Waking up / Seaside bans PG&E's / Powerwatch News / testing ground / Clearing the Air / GPS Spying / Generación de electrosensibles / Spain cancer / Half a million MCS / First to Profit

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

8 March 2011

Waking up to the dangers of radiation

ScienceAlert

It's every bit as meaningless to public health protection. Particularly when long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation has been convincingly linked to problems such as leukemia, Alzheimer's disease, brain tumours, infertility, genetic damage and ...

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20110403-21915.html

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Seaside bans PG&E's controversial SmartMeters

Moratorium on installation of the wireless meters has been adopted by other cities, counties in the state

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/03/05/1509532/seaside-bans-pges-controversial.html

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Powerwatch News

UK Department of Health issues new mobile phone leaflet

You should warn your children and grand-children. Evidence of harm is coming.

http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20110307_new_dh_mobile_phone_leaflet.asp

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Hydro One using this area as testing ground

Markdale Standard

By Paul Jankowski

The Owen Sound region is the testing ground for Hydro One as it looks to update its electricity distribution system to incorporate everything from smart meters to thousands of new generating systems feeding renewable energy from solar ...

http://www.markdalestandard.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3008216

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Clearing the Air

Wednesday, 02 March 2011 Jessi Hamel E-mail

http://www.goodtimessantacruz.com/santa-cruz-blogs-commentary/santa-cruz-good-times-blog-freshdirt/2236-clearing-the-air.html

Asana teahouse does away with Wi-Fi in hopes of a healthier café environment

When Shanna Casey opened Asana, a tea café in Downtown Santa Cruz, she imagined a place where individuals could come together. "Asana's original definition is a Sanskrit term meaning 'to sit and be present,'" Casey explains. "That's why I created this place and I'm almost coming back to this vision."

As Casey sees it, coming back to this vision means taking part in the growing movement to reduce exposure to Wi-Fi frequencies by removing Asana's Wi-Fi connection. Now when her customers wish to access the Internet, they must plug one of seven neatly coiled Ethernet cables into their laptops.

After friends and acquaintances raised concerns about the possible health impacts of wireless with her about a year ago, Casey started to do her own research. "Wi-Fi frequencies are not really naturally harmonious with human frequencies, and of course it will upset the balance of human health," she says, noting that she had anxiety and headaches from exposure to Wi-Fi, Although she was initially concerned about losing business, Casey resolutely states she has been feeling better now that the Wi-Fi is gone.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), environmental exposure to electromagnetic frequencies like those produced by Wi-Fi has been increasing. However, the WHO states that current evidence does not confirm any adverse health effects from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields.

Nevertheless, many argue that further research is needed, and people like Casey are persuaded from their own experiences to take a cautious approach. The movement to stop the Wi-Fi enabled Pacific Gas & Electric SmartMeters has gained particular traction in Santa Cruz.

Although some are skeptical, most customers have responded positively to Asana's Ethernet cables and have reported clearer energy in the cafe and a faster connection to the Internet. Casey has responded to any complaints by reminding her customers that their health is her priority. "I would rather lose customers," she says, "than have a business that was hurting people."

Casey hopes Asana will set an example for other businesses in the community.

Visit Asana online at asanateas.com. To learn more about SmartMeters or electromagnetic frequencies, visit who.int, pge.com/smartmeter, or stopsmartmeters.org

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GPS Spying

You can record everywhere a vehicle went and how long it was there.

http://www.gpsforgoogleearth.com/categories/gpstracking.html

David

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Generación de electrosensibles

• Categoría:Radio - Radio Euskadi - La noche despierta
• Duración: 23:11

• http://www.eitb.com/audios/radio/radio-euskadi/programas/lnd/detalle/593985/generacion-electrosensibles/

In a society permeated by technology, there are people who must live far away from it. They are people hypersensitive and vulnerable to electromagnetic fields. What is the impact? Are there vulnerable groups? What are the symptoms of electrosensitivity ? How can we "discharge" our body? We seek answers with Dr. Joaquín Fernández Solá from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

Sylvia

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Murcia created the first map of Spain for cancer patients under 18

http://www.laopiniondemurcia.es/comunidad/2011/03/01/miden-influencia-medioambiental-casos-cancer-infantil/305939.html

Cancer affects 14 of every 100,000 children under 15 years.

PILAR CORTES
ANA GARCIA

Murcia has become the first autonomous community to develop a map of childhood cancer in Spain. Until now, there's work on cancer incidence in adults, maps developed by the Instituto Carlos III, but there was no material on the prevalence of these diseases in children according to their environment.

The project Macapemur-Environment and Pediatric Cancer in the Region of Murcia, developed jointly by the Pediatric Environmental Health Unit of the Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca of Murcia and Cartagena
University, has been published in the journal Annals of Pediatrics of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics. It discusses both the location of the patient's home as the mother during pregnancy, according to explain to the chief of the Pediatric Environmental Health Unit of the Medical City, José Antonio Ortega. The main objective is to develop a pediatric environmental history and careful use of geographical information systems that create maps of incidence and analyze the distribution of pediatric cancer in the Region of Murcia.

Thus, he stressed that this first phase has been analyzed cancer in general, to have an overview of the incidence and spread within the Community, and the next step will be to study each of the types, starting with the system tumors nervous.

Juan Antonio Ortega, co-directed the study with Fernando A. Lopez, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, explained that the initial stages
of the life-periods of prenatal, infant and child-are especially vulnerable to carcinogens, posing a risk ten times higher than expected in adults during the first two years of life and three times between 3 and 15 years.

The article highlights how helpful this type of health maps as tools to formulate hypotheses about the causes of disease. "Therefore, knowing the geographical distribution of the incidence of childhood cancer during pregnancy and early childhood is an important research tool in its etiology" he said. Experts say that childhood cancer is a rare disease with an incidence of 14 cases per 100,000 children under 15 years and, unlike what it may seem, there has been an increase in the number of cases, but remains stable.

From the first results we can that 30% of the families analyzed changed their address between pregnancy and diagnosis of the disease, hence the sample is associated with each case, three street addresses, pregnancy, postnatal period and time of diagnosis.

Pollution and waves

One aspect to consider in risk perception. In this sense, the head of the Pediatric Environmental Health Unit stressed that is not the same perception that the real risk exists. "One can live in the woods, but take home items to be exposed to harmful and snuff, have a coal stove or agricultural products," he said. Specifically, the project envisages the development Macapemur hypothesis and relate the incidence of the disease according to tumor types and risk factors related to space, air pollution, electromagnetic fields, poverty, industrial activity, etc..

In the study were identified a total of 489 patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2009 in the Region of Murcia, which finally included 380.

Regarding the most common cancers in the first place are leukemias -28.4% of all cases, "followed by central nervous system tumors -23.9% -, soft tissue sarcomas -10% -, and lymphomas -8.4% -. In age group, 15% were focused on children under 1 year of 37.4% between 1 and 4 years 27.6% between 5 and 9 years and 20% between 10 and 14. Moreover, of the 380 cases 187 were male and 193 girls, and the survival rate at 5 years was 80.4% between 2002 and 2005.

The project is funded by the Foundation for Health Research and Training in the Region of Murcia (FFIS), the Seneca Foundation, Global Health Program School of Medicine, Mount Sinai and the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

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Half a million people suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

http://www.levante-emv.com/salud-vida/2011/03/01/medio-millon-personas-sufre-sindrome-chica-burbuja/786771.html

BARCELONA EFE

Half a million Spanish can have some degree of environmental and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) disease called "bubble girl", a condition not yet fully recognized by the World Health Organization, whose patients often suffer further misunderstanding or skepticism of many doctors who are unaware of its existence.

So what doctors described Joaquim Fernández-Solà and Nogué Santiago, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, in the book "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Environmental (Vienna Editions), which sets out the general aspects of the disease, clinical manifestations, possible treatments or practice for patients.

Nogué define MCS as a disease characterized by progressive loss of tolerance to the presence in the environment, various chemical agents, such as cleaning products, perfumes, paints, solvents or hydrocarbons, although many also extend this hypersensitivity alcoholic beverages, food and drugs than before tolerated, and even electromagnetic waves.

The trigger can be single or repeated exposure to one or more toxins, insecticides, irritating gases and vapors, petroleum, sick buildings, but not always noted.

1% of users affected

For its part, Fernández-Solà said that estimates indicate that up to 1% of the population may be affected by a chronic problem of SQM, but only 10% of those affected would have a serious significance.

The specialist indicated that some of these people simply notice headaches or irritation when, for example, go to the mall and come into contact with the environment, and happens when they move, but in other cases involve workers in industries which are constantly exposed to products that are distressing to those who develop this sensitivity.

Analysis unchanged

Thus, by inhaling these products, these people suffer shortness of breath, headache, nausea, extreme fatigue and malaise that impede further in this environment. By separating the trigger improved progressively in hours or days, but usually critically ill patients lose a quality of life due to MCS.

The problem in diagnosing the disease is that there are no significant changes in laboratory tests of blood or urine to confirm the diagnosis: "there are no specific markers, despite which the clinical picture is very clear and distinctive," says Dr. Fernández-Solà.

Nogué Santiago, who in 2009 coordinated the first National Meeting on SQM, warns that "many of these patients are unfairly labeled a psychosomatic illness, an anxiety-depressive syndrome or absenteeism, and disbelief for the actual existence the disease usually range from family members, to their workplace and even physicians and other specialists.

Sylvia

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First to Profit from $1 Billion Smart Meter Program: Liberal Insiders

Firm winning $73 million contract is connected to BC Hydro director, has close ties with Libs.

By Will McMartin, Today, TheTyee.ca

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/07/SmartMeterProfits/

Gotemf

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

Smart meters' ill effects / Microwave Radiation Affects the Heart / GPS fail chaos / Infrasound / Doubt / Toxic new bulbs' / Lightbulb disposal / Japan videos / Fear impact / Wireless Pollution

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

7 March 2011

A few have no doubts about smart meters' ill effects

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer March 6, 2011

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/health-concernscontinue-to-circle-cmp-smart-meters_2011-03-05.html

Julie Tupper's home is a wireless-free zone.

"I used to have wireless in the house (for computer Interent service) and I knew something strange was going on. I had it pulled out, and the difference was night and day," she said.

The joint pain and other aches she had struggled with disappeared, she said. Soon the cordless phone was gone, too, and the microwave retired. "I (got) all wireless out of my home, because I knew it was causing problems for me."

Tupper, of South Portland, is one of an unknown number of Mainers who consider themselves especially sensitive to the invisible radio frequency waves sent out by wireless communication devices. Some, like Tupper, have turned their homes into safe havens where they can retreat, at least to some degree, from the ubiquitous radio waves floating around most offices, homes and residential neighborhoods.

Now, they say, they also are feeling the effects of new wireless electrical meters -- smart meters -- that Central Maine Power Co. is installing on homes in their neighborhoods. Some say symptoms such as heart palpatations and sleeplessness were bad enough to force them out of their homes until the meters could be removed temporarily.

Tupper and nine others filed a complaint with the Maine Public Utilities Commission in late February. It is the sixth petition seeking to suspend CMP's smart meter changeover or force the company to offer an alternative to customers who don't want the devices on their homes for a variety of reasons.

Maine, followed closely by California, is on track to become the first state to decide whether homeowners have a right to reject the new generation of electricity meters.

"There are utilities all across the country facing this or similar questions," said John Carroll, spokesman for CMP. "We are ahead of everybody."

The newest petition is the first one in Maine to focus exclusively on the health issue. It also raises the question of whether customers have a right to keep entire neighborhoods, or communities, free of smart meters and the wireless signals they send.

Health experts and government agencies say there is no scientific proof that the technology has anything to with joint pains, headaches, dizziness, sleeplessness and other symptoms reported by the 10 Mainers who signed the petition, or by residents in other states who are reporting similar reactions. There also is no conclusive proof that the radio frequency waves are not causing health effects and the question deserves more study, they say.

For CMP, unproven health concerns are not enough to stall new technology that promises to improve the efficiency of the grid and cut costs for the company and its ratepayers.

"There does not appear to be a link that is going to make these people sick," Carroll said. "The signals from these meters are very, very low-powered." Also, an average meter will send signals only a total of 4.4 seconds during a day, he said.

Those who insist they can feel the health effects, however, say they don't want to be part of any smart-meter experiment.

"You try to maintain your home as a place where you can get away from it," Tupper said. "People are saying, 'Oh, this isn't real.' This is real. People are getting sick. ... Someone like me is the canary in the coal mine."

Tupper said she's never been able to hold a cell phone to her head without a sharp headache, and can get heart palpatations or dizziness when driving near cell towers. "It's like an allergy. You might not be allergic to mold, but somebody else is," she said.

CMP agreed to bypass Tupper's home, at least until the PUC complaints are resolved, but she can feel the signals from her neighbors' meters, she said. "I was sitting watching TV and I said to my husband, 'Oh, my god. They're here. I can feel it,' " she said. "It was kind of a jolting sensation."

