Radiation danger at York Central Hospital

The Minister of Health for Ontario

Hon. George Smitherman

Legislative Building

Queens Park

Toronto, ON

M7A 1A1

11 May 2008

Dear Minister Smitherman:

The attached photographs of York Central Hospital, Richmond Hill, Ontario, were taken recently. You will see from the photographs that there are several cell phone antennas attached to the buildings. These antennas are very strong sources of microwave electro magnetic radiation (EMR), known to be the cause of serious ill health and cancer. Two thousand references to health harm from this type of radiation can be found within the Bio-Initiative Report, which is a compilation produced by a well-informed international group of scientists, researchers, and public health policy professionals who are concerned about current EMF standards. The report can be accessed by the internet at www.bioinitiative.org . If you require further details about the many dangers of electro magnetic radiation, I would be pleased to provide you with more evidence.

Hospitals are the very worst places to have strong sources of electro magnetic radiation, as the radiation causes stress to the body, harms the immune system, and can induce heart attacks and strokes. The presence of this strong radiation source at York Central Hospital places the patients in severe danger while they are most vulnerable and in a weakened state. In addition, the entire hospital staff are placed in great long term danger because of continual workplace exposure to the dangerous effects of EMR. There seems to be a great deal of negligence involved with the sighting and installation of these antennas at the hospital.

The Ontario Government has made some very good decisions recently to improve the safety of Ontario citizens, including pesticide limitation, cigarette smoking bans, and inoculation programs. The dangers of electro magnetic radiation are probably little known to you because the Federal Government has been providing false information regarding the real extent of the danger. Anyone who reviews the huge amount of scientific evidence will realize that the Federal Government is incorrect in its assessment of EMR hazards! It is also evident that Ontario citizens are being placed in great danger from EMR. Electro magnetic radiation has been likened to smoking for the extent of health damage that it causes. While all Ontario citizens are being exposed to this danger, babies, children, the sick and the elderly are the most vulnerable and in the greatest danger. The option of being a 'non smoker of EMR' is made very difficult when the radiation pollution is so widespread. Vulnerable groups as mentioned do not have the opportunity and ability to seek safe locations and thus become victims.

I request that the Ontario Government review the information contained in the Bio-Initiative Report and decide whether these microwave radiation-emitting antennas on the York Central Hospital should be removed. I further request that you check with all Ontario hospitals about their electro magnetic radiation levels and develop a policy that limits these dangerous emissions from all medical facilities.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Weatherall

Director WEEP - Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution.

www.weepinitiative.org

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Five Studies

	Five Studies Showing Ill-Health Effects From Masts Document produced by Dr Grahame Blackwell 21 Feb 2005
1	Study of the health of people living in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations. Santini et al. Pathol Biol (Paris) [Pathologie Biologie (Paris)] 2002; 50: 369 – 73 Found significant health effects on people living within 300 metres of mobile phone base stations. Conclusions include the recommendation: “… it is advisable that mobile phone base stations not be sited closer than 300meters to populations”
2.	Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Study for the Netherlands Ministries of Economic Affairs, Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment,and Health, Welfare and Sport “ Effects of Global Communications System Radio-Frequency Fields On Well Being and Cognitive Function of Human Subjects With and Without Subjective Complaints” (September 2003) Found significant effects on wellbeing, according to a number of internationally-recognised criteria (including headaches, muscle fatigue/pain, dizziness etc) from 3G mast emissions well below accepted ‘safety’ levels (less than 1/25,000th of ICNIRP guidelines). Those who had previously been noted as ‘electrosensitive’ under a scheme in that country were shown to have more pronounced ill-effects, though others were also shown to experience significant effects.
3.	THE MICROWAVE SYNDROME FURTHER ASPECTS OF A SPANISH STUDY Oberfeld Gerd1, Navarro A. Enrique3, Portoles Manue12, Maestu Ceferino4, Gomez Perretta Claudio2 Public Health Department Salzburg, Austria University Hospital La Fe. Valencia, Spain Department of Applied Physics, University Valencia, Spain Foundation European Bioelectromagnetism (FEB) Madrid, Spain Presented at an International Conference in Kos (Greece), 2004 This study found significant ill-health effects in those living in the vicinity of two GSM mobile phone base stations. They observed that: “The strongest five associations found are depressive tendency, fatigue, sleeping disorder, difficulty in concentration and cardiovascular problems.” As their conclusion the research team wrote: “Based on the data of this study the advice would be to strive for levels not higher than 0.02 V/m for the sum total, which is equal to a power density of 0.0001 µW/cni2 or 1 µW/m2, which is the indoor exposure value for GSM base stations proposed on empirical evidence by the Public Health Office of the Government of Salzburg in 2002.”
4.	INCREASED INCIDENCE OF CANCER NEAR A CELL-PHONE TRANSMITTER STATION. Ronni Wolf MD1, Danny Wolf MD2 The Dermatology Unit, Kaplan Medical Center, Rechovot, and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, ISRAEL. The Pediatric Outpatient Clinic, Hasharon Region, Kupat Holim, ISRAEL. Published in: International Journal of Cancer Prevention Volume 1, No. 2, April 2004 This study, based on medical records of people living within 350 metres of a long-established phone mast, showed a fourfold increased incidence of cancer generally compared with the general population of Israel, and a tenfold increase specifically among women, compared with the surrounding locality further from the mast.
5.	Naila Study, Germany (November 2004) Report by researchers (five medical doctors) Following the call by Wolfram König, President of the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (Federal Agency for radiation protection), to all doctors of medicine to collaborate actively in the assessment of the risk posed by cellular radiation, the aim of our study was to examine whether people living close to cellular transmitter antennas were exposed to a heightened risk of taking ill with malignant tumors. The basis of the data used for the survey were PC fi1es of the case histories of patients between the years 1994 and 2004. While adhering to data protection, the personal data of almost 1.000 patients were evaluated for this study, which was completed without any external financial support. It is intended to continue the project in the form of a register. The result of the study shows that the proportion of newly developing cancer cases was significantly higher among those patients who had lived during the past ten years at a distance of up to 400 metres from the cellular transmitter site, which bas been in operation since 1993, compared to those patients living further away, and that the patients fell ill on average 8 years earlier. In the years 1999-2004, i.e. after five years’ operation of the transmitting installation, the relative risk of getting cancer had trebled for the residents of the area in the proximity of the installation compared to the inhabitants of Naila outside the area. NOTE: These are the only studies known of that specifically consider the effects of masts on people. All five of these studies show clear and significant ill-health effects. There are no known studies relating to health effects of masts that do not show such ill-health effects. In this respect, any statement by industry or official sources that claims (or suggests) that: (a) There is no evidence of ill-health effects from masts; or (b) The overwhelming evidence is that masts do not cause ill-health effects; is completely and blatantly untrue. Dr Grahame Blackwell ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What causes cancer to the hospital workers? Maariv newspaper (Israel) 25.9.07 By Ela Harnoi and Hila Alroi Haifa's Carmel hospital workers are scared: lately there has been found a large number of cancer cases, especially on one of the top floors of the main building. Part of the workers are afraid that the cause is the cellular antenna which is erected near this floor. The hospital opened an investigation. Among the patients: the department manager, a unit manager, nurses and official physicians. In one of the cases, the department manager left the hospital after he got sick and the person who came instead of him got sick too. At least 5 team members of the same floor got cancer, and additional number of doctors and nurses of other floors. Among the diseases: pancreas cancer, liver, lymphoma, breast cancer, multiple myloma and brain tumors. The team was worried for some time about the cancer morbidity that seems to be abnormal, and during the last two weeks another case was discovered in a nurse who works at the same floor where other team members got sick. The hospital manager, Dr. Hen Shapira, asked Prof. Gadi Renart, manager of the cancer control center at the General Health Services and manager of department of community and epidemiology in the Carmel medical center, to start investigating the cases. "During these days accurate data is collected in order to check whether there is excess of morbidity than expected" explained Prof. Renart yesterday. Part of the workers blame the cellular antenna which is located near one of the floors where large number of cancer cases was discovered. But Prof. Renart says, "the thought that the cause is an antenna is probably not realistic, because according to the scientific knowledge that was gathered until today, there is no proof that antennas cause cancer. In the health professions there is an exposure to many substances that can cause cancer, in addition they are exposed to diseases which can weaken the immune system". According to Dr. Avi Rotshild, a department manager, who got cancer, it is a coincidence:"I would never come back to work in a floor that will endanger my health, and I gladly returned to work at the department after my recovery. I served in the Kishon and it is impossible to know where the cancer came from" Dr. Rotschild told that nurses and doctors who worked at his department came to him: "I have total belief that it is a very weird coincidence and each member of the team who came to me received all possible information" Within 3 weeks the hospital workers will gather for a team meeting. The workers are very afraid but according to Renart, "even if there will be found an excess of morbidity, relatively than the expected in the population, it is possible that the investigation will end in with dead end, as happens many times".