W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
17 March 2011
Electricity, Magnetism and the Body
Interesting instructional science video 59 minutes in length.
http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/79
Catherine
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Another View: There is plenty of evidence that smart meters make people sick
The burden of proof should be on the electric utility, not on the people who are affected.
By ELISA BOXER-COOK March 16, 2011
Say you're sitting next to someone on a plane and you rip open a bag of peanuts. They explain that peanut dust closes their windpipe. Do you keep eating and demand proof? As someone sensitive to radiofrequency radiation, I'm disappointed in your March 9 editorial ("Smart meter foes should produce hard evidence").
We all have different sensitivities. As one adult respecting another, I would never question or invalidate someone else's physical truth just because I didn't personally experience it.
Perhaps that's one gift that comes from having electrosensitivity. But I believe it's also called empathy. The "hard evidence" that CMP is looking for can be seen, for example, when an electrosensitive mother fights back intense nausea to read to her son in his favorite wi-fi-enabled library. Or struggles against a head-splitting migraine to testify in a wi-fi-enabled State House hearing room about the dangers of a chemical that industry claims is "safe" because 100 percent scientific proof of harm has not yet been established.
The governor of Colorado just proclaimed May 2011 "Electromagnetic Sensitivity Awareness Month." Concerned Maine doctors have been filing letters with the Public Utilities Commission, advocating opt-outs.
Meanwhile, the "scientific expert" hired by CMP to argue no proof of harm from smart meters is from a firm that has represented the tobacco and asbestos industries in cancer cases. There hasn't been one health study done on smart meters. The FCC standards are set to protect an adult male from death by electrical shock. Even the head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in an internal e-mail: "I never said smart meters are safe."
So isn't it reasonable for each of us to decide what's safe for our families?
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WiFi session leaves sides polarized
"The results are in, electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range is safe, ... rate of brain cancer is lower in that group than the general population. ...
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/mapleridgenews/news/118032579.html
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Vastu World's new finding: Mobile Towers & WiFi Antennas
WiFi antennas, digital cordless phones, wireless LAN, mobile towers and other new ... other residential disruptive factors, having an impact on health. ...
Robert
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Pacific Gas & Electric Co
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9M001CO1.htm
SAN FRANCISCO – A California utility under fire for a deadly natural gas explosion near San Francisco is missing 8 percent of key safety records required for high-pressure lines coursing through the some of the state's most densely populated areas, the company said Tuesday after an exhaustive document search.
State regulators announced a proposal almost immediately to force Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to provide detailed safety updates, including information about how the utility was prioritizing work on high-risk lines during the next four years.
The California Public Utilities Commission also was expected to decide as soon as Wednesday whether PG&E should have to conduct expensive, time-consuming tests on lines for which records could not be found.
The testing could be required unless PG&E can otherwise prove pressure levels were safe.
The Sept. 9 blast in San Bruno sparked a massive fireball that killed eight people and destroyed three dozen homes in the quiet suburb overlooking the San Francisco Bay.
PG&E released its results after staging a massive operation over the past two weeks, with employees sorting through mountains of paper records inside a hulking concert venue the company rented for the job.
Company engineers, estimators, mappers, information technology specialists and managers — as well as a number of outside contractors — went through more than 1.25 million individual gas transmission records hauled out from branch offices and storage facilities.
Ten percent of aging lines installed before 1961 were missing test records or other documents showing their historical pressure levels, as were 3 percent of the lines laid from 1961 to 1970, PG&E found.
"While we have made good progress on our records validation, we are not satisfied with the results to date and will continue to search for and review our files for additional pressure test records and provide regular updates on our efforts," PG&E president Chris Johns said in a statement.
PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said the company planned to pressure-test or replace 150 miles of pipe that is either as old as the San Bruno line or has other similar characteristics. The work will be carried out across 24 pipelines, he said, including on a segment of the ruptured line.
The company also will carry out rigorous inspections on another 435 miles of pipe, in which robotic devices called "smart pigs" will travel through pipelines to search for corrosion, dents and other problems, he said.
Federal investigators have been calling into question PG&E's record-keeping since December, when the National Transportation Safety Board first revealed the company's records about the 1956-era pipe were wrong.
The pipeline was riddled with seams, defects and inferior welds, although PG&E paperwork inaccurately identified the pipe as being seamless, which is considered safer.
In January, the state commission directed PG&E and other California utilities to produce records documenting the safety of all their lines.
State rules require pipeline operators to keep up-to-date records about pressure tests and to document any leaks to ensure the pipes don't pose any risk to surrounding communities.
Consumer advocates said customers deserved to know more details about where the lines with no records were located, and whether the company had been operating them safely.
"Ninety-two percent sounds pretty good unless you happen to live over the 8 percent that they don't have records for," said Mark Toney, executive director of San Francisco-based The Utility Reform Network. "I think that people are going to be interested in knowing where that 8 percent is located."
Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who represents the San Bruno area, said she was pleased at the advances since the explosion, but questioned PG&E's reliance on documents detailing historical pressure levels. She said that would not necessarily identify improper welds or shoddy work.
Test records were missing for 31 percent of the lines that were installed before 1961.
"If you're just saying that you have five years of records showing what the pressure was over time, I don't know whether that means the level is safe," said Speier. "We now know that San Bruno pipe was seamed, had a defective weld and probably other problems."
The commission is likely to vote on the proposed decision requiring PG&E to send out more frequent safety updates next month.
William
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Stephen, Mobile Phone Masts Are Dangerous.
After 15 yrs mast exposure to an Orange mobile phone mast, the effects on us are terrible.
http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/stephen-mobile-phone-masts-are-dangerous
Robert
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