W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
1 May 2010
HESA Meetings
GlobalNews - Meeting on Wireless in Ottawa, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doNSVTUYyXI
Gotemf
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Incandescent light bulbs
Heard on news in Vancouver.A large box store is banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs.
For those that are EHS I advise to stock up as I have done before you are not able to buy them any where.
This might be the way government intends to force fluorescent bulbs as the phone companies are forcing us to use cell phones by removing public pay phones.
Robert
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Livestock Lawsuit: Dairy farm gets millions for shocked cows
Posted: Apr 26, 2010
http://www.midwestagnet.com/Global/story.asp?S=12378923
GRANT COUNTY, WISCONSIN -- A dairy farming family says underground currents from old power lines killed hundreds of their cows and sank milk production. Tuesday, a Grant County, Wisconsin jury agreed, awarding the Bollant family $5 million in damages to be paid out by Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative.
A few years ago when the costly trouble was seemingly unending, Steve Bollant says he and his brother Tommy were ready to give up the family dairy business.
"I was done. I was not doing it anymore. I just couldn't take it anymore," Steve Bollant said. "It was just a plain nightmare is what it was."
The Bollant family started farming more than a century ago, going into dairy in 1956. Bollant notes the family has been recognized for top-notch farming, even winning awards for milk quality from the company they sell to.
That's why he says he was bewildered when big problems started in 2002 when they moved cows into a new barn.
"It was just unbelievable. We lost hundreds of cows. Hundreds of cows, and milk. We'd dump milk down the drain for bad milk, and the veterinarian bills were anywhere from 12,000 to 17,000 some months," Bollant said.
The barn was built near decades-old Scenic Rivers Co-op power lines. Christopher Strombaugh, one of the Bollant family's attorneys, says the lines dated back to the 1930s and the New Deal program to bring power to rural areas (the Rural Electrification Act).
The Bollants had heard of electricity causing problems for farmers. They hired experts who found stray voltage was going into the ground, instead of completing a circuit. They also called the co-op.
"We had Scenic Rivers come out and test. They said we didn't have a problem, but then our guys say, putting it in the ground, 96% going in the ground, and was coming right through our barn."
Eventually, the co-op did replace the lines, but a couple years after that, Strombaugh says the co-op incorrectly installed a meter on one of the poles near the barn, again sending electricity through the ground.
The Bollants say the animals were getting hurt, dying, and weren't able to produce milk. They also say they and other workers were in pain as well (though Strombaugh says the jury wasn't able to hear any testimony about it).
"Our feet would hurt so bad, and we'd go home and take showers and our feet would just burn," Bollant said
In 2008, the meter problem was fixed and the stray currents stopped going through the barn. Bollant says since then, his more than 500 cows are healthy and have nearly doubled their daily milk production. The farm is now producing more than a semi load of milk each day.
"Just night and day's difference. You just can't believe it."
The Bollants say they didn't want to take the issue to court and were hesitant to file a lawsuit. But Steve Bollant said the money lost was getting to be too much, and that this problem happens at other farms, so he wanted to stand up for all of them.
"This is our family life, our family farm, and we lost all these cows and you know, somebody, we had to stand up for it," Bollant said.
Strombaugh calls this verdict "a drop in the bucket" because there is no program to replace the old power lines running through rural areas. He says other farmers undoubtedly face the same problems with various energy companies.
Co-op officials say they respect the jury's decision, but they maintain their employees did the tests they were trained to do by the USDA and State Public Service Commission.. The co-op says it is considering an appeal.
Online Reporter: Jamie Grey
Submitted by Parry
Note - Stray voltage / ground current is a significant problem in North America which causes illness and death to animals and humans.
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Powerwatch Breaking news
April 2010 - Science Update
The following is a quick summary of another fifteen papers that have come out over the last few months related to effects of electromagnetic radiation.
Click here for the full news story
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk:80/news/20100429_science_update.asp
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Oprah challenges motorists to go a day without using their cellphones
680News staff Apr 30, 2010 06:56:11 AM
TORONTO, Ont. - Friday is the first national "No Phone Zone" day.
It is a day to honour those who have been killed by distracted driving and to encourage people not to talk or text while behind the wheel.
It's part of Oprah Winfrey's "No Phone Zone" campaign, which police have embraced even here in Toronto.
Sgt. Tim Burrows, with Toronto Traffic Services, said there have been too many cases where drivers have been involved in serious crashes while on their cells.
"[...] There are people dying on our roadways, people are injured with lifetime disabilities because of the fact that people are distracted by the use of a cellphone within a car," he told 680News.
He said he would like to see more Torontonians join the movement.
"Try it for one day. [If] you don't have a cellphone in the car with you, you're not tempted to text, type or talk. Just put it away. We know it's against the law in Ontario - but let's do one more step and take the initiative to sign the pledge to make your car a "No Phone Zone."
Burrows added that since February 1 Toronto police have charged over 3,000 motorists for using their phones.
If you would like to join the more than 200,000 others worldwide who have signed Oprah's "No Phone Zone" pledge, click here.
Oprah will dedicate Friday's episode to the "No Phone Zone" campaign.
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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
The Standing Committee on Health met by videoconference at 9:03 a.m. this day, in Room 853, 131 Queen St., the Chair, Joy Smith, presiding.
Members of the Committee present: Hon. Carolyn Bennett, Colin Carrie, Patricia Davidson, Luc Malo, Cathy McLeod, Joyce Murray, Joy Smith and Tim Uppal.
Acting Members present: Serge Cardin for Nicolas Dufour, Dean Del Mastro for Patricia Davidson, Royal Galipeau for Patrick Brown, Carol Hughes for Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Hon. Anita Neville for Kirsty Duncan.
In attendance: Library of Parliament: Marie Chia, Analyst; Karin Phillips, Analyst.
Witnesses: Department of Industry: Marc Dupuis, Director General, Engineering, Planning and Standards Branch, Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Sector; Peter Hill, Director, Spectrum Management Operations, Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Sector. Next-Up Organisation: Annie Sasco, Director, Epidemiology for cancer prevention, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale. University of Ottawa: Riadh Habash, Doctor, School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE). As individuals: Anthony Martin Muc, Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, University of Toronto; Olle Johansson, Associate Professor, Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute; Andrew Goldsworthy, Doctor, Lecturer in Biology, Imperial College London; Dimitris Panagopoulos, Doctor, Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens.
Anthony Martin Muc, Annie Sasco, Riadh Habash, Marc Dupuis, Dimistris Panagopoulos by videoconference from Athens, Greece, Olle Johansson by videoconference from Stockhom Sweden and Andrew Goldsworthy by teleconference from London, England made statements and, with the other witness, answered questions.
At 10:46 a.m., the sitting was suspended.
At 10:47 a.m., the sitting resumed in camera.
The Committee proceeded to the consideration of matters related to Committee business.
It was agreed, — That the proposed operational budget in the amount of $ 12,000, for the Committee's study on the Impact of Microwaves on Human Health be adopted.
It was agreed, — That on Tuesday May 11, 2010, the Committee meeting be devoted to the study on Health Human Resources.
At 11:04 a.m., the Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.
Christine Holke David
Clerk of the Committee
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Ten Contributions to Future Scenario Thinking about the Evolution of the EMF Debate
April 29, 2010
http://ourhealthandenvironment.wordpress.com/
Michael Lerner
Vice-Chair
As one of the co-founders of CHE-EMF, I have followed the evolution of the great science, policy and media EMF debate with considerable interest.
As a non-specialist, the best way I have found to stay updated, along with reading CHE-EMF postings, is to visit Louis Slesin's brilliant website Microwave News.
In what follows, I offer ten contributions to future scenario thinking about current developments in the EMF debate and their potential significance over the coming decades. Anyone who studies future scenario developments knows how intrinsically perilous this kind of work is. Future scenarios are almost always wrong. The benefit of constructing them is that they can clarify our thinking about the significance of current and future trends at the interface of science and policy.
1. CURRENT:
First and most important, the issue of cell phones and health is no longer ignored by mainstream US media. That is an important breakthrough (a) in itself, (b) because it gives consumers the capacity to make safer choices based on their own risk appraisals, and (c) because in the long run it may lead to better research, better policies, and market shifts as manufacturers respond to consumer concerns and market opportunities.
2. CURRENT:
There is growing interest in EMF the academic and non-profit communities. When CHE-EMF started, a very small number of academics, NGOs and advocates were actively engaged with EMF. The number of key players has significantly increased in the NGO and academic community. While differences in perspective naturally exist among the key players, the cumulative net effect of more powerful key advocates is very beneficial for the field.
3. FUTURE:
As the media, academic, and non-profit constituencies concerned with EMF dangers increase their visibility and reach, these developments force industry, regulatory, and mainstream health constituencies that claim there is no health risk to up their game as well. Blanket denials of risk no longer suffice. The debate tends to become more granular as mainstream media, sensing a major story, does a better job of pressing both advocates and defenders of EMF to explain their positions. A more granular debate necessarily increases attention to the science. Increased attention to the science necessarily leads to better understanding of the structure of industry support for science and its implications. Likewise, loose and scientifically irresponsible positions by those concerned with EMF dangers become more vulnerable. The granularity of the debate, over time, favors more scientifically grounded arguments on both sides. The well known "sieve" model of such debates usually characterizes the outcome, in which initially widely disparate positions are forced, as the debate becomes more granular, into a narrower "sieve" that generates a broader consensus on science and policy outcomes. That does not mean the outcome will be "right" from any single perspective. But it describes what may be likely to happen.
4. CURRENT:
The fact that The BioInitiative played a key role in alerting European governments to EMF risks — in a culture more disposed to see those risks in the first place — created a beneficial international comparison, much as European REACH legislation did in the chemical arena. The BioInitiative gathered some of the best science in the world on EMF issues (in my humble opinion as a lay person) and seized the scientific high ground in a way that European governments seized on to issue precautionary warnings on cell phones and health. Cindy Sage and Nancy Evans of The BioIntiative (also co-coordinator of CHE-EMF), Ken Cook and his colleagues at Environmental Working Group, Devra Lee Davis, Ronald Herberman (Director Emeritus of the University of Pittburgh Cancer Institute) and David Servan Schreiber in France are among those making major contributions to the evolution of the EMF debate. Many more contributors could be cited.
5. FUTURE:
All of this means, in my view, that the EMF debate has shifted both quantitatively (more debate) and qualitatively (gradually improved debate) as media, academics, nonprofits and independent advocates amplify their critiques of health risks, and industry, government and mainstream health groups begin to respond. Over the next five years, we can anticipate that some of the mainstream health groups will begin to move away from unqualified support of industry (there are early signs of this movement already). The mainstream health groups have relatively little vested interest in supporting industry, other than their generally conservative views on the role of the environment in health. Industry may seek to invest in support for health groups as a way of delaying the trend, but over time, assuming the science continues to go in the direction it is headed, toward substantiating a wise array of health risks, the health groups will have little choice but to recognize the concerns.
6. FUTURE:
As media, advocacy, and health concerns are better established, look for key industry segments to break away to market to those with health concerns. Look for key media personalities to establish EMF as a major concern.
Look for key political figures to seize on EMF (some already have) and make it an ongoing part of their profile. Look for key labor groups including fire fighters, policy, military veterans, and others exposed to intense EMF environments to voice increasing concerns with their risks. Above all, look for a widening awareness across the US and around the world of EMF health concerns driven by people who (rightly or wrongly) attribute some of their health concerns to EMF exposures. This combination of media, advocacy, science, health, labor, political and widespread public concern makes it highly likely that EMF concerns — which have now achieved lift-off in the major media, will continue on a sharpening upward trajectory over the next decade. Unfortunately, there has been very little philanthropic or governmental support for independent scientific research and responsible policy advocacy to date. But as these other trends sharpen, philanthropic support for science, policy and advocacy may grow.
7. FUTURE:
At the same time, the installed industrial EMF base will continue to grow and the cost of shifting to less harmful technologies will continue to grow. Moreover, other environmental and non-environmental threats — climate, chemical, biotechnology, nanotechnology, infectious diseases, nuclear developments, economic developments, and the like — may relativize perception of the size of the risk. Industry will do all it can to cede scientific ground as slowly as possible. So even if there is an epidemic of brain cancers (for example), industry will switch to recommending ear buds or other ameliorative approaches. And if the background noise of other threats is loud enough, those concerned with health effects of EMF may ultimately win the scientific battle but lose the exposure war. Israel is a perfect example: many scientists and Israelis with scientific understanding have strong concerns about EMF exposures, but competing security concerns relativize perceptions of the EMF risk and reduce demand for action.
8. FUTURE:
A key question is whether the full scope of EMF health effects on a systemic level is recognized earlier or later in the evolution of the debate. Generally, it appears that systemic effects will be well demonstrated in lab and animal research, but the strong innate scientific conservatism that opposes generalization from these data to humans may block or marginalize societal and scientific awareness of systemic concerns. A second factor that makes recognition of systemic effects so difficult is that these effects interact with chemical contaminants and many other factors. EMF sensitivity, like chemical sensitivity (and in fact the two overlap) is a lead factor in awareness of human systemic effects, but is likely to suffer the same fate of marginalization that chemical sensitivity has suffered for decades.
9. FOUR SCENARIOS:
James McNeil of the Brundtland Commission once told me there were 4 possible futures: business as usual, descent into chaos, achieving sustainability, or becoming artificial people on an artificial planet. The truth is the real future is not one of these four but a constant negotiation for market share among all four futures. To some degree, business as usual continues. To some degree we descend into chaos. To some degree we move toward sustainability.
And unquestionably we are becoming artificial people on an artificial planet. Those of us concerned with the environment and health are doing all we can to move the sustainability index upward. EMF is one of a dozen major areas in which we are making that effort.
10. SUMMARY:
In summary, these hypotheses suggest one possible future in which those of us concerned with the impact of EMF on health ultimately win the scientific debate. The scientific affirmation may come by 2015 (to pick a plausible date) as mainstream media interest increases, media stars make this their issue, industry players market to those with health concerns, key politicians join the fray (like Arlen Specter), labor expresses concerns, mainstream health groups move away from blanket denials of health concerns, new scientific studies are released into a prepared and concerned media environment, and more and more people experience what they believe to be health effects, and Europe and other regions heighten their policy and consumer response to EMF concerns. At the same time industry will fight a delaying action to discredit, discount and deny the science for as long as possible as installed infrastructure and product streams are developed. Virtually all industries under attack take this approach.
The purpose of these future scenario notes is not to ignite an advocacy debate on CHE-EMF (which is never our purpose). It is rather to frame an awareness of the context in which we continue to work to understand the emerging science on EMF and to sustain a dialogue of science and civility. I welcome comments that contribute to our deeper understanding of the present and future context of our science dialogue.
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On the same day as the EMR Hearings in Ottawa with Health Canada,
and various Scientist and Doctors from around the world,
BC Hydro announces the Smart Meter program (WIFI/WIMAX)
that is said to be completed by 2012
BC Smart Meters Announced for 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mTnkl1KH-8
Ontario has already been busy refitting the Greater Toronto Region,
and many recently built homes in BC were also using smart meters,
The Wireless networks that are used with Smart Meters is the problem.
California home owners have already experienced health effects according to citizens who stood up to a microphone at a three hour meeting in California.
Watch the California April 24 2010 meeting here :
PART ONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG8T9gDclkY
PART TWO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxURoe4-yw4
PART THREE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqx-MIXia7I
Gotemf
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Radio Story on BRAG Antenna Ranking of Schools--picked up by NPR and several thousand stations nationally. Not a out of the box winner as we have gotten over close to a million airings before. We heard a major radio network does not believe this is an issue for schools and chose not to circulate it.
Press the button on the Right to hear it.
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/13700-1
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Report on School Safety: Wakeup Call on Possible Cell Tower Danger
April 28, 2010
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/13700-1
WASHINGTON, D.C. – There is new evidence it's not just cell phones that might harm children's health, but the invisible radiation from cell towers and antennas sited near schools across the country. A four-year study released today (Wednesday) ranks children's potential exposure to radiation at more than 6,000 schools in U.S. state capitols. Dr. Magda Havas, author of the "BRAG Antenna Ranking of Schools," says many cell antennas are located too close to schools.
"In some states, for example, there's more than 100 antennas within a quarter-mile of the school. Now, that's very high levels of radiation."
Many regulatory bodies take the position that radiation is harmless unless it is powerful enough to heat tissues, such as in a microwave oven. Havas, a professor of environmental and resources studies at Canada's Trent University, says her research indicates daily exposure to such radiation (called non-ionizing) increases the risk of developing cancerous tumors and other serious health problems.
"Things like difficulty sleeping, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, headaches, and problems with cognition, both in terms of concentrating and in recall."
The report recommends the Federal Communications Commission require wireless towers be kept at least 1,500 feet away from schools. In the past, citizen and community protests against siting antennas close to schools have been stymied by a provision of the Telecom Act of 1996 which limits state and local governments' ability to consider health or environmental concerns in the siting of wireless infrastructure.
The report also allows parents to look up information about their children's school, if they live in a state capitol. Havas says few people are aware of the danger, and she believes it is vital to get the word out.
"This is something that parents need to know about, teachers need to know about, and school administrators need to know about."
Jim Turner, chairman of Citizens for Health in Washington, D.C., says previous studies have considered only short-term radiation exposure – while children in schools near antennas are being exposed all day long.
"You start with a vulnerable immune system and you start dropping this daily for ten or 15 or 20 years, and you can end up with very serious problems in the long run."
Havas' report is available online at www.magdahavas.com. Havas participates in a Congressional briefing today (Wednesday) at 1 p.m. EST, 2247 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C.
Brad Behan/Chris Thomas, Public News Service - VA
Web site www.weepinitiative.org e-mail contactweep@weepinitiative.org
To sign up for WEEP News: newssignup@weepinitiative.org (provide name and e-mail address)
W.E.E.P. – The Canadian initiative to stop Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution
