Monday, December 27, 2010

Cellphone towers disorient homer pigeons / Reduce EMFs in bedroom / Cell towers on buildings / Novel textiles screen EMR / Turbine Petition / Noise Abatement Society

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News 

28 December 2010

 
 
Cellphone towers disorient homer pigeons
 
27 December 2010
 

CHENNAI: Even as pigeon-racing finds more patronage in the city, urbanisation has begun to pose new threat to mankind's oldest messengers — the homer pigeons — as more and more cellphone towers sprout in the city.

Pigeon lovers contend that the mushrooming cellphone towers across the State, and especially in Chennai, are making the birds lose their biggest asset — quickly reaching a place. Homer pigeons, a pedigree known best for its ability to spot its home and reach it at the quickest, have also become victims to the bane of urbanisation, said Sankaralingam, president, Chennai Homer Pigeons Association.

"Homer pigeons usually take only 45 seconds to fly a kilometre. Cellphone towers hamper their flight, forcing them to take a more elaborate route, thereby impairing their advantage of reaching a place at the fastest. "Earlier, before the advent of cellphones, if I liberated 100 pigeons in my Kodungaiyur neighbourhood, all would return home in a couple of minutes. Recently, many pigeon fanciers noted that their birds took a longer time to reach short distances. Discussion showed that this phenomenon occurred in places where cellphone towers were coming up," he explained.

Now, only about 70 of 100 pigeons were able to traverse the same distance within the given time-frame, he said.  There is also a study that suggests that pigeons, which fly using the earth's magnetic field, are getting confused by signals from cellphone towers.

At an event held to distribute prizes for pigeon-racing earlier this year, Mayor M Subramanian observed that pigeons and sparrows were becoming difficult to spot in the city owing to urbanisation.
 
Robert R
 
 
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How To Reduce Electromagnetic Fields In Your Bedroom
 
Dr. Coldwell
 
 
David
 
 
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No cell towers atop buildings without PMC's nod

Times of India
In Chennai, at least one such tower has collapsed, while in Mumbai there has been some study to monitor the disadvantages of electromagnetic radiation ...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/No-cell-towers-atop-buildings-without-PMCs-nod/articleshow/7147516.cms
 
 
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Scientists develop novel textiles that screen out radiation

December 23, 2010 (Germany)

Scientists at the Hohenstein Institute in Bönnigheim, in partnership with the ITCF Denkendorf, have developed the world's first textiles which effectively screen out both electromagnetic (EM) and infrared (IR) radiation. Until now, textile materials have ever only offered a choice of protection, either from the so-called electrosmog caused by electrical devices, or from thermal radiation, for example from sources of fire or intensive solar radiation.

The artificial fibres are given their screening effect either by dosing (integrating) or by coating them with indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent oxide compound which is also used in the touchscreens of smart phones. In tests, the textile treatment proved to be resistant to washing, abrasion and weathering. It was also possible to prove that the treatment was not biologically harmful - and nor were the garments made uncomfortable to wear.

Project leader Dr. Edith Claßen envisages the innovative fabric being used primarily for occupational clothing: "These novel materials are not only extremely effective at screening radiation but they also conduct electricity so they are anti-static. This makes them ideal for use in Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for firemen, workers in foundries and welding workshops, in the semiconductor industry or for maintenance staff working on telecommunications systems."

However, Dr. Claßen can also see many potential applications in domestic and technical textile products: "For example, you could imagine making roller blinds which not only screen out solar radiation in summer to keep the room cool, but at the same time also offer protection from the electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone masts in the vicinity."

These multifunctional materials may well also be of interest to the military: if used for uniforms, they make the wearer "invisible" to infrared cameras and at the same time they give protection from electromagnetic radiation.
 
Hohenstein Institute
 
 
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AT&T releases dramatic anti-texting while driving documentary

 
 
Robert R
 
 
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Township circulates petition against wind turbines

By MARK HOULT, QMI AGENCY

NORWOOD -- Asphodel-Norwood Township residents who want to show their concern about the impact of industrial wind turbines on human health and property values are signing a petition.

Asphodel-Norwood council voted last week to make the petition by Progressive Conservative Durham MPP John O'Toole available to residents concerned about the spread of wind turbine developments after resident Debbie Lynch submitted the document to council.

O'Toole's petition argues that the provincial Liberal government's Green Energy Act "allows wind turbine developments to bypass meaningful public input and municipal approvals" and calls on Environment Minister John Wilkinson to revise the act to "allow full public input and municipal approvals on all industrial wind farm developments."

The petition also asks the government to declare a moratorium on wind turbines until a study into their health and environmental impacts can be completed.

Noting the municipality has declared a moratorium on the construction of wind turbines in the township, Reeve Doug Pearcy said council should support Lynch's request to make the petition available to township residents.

"There is a grave concern across the province about this Green Energy Act and how it has removed all responsibility from the municipalities. So that's why I support this."

The petition is available at the township office, the Norwood and Westwood libraries and other municipal facilities.

Energy Farming Ontario wants to build three 1.8-megawatt wind turbines on privately owned land south of Norwood near Hastings in a project called Wind Farm Collie Hill.

But the company has faced opposition from nearby residents, just as the company also has encountered with its other plans for wind turbines on land near Millbrook (Whispering Woods Wind Park), Bethany (Settlers Landing Wind Park and Snowy Ridge Wind Park), Roseneath (Clean Breeze Wind Park) and Orono (ZEP Wind Farm Ganaraska).

The Brighton-based company has held public meetings on all of these proposed projects over the past few months.

Community Press

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Wind Turbines | Noise Abatement Society

Concern
has increased as most modern wind turbines are in excess of 100 ... into the multiple health and environmental effects caused by wind turbines and ...

A family living near a wind farm in Askam, Cumbria (7 turbines, 62.5m tall) describe the noise as 'a washing machine that's gone wrong. Its whooshing drumming just goes on and on, it's torture' and 'it is an audio version of Chinese Water Torture. The noise is such that it is felt as much as heard'.

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W.E.E.P. – The Canadian initiative to stop Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution