W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
24 December 2010
LEGISLATOR'S GUIDE TO WARNING LABELS ON CELL PHONES
Dearest People,
My gosh, this year has FLOWN by!! We are very excited to announce the publication our new paper...
THE LEGISLATOR'S GUIDE TO WARNING LABELS ON CELL PHONES AND THE LAYMAN'S GUIDE TO NON-THERMAL EFFECTS FROM CELL PHONES AND OTHER WIRELESS PRODUCTS AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
You can upload the paper here...
http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/uploads/Non_Thermal_Paper_10-10A.pdf
We hope it helps those of you out there who are wanting to take actions on this issue. This paper was recently used to assist the state of Oregon in introducing the first ever NON-THERMAL language warning label in the world!! The significance of this is enormous, as non-thermal is what is causing all the problems with wireless products and infrastructure and also what is ignored in current cell phone, WIFI, smart meter and cell tower/antenna safety standards. It is based on acute exposure and heat as opposed to no heat and prolonged exposure. We will send notification out once the language has officially been posted on the state of Oregon's government website. We hope you will find this paper helpful in any educational or legislative action you may wish to take on this issue. And remember, we are always here to help and support...speaking of which, if you would like to support further efforts and endeavors to this end, it is still not too late to make a tax deductible donation on our website. Just go to our home page and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand column (we couldn't post the donate URL here, it's too long). Our IRS letter has also been posted should you need it for your records.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Sincerely, Liz
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KPR Board looks at technology plan
It is apparent that the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board has adopted an Instructional Technology Plan worth 12 million plus the cost of SMART boards, notebooks, iPods, and lapstops. As Mr. Hick said in the September meeting, if wireless goes then the whole plan crumbles and they have no intention of letting the key component of the plan--wireless--go.
These items will appear in the next KPRDSB budget.
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2465541
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By FRED SWEGLES
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Dec. 22, 2010 3:21 p.m.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/smart-281391-meters-san.html
San Clemente's City Council will gather more information about a new technology that's coming to town – smart meters – and may ask San Diego Gas & Electric to hold off on installing them on every home and business here until questions can be aired.
"Can we wait?" Mayor Lori Donchak asked at Tuesday night's council meeting. The council has scheduled a discussion for its Feb. 1 meeting.
Sandi Aders, of San Clemente, stands next to the electric meters currently installed at her apartment complex. SDG&E is planning on installing smart meters that Aders says has given her health problems when she has lived near them in the past.
01.spn.smart.meters.1216.pb 12/16/2010 Paul Bersebach, The Orange County Register
The mayor said she spent much of the weekend reading materials and viewing YouTube videos about how smart meters – wireless electric meters that power companies install on homes – have become an issue in some Northern California cities and around the country, with questions raised about health effects on people sensitive to radio-frequency emissions and whether wireless technology poses privacy issues.
SDG&E says the meters are well within FCC guidelines and the utility company has rolled out 1.8 million of them in San Diego County with minimal response from customers. The utility says smart meters don't require monthly visits to the home and can help people understand their energy consumption to help reduce energy use.
The City Council agreed to air the issue, which San Clemente resident Sandi Aders has raised from the floor at the last three council meetings. She told the council that she is extremely electro-sensitive and moved to San Clemente after being driven from her home in Idaho after a smart meter was installed there, only to learn recently that smart meters are to be installed here.
Aders said there can be insomnia, fatigue, heart problems, tinnitus and a host of other effects. She said that while the electric emissions are similar to Wi-Fi, which is found in many homes and businesses, residents with Wi-Fi have a choice whether to install it in their home.
"If you don't want them, fight, fight, fight," she said at Tuesday night's meeting. "This is going to change your life, if you are susceptible, and you'll end up electrically sensitive like me."
Donchak said she wants to learn more about California Assembly Bill 37, which could give customers a choice to opt out, together with the questions being raised in some other communities.
Duane Cave, utility spokesman, said "we are scheduled to begin our installations for San Clemente in late January or early February. We have been installing smart meters throughout our service territory for the last year and a half, Orange County is the last district in our service territory to have smart� meters installed."
Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127
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Powerwatch Message
Many thanks to all of you who have taken an interest in the debate around electromagnetic fields throughout 2010. As the year closes, we've seen the end of the second phase of the Stakeholder Advisory Group on Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, an insightful new book published by Devra Davis, the beginnings of evidence that even the Interphone data is showing a potential long term health risk from phone use, IARC identifying melatonin disruption as a probable carcinogen (and one the has been linked to EMF exposure), and another 150 or so new scientific papers of interest.
It's good to see so much research being carried out on such an important topic, and we hope that 2011 will progress our state of knowledge further still, so that policy makers can adopt reasoned guidance and the general public can make informed decisions for their own use. In the meantime, it's time to enjoy the festive period at the end of the year and make the most of the break and the weather.
From all of us at Powerwatch, we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and healthy start to 2011.
To view this eCard online, please click here
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Electrosmog
Here is a gift to all of you who are concerned about electrosmog. It is a short (8:40 minutes youtube video) of a narrated fairy tale about planet irth, sensitives, electrosmog, and electrosmogitis and was a chapter in the BRAG Antenna Ranking of Schools Report that you can find here
(http://www.magdahavas.com/2010/04/28/how-to-brag™-rate-your-school/).
The message is straight forward with cartoon characters and animation. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtb8dTgB3LE
Happy Holidays!
-magda
drmagdahavas@gmail.com
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Why using a computer can cause depression
OLINKA KOSTER, Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-153281/Why-using-cause-depression.html#ixzz14NXEPDZR
Sitting in front of a computer screen for five hours a day can dramatically increase the risk of depression and insomnia, new research suggests.
Previous studies have focused on how too much screen time can cause physical afflictions, such as headaches, eye strain, and backache.
Now one of the biggest ever investigations into the hazards of computers in the workplace has concluded that they can also damage mental health.
In a three-year survey of 25,000 workers, many complained of feeling depressed, anxious and reluctant to get up for work in the mornings.
They were also plagued by broken sleep and reported problems getting along with fellow employees.
The study by researchers at Chiba University in Japan, concluded that bosses should limit the time their staff spend on computers.
Lead researcher Dr Tetsuya Nakazawa said: ' This result suggests the prevention of mental disorders and sleep disorders requires the restriction of computer use to less than five hours a day.'
The results, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, showed one in four staff spent at least five hours a day at their terminal.
Once they crossed that threshold, the dangers of psychological disorders setting in appeared to increase dramatically.
British experts said working alone at a computer for hours on end could lead to a sense of isolation, even in a busy office.
Psychology Professor Cary Cooper from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology said concern was growing over mental health problems caused by working with computers.
'We are finding that people are working with machines as opposed to other people,' he said. 'The problem is not just sitting in front of a computer but the fact that people don't take a break and cannot prioritise what they are doing.
'They are overloaded then they worry about the work they are not doing.
'People are not interacting with each other and the longer you do that, the less work meets your social needs.'
Professor Brian Shackel, from Loughborough University, agreed: ' Even in a full office, the likelihood is staff would have targets to meet, so the opportunities for social chit-chat would be considerably diminished.'
Dr Nakazawa insisted the findings were not just due to staff being in repetitive jobs.
'They performed different types of work,' he said. 'The computers were different, as were the working environments. Even so, our results were extremely consistent over a three-year period.'
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said bosses had a duty under the 1974 Health and Safety Act to protect the mental as well as physical health of staff, even though psychological damage was harder to prove.
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W.E.E.P. – The Canadian initiative to stop Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution
