The Canadian initiative to stop Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution
17 August 2014Court Allows Expert Testimony in Litigation Alleging Cell Phone-Linked Tumors According to Consumers' Legal Team
were caused by their cell phones are finally moving toward trial. Six of
these cases were originally filed in 2001 and 2002. Many of the
plaintiffs are no longer alive.
On Friday, Judge Frederick H. Weisberg, in the D.C. Superior Court,
admitted the testimony of five expert witness for the plaintiffs, and
the 12- and 13-year-old cases will now move into the discovery phase.
Each of the plaintiffs is asking for more than $100,000,000. There are
46 defendants including Motorola, Nokia, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Cellular
One, Cingular Wireless, SBC Communications, Verizon, Vodafone, the
Telecommunications Industry Association, the IEEE, ANSI, the CTIA, and
the FCC. The plaintiffs are represented by Jeffrey B. Morganroth of
Morganroth & Morganroth, a law firm in Birmingham, Michigan.
For over a decade the industry and the plaintiffs have played tug-of-war
with the oldest cases, sending them back and forth between federal and
state courts, and fighting over whether the plaintiff's claims were
preempted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
In 2009 the D.C. Court of Appeals, in Murray v. Motorola (982 A. 2d
764), ruled that the telecommunications companies could not be sued over
brain tumors caused by cell phones manufactured after 1996. But since
all of these plaintiffs had used pre-1996 phones, their lawsuits were
allowed to go forward. They were also allowed to go forward on their
claims that the defendants made false and misleading statements and
failed to disclose information about the dangers of cell phones. These
claims were brought under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
In December 2013 and January 2014, testimony was heard from:
DR. SHIRA KRAMER, a Maryland epidemiologist;
DR. MICHAEL KUNDI, professor of epidemiology and occupational health at
the Medical University of Vienna;
DR. VINI KHURANA, a neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery at the
Australian National University in Canberra;
DR. IGOR BELYAEV, head research scientist at the Cancer Research
institute at the Slovak Academy of Science in Bratislava, Slovakia;
DR. WILHELM MOSGOELLER, professor and medical doctor at the University
of Vienna Medical School's Institute for Cancer Research;
DR. DIMITRIS PANAGAPOULOUS, founder of the Radiation Biophysics
Laboratory at the University of Athens;
DR. ABRAHAM LIBOFF, professor emeritus of physics at Oakland University
in Rochester, Michigan; and
DR. LAURA PLUNKETT, pharmacologist and toxicologist in Houston.
On Friday, August 8, 2014, the testimony of Drs. Kramer, Khurana, and
Panagopoulos was disallowed. But the testimony of Drs. Kundi, Belyaev,
Mosgoeller, Liboff, and Plunkett was admitted. They will testify at
trial about "general causation," i.e. that cell phones can cause brain
tumors.
The lawsuits now move into the discovery phase, in which each side is
compelled to produce documents and answer questions. This is the first
time that the industry has had to turn over data. There will then be a
fight over the admission of the testimony of witnesses on "specific
causation," i.e. doctors and others who will testify that these specific
cell phones caused these specific tumors.
Friday's decision by Judge Weisberg allowed 13 of the cases, which have
been consolidated in one action, to go forward. The other 16 cases are
being tried separately, but the parties in those cases agreed to be
bound by Friday's decision.
In allowing the experts to testify, Judge Weisberg wrote:
"Federal law is the supreme law of the land, but there is no
constitutional provision that says federal facts are the supreme facts
of the land. Federal law can preempt state law, but it cannot preempt
scientific fact. The scientific truth, whatever it may be, lies outside
of the FCC's regulations about what is "safe" or "unsafe."
Arthur Firstenberg
Cellular Phone Task Force
info@cellphonetaskforce.org
Neighbours want to prevent research on Electrosenstiivity in residential neighbourhood
I've just posted "Calming Behavior in Children with Autism and ADHD: The Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR)-Lowering Protocol (That Has No Cost or Side Effects)."
http://bit.ly/1n4hmE3
The paper features Toril Jelter, MD, a Bay Area pediatrician who has offered this two-week protocol to families and seen significant changes in children's behavior; UK biologist Andrew Goldsworthy; software designer Peter Sullivan, whose two sons displayed symptoms of autism as toddlers, and now, as teenagers, do not display autistic behaviors; and BioInitiative Co-editor Cindy Sage, who offers advice to parents for reducing EMR exposure.
Also, as a project of the EMR Policy Institute, I recently posted a list of cell tower fires and collapses.
http://bit.ly/1uPIIaA
This list was compiled by Dr. David Stupin, retired physicist from the Los Alamos National Lab. It was used to help defeat the permit of a proposed cell tower at a gas station in Santa Fe, NM.
Please share these remarkable reports with concerned citizens everywhere.
Thanks for your participation,
Katie Singer
www.electronicsilentspring.com
However, smart meters have been linked to 23 incidents reported to Ontario's Fire Marshal from 2011 to 2013.
"I can tell you 10 of those were smart meter failures attributed to internal faults, and 13 were small fires attributed to high-resistance heating," said spokeswoman Carol Gravelle.
10th 'smart' meter fire hits home in Regina
"They complain about doubling and even tripling the usual amount of the bill," said Marie-Michelle Poisson of Refusons les compteurs, part of a growing movement refusing to make the switch to smart meters.
Unlike the old meters, she says the digital meters are unreadable so customers can't monitor their energy consumption and compare it to their bills.
Smart Meter Emissions and the Antenna Effect
An RF engineer's technical report confirms that smart meters cause an antenna effect when connected to electrical distribution systems, resulting in RF exposures that are significantly higher than those reported in isolated laboratory testing
http://www.emfacts.com/2014/06/smart-meter-emissions-and-the-antenna-effect/
Jean
War on the phone masts
A mobile phone company has been banned from erecting a mast because of health fears.
The decision is the first of its kind by Government planning inspectors.
They rejected an application by Orange to erect a 30ft mast in a residential area because of the 'serious harm' it could cause to those living nearby.
Hazard identified
Radio frequency interference can cause the smoke detectors to become non-responsive to smoke.
Number sold
There were about 13,000 products sold in Canada, and about 141,000 units sold in the United States.
Time period sold
These products were sold to professional fire and security contractors and installers from March 2013 to February 2014.
We're working on a documentary and a webplatform about electrosensitivity. We would like to get in contact with people who are electrosensitive and would like to share their experiences. We're also interested in hearing from journalists, activists and researchers.
If this is something you'd be interested in, please contact me at gemmabarendse@gmail.com
Gemma
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W.E.E.P. – The Canadian initiative to stop: Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution
