W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
6 December 2010
Hi Andrew
Is this video any help in educating people about the dangers of EMR?
Martin
Thanks Martin,
It's a great video and shows in graphic detail what really goes on inside cells. In a sense, it's quite scary with what looks like monster robots clambering around. However, most of what they do depends on electrostatic attractions between molecules and we upset these at our peril.
By the way, did you see my response to the PC World article on WiFi and tree damage. It is on my Facebook wall, but surprise surprise PC World did not post it. I will paste it in below. It may be useful since it is a brief summary of what I believe are the main mechanisms underlying tree damage by by mobile telecommunications.
Please feel free to use it as you see fit.
Best wishes
Andrew
P.S. I have just come back from walking the dogs in a local park with a large Vodafone tower in the corner. Many trees are dead or dying and others have not dropped their leaves this year; they are brown and dead but still firmly attached. This is a sign that their "body clocks" have been disrupted since leaf fall is normally an active response to short days. Since their immune systems are also controlled by their body clocks, the outlook is not good for them either.
Andrew Goldsworthy Many people make the mistake that the only way non-ionising radiation from Wi-Fi and mobile phones can damage living cells is due to its heating effect. If this were true, everything would be fine, but sadly it is not.
Most of the damage is done by a direct electrical effect on cell membranes, which can occur at signal... strengths that are thousands of times lower. The bulk of the damage is done, not by the microwaves themselves but by the sudden stops and starts of the signal when it is modulated to carry the digital information.
This jerks free some of the calcium ions that normally stabilise cell membranes so that they leak. Leaky membranes can give all sorts of unwanted biological effects, both on animals and plants. See http://tinyurl.com/34gvn29
Another effect is on the pigment cryptochrome, which occurs in both animals and plants as part of the biological clocks that control our natural body rhythms. Cryptochrome works by flipping an electron back and forth between two parts of the molecule causing the temporary generation of free radicals, which makes it extremely sensitive to magnetic fields and radio waves.
Some animals such as birds and insects have tweaked it to be sensitive to the direction of the earth's magnetic field for navigation, but for most of us, it's just part of our internal clocks. For example, living near a cell tower can disrupt our sleep patterns, making it harder to sleep at night and feel more tired during the day (Don't sleep next to a Wi-Fi router or DECT base station either).
Plants too have rhythms that control, amongst other things, their immune systems. If these rhythms were to be disrupted by radio waves, at no time could the immune system function it maximum efficiency and the plant would become more susceptible to disease.
Plants also use their biological clocks to measure the length of the day to control photoperiodic responses such the time of flowering and the dropping of leaves in the fall.
One thing you can look out for this winter is to see how many trees around WiFi antennas and cell towers have not dropped their leaves this year.
Andrew Goldsworthy
Lecturer in Biology (retired)
Imperial College London
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For your info a new campaign is being planned now by Arthur Firstenberg, who became an EHS during his medical studies and sued his neighbour for Wi-Fi, the lawsuit was published in the media. Arthur published a journal called "No place to hide" from 1997- 2002 about non ionizing radiation risks. The journal had a lot of original data that could not be found in any other source.
He also wrote a book on the subject. He is sending now letters to more than 2500 people who contacted him during the years (the mailing alone cost him $2000) in an effort to gather people from North America for a new campaign he calls "one of the most important environmental movements of our time...to help create a safer, saner future" with an organization the public can plug into, representing sufficient number of people to influence the policy in the U.S - something like a Sierra Club for EMFs.
He does not use a computer so he cannot send an email. Arthur created a board of ten members of different regions in the U.S with variety of expertise, they help with education and advocay for radiation-clean environment and support for disabled individuals. They want to set up regional chapters throughout North America and create an umbrella group. Since many of the contacts are disabled with little/no income, they won't turn anyone away for lack of money, but they need substantial funds.
They offer for membership - info, access to other members in the same region (voluntary, they don't release personal info to anyone without permission info), referrals to experts, support. Two of the members created the website www.cellphonetaskforce.org they have a database searchable by region, with lists of doctors, lawyers and other professionals who are interested or receptive to the issue to varying degrees. He writes that he has an excellent lawyer and a secretary, they work only part time because of lack of budget.
The board wants to put out a newsletter and they look for a volunteer.
Donations will be tax-free
They ask for fee of $50.
For more info please contact
Cellular Phone Task Force
Post Office Box 6216
Santa Fe, NM 87502
USA
(505) 471-0129
Iris
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)
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