Letter to Karolinska Institute / Unilever stalks / Letter in support of Dr. Olle Johansson / HAARP CBC Video / Reversed Faraday cage ?

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

3 August 2010

Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, Rektor
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
rektorssekreterare@ki.se

c/c:
Staffan Cullheim
Chairman, Department of Neuroscience,
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
staffan.cullheim@ki.se

Re: Associate Professor Olle Johansson
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

Dear Rektor Wallberg-Henriksson,

I am writing to you as past president of the Bioelectromagnetics Society to tell you how distressed I am to learn that Dr. Olle Johansson has been asked by his Chairman to move out of his lab at the Karolinska Institute.   I feel that I should let you know that Dr. Johansson is internationally known for his research in bioelectromagnetics, and that his research program on electrohypersensitivity is unique and highly regarded by his peers.  

Dr. Johansson was one of the invited contributors to the 2007 online Bioinitiative Report, as well as to the 2009 update in the journal Pathophysiology that I edited.

I feel I should also let you know that support for bioelectromagnetics research has suffered recently, because there are many who prefer not to learn about biological and health effects of electromagnetic radiation.  As a result, there are very few labs doing research in this area, and Dr. Johansson's is one of the few.  I realize that changes in space allocation are occasionally necessary in active research institutions, but they should be avoided when there appear to be other alternatives regarding space utilization.  Dr. Johansson's unique research program on electrohypersensitivity would be dealt a serious blow if the move were to take place.  It should be obvious that because of the political issue, the move would also be a blow to the reputation of the Karolinska Institute since it will be seen as eliminating a research program with important health implications.

I urge you to reevaluate your decision, and change the current plans to enable Dr. Johansson's vital research program to continue.

Sincerely yours,
Martin Blank Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics
Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons

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Unilever stalks its customers with GPS trackers secretly placed in laundry detergent boxes (opinion)

(NaturalNews) The household cleaning product giant Unilever has secretly placed GPS tracker transmitters in laundry detergent boxes to track consumers to their homes. With an array of electronic sensors, team of Unilever agents can now pinpoint...

http://www.naturalnews.com/029342_Unilever_GPS.html

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Prof. Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, President, Karolinska Institute, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden, rektorssekreterare@ki.se

Prof. Staffan Cullheim, Head of the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden, staffan.cullheim@ki.se

Dear Professors,

I am writing this letter in support of Dr. Olle Johansson.

As a biophysicist myself specialized in the Biological Effects of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Radiations, I am very familiar with the pioneer works of Dr. Johansson in this field. In fact a lot of people within the international scientific community and me personally, know his work and consider him as one of the leading international experts in this field. Moreover, Dr. Johansson is one of the most active scientists involved to the moral aspect of this scientific field which is directly related to human health and the protection of our natural environment.

The world needs scientists like Dr. Johansson not only for his groundbreaking research on the effects of man-made electromagnetic fields/radiations on human health (cancer induction, electrohypersensitivity etc.) but also for his courage to fearlessly speak the scientific truth, a matter of vital importance for the public health and the moral values which are in great danger in our modern society.

Imagine a world where pollution of all kinds is destroying our planet and spreads terrible diseases, where some people get huge amounts of money out of this destruction and no one dares to speak the scientific truth. This would be the living Hell.

I regret to say that I feel we are not far away from such a situation since, in regards to one of the most toxic agents as is modern electromagnetic pollution, few scientists are able to properly indicate the dangers and even less to have the courage to announce them publicly, not fearing the adverse consequences in their career.

But this is supposed to be the aim of Science, to find out the truth that would save us and announce it fearlessly. This is what all we scientists have sworn to do. Remember?

Dr. Johansson and me, along with two other international experts, were recently invited to testify in a very significant Meeting of the Standing Committee on Health of the Canadian House of Commons (HESA), entitled "Impact of Microwaves on Human Health". Being myself aware from my own experiments of the extreme genotoxicity of microwaves emitted by commercially available devices, I was proud to hear Dr. Johansson speaking clearly and fearlessly about the danger of human exposure to these radiations, the need for urgent verification of experimental results and the establishment of much more stringent exposure limits in order to protect public health and especially children. This is how scientists should be when they are asked to speak about a danger. Not to hide their words in order to get funded.

All four international experts invited to testify in this important meeting, Dr Johansson, Dr. Annie Sasco of Bordeaux University in France, Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy of Imperial College London and me, totally agreed in our testimonies about the dangers of the continuously increasing human exposure to microwave radiations.

It was with great disappointment to hear that Dr. Johansson is asked to leave his office and lab in Karolinska institute, one of the world's pioneer institutions in protecting public health. It seems to be a sad coincidence that I was also asked to leave my office in the University of Athens two months ago. The third coincidence happened just few days ago when the third colleague who was invited to testify in the same meeting, Dr. Annie Sasco, was also asked to leave her office. I am afraid that if the fourth international expert Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy wasn't recently retired, there would be a fourth coincidence.

I strongly protest and ask that Dr. Olle Johansson must not be removed from his office. In contrary, you should provide him all necessary means to carry on his vital work. Scientists like him are one in a million and you should be proud for having him in your institution. I certainly hope that you will reconsider this wrong decision to take his office, a decision that would be disgraceful for Karolinska Institute.

Athens, July 29^th, 2010

Sincerely,

Dr. Dimitris J. Panagopoulos

Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics,

Faculty of Biology,

University of Athens

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HAARP Video Documentary

CBC of Canada's revealing video documentary on HAARP. For part one

http://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/video/haarp_video_documentary

http://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/video/haarp_video_documentary_2

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 CE (Compatibilité Électromagnétique) : l'omertà sur le crash du Tupolev du
président Polonais Lech Kaczynski

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/CE.php&autotranslate=on&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8

There are reasons to believe that this air crash may have occurred because large numbers of cell phones were being used on board the aircraft, and the plane became a reversed Faraday cage.  Read this very interesting Next Up report for some unusual facts.

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)

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

Why the double standard? / Hacker Spoofs Cell Phone Tower to Intercept Calls / Cell Phone War / EMF Poll / Controversy over Cell phone health hazards

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

2 August 2010

August 2, 2010. Pick of the Week #5:  Why the double standard?

Inglis, L.P. 1970.  Why the double standard? - A critical review of Russian work on hazards of microwave radiation.  IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, July 14-16.  1970.

Summary

Continued interest in the determine of appropriate national levels of exposure to microwave fields has directed attention to Soviet work in this field.  The vastly different standards adopted in the two countries have aroused much speculation as to the reasons.  In this paper the Russian work is reviewed, and the major individuals identified.  An explanation for the different exposure limits is offered, based partly on the difference in national organization.

COMMENTS

This document is written by Leo P. Inglis, who worked for Atomics International Division, North American Rockwell Corp.-- a company involved with the early development of nuclear technology for commercial and government applications.

In "Why the double standard?" Inglis tries to tease apart the reasons for the much safer radio frequency standards used in the USSR compared with those used in the USA.

A much quoted paragraph, and the focus of this document, is the following:

"In the U.S., the thermal effects are generally believed to be the only ones of significance; other contentions are usually dismissed as lacking a provable basis.  In the USSR, non-thermal effects are considered the most significant and are overwhelmingly the ones most studied."

The documents goes on to describe the 3 stages of asthenic syndrome (or electrohypersensitivity) among Russian workers.

To read more . . . go to

www.magdahavas.com.

Dr Magda Havas

drmagdahavas@gmail.com

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Hacker Spoofs Cell Phone Tower to Intercept Calls

• By Kim Zetter
• July 31, 2010 
• http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/intercepting-cell-phone-calls/

A directional antenna is set up for a demonstration by security researcher Chris Paget, center. (Photo: Dave Bullock)

LAS VEGAS — A security researcher created a cell phone base station that tricks cell phones into routing their outbound calls through his device, allowing someone to intercept even encrypted calls in the clear.

The device tricks the phones into disabling encryption and records call details and content before they're routed on their proper way through voice-over-IP.

The low-cost, home-brewed device, developed by researcher Chris Paget, mimics more expensive devices already used by intelligence and law enforcement agencies – called IMSI catchers – that can capture phone ID data and content. The devices essentially spoof a legitimate GSM tower and entice cell phones to send them data by emitting a signal that's stronger than legitimate towers in the area.

"If you have the ability to deliver a reasonably strong signal, then those around are owned," Paget said.

Paget's system costs only about $1,500, as opposed to several hundreds of thousands for professional products. Most of the price is for the laptop he used to operate the system.

Doing this kind of interception "used to be a million dollars, now you can do it with a thousand times less cost," Paget said during a press conference after his attack. "If it's $1,500, it's just beyond the range that people can start buying them for themselves and listening in on their neighbors."

Paget's device captures only 2G GSM calls, making AT&T and T-Mobile calls, which use GSM, vulnerable to interception. Paget's aim was to highlight vulnerabilities in the GSM standard that allows a rogue station to capture calls. GSM is a second-generation technology that is not as secure as 3G technology.

Encrypted calls are not protected from interception because the rogue tower can simply turn it off. Although the GSM specifications say that a phone should pop up a warning when it connects to a station that does not have encryption, SIM cards disable that setting so that alerts are not displayed.

"Even though the GSM spec requires it, this is a deliberate choice on the cell phone makers," Paget said.

The system captures only outbound calls. Inbound calls would go directly to voicemail during the period that someone's phone is connected to Paget's tower.

The device could be used by corporate spies, criminals, or private investigators to intercept private calls of targets.

"Any information that goes across a cell phone you can now intercept," he said, except data. Professional grade IMSI catchers do capture data transfers, but Paget's system doesn't currently do this.

His setup included two RF directional antennas about three feet long to amplify his signal in the large conference room, a laptop and open source software. The system emitted only 25 milliwatts, "a hundred times less than your average cell phone," he said.

Paget received a call from FCC officials on Friday who raised a list of possible regulations his demonstration might violate. To get around legal concerns, he broadcast on a GSM spectrum for HAM radios, 900Mhz, which is the same frequency used by GSM phones and towers in Europe, thus avoiding possible violations of U.S. regulations.

Just turning on the antennas caused two dozen phones in the room to connect to Paget's tower. He then set it to spoof an AT&T tower to capture calls from customers of that carrier.

"As far as your cell phones are concerned, I am now indistinguishable from AT&T," he said. "Every AT&T cell phone in the room will gradually start handing over to my network."

During the demonstration, only about 30 phones were actually connecting to his tower. Paget says it can take time for phones to find the signal and hand off to the tower, but there are methods for speeding up that process.

To address privacy concerns, he set up the system to deliver a recorded message to anyone who tried to make a call from the room while connected to his tower. The message disclosed that their calls were being recorded. All of the data Paget recorded was saved to a USB stick, which he destroyed after the talk.

Customers of carriers that use GSM could try to protect their calls from being intercepted in this manner by switching their phones to 3G mode if it's an option.

But Paget said he could also capture phones using 3G by sending out jamming noise to block 3G. Phones would then switch to 2G and hook up with his rogue tower. Paget had his jammer and an amplifier on stage but declined to turn them on saying they would "probably knock out all Las Vegas cell phone systems."

Photo: Dave Bullock

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Cell Phone War | PCNews.TV
By Raluca

Take a look at the safety precautions that come with your cell phone. 2. There were many reports and studies published proving cell phones cause brain tumor, infertility and other cancers. 3. The cell phone industry itself admits a ...

Old news but still interesting -

http://pcnews.tv/911/cell-phone-war/

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EMF Poll

Empowering the public to protect children
and youth from unsafe wireless technologies.

Peace Arch News is holding a poll as to whether you are concerned about the impact of wireless technology on your health -  (scroll down almost to the bottom of the page):

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/

Una St.Clair-Moniz
Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Technology Society
www.citizensforsafetechnology.org

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Controversy over Cell phone health hazards resurfaces

http://www.cellnetonline.com/2010/07/31/controversy-over-cell-phone-health-hazards-resurfaces/

Over 200 million cell phone users may be endangering their health by holding the phone antenna too close to their brain, according to George Carlo, chairman of the Health Risk Management Group in Washington, D.C., and former director of Wireless Technology Research (WTR).

"We have reports of headaches, changes in blood pressure, changes in sleeping patterns, as well as cancer. We really can't sound the all clear," Slesin warns.

In a recent telephone interview, Carlo pointed to mounting evidence from researchers around the world that raise what he called "alarming questions" about the safety of mobile phones.

Results of research

The cellular phone industry, through the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), spent US$27 million dollars over six years trying to discover the health effects of cell phone use. They funded WTR to engage in scientific research and hired Carlo as director. Late last year, Carlo broke ranks with the industry when he announced the results. These included:

Higher brain cancer death rates among users of handheld cell phones than users of non-handheld units 50% higher incidence of acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor of the auditory nerve, in people who reported using cell phones for six years or more.

Double the number of rare neuro-epithelial tumors on the outside of the brain in cell-phone users as compared to non-cell phone users.

In a letter to the CEOs of 30 major cellular companies, Carlo warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the tobacco industry and avoid a potential backlash "for not being forthright about health effects." He was ignored. Carlo has since left the WTR and bitterly criticizes the cellular industry on their failure to act.

"The institutional arrogance of this industry is beyond comprehension," he says. "With 200 million people being exposed to cell phones, we can't wait around for the slow scientific process to work."

Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, a trade newsletter that tracks the cell-phone business, also urges caution. "We have reports of headaches, changes in blood pressure, changes in sleeping patterns, as well as cancer. We really can't sound the all clear," he warns.

More studies and evidence

The evidence continues to mount. Last November, a New York Times report cited findings by Prof. Henry Lai of the University of Washington that rats exposed to microwave radiation suffered long-term memory loss and genetic mutations. Late last month, London's Daily Mail reported that scientists from the European Research Institute of Electronic Components in Bucharest found evidence that cell phones can seriously damage the heart and kidneys. Also cited were results from studies at Sweden's Lund University showing two minutes of exposure from mobile phones can cause proteins and toxins to leak into the brain.

Cell phones send electromagnetic waves into users' brains. The proximity of the phone antenna to the head determines the amount of radiation exposure. According to Carlo, the antenna radiation plume penetrates two to three inches into the brain, and in children, it penetrates the entire brain.

The amount of microwave radiation allowable in cell phones is regulated by the FCC. According to Carlo, this standard is based on microwave-oven data, not based on phones. "The industry maintains that they meet all safety standards," he said. "There are no safety standards!"

"Not true," countered JoAnne Basile, CTIA vice president of external and industry relations. In a telephone interview earlier this month, Basile stated that "all cellular phones are designed to maximize performance and meet strict FCC safety guidelines."

20/20 flunked 4 out of 5 models

However, last fall, ABC News 20/20 commissioned an independent test of the radiation emissions of five popular cell phones. They aired the results on their program- Four out of five of the phones flunked the test. They exceeded the FCC safety standards in at least one antenna position. The only phone that was within the allowable range was the Motorola Star Tac, designed with an antenna that positions it away from the head.

Whatever the truth turns out to be, for now we have only conflicting viewpoints and data around an issue that affects a very large number of people. Magazines like Wired, PC Computing and Mother Jones have also run stories on the controversy.

And it must be noted that a number of researchers maintain that cell phones are perfectly safe. Here's a sampling from the CTIA Web site:

The FDA's current advisory states that "available science does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe or that they are unsafe. If there is a risk from these products — and at this point, we do not know that there is — it is probably very small."

Joshua Muscat of the American Health Foundation: "At this point, I don't see scientific data that suggests there should be a behavior change for people (in the way they use wireless phones)."

The Royal Society of Canada: "The weight of evidence does not support the conclusion that exposure to RF fields of the type and intensity produced by wireless telecommunications devices contributes to the production or growth of tumours in animals or humans."

The World Health Organization: "Current scientific evidence indicates that exposure to low levels of RF fields, including those emitted by mobile phones and their base stations, is unlikely to induce or promote cancers."

'No public health threat'

Throughout this barrage of scientific news, the cellular industry has unwaveringly stated that cell phones are safe. "After a substantial amount of research, scientists and governments around the world continue to reaffirm that there is no public health threat from the use of wireless phones," states Tom Wheeler, CTIA president and CEO. Adds Basile, "If you decide to use a headset, earbud, or other handsfree device, it should be for convenience and not because of health concerns."

According to Basile, "only two studies (by the WTR) had findings that raised interesting scientific questions and required further research. We are working with the FDA to follow up on those studies."

While the scientists duke it out, there are steps you can take if you are concerned.

Slesin recommends using a headset because "distance is your friend in this issue." Carlo, admittedly "addicted" to his cell phone, uses a headset for safety. He recommends that children and teenagers use pagers and avoid cell phones entirely until their early twenties.

Precautions

The FDA suggests that concerned consumers follow these guidelines:

Time is a key factor. Avoid lengthy conversations on mobile phones.

In your car, use a mobile phone with the antenna mounted outside. This will require the permanent installation of components such as a power booster, speaker and microphone. You'll most likely need a professional installer to do the work. A faster, cheaper solution is to get a device that plugs into your cigarette lighter and provides an external speaker and microphone. Ask your cell-phone provider for advice finding one that works with your equipment.

Use a headset. Using an earbud or headset, connected to your cell phone via a thin cord, gets the phone antenna away from your brain and makes hands-free phoning a reality. Cell headsets are available through Plantronics and Hello Direct. Jabra makes earsets.

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)

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