Saturday, December 4, 2010

MP opposes phone-mast plans / Motorola phone exploded in his ear / Letter: Tower of Babel / Is Your Health on the Line? / EMF-Omega News

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

5 December 2010

CHINGFORD: MP opposes phone-mast plans

Wednesday 1st December 2010

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/8712272.CHINGFORD__MP_opposes_phone_mast_plans/

By Safira Ali

MP Iain Duncan Smith is asking councillors to turn down an application for a phone mast near a school.

Concerned parents are opposing a proposed 12-metre mast in Richmond Road, Chingford.

They say it could be harmful to children who attend St Mary's Catholic School in nearby Station Road.

Mr Duncan Smith met with parents of children at the school and headteacher Philomena Egan last week to hear their concerns.

He said: "Considering the evidence about the damaging health effects of mobile phone base stations, it would clearly be irresponsible to have one so near young children.

"I have done extensive work on early years, and it is clear that the first few years of a child's life are crucial to his or her brain development.

"The parents of St Mary's Catholic Primary School are understandably very concerned for their children's health.

"I will be writing to the local councillors to impress upon them the need to ensure this application is never approved."

Last month Jim Stevenson, a spokesman for O2 and Vodafone, said: "We do tell anyone that asks us that there have been a lot of scientific studies done over the last two years.

"None of them have come up with any health or safety problems related to phone masts or mobile phones. We are satisfied with the research."

An application for a 15 metre mast in Shernhall Street in Walthamstow was recently turned down following a campaign by local residents.

The committee said the location was inappropriate.

Robert R

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Heated conversation! Man claims Motorola phone exploded in his ear during call

By Daily Mail Reporter
4th December 2010
Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335535/Heated-conversation-Man-claims-Motorola-phone-exploded-ear-call.html#ixzz17ChHl9c7

video

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/04/exploding_droid_2/

Comment - If he thinks this little cut is bad, how is he going to handle a brain tumour?

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Letter: Tower of Babel

http://www.rappnews.com/2010/12/02/letter-tower-of-babel/10188/

By Ron MaxwellDecember 2, 2010

Posted in: Editorial/Opinion, Letters to the Editor

Here we go again. Every eight years like a biblical plague come the cell phone drones. The same old arguments dusted off and tried again. Like a bad horror film the corpse of the cell phone tower keeps returning, seeking to scare us into submission.

If road safety is the argument, here are the facts:

In recent years cell phone use while driving is rivaling drunken driving as the No. 1 cause of accidents nationwide.

Each year, 21 percent of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 are the result of cell phone usage. This result is expected to grow as much as 4 percent every year.

Nearly a decade ago, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die each year as a result of using cell phones while driving. They estimated that another 330,000 are seriously injured. Those numbers have continued to climb with the proliferation of the phones. Don't take my word for it. Read the decades long in-depth studies by the American Automobile Association. It makes for sobering reading.

Rappahannock County is significantly safer to drive in than anywhere else in the region precisely because drivers cannot be distracted by cell phone conversations, dialing phone numbers or text messaging. To repeat, Rappahannock County's roads are more safe, not less safe because it has fewer cell towers and less cell-phone usage.

Most of Rappahannock's roads are two lanes, winding, undulating and narrow. Many have no shoulders and more than a few are unpaved. That's how we like it, but there is no room for error. One glance to a cell phone's numeric dial could be the last thing you see in this life. Is the potential loss or crippling of even one life worth the added convenience we're supposed to benefit from by having cell phone service reach into every nook and cranny of the county?

Then there's our quality of life. Shouldn't that be taken into consideration? Notice the difference between dining at any of our Rappahannock eateries and almost anywhere else. Outside of the county, in cell phone land, every other table is inhabited by people yammering away on their cell phones in conversation with people miles away. Who among us hasn't witnessed the absurd spectacle of a table with every single person on a cell phone talking to someone else? It reminds me of the delightful one-act opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti, titled "The Telephone," where in order to make a proposal of marriage the suitor must call his prospective bride on the phone because she never has the receiver away from her ear.

In Rappahannock County, the folks at the dining tables are talking to one another – not loudly and obliviously into their cell phones. In eateries in Warrenton and Front Royal the cacophony of ringing cell phones is part of the normal background din. In Rappahannock, we enjoy the peace and quiet of a more civilized world.

Do we really want to give this up? Restaurateurs and owners of B&Bs in the county probably understand more than most that the unique quiet and privacy afforded by the absence of obnoxious cell phone behavior constitutes part of the appeal for visitors and diners. It's one of the noisome city things they come here to escape.

Like almost everyone else I too have a cell phone. When I'm away from the county I suppose I use it as much as most people, although after a couple of breath-catching close calls I try to refrain from using it while driving. Although I confess to its usefulness, each time I drive home and enjoy the view of the Blue Ridge I say a silent prayer, thankful that I live in a place with no traffic lights, no fast-food and few cell phones. I'm relieved I can't get service and happy to turn the thing off.

There seems to be an ever present minority that isn't content without being wired in, turned on, hooked up and electronically interconnected everywhere all the time. But is the trade-off worth it? The majority of residents don't need the pervasive intrusion of cell phones in the bucolic oasis that is Rappahannock County. We don't want the tall tower and flashing lights to blight to our view sheds, the added danger to our driving safety or the degradation of civility when strolling through our local shops or patronizing our local eateries.

It is not the responsibility of our elected officials to assure the profits of multinational cell phone companies or the income of their middlemen in Virginia. The government's first responsibility, whether local, state or federal, is to protect the safety of its citizens. Before a decision is made regarding the installation of any more cell phone towers in our county a serious and thorough study should be made to determine how road safety will be impacted in our particular and specific environment. None of us would want to create the conditions for unintended consequences.

Simultaneously, considering the long-lasting nature of such installations and its possible adverse effects, we should have an adequate time for citizen feedback and discussion.

To paraphrase from the recent front page article of the Rappahannock News, "I know that the Planning Commission will remain the good stewards that we know they are, and consider rejecting the application from AT&T for a cell phone tower, with or without balloons."

Ron Maxwell
Flint Hill

David

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Is Your Health on the Line?

http://health.yahoo.net/rodale/WH/is-your-health-on-the-line

Unless you've had your cell phone permanently glued to your ear, chances are you've heard the recent health buzz: Mobile devices may cause cancer. While it's true that the National Cancer Institute has ruled them safe, a growing number of independent researchers disagree.

Those experts point out that the FCC wireless regulations on cell phone safety are largely based on something called specific absorption rate (SAR) levels, or the rate at which our bodies absorb radiation. Most phones do comply with the federal standards, but SAR monitors only thermal effects. (In other words, if the radiation from your phone isn't cooking your brain, it's regarded as safe.) But mounting scientific evidence suggests that nonthermal radio frequency radiation (RF)—the invisible energy waves that connect cell phones to cell towers, and power numerous other everyday items—can damage our immune systems and alter our cellular makeup, even at intensities considered safe by the FCC.

Is your body giving off important clues about your health?

"The problem is that RF can transfer energy waves into your body and disrupt its normal functioning," explains Cindy Sage, an environmental consultant in Santa Barbara, California, who has studied radiation for 28 years. "Here's why that's crucial: Overwhelming evidence shows that RF can cause DNA damage, and DNA damage is a necessary precursor to cancer."

The 2010 Interphone study, the largest to date on RF exposure from mobile phones, has spawned a quagmire of controversy, says health researcher and medical writer Kerry Crofton, Ph.D., who spent four years reviewing RF science for her book Wireless Radiation Rescue: Safeguarding Your Family from the Risks of Electro-Pollution.

Many groups, including the National Cancer Institute and the telecom industry, read the results of that study as a green light for wireless calling.

Others, like Crofton, point out that because it was largely based on lower cellphone usage in the '90s, the research has little bearing on today's world, in which 285 million Americans have mobile phones and 83 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are "wired" all the time and sleep with their cell phones next to their heads.

One thing the Interphone study did find? People who chatted via cell for just 30 minutes a day for 10 years saw their risk of glioma (the type of brain tumor that killed Ted Kennedy) rise 40 percent.

As a result, many European countries are considering banning cell phones for children under age 6 (RF penetrates little kids' brains more easily), and France has already banned all wireless technology in some schools and many public places, notes physician and epidemiologist Samuel Milham, M.D., a leader in the growing field of electromagnetic research.

All parties agree on this: More studies need to be done. In the meantime, it's best to take easy precautions—and not just with mobile phones. "Never before in human history have we gone from one radiated environment to another," says Crofton. "We're going to wireless offices and living in wireless homes. Even beaches and parks are going wireless. We're exposed everywhere."

The good news is that you don't need to ditch your gadgets. This advice will let you stay plugged in—and keep you healthy.

You're surrounded by electronics at home and work. But you can avoid this number one health enemy.

Cell Phones

When your phone is on (which it probably is even as you read this) it's constantly sending and receiving RF signals to and from the nearest cell tower to keep you in service. The farther you are from a tower, the harder your phone has to work and the more RF it emits, explains David Carpenter, M.D., director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany. The activity really amps up when you're, say, driving through rural areas. Plus, within the close confines of a car, your entire core is exposed to the radiation.

The safer solution: Keep your phone off when driving until you really need it, says Carpenter. And no matter where you are, avoid holding a cell phone directly to your noggin (the Interphone study showed gliomas were more prevalent on the side of the head people continuously pressed phones to), always keep it at least six inches or more from your body (in your purse, not your pocket), and use either speakerphone or a corded headset (not a wireless headset). Or text up a storm. If you have a smartphone that's loaded with games, music, and movies, turn your wireless settings off while playing or rocking out. Similarly, don't ever use your cell phone as a bedside alarm clock without first disabling the wireless mode.

Cordless Phones

These stealth wireless threats "have become so powerful, they're often as strong as cell phones," says Sage. "The phone base is like a mini cell tower. It radiates 24-7 and can have a range of up to 300 feet."

Particularly suspect are digital enhanced cordless telecommunication (DECT) phones. Preliminary blind studies have found that, when sitting beside a DECT phone base, some people experienced arrhythmia, a troubling heartbeat irregularity that could eventually lead to stroke or coronary disease, says Sage.

The safer solution: You might feel somewhat retro, but "just get a corded phone with an extra-long cord so you can still walk around," says Crofton. "They're better, they're cheaper, and they work in a power outage. Every time you replace a DECT with a corded phone, you're cutting the RF levels in your home significantly."

8 Essential health tests you must have.

Wireless Routers

Your neighborhood coffee shop's wireless Internet access may often seem like a godsend, but the router that's needed to provide the service is continuously emitting high levels of RF (up to 200 feet out), and that constant exposure has been linked to deadly diseases. "If the whole body is radiated by a router's RF emissions, the greatest concern is cancer, especially leukemia," says Carpenter. Also, be aware of your at-home router and any plug-in wireless USB cards you often use.

The safer solution: Ditch your wireless router and plug your computer directly into a cable modem, says Sage. That Ethernet technology doesn't leak RF and is often faster and more secure. If you just can't give up your wireless router (e.g., if you live in a home with a handful of computer users), make sure you sit as far away from it as possible, says Crofton, and turn it off at night and whenever you're not online. Another easy fix: Plug your router into a surge protector with a timer, and set it to go off each night so you don't have to remember to flip the switch.

Laptops

"When you hold your laptop on your lap, what you're essentially doing is radiating your pelvis," says Carpenter, "so all the cancers that affect that area are of concern."

Indeed, early studies point to a heightened risk of testicular cancer for men who keep RF-emitting devices close to their belts. For women, adds Carpenter, "the studies aren't quite there yet, but I think we can say that anything that might cause cancer almost always causes birth defects, so pregnant women—or those wanting to become pregnant soon—should take extra precautions."

The safer solution: Keep your laptop off your lap (if you have to rest it there, buffer it with a sturdy pillow that's at least six inches thick). Try to use a desktop computer at home and treat your laptop as an on-the-go convenience. One thing to keep in mind: Laptops are a high RF radiation risk only while connected to wireless Internet, so when you're watching a DVD, fiddling around with your photos, or writing that dissertation, just disable your connection and you'll be much safer.

Baby Monitors

"Baby monitors release more RF than cell phones do, and putting them next to a crib is very, very unwise," says Carpenter. He points to a recent University of Utah study that shows RF radiation can penetrate almost entirely through a child's brain, which doesn't form completely until nearly 20 years of age. "It's very clear from all the existing research that the younger the child is, the more vulnerable he or she is to the effects of RF radiation."

The safer solution: Consider not using a baby monitor. If you absolutely must use one, place it far from your baby's crib—at least 10 to 15 feet away.

Bill

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EMF-Omega News

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Citizens' Initiative Omega
http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/OmegaNews.php
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Protectorate Union of the Citizens and Initiatives for the Protection against Electrosmog
http://www.buergerwelle.de/cms/content/view/57/70/
Extremely Low-Frequency Magnetic Field Decreased Calcium, Zinc and Magnesium Levels in Costa of Rat
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1873/
Potential Health Impacts of Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Radiation
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1900/
Risk of Brain Tumors From Wireless Phone Use
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1871/
An Hypothesis on Neurosomatic Disorders
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1874/
New Warnings about the Hazards of Cell Phones
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1876/
Health effects of Electromagnetic Fields
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1878/
November 2010: Science Update
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1877/
Electro-magnetic fields from mobile phones: recent developments
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1896/
Finally, Proof that Cancer is a Man-Made Disease
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1904/
Track Wi-Fi reaction reports: MPs
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1898/
Smart Meter kills Plants: What does it do to people?
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1889/
Lawyer meeting at the European Parliament on January the 25th, 2011
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1902/
Parents told to put kids back in school, or risk expulsion
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1888/
Open Letter to Schools and School Boards on Wi-Fi
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1885/
Council rejects mobile phone mast for Southwark Bridge Road
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1868/
Opinion divided over telecom mast plan
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1897/
Vodafone scraps phone mast plans in Marshside for now
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1901/
A Tower for Sherman?
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1903/
Next-up News Nr 1506
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/stories/3546/
Next-up News Nr 1507
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/stories/3550/
Next-up News Nr 1510
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/stories/3571/
Next-up News Nr 1511
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/stories/3586/
Next-up News Nr 1513
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/stories/3621/
News from Mast Sanity
http://tinyurl.com/2vhcbl6
http://tinyurl.com/aotw3

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

Friday, December 3, 2010

Scarborough asks PUC to halt Smart Meter installations / Track Wi-Fi reaction / Parliament recommends / reader's comment / Electronic Pickpocket / Say No to smart Meters!

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

4 December 2010

UPDATE: After CMP defends 'smart' meters, Scarborough asks PUC to halt installations

http://www.theforecaster.net/content/pnms-smartmeterforum-120110

By Emily Parkhurst

Nov 30, 2010 10:30 am

Smart hearing Photo: Emily Parkhurst / The Forecaster

SCARBOROUGH — The Town Council voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the Maine Public Utilities Commission to prohibit Central Maine Power Co. from installing "smart" electric meters in town until more information about their safety is available.

The action came after a five-hour meeting with CMP officials on Monday, where residents lined up to speak out against the installation of the meters on their homes.

"It is the duty of council to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens," council Vice Chairman Michael Wood said. "This is the follow-up (to Monday's meeting) and an appropriate step in my view."

The council's letter will ask the PUC to provide an opt-out provision for customers who do not wish to have smart meters on their homes and also asks the regulatory agency to reopen the approval process that was ratified by the Legislature earlier this year.

"I wish more towns would do that," Averyl Hill, a Scarborough resident who filed one of the two PUC complaints against CMP, said Wednesday. "We need their support."

Emotions ran high at Monday's public forum, where more than 90 people discussed their health concerns with the meters, which have already been installed on 56,000 homes and businesses.

While security and fire concerns were also on the agenda for discussion, the topics had to be delayed when midnight arrived and the discussion of possible health effects had barely concluded.

"It's important to recognize how intimidating these large industries can be," Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said during the meeting. Boland introduced legislation last year that would have put warning labels on cellular telephones, which use the same type of frequencies as smart meters. Her cell phone legislation failed.

"There was only one Mainer who was not in the industry who testified against the warning labels," Boland said. "That was (Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director) Dr. Dora Anne Mills. I'm concerned money has crept into considerations in government."

The Maine CDC has released several documents defending the safety of smart meters, including a "frequently asked questions" pamphlet released Nov. 29 that acknowledges the lack of long-term studies proving the safety of the technology, but also says reviews of the research "pointed to no consistent or convincing evidence to support a concern for health effects related to the use of (radio frequency) in the range of frequencies and power used by smart meters."

Boland said legislators were uninformed about the potential risks when they voted to allow the smart meters.

In addition to Boland, speakers from more than 15 communities and two other states spoke out against the meters, many asking CMP for a formal opt-out provision that would offer a choice about having the meters installed.

"We're in a position (where) we're forced to buy product we don't want," said Scarborough resident Elisa Boxer-Cook, a critic of the wireless meters who has organized opposition and filed a formal complaint with the PUC. "We're asking CMP to respect our concerns, to compromise with an opt-out solution. We think this is reasonable."

Hudson, N.Y., resident Michele Hertz said smart meters reduced her ability to concentrate, made her agitated and caused headaches. "I'm not being paid to be here. I'm not a scientist. But I'm living proof — smart meters installed on my house made me sick," she said. "I really do not believe the electric companies are trying to hurt people, but they're making a terrible mistake."

Several local doctors also spoke out against the meters.

"There are very few of us who are informed in any way about any of this," Dr. Magili Quinn, a family practice doctor in Falmouth, said. Quinn said she contacted her stepson's cardiologist to ask if his pacemaker would be affected by the meters and was told to call the manufacturer. "The specialists I rely on don't even have any answers."

Monday's forum came after the Town Council passed a resolution on Oct. 20 asking CMP to wait 90 days before installing the wireless meters on customers' homes and businesses. The towns of Cape Elizabeth and Sanford subsequently passed similar moratoriums.

"You should have to prove it's safe first before you expose the public in massive experiment," Dr. Sean McCloy, a family practice physician from Portland, said Monday.

Once the smart grid is fully installed, which is scheduled for early 2012, the meters will allow customers to view their electricity usage in real time and make decisions about turning off appliances during peak hours to save money. CMP received $96 million stimulus funding to support the grid upgrade and has estimated it will save a matching amount by eliminating the need for meter readers.

"We are moving from the 19th to the 21st century," CMP spokesman John Carroll said. "This is a step forward for our company and something that's very good for Maine and our customers."

While CMP agreed to honor Scarborough's requested installation delay until after the public forum, residents in Cape Elizabeth reported the company has moved forward with the installation despite the town's request.

"Where's the choice to use or not use the technology? Cape Elizabeth voted no. You said 'we're doing it anyway,'" McCloy said.

Ann Kaplan, a Cape Elizabeth resident, filed a letter in support of Boxer-Cook's PUC complaint recently after she arrived home to find "a CMP employee with a box under his arm heading to my electric meter."

Kaplan said she asked the employee if he was aware of the Town Council's moratorium and he said that he was, but that he was going ahead with the installation anyway.

"We have certainly said to anyone who's ever asked us if we're stopping installation in Cape Elizabeth, we're not," Carroll said Monday. "If Cape Elizabeth councilors are asking for response, we've given it."

Carroll indicated after the meeting Monday that he was not sure if CMP would continue to honor Scarborough's moratorium now that the council-requested forum has happened.

The PUC has not decided whether to investigate or dismiss two complaints about the meters brought against CMP by customers in Scarborough. CMP has asked the regulatory agency to dismiss both complaints.

Boxer-Cook's complaint cites concerns by doctors that those with sensitivity to the radiation the meters emit should be allowed to opt out of having the meters installed. Currently, there is no formal opt-out provision.

"If the PUC said it was appropriate to require an opt-out, we would have to do that," Carroll said after the forum.

Elizabeth Kelley, founder of the Electromagnetic Safety Alliance, who spoke last week at a discussion of radio frequency radiation and smart meters in San Francisco, argued against the meters on Monday.

"At the conference in San Francisco, I had doctors come up after and ask for more information," she said. "They said, 'We can treat the symptoms, but we need to treat the cause.'"

Kelley called for more regulation of the radiation, citing strict regulations in Europe on exposing children to these kinds of radio frequencies.

"This grid represents the largest technology build-out in history," Kelley said. "No federal agency is really looking after this."

CMP-hired scientists also presented lengthy and technical explanations of the meters' safety, comparing the frequencies to that of cellular and cordless phones. Dr. Yakov Shkolnikov, an engineer with California-based Exponent Consulting, said at peak radiation exposure, the meters are 1/1,000th of a cell phone and 50 percent of a common wireless Internet router.

The scientists also explained that the meters had lower average frequencies than many other common devices and that, even when a neighborhood is full of them, the devices would not be able to fire all at once.

"The meters share a frequency," Shkolnikov said. "Only one can talk at a time."

A second meeting to discuss cyber security and claims about smart meter fire risks is expected to be scheduled.

Emily Parkhurst can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or eparkhurst@theforecaster.net

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Track Wi-Fi reaction reports: MPs

Thursday, December 2, 2010
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/12/02/wifi-cellphone-radiation-health.html?ref=rss

Health Canada needs a way to track reports of side-effects such as headaches linked to exposure to Wi-Fi, MPs say.

The Commons health committee held hearings about microwave safety last month where they heard of children complaining of symptoms after Wi-Fi systems were installed in schools, as well as health officials and experts who defended Health Canada's safety guidelines for Wi-Fi.

The committee's report, "An Examination of the Potential Health Impacts of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation," was released Thursday.

The committee recommended:

  • Health Canada should ensure a process exists to receive and respond to reports of adverse reactions to electromagnetic-radiation-emitting devices such as cell phones and Wi-Fi systems, similar to how adverse reactions are tracked for medications.
  • Federal government should consider funding long-term studies on the potential health impacts of such exposure.
  • Health Canada should request that an independent institution assess Canadian and international scientific literature on the potential health impacts of short- and long-term exposure to the radiation and report on its findings.
  • Health Canada and Industry Canada should raise awareness and promote safe use of wireless technologies.
  • The two departments could offer to provide information, including awareness sessions, on exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic radiation.

The MPs requested that the government table a response to the report.

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Parliament recommends a reporting system for adverse health effects of Wi-Fi exposure

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/parliament-recommends-a-reporting-system-for-adverse-health-effects-of-wi-fi-exposure

Posted by Liam Britten on Thu, December 2, 2010

Concerned parents and the wireless industry are both applauding the Report of the Standing Committee on Health's Examination of the Potential Health Impacts of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation.

The Committee recommended that Health Canada establish a reporting system so that potential adverse health effects from Wi-Fi broadcasts felt by children can be reported.

A statement by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association said that the CWTA was "100 per cent committed to a completely open process in the study of health and safety issues related to wireless technologies."

"The overwhelming evidence, as determined and published in studies worldwide by the respected scientific community, continues to support the conclusion that there is no public health risk associated with the use of wireless technologies," said Bernard Lord, President & CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. "Government agencies in Canada and around the world responsible for establishing safety standards also support that wireless technologies are not a health risk."

Meanwhile, Rodney Palmer of the Simcoe County Safe School Committee said, "This is welcome support from Parliament for the children suffering from Wi-Fi exposure in their schools."

The Report came after the Committee heard from witnesses from both sides in April. You can read the report (in PDF) here.

Also the wireless industry spin -

http://mobilesyrup.com/2010/12/02/cwta-wireless-technologies-are-not-a-health-risk/

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A WEEP news reader's comment on a recomendation of the HESA report

I have a concern with regard to the collection of case reports on wifi sensitive people, it is a wonderful initiative in Canada, BUT - can we ensure that the information will not be collected by Health Canada?  It should not be collected by the same institution that fails to update their guidelines for the very same exposure that they are collecting.

There are many examples from past collection efforts, for other conditions, showing how difficult it is to correctly collect data and how easy it is to mis-classify certain symptoms. If Health Canada alone will collect these data, I predict huge scandals in the future about issues, such as the fact that they might have various cut-offs for inclusion into the data base, or definitions of symptoms that are or are not included.

The information should be collected by an independent group of scientists that should include physicians, basic researchers, epidemiologists, and representatives from the public. There are many individuals who would be happy to participate in this important initiative.

Richard

(note - I agree entirely, Health Canada has demonstrated many times, that they cannot be trusted.  Martin)

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Electronic Pickpocket

http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/?watchId=8ba6f8fc-90a2-4711-90ea-1884ec348310

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Say No to smart Meters!

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