two
years, the registry has seen an upsurge in reports as transmitters become
ever more energetically dangerous in order to accommodate increased data flow
for new, multi-media technologies.
We
can only guess how many Americans are in their graves today from microwave
assault. Arthur Firstenberg, who founded the Cellular Phone Task Force, wrote
that, on November 14, 1996, New York City's first digital cellular provider
activated thousands of PCS antennae newly erected on the rooftops of
apartment buildings. Health authorities reported that a severe and lingering
flu hit the city that same week. In response to its classified newspaper ad
advising that radiation sickness is similar to flu, the Task Force heard back
from hundreds of people who reported sudden onset symptoms synchronous to
microwave startup"symptoms similar to stroke, heart attack and nervous
breakdown.
Firstenberg
then gathered statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
analyzed weekly mortality statistics published for 122 U.S. cities. Each of
dozens of cities recorded a 10-25 percent increase in mortality, lasting two
to three months, beginning in the week during which that city's first digital
cell phone network began commercial service. Cities with no cellular system
start up in the same time period showed no abnormal increases in mortality.
23
Studies
abroad
Recent
health surveys in other nations confirm that people living close to wireless
transmitters are in big trouble:
In
2002, French medical specialists found that people living close to cell
towers suffered extreme sleep disruption, chronic fatigue, nausea, skin
problems, irritability, brain disturbances and cardiovascular problems.24
German
researchers found that people living within 1,200 feet of a transmitter site
in the German city of Naila had a high rate of cancer and developed their
tumors on average eight years earlier than the national average. Breast
cancer topped the list.25
Spanish
researchers found that people living within 1,000 feet of cellular antennas
had statistically significant illness at an average power density of 0.11 to
0.19 microwatts /cm2, which is thousands of times less than allowed by
international exposure standards.26
An
Egyptian medical study found that people living near mobile phone base
stations were at high risk for developing nerve and psychiatric problems,
plus debilitating changes in neurobehavioral function. Exposed persons had
significantly lower performance on tests for attention, short term auditory
memory and problem solving.27
Researchers
in Israel studied people in the town of Netanya who had lived near a cell
tower for 3-7 years. They had a cancer rate four times higher than the
control population. Breast cancer was most prevalent. 28
Europe
in an uproar
A
new European Union poll of more than 27,000 people across the continent
reveals that 76 percent of respondents feel that they are being made ill by
wireless transmitters.29 Seventy-one percent in the UK believe they suffer
health effects from mast (cell tower) radiation. In April 2007, The London
Times reported a startling number of cancer clusters in mast neighborhoods.
One study in Warwickshire, found 31 cancers around a single street. 30
Some sick Brits send their blood to a lab in Germany, which uses state
of the art methodology to confirm wireless radiation damage.
Radiation
sickness is now so prevalent in Germany that 175 doctors have signed the
Bramberger Appeal, a document calling the situation a "medical
disaster." It asks the German government to initiate a national public
health investigation. This appeal closely follows the Freiburger Appeal,
signed by thousands of German doctors who say they are dealing with an
epidemic of severe and chronic diseases among both old and young patients
exposed to wireless microwave radiation. The head of the cancer registry in
Berlin found that one urban area with cellular antennas had a breast cancer
rate seven times the national average.31
Sweden
was one of the first nations to go wireless. Swedish neuroscientist, Dr. Olle
Johansson, with hundreds of published papers to his credit, says that a
national epidemic of illness and disability was unleashed by the wireless
revolution. Long periods of sick leave, attempted suicides and industrial accidents
all increased simultaneously with introduction of mobile phone radiation.
Ninety-nine percent of the Swedish population is now under duress of powerful
third generation masts. Johansson reports that people are plagued with sleep
disorders, chronic fatigue that does not respond to rest, difficulties with
cognitive function and serious blood problems. Recurrent headaches and
migraines are a "substantial public health problem," he says.32
Rooftop
transmitters, which readily pass microwave radiation into structures, can be
a death sentence. Across the world there are reports of cancer clusters and
extreme illness in office buildings and multi-tenant dwellings where antennas
are placed on rooftops directly over workers and tenants. In 2006, the top
floors of a Melbourne University office building were closed after a brain
tumor cluster drew media attention to the risks of communications
transmitters on top of the building.33 Likewise, ABC's Brisbane television
complex, topped with satellite dishes and radio antennas, was the site of a
well-publicized breast cancer cluster among workers.34
Deadlier
death rays
In
the meantime, the radiation cowboys of America are having a good ol time
because they know there's no sheriff in town. The commercial wireless
industry is relentless in its drive to construct thousands of new transmitter
sites in neighborhoods and schoolyards everywhere, while adding more powerful
antennas at its older sites. Countless WiFi systems, both indoors and out,
accommodate wireless laptop computers, personal digital assistants,
WiFi-enabled phones, gaming devices, video cameras, even parking and utility
meters. Hundreds of cities already have or are planning to fund WiFi
networks, each consisting of thousands of small microwave transmitters bolted
to buildings, street lamps, park benches and bus stops. Some networks are
being buried under sidewalks. These access points or "nodes" blast
carcinogenic energy at 2.4 to 5 gigahertz with virtually no warning signs
about radiation exposure. WiFi radiation is unregulated by the FCC.
Sprint-Nextel
and Clearwire are now rolling out in U.S. cities tower-mounted WiMAX
transmitters providing wireless internet access "to die for." WiMAX
is WiFi on steroids. Upon startup of WiMAX transmitters near the Swedish
village of Gotene, the emergency room at the local hospital was flooded by
calls from people overcome with pulmonary and cardiovascular symptoms.35
WiMAX
radiation could one day be cranked up to a bone-incinerating 66 gigahertz.36
A single WiMAX tower could provide internet coverage for an area of 3,000
square miles, although coverage for 6-25 square miles is the norm now.
Promoters say WiMAX may some day replace all cable and DSL broadband services
and irradiate virtually all rural areas. Yet, not a single
environmental or public health study has been required as the industry
unleashes infrastructure for this savage new wireless technology from which
no living flesh will escape.
The
commercial ray-peddlers are not alone in their quest to make the U.S. a
radiation wasteland. In August, 2007, Congress approved new Homeland Security
legislation which funds a program to "promote communications
compatibility between local, state and federal officials." We catch a
glimpse of what this portends as the state of New York gears up to erect
hundreds of new wireless installations for a "Statewide Wireless Network
(SWN)." This system will blanket 97 percent of the state, allowing
agencies at various government levels to communicate instantly while greatly
adding to the fog of commercial wireless pollution.37 The New York
Office for Technology says that the radiation power densities of the system
will be within FCC limits. That assurance should give us the shivers.
Angela's
story
Angela
Flynn, a 43-year-old caregiver, lives in Santa Cruz, California. Last spring
she took classes at a local church where wireless antennas were concealed in
a chimney on the building. She recalls, "Every muscle in my body felt
sore. And my joints were feeling creaky. My instructor mentioned how people
at the women's center on church property had similar symptoms. During my
sixth day I had a severe reaction. My short term memory was gone and I was
disoriented and confused. When the instructor asked a question, I could not
recall anything from the lecture."
At
night, Angela could not sleep and she would lie awake, feeling her body buzz.
She became hypersensitive to other sources of electromagnetic radiation. The
symptoms became so bothersome that she canceled the rest of her course. Using
a chart for calculating cumulative, non-ionizing, electromagnetic radiation
exposure levels, she found that the classes"located only 100 feet from
antennas in the building"had suffered the highest possible exposure during
peak operation. "It took a month before I regained my health," she
reports.
When
Angela wrote letters to the church inquiring whether it was monitoring the
health of the people exposed to antenna radiation, church officials were
"unresponsive and dismissive." So Angela saw the light. She helped
organize a community group to put pressure on county officials for answers.
After hearing community testimony, officials directed the zoning department
to create a comprehensive map of county transmitter sites and to put together
a report on emissions testing.
Angela
says, "We recently had a delay of an installation of a tower near a
middle school. The superintendent has even come out against the tower
and was instrumental in delaying the hearing on the site. He also
arranged a school board meeting on the issue." Angela's efforts to share
critical information with her community made a difference.
Conclusion
America
must soon face its radiation cataclysm. The EMR Network says that millions of
workers occupy worksites on a daily basis where operating antenna arrays are
camouflaged and where no RF safety program is carried out. Thanks to
shameless predatory advertising techniques, American youth are now literally
addicted to "texting," watching TV and accessing the Internet on
tiny wireless screens. These are the toys that keep cell towers and WiFi hot
spots buzzing. A nation that requires compulsory mass irradiation to fuel its
trivial entertainment needs is surely destined to have a sickly and
short-lived population.
Right
now, 11.7 million Americans have been diagnosed with cancer. Because humans
can harbor cancer conditions for years before detection, additional millions
of cancer victims are yet undiagnosed. The Journal of Oncology Practice
predicts that, by 2020, there will be so many cancer cases in the U.S. that
doctors may not be able to cope with their caseloads. The report concludes
the nation could soon face a shortage of up to 4,000 cancer specialists.38
A
recent CBS news series on the raging American cancer epidemic left viewers
with the mindset that trainloads of federal cash must flow if we are to find
the cancer answer. But a proven cancer initiator now inundates our cities,
roadways, schools, offices and homes. Any environmental stressor that
jackhammers human cells at millions to billions of cycles per second is a
cancer factor. Any wave-pollution that breaks the DNA and causes
pre-cancerous micronuclei in human blood is a cancer factor. Logic tells us
that there will be no "answer to cancer" until we eliminate the
cancer factors.
Wireless
communications radiation is to America today what DDT, thalidomide, dioxin,
benzene, Agent Orange and asbestos were yesterday. Historically, the truth
about the public health menace of extreme toxins is never told until
thousands sicken and die.
Dr.
Robert Becker, noted for decades of research on the effects of
electromagnetic radiation, has warned: "Even if we survive the chemical
and atomic threats to our existence, there is the strong possibility that
increasing electropollution could set in motion irreversible changes leading
to our extinction before we are even aware of them. All life pulsates in time
to the earth and our artificial fields cause abnormal reactions in all
organismsThese energies are too dangerous to entrust forever to politicians,
military leaders and their lapdog researchers." 39
Our
mission to save the nation's health and restore sanity in the wireless age
seems daunting. The wireless juggernaut is an aggressive, mean machine.
Federal regulators are clearly compromised and incompetent to protect the
public health. Uninformed consumers dearly love their magic digital toys and
don't yet understand the connection between those toys and a national raging
cancer epidemic that may consume us all.
Powerful
economic interests have lied to us long enough. Americans deserve the facts.
We need dialogue. Wireless radiation is a form of electronic trespass.
America must decide whose rights are more important"idlers beaming death
rays for piddling gibberish or the elderly with pacemakers who are made ill
by cell phone and tower radiation wherever they go. Must we all prematurely
perish so that wireless enthusiasts can capture cell phone photos and
instantly send them for processing via carcinogen express? Must all
neighborhoods become sick zones so that radiation addicts can receive
recipes, ads and other frivolous text messages on their cell phone toys? Does
a human being have the right to NOT be forcibly WiMAXED into a coffin, or do
only wireless providers and their devotees have rights?
What
can we do?
We
can commit to join the growing radiation awareness movement and continue
educating ourselves and others. We can employ digital and audio radiation
detectors to help safeguard our personal health and to demonstrate the
ceaseless brutality of ubiquitous wireless radiation which threatens the
genetic integrity of future generations. We can promote emerging technologies
that could make communications technologies safer.
We
can demand that federal radiation exposure standards and setback requirements
be updated to reflect the realities of modern science. Federal communications
law must be rewritten so that local jurisdictions can regain their right to
consider health and environment when reviewing wireless siting applications.
We can insist that wireless emissions from transmitters be drastically
reduced as they are in Austria and Russia. We can demand routine
compliance testing at all transmitter sites. We can see to it that people who
have been living and working near powerful transmitters be given opportunity
to report their resulting illnesses in national surveys. Proper
epidemiological studies must be conducted and their results published and
broadly disseminated.
Each
of us can break the seductive, but oppressive wireless habit ourselves. We
can play no game, use no wireless Internet system, make no trivial phone call
that necessitates enlarging America's dense forest of wireless transmitters.
If no one buys WiMAX-enabled devices and related services, this dangerous
system will fail.
Whenever
possible, we can go back to the old-fashioned, corded phones and message
machines which made yesteryear a far more healthy time. Cordless household
and office phones emit powerful megahertz or gigahertz microwave radiation,
causing damage to hearing, eyesight and brain function. DECT cordless phones
irradiate a huge area even when not in use. We can encourage others to
contact us by conventional land line phones only. Can we enjoy a leisurely
conversation knowing that an irradiated caller risks disease and disability
for mindless chatter? What good is wireless convenience if it means being
ultimately tethered to a hospital bed? We can teach our children that health
is more important than passing convenience and instant gratification.
According
to OSHA, no environment should be deliberately made hazardous. Backed by
current scientific knowledge, we can refuse to work or shop in an environment
which endangers our health. We can demand that megahertz and gigahertz
cordless phones, walkie talkie radios, WLAN and WiFi systems be removed from
schools, offices, hospitals and any public place where people are grossly
irradiated without their informed consent. Second hand smoke is bad; second
hand radiation is worse.
We
wish to thank the courageous radiation victims interviewed for this report
who have generously revealed the details of their personal suffering in order
to warn others. Following their example, we must continue undaunted in the
moral quest to protect the national health and restore the world to sanity
before it is too late.
Meters
and resources
The
Electrosmog Detector allows you to HEAR the intensity of RF/microwave
pollution in your environment. Developed by British radiation expert
Alasdair Phillips, this battery-operated device will quickly allow you to
identify dangerous RF/microwave hotspots, even where transmitters are
concealed, and take action to protect yourself. This meter is $99 (price
includes shipping) and can be obtained from HEARING IS BELIEVING, Box
64 Hayden, Idaho 83835. E-mail: gzz@icehouse.net.
The
Trifield Meter ($145), produced by Alpha Lab, is used mainly to measure the
milligauss of electromagnetic fields coming from 60 hertz sources. Use this
digital meter to make sure your living and working spaces are under 2
milligauss. Alpha Lab's Microwave Power Density Meter ($320) is a more
sensitive digital microwave meter that will help you assess the kilohertz,
megahertz and gigahertz radiation in our wireless environment. This easy-read
meter measures microwave radiation in microwatts per cm2, allowing comparison
of your readings to the power density used by the Russians to make our
embassy staff sick. Remember, people inside the embassy reportedly received
only about .01 microwatts per cm2. For more information, contact Alpha Lab
Inc., 1280 South 300 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101; (800) 658-7030;
www.trifield.com
Alan
Broadband produces radiation detection devices with models ranging in price
from $159 to $2,800. The $159 model, while not giving detailed readings, is
an extremely sensitive and sturdy instrument that gives an accurate dial read
on whether or not radiation is present and its relative intensity. It lets
you know when you are being irradiated and serves as an excellent tool to
illustrate exposure levels to others. For more information, contact Alan
Broadband 93 Arch St., Redwood City, California 94062; (888) 369-9627;
www.zapchecker.com
Books
Cell
Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age, Dr. George Carlo and Martin
Schram, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2001.
Cellular
Telephone Russian Roulette, Robert C. Kane, Vantage Press, 2001.
Cell
Towers: Wireless Convenience or Environmental Hazard? The Berkshire-Litchfield
Environmental Council, Edited by B. Blake Levitt, 2000. Order from Barnes and
Noble.
Websites
These
websites provide excellent information on all aspects of health and other
issues relating to electromagnetic fields and radio frequency/microwave
radiation.
www.buergerwelle.com
This excellent German (but in English) site features RF/microwave radiation
news from all over the world. The science keeps pouring in and this is where
to find it, along with lots of human interest.
www.cprnewsbureau.org
This is an excellent source of up-to-date news on wireless issues.
www.emrnetwork.org
This site has superb resources organized by professionals with expertise in
all facets of our RF/microwave radiation problem.
www.safewireless.org
This site features Dr. Carlo's Mobil Telephone Health Concerns Registry where
people can report ill health effects from living near microwave transmitters
or from the use of wireless devices. It also features great news reports.
www.microwavenews.com
This is home to Microwave News, an excellent monthly publication. It offers
cutting edge science reports, plus a great archive.
www.sageassociates.net
This site provides valuable information on how to make homes and offices
safer in the wireless age.
CAUTION:
There are many devices on the market claiming to protect wireless users from
radiation. These include: air tube headsets, ferrite bead clip-ons and an
array of paste-ons advertised to cut down on thermal effects or deflect
negative energy. Energy testing, kinesiology and meter readings indicate that
these mitigation devices DO NOT adequately protect against the brutal force
of near field microwave radiation. You can investigate the effectiveness of
these devices by metering radiation levels while using them. If radiation
pours from your "safe" headset, don't bank your life on it. If
practiced in the art of kinesiology, you can also "muscle test" the
effectiveness of the radiation mitigation device. The human body becomes very
weak when irradiated with any man-made frequency, especially microwaves. If a
protective device is really working, you will not detect muscle weakness when
the body is near a transmitting wireless phone or gadget.
OUR
BEST TIP:
If you want a safe household phone, find an AT&T corded speaker phone
950, available at most large office supply stores. It emits no microwave
radiation, holds up to heavy use, has a great digital display screen and
allows hands-free conversation.
NOTES
1.
Interview with Dr. Eckel was published by Schwabischen Post
12-07-06. Find this interview at www.heseproject.org. See "The
Cell Nucleus is Mutating."
2.
"Neurological Effects of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation,"
a paper presented by Dr. Lai to the Mobile Phones and Health Symposium,
October 25-28, 1998, University of Vienna. Also "DNA Damage and Cell
Phone Radiation," www.rfsafe.com, 11-02-05.
3.
Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age, Dr. George Carlo and
Martin Schram, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2001, p.151.
4.
"Mobile Telecommunications and Health"Summary of the ECOLOG study
for T-Mobile, 2000," Find this summary at www.hese-project.org.
5.
"Cell Phone Radiation Harms DNA, Study Claims," (Reuters) MSNBC,
12-04-04. Also "Mobile Phone Radiation Harms DNA," R. Moss, CPR
News Bureau, 10-16-06.
6.
"RF-Induced DNA Breaks Reported in China," Microwave News,
09-29-05. This report comes from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
7.
"2.45 GHz radiofrequency fields alter gene expression in cultured human
cells," Lee S. et al, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago,
PubMed 16107253.
8.
"Health Social Services and Housing Sub-Panel Telephone Mast
Review," a public discussion by Dr. George Carlo, 2-26-07. Find this
excellent dissertation at www. safewireless.org.
9.
Few Americans know that cell phones have never been safety tested thanks to
the FDA, which exempted cell phones from pre-market testing based on a
"low power exclusion" rule.
10.
"The American Cancer Society is Misleading the Public," Dr. George
Carlo, 8-5-07. Find this statement at www.buergerwelle.com.
11.
"Long-Term Mobile Phone Use Raises Brain Tumor Risk: Study,"
Reuters, 03-31-06. This research was conducted by the Swedish National
Institute for Working Life whose scientists studied 905 people with malignant
brain tumors to confirm a 240% increased risk of brain tumors after heavy
mobile phone use.
12.
"Cancer in Radar Technicians Exposed to RF/Microwave Radiation: Sentinel
Episodes," Richter E. et al, Int. J. Occup Environ Health 6 (3):187-193,
2000.
13.
"FCC Lives Large off Lobbyist Bribes," Capitol Hill Blue, 05-22-03,
capitolhillblue.com.
14.
"Health Social Services and Housing Sub-Panel Telephone Mast
Review," public discussion by Dr. George Carlo, 2-26-07. Find this
excellent dissertation at www. safewireless.org.
15.
See <http://www.c-a-r-e.org/>www.c-a-r-e.org for information about
groups affected by Lookout Mountain broadcast antennas.
16.
For an excellent chart comparing biological effects at power density levels
and a list of international exposure standards, go to: "Radio Wave
Packet," Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force, Sept 2001; also
find this power density list at: "Analysis of Health and Environmental
Effects of Proposed San Francisco Earthlink WiFi Network, Magda Havas, Ph.D,
Trent University, May 2007.
17.
Quote from letter by Norbert Hankin, chief environmental scientist with EPA's
Radiation Protection Division. This letter was received by EMR Network
7-16-02 and can be found at www.emrnetwork.org.
18.
"Supreme Court Rebuffs Challenge to U.S. Tower Policy," Microwave
News, Jan./Feb 2001; also EMR Network Petition For Inquiry To Consider
Amendment of Parts 1 and 2 of the FCC's Rules Concerning the Environmental
Effects of Radiofrequency Radiation, September 25, 2001. See also FCC order
to deny application for review filed by the EMR Network, adopted July 28,
2003. These documents found at www.emrnetwork.org.
19.
Hicks, Onnink, Barber, Pennington v. Horvath Communications, Cause
No.71C01-0107-CP St. Joseph Circuit Court, St Joseph County, Indiana.
20.
"Some Unexpected Health Hazards Associated with Cell Tower Siting,"
Bill P. Curry, PhD., Cell Towers: Wireless Convenience or Environmental
Hazard? The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council, edited by B. Blake
Levitt, 2000. See chapter 6.
21.
Practical Guidelines to Protect Human Health Against Electromagnetic
Radiation Emitted in Mobile Telephony, Summary June 2001, Miguel Muntane
Condeminas, industrial engineer for Consulting Comunicacio i Disseny S.L,
Barcelona, <mailto:m.co-di@eic.ictnet.es>m.co-di@eic.ictnet.es. See
Section 4.3.1 "US Embassy in Moscow Study."
22.
See www.health-concerns.org and
<http://www.safewireless.org/>www.safewireless.org. These sites provide
a pathway to access Dr. Carlo's Mobil Telephone Health Concerns Registry
where people can report ill health effects from living near microwave
transmitters or from the use of wireless devices.
23.
"Electromagnetic Fields, (EMF) Killing Fields," Arthur Firstenberg,
The Ecologist, v. 34, n. 5, 6-10-2004.
24.
"Study of the health of people living in the vicinity of mobile phone
base stations: I. influences of distance and sex," R. Santini et al,
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées"laboratoire de
biochimie-pharmacologie, 2002.
25.
"Cancer Risks from Microwaves Confirmed," Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Institute
of Science in Society press release, 5-24-07.
26.
"The Microwave Syndrome"a preliminary study in Spain," Navarro
E. et al, Biology and Medicine, 22 (2 &3) 161-169, 2003; also " The
Microwave Syndrome"Further Aspects of a Spanish Study," Oberfeld G
et al 2004, International Conference Proceedings, Kos, Greece 2004.
27.
"Neurobehavioral Effects Among Inhabitants Around Mobile Phone Base
Stations," Abdel-Rassoul et al, Neurotoxicology, 8-01-2006.
28.
"Increase of Cancer Near Cell-Phone Transmitter Station," Wolf D.
and Wolf, International Journal of Cancer Prevention 1-2, April 2004.
29.
"Two in Three Believe Radiation from Phones Damaged their Health,"
Geoffrey Lean, 7-8-07 Independent on Sunday, U.K.
30.
"Cancer Cluster at Phone Masts, " Times On Line, The Sunday Times,
UK 4-22-07.
31.
Report by Roland Stabenow, 9-21-06, head of cancer registry in Berlin.
32.
"How Shall We Cope With the Increasing Amounts of Airborne
Radiation?" Olle Johansson, Journal of the Australasian College of
Environmental Medicine, Dec. 2006.
33.
"Building Top Floors Closed After Brain Tumor Alert," Lisa
Macnamara, The Australian, UK, 05-13-07. Read this report at www.rense.com.
34.
"Cancer Strikes 12 Female Staffers," Tony Koch, Omega-News,
4-06-07.
35.
"Swedes Hit Hard By WiMax, 6-12-06. This story says that the Swedish
media reported that in the town of Gotene, the hospital emergency room
was flooded with calls regarding headaches, difficulty breathing, blurry
vision and heart problems upon WiMAX start-up. At least 5 people had to leave
their homes.
36.
"How WiMAX Works," E. Grabianowski and M. Brain, www.computer.howstuffworks.com.
37.
"250-foot Tower Raises New Bellevue Fears, John Hopkins, Cheektowaga
Times, 8-09-2007; See also "Congress Approves Homeland Security
Bill," Spencer Hsu, Washington Post 08-07-07.
38.
Journal of Oncology Practice, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2007: 79-86.
39.
Robert Becker, The Body Electric, 1986.
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