W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
14 September 2010
Press Release - Warning to the Public
Stratford's Dangerous "Smart Meters"
The huge increase in radiation around Stratford caused by smart meters and city wide Wi Fi is a very serious long term danger to residents. The health of some people is likely to be severely compromised by exposure to the radiation. I have seen several of the meters and taken measurements near homes that have them, and I have found that strong radiation levels from smart meters are penetrating through house walls. They are exposing residents to dangerous electro magnetic pollution inside their homes.Of particular concern are homes where the meter is mounted on the same wall as a bedroom or a room where any occupant spends much time. Even more worrying are homes that have multiple meters mounted just outside living areas, such as some townhouses, some apartments and some multiple residence units. Having multiple meters can cause even higher radiation levels and more danger for the persons exposed.
It appears that each meter transmits radiation at different strengths and at different time periods, depending on the distance the signal has to travel, the physical barriers between the meter and the collection point, and the number of meters using the meter as a stepping stone to pass their information along the line to the collection point.
The only way that a person will know the strength and danger of the radiation is by having the home and property measured with a good quality radio frequency meter. Home yards and gardens have now become zones of strong pulsing microwave radiation. Children should be kept well away from playing near any smart meters. Even the radiation at a distance can be quite strong and potentially harmful.
The smart meters that I have measured during the last two weeks have emitted strong radiation, pulsing on and off almost continuously. This may cause many harmful effects, including, headaches, sleeping difficulties, heart problems, etc. In the long term, there may be many serious health problems, including various cancers, immune system damage, neurological problems, and other serious illnesses. There is a huge amount of scientific evidence to support this fact.
Persons who have suffered health effects since having smart meters installed should have the radiation levels measured and report their concerns to their doctors. Information about the dangers of microwave radiation can be found at:
Assistance may be obtained at:
contactweep@weepinitiative.org
Issued by MARTIN WEATHERALL
CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF STRATFORD
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Human Microwave Testing
September 13, 2010. Navy exposes military volunteers to microwave radiation (1972).
Among Zory Glaser's documents, I found a newspaper article entitled:
Navy Testing Microwave Risk http://www.magdahavas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Navy-Microwave-Testing-1972.pdf (United Feature Syndicate, 1972).
The article starts: "The Navy is exposing 50 volunteers to potentially harmful microwaves to find out what these mysterious rays do to the human body." It goes on to say that Americans and military specialists are exposed to increasingly high levels of microwave radiation. Medical reports link these rays to cataracts, damage to male reproductive organs, cardiovascular changes, and psychological problems.
Dr. Dietrich Beischer, a German scientist, who exposed his own body to frequency microwave doses along with military personnel, headed the "human guinea pig" study. This was a long-term study since "microwave effects may show up years afterwards . . . Genetic damage might not show up until the second generation." Dr. Beischer said he would make his results public by mid-1973.
for more information visit:
Magda
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Is wireless world making some sick?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/11/MN3C1FA2JU.DTL
12 sept. 2010 San Francisco Chronicle
By Erin Allday and David R. Baker
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITERS
Scientists dispute health risk from Smart-Meters, other technology
The wireless world is closing in on Maya Cain. Loud, painful ringing fills her ears if she spends too much time near cell phones or Wi-Fi computers, she says. She endured insomnia, dizziness and headaches after Pacific Gas and Electric Co. installed a wireless Smart-Meter to measure electricity use in her San Francisco apartment building.
Maya Cain says a PG&E SmartMeter installed in her San Francisco apartment triggered an array of symptoms.
She finally called an ambulance when her pulse started racing one day as she sat in her home office, about 15 feet away from the meter.
As wireless devices ingrain themselves deeper into our daily lives, an increasingly vocal group of people worldwide say the technology is making them ill. They report a broad array of symptoms, such as skin problems, light sensitivity, fatigue and headaches. Maya Cain folds up the Mylar Heatsheet blanket shield she uses at bedtime after she experienced dizziness and headaches.
They view the web of transmissions linking modern phones, computers and appliances as a health hazard whose reach is becoming almost impossible to escape. They consider themselves coal-mine canaries of the Wi-Fi age, certain that more people will soon experience the same symptoms.
"We're surrounded by it," said Cain, 67. "People are going to get sick. There's a lot of people out there, I'm sure, who are feeling the same way I do, and they have no idea why."
They have become determined opponents of PG&E's Smart-Meter program, convincing city governments from Fairfax to Watsonville to support a moratorium on installing the devices.
PG&E says meters safe
PG&E insists the meters are safe. Consultant Richard Tell, a specialist in radio-frequency safety issues, wrote two reports for the utility's Smart-Meter program before installation began in 2007. He said the strength of the meters' transmissions, even at their peak, falls below federal limits for human exposure.
Critics complain that the limits are based solely on the thermal effects of radio-frequency transmissions — essentially, gauging how much the transmissions can heat human tissue, like meat in a microwave oven. But Tell said thermal effects are the only ones whose existence has been consistently, reliably verified. Smart-Meters, he said, don't pose a health threat.
"I do not understand how anybody could really believe that," said Tell, of Richard Tell Associates, referring to alleged health risks. "These signals are really, really weak signals compared to many other things in our everyday environment."
Scientists and doctors tend to agree that Smart-Meters and other wireless technology don't make people sick. Skeptical researchers argue that there is no compelling proof to support that there is such a thing as "electrosensitivity syndrome," the name sometimes used to describe the cluster of symptoms sufferers report.
What studies show
In multiple studies that exposed participants to electromagnetic fields, volunteers have been unable to tell when the fields were turned on or off, and when they do report symptoms in the laboratory, the symptoms are almost as likely to appear when the fields are on as when they're off.
Doubtful physicists and other scientists have argued that it's impossible for the low-level electromagnetic radiation that comes from most power sources to have a physical effect on the human body. They say the radiation waves aren't strong enough to damage DNA, which is what sufferers and some of their scientific supporters say happens when they're exposed to electromagnetic fields, potentially causing electrosensitivity symptoms and cancer. Even scientists who are willing to consider that electromagnetic fields may potentially result in cancer are skeptical about them causing short-term illness.
David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany, State University of New York, for years has warned of the potential for electromagnetic fields from cell phones to cause cancers later in life. But he's not as confident that wireless equipment can lead to headaches, nausea or other more immediate symptoms.
"You really feel sorry for these people, because they're obviously ill," Carpenter said. "But one would like to see evidence from situations where there's a controlled exposure, and people get ill when the frequencies are on and they don't get ill when they're off.
"The individual stories are quite convincing, but the rigorous scientific studies have not been."
People who say they suffer from electromagnetic sensitivity view the research as hopelessly tainted by pressure from the telecommunications industry, which has funded many of the studies.
"I think it's like cigarettes — scientists are prostituting themselves to industry," said Jolie Andritzakis, who lives in rural Sonoma County.
They are also painfully aware that many people think they're nuts. They have heard far too many jokes about tinfoil hats.
"That's what our society does if you're different," said Stephany Aguilar, a city councilwoman in Scotts Valley (Santa Cruz County). "I don't care if people take me seriously or not. When you experience something personally, it's a lot different."
'Denialists' criticized
There's no doubt that electrosensitive people are fighting an uphill battle to convince doctors that their condition is real, said Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley. Like Carpenter, he believes the evidence tying cell phone use to later brain tumors is fairly compelling, but he has yet to see good proof that electrosensitivity syndrome is real.
Still, Moskowitz said he's critical of the "denialist" attitude that many doctors and scientists — and almost all industry leaders — take toward the effects of electromagnetic fields.
"It's not unreasonable to think some people may be more sensitive than others. There may be no physical symptoms for you or me, but for other people it's possible that (EMF exposure) could be disabling," Moskowitz said. "What really frustrates me is there's not much research going on. We still have an awful lot to learn."
Most people who claim electrosensitivity follow a similar path of discovery.
It starts with the onset of symptoms that have no obvious cause, symptoms that stump their doctors. Frustrated, the sufferers cast about for an explanation on their own. They hear about electrosensitivity through word of mouth or the media. They start researching the condition online. And they recognize the reported symptoms as their own.
Cain's odyssey
Cain abruptly started feeling ill in December. She lost sleep, grew dizzy and had difficulty concentrating. Her face sometimes turned bright red. Eventually, she had trouble spelling simple words. Her health hadn't been perfect in the past — she suffered a small, stressinduced heart attack three years ago — but she'd never before experienced this particular set of symptoms.
"I was getting more and more dizzy, more and more embarrassed," Cain said. "I thought, 'It's my fault. I'm not taking care of myself.' "
Her trip to the emergency room produced no clear result, with doctors telling Cain that her heart appeared to be fine. By then, she had learned that PG&E had installed a single, wireless Smart-Meter in her building, and the device sat perhaps 7 or 8 feet below the head of her bed. She then heard a discussion of electrosensitivity on a Pacifica Radio program and realized that the symptoms matched hers.
She blames the Smart-Meter for triggering her illness. PG&E removed the meter, but she still feels the symptoms when she's exposed to wireless devices or powerful electrical equipment.
"I'm trying to understand as much as I can about electricity, because I'm going to conquer this," Cain said.
A handful of scientists studying biological effects from electromagnetic fields have reported that, at least in laboratories, exposure to EMFs causes a stress response in human cells. That means that cells start to produce certain proteins that could, conceivably, lead to breakdowns at the DNA level.
But many researchers argue that those laboratory results don't necessarily apply to actual human beings. And they note that it would likely take years of exposure — not the near-immediate effects that some sufferers report — to do damage, assuming damage was possible at all.
"There's really no physical mechanism that makes it plausible that fields at even much higher levels could cause biological effects," said Kenneth Foster, a bioengineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has been studying electromagnetic fields for 40 years. "A lot of scientists have spent a lot of time and done a lot of speculation, but there's really nothing there."
Just as many researchers remain unconvinced that electrosensitivity exists, people who say they suffer from the condition often dismiss studies that fail to turn up evidence in their favor. Andritzakis said she'd probably fail some of the tests in which patients are asked to tell whether or not they're being exposed to electromagnetic fields.
"I wouldn't be able to feel the frequencies, but if you checked me an hour later, I'd be sicker," she said.
Andritzakis protects herself the best she can, limiting time spent in the city, avoiding power lines and cell phone towers, asking friends to turn off their phones when she's around.
"Your life becomes very small," she said, "very small."
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Electromagnetic radiation concerns Newmarket family
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100913-NEWS-100919934
By Alexis Macarchuk
newsletter@seacoastonline.com
September 13, 2010 2:07 PM
NEWMARKET — A month after moving into a rental home on Nichols Avenue, Danielle Pappargeris began losing her hair.
"I felt sick. I was nauseous, I had headaches, a constant ringing in my ear," she explained. "I didn't know what was going on."
At the suggestion of friends and family, Pappargeris hired an engineer to test the level of electromagnetic fields present in her home. Readings in some rooms exceeded 20 milligauss (unit of measurement of a magnetic field), prompting her to call Public Service of New Hampshire, which services residents on Nichols Avenue.
The company's report found similar readings — ranging from 6.2 milligauss in Pappargeris' kitchen to 24.6 milligauss in her master bedroom.
"I'd been told a reading of less than one milligauss is normal. I couldn't believe it," she said.
Pappargeris suspects the power lines that run the length of her home and hang just 10 feet away from her bedroom window are the source of the radiation. Since receiving the utility company's report, Pappargeris has moved her children — ages 2, 4 and 10 — along with three rescued pit bulls and two cats to the first floor of her home, where readings are lower.
"I feel like I'm putting my children and animals in danger," she said of her choice to remain in the home. "But I feel like if I don't say something it will just be a problem for the next tenants."
Pappargeris is not the first person to have questions about EMF levels. According to Dr. Magda Havas, an associate professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, the effects of EMF readings have been the subject of a number of studies since the 1990s and continue to be researched internationally.
"We know this energy is a carcinogen and people shouldn't be exposed to levels higher than 1 or 2 milligauss," Havas said. "I wouldn't live in a magnetic field that high, especially if she has children."
Havas cited a National Institute of Environmental Health study that surveyed nearly 1,000 homes. The highest EMF reading the study found was 6.4 milligauss while average homes had readings less than one milligauss.
PSNH spokesman Martin Murray said his company receives 2 to 3 dozen requests for EMF readings annually, usually from real estate agents. He explained that there is no legislation on the books in New Hampshire regulating the distance between homes and transmission or distribution lines and there are no set EMF ranges homes should adhere to.
"There is no standard in this state to determine a low or high reading, our job is just to determine what the level is," he said.
Murray said he is not aware of any utility company moving or burying distribution lines at the suggestion of a customer. Doing so, he noted, is a costly procedure that would ultimately be paid for by rate users.
"This is an issue that has more questions than answers," he said. "We don't mitigate or take action to reduce magnetic readings because of a complaint or concern expressed by a resident. We can only take actions that are deemed prudent by regulators."
Pappargeris received a similar response from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, the agency that regulates the state's utility companies.
PUC Consumer Affairs Director Amanda Noonan said EMF complaints are out of her agency's jurisdiction.
"There have been a number of studies over the last 10 to 20 years. They have been inconclusive but it's good to continue to study. At this point there are no state and federal regulations," she said.
When asked where Pappargeris could bring a complaint about an EMF reading, Noonan replied, "Frankly, I don't know where someone would go."
Pappargeris said Newmarket Zoning, Building and Public Health Officer Dan Vincent showed concern for her when she mentioned the EMF levels in her home.
According to Vincent, inquires about high EMF readings are rare. Towns, like the PUC, have no jurisdiction over EMF levels.
"I don't have any authority. She's dealing with the utility company," he said. "If it were my health I'd be inquisitive about it as well."
Havas said Pappargeris is displaying symptoms associated with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which can affect people differently but is generally linked with difficulty sleeping, constant headaches and nausea.
Pappargeris said she has been to a doctor, who did not diagnose her with anything. A lack of insurance has kept the single mother from pursing expensive diagnostic tests.
According to Havas, there are three potential sources of electromagnetic fields in the home: proximity to distribution lines, faulty wiring and the use of common household appliances like hair dryers.
Murray said a distance of 10 feet between distribution lines and homes is not unusual.
"The line that runs down her street is very typical of any street. It's a residential area home in a city with sidewalks. Her street is very typical of any street, she's not in an unusual situation," he said.
Havas said EMF levels influence property values and have been linked to the growth of certain cancers, like Leukemia.
According to an informational packet compiled by the National Institute of Environmental Health in 2002, at least six states — including New York, Florida and New Jersey — have set standards for transmission line electric fields. There are no federal standards limiting occupational or residential exposure to EMF.
Pappargeris wants her neighbors to know that they might be exposed to high EMF levels.
She is currently writing state representatives and senators asking them to consider regulatory legislation.
"Everyone's advice has been to move, basically," Pappargeris said, adding that she doesn't plan on giving up that easily. "We get no break from constant radioactive energy here. I'll push it until it's done."
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5 billion cell phones the greatest health experiment ever to take place without informed consent
Sep 04, 2010 - 08:35 AM | by Beth-Ann Kozlovich
HONOLULU—You probably have one. Cell phones are handy, convenient, and quite possibly, according to some researchers, dangerous. Given the staggering number of cell phones in use worldwide—estimated at 5 billion—cell phone safety advocates are calling for higher standards, stricter government guidelines, and independent studies unfunded in any way by the wireless industry.
http://www.thehawaiiindependent.com/story/5-billion-cell-phones-the-greatest-health-experiment-ever/
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