Saturday, October 04, 2014

Wall Street Journal: “One in 10 cell/grid towers violate RF radiation rules”

Wall Street Journal: “One in 10 cell/grid towers violate RF radiation rules”

by RFSafe.com | see original article
mobile phone cell smart towers unsafe
Radiation “safety” guidelines from the industry-run FCC allow for 100x higher radiation than nations like China, Poland and Russia. And tens of thousands of towers are still illegal. What will be the fallout? Image: crazymela.com
Parents that are concerned about the surge in school districts in America which lease-out rooftops directly above their children’s heads for the placement of high power microwave transmitters — have something new to worry about according to the Wall Street Journal.
Turns out that there is somewhere around 30,000 non-compliant cell phone towers in the USA that expose unsuspecting residents, school children and even their maintenance workers to dangerous levels of microwave radiation.
On Thursday, Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Ryan Knutson did a story for the Wall Street JournalCellphone Boom Spurs Antenna-Safety Worries.
They found of the more than 300,000 cell phone tower locations—rooftops, parks, stadiums and schools—(which is nearly double the number from 10 years ago), that “One in 10 sites violates the rules”.  This is according to six engineers who examined more than 5,000 sites during safety audits for carriers and local municipalities, underscoring a major safety lapse in the wireless tower network that transmits microwave radiation to your cell phone.
At a time when the health effects of cell phone radiation are being debated world-wide, the WSJ uncovers that cell tower carriers are not being held accountable for the health risk caused by unsafe cell phone tower installation.   The FCC has issued just two citations for safety violations since adopting the rules in 1996. The FCC says it lacks resources to monitor each antenna.
“It’s like having a speed limit and no police,” said Marvin Wessel, an engineer who has audited more than 3,000 sites and found one in 10 out of compliance.
The engineer went as far as showing the journalist first hand how commonplace it is to find cell phone towers putting nearby residents at risk from wireless radiation.
Mr. Wessel strolled through a residential area near Echo Canyon Park and spotted lawn chairs near a T-Mobile cell phone antenna painted brown to match a fence. His radiation meter showed emissions were well above radio frequency radiation safety limits.
After being alerted by The Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile added warning signs and roped off a patch in front of the antenna with a chain. “The safety of the public, our customers and our employees is a responsibility that all of us here at T-Mobile take very seriously,” said a T-Mobile spokeswoman.
At high levels, microwave-frequency radiation can cook human tissue, the FCC said, potentially causing cataracts and temporary sterility and other health issues.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health began studying that question after the World Health Organization in 2011 categorized RF radiation as a possible carcinogen, based on research by over 30 scientists, said Gregory Lotz, the top RF expert for NIOSH. And the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health is exploring lower-level RF exposure.
An FCC guideline written after the rules were adopted notes studies showing “relatively low levels” of RF radiation can cause “certain changes in the immune system, neurological effects, behavioral effects,” and other health issues, including cancer.
Insurers are becoming concerned, and many will not insure against health risk from cell phone radiation.  Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and A.M. Best Co., the insurance-rating agencies, have flagged RF Radiation as an emerging risk. They wrote in a 2013 report that if RF radiation is linked to health problems it “could ultimately lead to large losses.”
What are the chances that one of these unsafe cell phone towers is exposing your children to hazardous levels of radiation?
More probable than you think according to Dallas Independent School District.  The Dallas ISD currently has 17 leases with cellular communication companies who pay to use the property. Fifteen of those antennas are currently on campuses where school children spend much of their day.
Some of the school campuses already exposing the children to cell tower radiation include Lincoln High School (just outside the building), and the football field light tower at Hillcrest High School. W.T. White High School will also be getting an antennae in the near future. The contracts bring in revenue for DISD — nearly $400,000 per year.
But is it worth risking the health of our children knowing 1 in 10 aren’t even in compliance with safety guidelines?
Parents at one Dallas ISD elementary school don’t think so, and squashed a plan to put a cell phone tower on top of a school building.
Approximately 50 moms and dads attended, listening to a presentation from a Verizon representative.
Verizon proposed camouflaging the cell phone equipment on the school, installing it on the outside of a smoke stack and then wrapping the smoke stack in a faux brick façade. But most of the objections had nothing to do with looks.
“I have two children here, and I just don’t want a cell phone tower near children. I don’t see any reason,” said parent Julie Graves. “It’s about radiation exposure and brains development. They really just don’t have any data on safety.”
Graves was one of several parents in attendance who voiced objection.
In the end, the DISD representative in attendance — the district’s property manager — asked for a vote.
When nearly everyone raised a hand in opposition, the Verizon and DISD representative said it was over.
For the safety of your children, RF Safe pleads that all parents do the same whenever a cell phone tower is being placed on your child’s school grounds!
_______________
Comment from Joel M. Moskowitz, PhD (www.saferemr.com):
When I first learned about this story six weeks ago, I hoped the reporters would explore the nonthermal risks to the general public from cell phone tower radiation instead of just focusing on the thermal risk to workers. As the article mentions, one in ten cell phone towers was found to emit more microwave radiation than the Federal regulations allow in terms of occupational exposure. Moreover, the occupational limit is 5 times more permissive than the Federal limit that the FCC adopted for the general public so members of the public may be exposed to illegal levels of cell phone radiation even though they are much farther away from the towers than workers. The so-called 50-fold safety factor mentioned in the article has been debunked by some researchers in a submission to the FCC. This means that many people may not be protected from the heating effects of cell phone tower radiation as ten percent of the towers exceed the Federal (thermal) limit. Many more people are likely adversely affected from the nonthermal effects of microwave radiation exposure which the FCC standards completely ignore.
If the results of this study are generalizable, then more than 30,000 cell towers in the U.S. are illegal, i.e., they emit more microwave radiation than the law permits for occupational exposure.
That the FCC has issued only two citations since 1996 for noncompliance with the Federal regulatory standard is appalling. Will this scandal trigger a Congressional investigation?
I’m glad to see that the article mentions the industry’s potential product liability as the insurance industry will not insure the wireless industry for fear that the potential damages from pending and future lawsuits may be enormous.

Friday, October 03, 2014

Baby Safe Project to protect wombs from radiation

Baby Safe Project to protect wombs from radiation

Friday, 3 October 2014 - 6:30am IST | Agency: DNA 

There is increasing evidence that electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones or cell towers can be harmful to expectant mothers and their unborn child. Eminent public health expert and published author from the US Dr Devra Davis explained that babies in the womb were susceptible to exposure from cell phones, cell phone towers or wireless internet.
Scientists at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) studied 13,000 mothers and children and found that exposure to cell phones in the wombs was associated with higher risk for behavioural problems and hyperactivity in children.
Over the last week, Davis met with the doctors of Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) and KEM hospital to discuss the Baby Safe Project, an awareness movement for pregnant mothers to keep cell phones away from their wombs.
Up to 4,500 pregnant women seeking treatment at the hospital attached to the Yale University have been educated about the ill effects of radiation on the womb, since the beginning of the year under the Baby Safe Project.
"There is essentially no downside in being cautious and protecting your baby," said Dr Hugh Taylor, chair, department of obstetrics, gynaecology at Yale University School of Medicine.
IAP has pledged its support to the global movement. "We are enthused after meeting her (Davis). A team of paediatric oncologists, intensivists and physicians will get together to devise strategies for spreading awareness," said Dr Uday Pai, president, IAP Mumbai.
Pai said parents should not give in to peer pressure. "A smart phone is a professional device. It is not a playing device for a baby or a child," he said.
Doctors rue that they have to be dependent on the government-run Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells to measure radiation. "The TERM cell does not make data available in public. There is no check or accountability of the regulatory body. We will never be able to ascertain whether radiation is harmful. In such a case, the lobbies which don't want data to come out are going to work harder to curtail the correct information," Pai told dna.
Earlier this year, Advertising Council of India had issued an order to MTS Internet services to not broadcast the 'MTS 3G Plus born for the Internet,' advertisement, which depicts a newborn accessing various electronic gadgets even as the mother watches.
"The womb in its last months of pregnancy is affected by radiation the most. The spinal cord of the baby is affected. In men, moreover, Cleveland Clinic studies have shown that the sperm count levels decrease with increased radiation. Babies also have thin skulls and are more vulnerable to radiation," said Davis.

AIRBORNE DIRECTED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY MATURING IN THE U.S.

AIRBORNE DIRECTED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY MATURING IN THE U.S.

October 3, 2014




SOURCE: STRAT RISKS

The U.S. Air Force is ready to “weaponize” and quickly field directed-energy technology, following two recent successful high-power microwave (HPM) demonstration programs. Progress is also being made with solid-state high-energy lasers (HELs). Directed Energy was one of three “game-changing” technologies discussed by Maj Gen Tom Masiello, the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), at the recent Air Force Association (AFA) Conference in Washington, D.C. The others were hypersonics and autonomy.

Masiello showed video from flight tests of the Boeing counter-electronics, high-powered microwave, advanced-missile project (Champ) on the Utah test range. He revealed that the Champ platform is a modified Boeing AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), launched from a B-52. It first flew in 2011, but Boeing revealed little detail of the project then. Flights evidently continued through Fiscal Year 2013, when the modified ALCM was successfully flown against two target sets: an unhardened office building and a hardened chemical/biological weapons (CBW) facility. “The computers in the office building went blank, and an electrical generator was disabled on the first pass,” Masiello reported. The HPM weapon “would also have destroyed whatever batch of CBW was being manufactured in the [hardened] facility,” he added.

A single HPM weapon could provide low-collateral damage of multiple targets, Masiello noted. It was an alternative to the kinetic means of defeating an emitting/electronic target, he added. The next step would be to design, develop and test a multi-shot, multi-target HPM cruise missile. “Two independent teams have [validated] that the technology is ready to weaponize,” Masiello noted. This is an apparent reference to the separate contract awarded to Lockheed Martin to explore airborne HPM technology in the Non-Kinetic Counter Electronics Capability (NKCE) program.


FAA: Airlines Must Replace Boeing Cockpit Screens to Avoid Wi-Fi Interference

FAA: Airlines Must Replace Boeing Cockpit Screens to Avoid Wi-Fi Interference

Photo: Donna McWilliam/AP Photo

U.S. regulators aren't taking any chances with the discovery that Wi-Fi signals can cause flickering or temporary blank screens in the cockpits of Boeing passenger jets. On Tuesday, the FAA ordered airlines to replace the cockpit displays used by pilots in more than 1,300 Boeing aircraft over the next five years.
The order comes as airline pilots have been using an increasing number of tablets and other Wi-Fi enabled devices in their cockpits during flights. According to the Wall Street JournalHoneywell, the maker of the "phase 3" cockpit displays, pointed out that the display interference was only previously detected during a developmental ground test with stronger-than-normal Wi-Fi signals and that no in-flight incidents have been reported. But the FAA ruling pointed to the low-risk, high-consequence scenario of a screen potentially going dark during takeoff or landing and leading to "loss of control of the airplane"—one FAA ground test led to a screen outage lasting six minutes.
It might not just be a Wi-Fi problem. According to the FAA ruling:
This susceptibility has been verified to exist in a range of RF spectrum (mobile satellite communications, cell phones, air surveillance and weather radar, and other systems), and is not limited to WiFi transmissions.
Boeing had previously recommended that airlines change out the cockpit displays in 2012, and Honeywell had voluntarily replaced some of the screens. But the FAA had also taken the intermediate step of placing placards in Boeing aircraft cockpits to prohibit use of Wi-Fi, except for an operating rule exemption issued to Delta Airlines for testing purposes.
Honeywell had tried to stave off a complete replacement order by suggesting that the FAA only require screen replacements in aircraft that would have Wi-Fi devices being used in the cockpit area. It pointed to how Delta Airline pilots have used Wi-Fi enabled iPads without problems so far. Similarly, Southwest Airlines mentioned how 435 of its Boeing jets have flown for more than 2.3 million hours without problems from Wi-Fi systems installed in the cabin, concluding that "this experience indicates a negligible level of risk."
Several airlines such as Virgin Australia, Air France, Ryanair have opposed the FAA's uncompromising stance on replacing all the cockpit displays, according to BBC News. Ryanair specifically cited the "financial burden" in undertaking the replacement program that would cost an estimated $13.8 million for all Boeing aircraft.
Aviation industry experts interviewed by BBC News suggested that passengers don't have much to worry about based on the lack of in-flight cases of interference. The fact that the FAA is allowing the replacement program to take place over five years until 2019 also suggests federal regulators don't see it as an emergency situation. Then again, most airline passengers will probably be too occupied with their own electronic devices during flights to think about it.

WiFi in Schools (translation of a short article published this week in the French Huffington Post, Quebec).

Hi all,

Here is a translation of a short article of mine published this week in the (French) Huffington Post Quebec.
I'd appreciate if you could please comment before I post it on my website.

Thanks

André

WiFi in Schools


"Children should reduce their exposure to Wi-Fi emissions and pregnant women should avoid putting a laptop or tablet on their belly," advises the former director of the Division of Epidemiology at the National Cancer Institute, from 1971 to 1986. And Dr. Anthony B. Miller also says Health Canada does not adequately protect the public because the Department underestimates the long-term risks of chronic, low exposures to radiofrequency (RF) microwaves emitted by Wi-Fi routers and the wireless devices they communicate with.

In May 2011, RFs were classified as "possibly carcinogenic" (Group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). "We're potentially producing a generation that will be significantly exposed to radiofrequencies, which could have dire consequences," said the 83-year-old physician who promotes wired internet connections which are more reliable and less vulnerable to hacking. "I feel I have a responsibility to the public. For multiple exposures to carcinogens, it took 20 or 30 years of research to confirm the link. Cancer takes years to develop. I will not be here in 30 years!"

Probably carcinogenic?
On September 12, the University of Toronto professor emeritus of public health was one of the several expert speakers at a symposium on health concerns associated with electromagnetic fields (EMF), held in the Queen City. The event targeted at health professionals was organized by pressure group Canadians for Safe Technology and Environmental Health Clinic of Women's College Hospital, affiliated with the same university.

Last year, Dr. Miller cosigned a scientific paper concluding that RFs should rather be classified as "probably carcinogenic" (Group 2A). In an interview, he told us the experts IARC convened did not consider that the risk of cancer in the part of the brain most exposed to cell phone RFs for at least 10 years is 2.8 times higher than average. This discovery was also published in May 2011, at the same time as the 2B ranking, in a study signed by scientists part of the famous international Interphone study. "Since that review there has been increasing evidence of biological effects of RFs, particularly on DNA and other mechanisms of cancer causation, Dr. Miller explained. There has been additional case-control studies by Swedish oncologist Lennart Hardell and his colleagues. One advantage of Nordic countries is that they collaborate very well, so they don’t have the bias seen in other studies when people who could be good controls dont participate, as was the case in the Interphone study. And much more recently, a French multicenter case control study long also found a link between long-term cell phone use and a risk of brain tumors. A number of people, not just in government, have been downplaying the Hardell results; if it was only those studies we were relying on, the link would be suspicious, but it has been confirmed by other studies. Though he has done more work and has been very active in this field, it isn’t Hardell alone.

Since the second World War, radiofrequencies have been linked to dozens of ailments and diseases such as heart palpitations and more recently autism. Health Canada’s Safety Code 6 guideline limiting human exposure to RFs is only intended to prevent tissue heating and ignores the biological effects occurring at doses thousands of times lower to those causing thermal effects, said Dr Miller who is concerned about the massive installation of Wi-Fi in schools. Health Canada official Sara Lauer responded that Wi-Fi is completely safe, "Based on current scientific data, Health Canada scientists have concluded that exposure to RF energy levels allowed by the Code 6 security will not cause any adverse health effects. "

Kids with heart attacks

Yet, since 2010, several parents, teachers and children have complained of headaches, nausea, dizziness, palpitations and other symptoms occurring after the installation of Wi-Fi in schools. "There has even been seven cardiac arrests among schoolchildren in Collingwood (Ontario). Cardiologists don’t know what's going on ", another speaker at the Toronto symposium, toxicologist Magda Havas, Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University, told us in an interview.

Most schools use industrial-type Wi-Fi routers  that "are typically hundreds of times more powerful than the home consumer systems you may be familiar with", underlined the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) in a March 2013 letter sent to the Los Angeles Unified School District. These devices are powerful enough to serve hundreds of computers through thick walls. When communicating with multiple computers, they can expose children to very high doses of microwaves, even greater than from a cell tower located at 100 meters, AAEM wrote.

"Wi-Fi exposes many children to annual RF doses greater than received from a cell phone that may give you a higher dose but is rarely used, Magda Havas explained. The dose depends on the proximity of computers and routers. With a cell phone, it is mostly your head and your hands are exposed, whereas with Wi-Fi, it's the entire body. As most schools never turn off the Wi-Fi, children are exposed six hours a day, five days a week and 40 weeks per year, which is about 12,000 hours of exposure over 10 years. According to the Interphone study, adults who used a cell for 1,640 hours over 10 years raised their risk of getting brain cancer by 40%. This is why women who keep their cell phone in their bra increase their risk of developing breast cancer. This is not because of high exposure, but rather a long-term exposure to radiation pulsed every few minutes. "

In a Youtube video on Wi-Fi, Prof. Havas emphasizes that a study funded by the United States Air Force in 1984 showed that mice exposed to low intensities of RFs, 21.5 hours daily for 25 months, developed 260% more cancerous tumors.

For more information:  Electrosmog: twelve ways of avoiding it

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Dangers of Smart Meters Extend Beyond Radiation Exposure

By  October 2, 2014Read More →

Dangers of Smart Meters Extend Beyond Radiation Exposure


smart meter fireWaking Times

The electro-magnetic radiation given off by smart meters has become a health concern for many, but, millions of people worldwide whose homes have been outfitted with these devices must also be aware of the dangers of overheating and malfunction. Recently, there have been an extraordinary number of smart meter-related fires reported all over the North America:
  • September 2014 – “The Reno and Sparks [Nevada] fire chiefs are asking the Public Utilities Commission to investigate the safety of smart meters installed by NV Energy on homes throughout the state in the wake of a troubling spate of blazes they believe are associated with the meters, including one recent fire that killed a 61-year-old woman.” (Source)
  • August 2014 – Lakeland Electric in Florida is replacing over 10,000 residential meters due to danger of overheating, with six meters having already caught on fire during 2014. (Source)
  • July 2014 – Portland General Electric is replacing 70,000 smart meters due to three smart meter fires reported resulting in property damage. (Source)
  • July 2014 – SaskPower, a utility in Saskatchewan, Canada, is in the midst of removing all smart meters installed through the province, costing it around $15 million, due to six fires tied to meters during a two month period. (Source)
  • July 2010 – A smart meter that caught on fire in Vacaville, California, killed Larry Nikkel after flames consumed his home. (Source)
  • 2012 – PECO Energy in Philadelphia replaced all its Sensus smart meters after several of them overheated and caught fire, two of them resulting in serious house fires. (Source) Subsequently in February 2014, outfitted with the replacement Landis+Gyr smart meter, an apartment complex caught on fire in Bensalem, Pennsylvania displacing 14 families and resulting in damage to nearly 20 apartments, 5 with significant smoke damage. One firefighter was also injured. (Source) See a video of this fire below.
This list will go on. Smart meters can start fires – there’s no doubt about that – for several reasons: malfunction due to water exposure, meter enclosure overheating, lightening damage, electrical component failures and more. Replacing one brand of smart meter with another isn’t always the solution, as we can see in the case of PECO, although it seems to be what most power companies are doing. Hats off to the Saskatchewan provincial government which seems to have the right idea with a complete uninstall initiative:
“…insisting that eight meters out of 105,000 catching fire (a 99.992-per-cent success rate, according to SaskPower) was simply unacceptable.  Setting aside the moral issue of endangering human lives, the liability costs of house fires could be massive.  It would have been far more cynical to have just kept installing smart meters in the hope that nothing would happen.” ~ Saskatchewan provincial government (Source)
What do the manufacturers have to say. Sensus released a press announcement that clearly points the finger at the electric company:
To date, data received from seven recent issues in an installed base of 175,000 meters points to contributing, long-standing industry issues: one was caused by an issue with a meter base attached to a home, three were caused by utility over voltage, two were caused by water intrusion through the meter base and one remains under investigation.
Given that there are more than 40 million meters deployed to date in North America, the failure rates seen in the industry are very low.
Landis+Gyr has not made any formal comments about the fires caused by its smart meters.
So for now, the burden is on you, the customer, to monitor the smart meter on your home and make sure it’s not running too hot, and not a danger to you and your family.

Proposed cell tower on Dover-Sherborn campus draws health concerns

Proposed cell tower on Dover-Sherborn campus draws health concerns

    

     In response to the Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee’s bid to install a 120-foot monopine cell tower, a group of invested parents at the region hosted Ray Pealer, a health advocate and consultant, to speak at the Sherborn Library on Sept. 24.

      
      
              By Sarah Freedman, dover-sherborn@wickedlocal.com 
Posted Oct. 2, 2014 @ 12:01 am 




In response to the Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee’s bid to install a 120-foot monopine cell tower, a group of invested parents at the region hosted Ray Pealer, a health advocate and consultant, to speak at the Sherborn Library on Sept. 24.

Pealer is based in Calais, Vt., and, using his more than 20 years of experience on the topic, offers consultations on electromagnetic radiation throughout Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, upstate New York and Vermont.

He has been measuring electromagnetic field radiation in that timeframe after learning about power lines, saying it “opened a world for me.” He has spent much time studying its effect on people, and he has what is called electrosensitivity, meaning he experiences symptoms such as a burning sensation.

He added, “I really want to help people connect the dots.”

Pealer noted, “This meeting really was prompted by the proposal to put a cell tower right next to the Dover-Sherborn Schools. It’s also been a great opportunity to just raise awareness about wireless technology in general and the radiation that’s emitted by the cell towers and all of these other different devices we have in our lives now.”

He presented a comprehensive presentation with many studies, many of which can be read at www.emrsafety.net, to support his points.

According to Pealer, in 2011, the World Health Organization classified radiofrequency radiation as a class 2B possible human carcinogen.

He said, “A possible human carcinogen doesn’t really sound that bad, right? I mean, there are a lot of things out there in life that can be possible carcinogens, but if you look at the list of different things that it’s included with, there are some pretty serious things.”

While this list was mainly about cell phones, he said it applies to all wireless devices.

Pealer explained that there was a disparity between industry-funded research and independent research, with the former finding no solid leads about harmful effects of EMF, while the latter found some effects such as a two to three times greater risk of glioma, or brain tumors, after a period of 10 years.

Noting the importance of “who has the money,” he said, “You’ll find that most of the time research that was funded by the industry will not find any effect whatsoever … whereas those studies that were funded by independent sources, they will find the effects.”

According to research, mostly case-controlled studies conducted by the Hardell team in Scandinavia, they consistently find that the more frequently someone uses a cell phone, “the greater the risk.”

Read more at

http://sherborn.wickedlocal.com/article/20141002/NEWS/140939861