While her husband doesn't feel the radio waves, she said, she can't go on one side of her property because it's too close to her neighbor's smart meter.

"It would be great if we could say for a 250-foot surrounding area, no smart meters," she said, but added, "What we want to do now is to focus on trying to create a safe haven for ourselves in our homes."

Gregg Levey, another petitioner, said CMP put a smart meter on the outside of his Falmouth home in December.

"About three or four days after this thing was put in, I just started tossing and turning at night, like major insomnia, and I had never had insomnia before," he said.

Levey, unlike Conroy, made the connection after he mentioned his sleeplessness to a friend who is a smart-meter opponent. "She told me insomnia is the No. 1 symptom," he said.

The Leveys called CMP in early January and, within a day, the company put the old analog meter back on the house.

"Once it was taken out and I started to sleep more, it very much convinced me that this is what was doing it. It was pretty clear," Levey said. "It's my home, and I shoud be able to make the choice."

Gregg Levey's wife, Anat, said she felt the effects, too.

"With me, it was every time I walked toward the house where the meter was, which happens to be (outside) our kitchen, I got really, really dizzy," she said. "Ever since they removed it, I don't get that dizziness anymore."

Nancy Burns, a petitioner from Windham, said she's dealt with all kinds of allergies and environmental sensitivies her whole life.

"Microwaves I don't use anymore. With TVs, I try to sit back a good distance," said Burns, who lives in Windham. "I knew the meter would probably be bad for me, but I didn't object when they installed it, because I didn't know I could object."

CMP installed a smart meter on her home in December, she said.

"At first I started being dizzy when getting up out of bed. I didn't think anything of it," she said. "It gradually got worse and worse."

She had back pain, headaches, confusion and panic attacks, she said. She got relief by sleeping in her car and then in a motel for a few nights before asking CMP to remove the meter, she said.

"I can't live with it; I know that," she said. "It's hard to tell these things to people because they don't believe you."

Petitioners said their physicians have been supportive, although few in the medical community have publicly validated the health concerns.

One physician based in Scarborough, Stephen Kirsch, wrote a letter to the PUC last month saying further investigation of the health effects is needed.

"I have been treating one of my patients that I believe has suffered deleterious effects of smart meter installation in her community of South Portland," Kirsch wrote. He did not identify the patient and did not respond to an interview request last week.

"She has recovered after being hospitalized and returning to her daughter's home," he wrote. "She is fearful and unwilling to return to her home. Futhermore, my patient, her daughter and I are concerned that smart meters may be installed around and at her current safe haven in Scarborough."

Officially, there is no evidence that the waves coming from smart meters -- or other common wireless devices, for that matter -- are affecting the health of people around them, according to state and federal health and regulatory agencies.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention presented the PUC in November with a review of government research in the United States and other countries.

"Our review of these agency assessments and studies do not indicate any consistent or convincing evidence to support a concern for health effects, ..." the agency said. It also found no evidence of a link to "symptoms that have been described as electromagnectic sensitivity."

A more detailed study by the California Council on Science and Technology in January came to the same conclusion, saying smart meters result in smaller levels of radio frequency exposure than cell phones and microwave ovens.

"To date, scientific studies have not identified or confirmed negative health effects," it said.

The reviews also say more research is needed to identify, or rule out, health effects at various levels of exposure.

So far, the PUC has sidestepped the health issue. In response to previous complaints, it deferred to the Federal Communications Commission, which sets safety standards for wireless transmissions and has deemed the meters to be well within safety limits.

"The commission does not have the institutional expertise regarding potential RF health impacts," the PUC wrote in a recent filing.

It's unclear wether the new petition will force the PUC to examine the issue.

CMP is sure to argue that the complaint be dismissed. It already has replied to earlier complaints with testimony from a scientific expert who argued there is no proof of any health effects from the meters or similar sources of radio frequency waves.

Carroll, the CMP spokesman, said the argument by Tupper and others that they are being affected by their neighbors' smart meters raises other issues for the company and the smart meter project.

He said the level coming from neighboring homes is similar to the levels given off by the human body. Also, he said, homeowners shouldn't have to get their neighbors' permission to have a smart meter.

"If you're living in a neighborhood, you're within the field of your neighbor's cell phone or your neighbor's wi-fi router," Carroll said. "No one has ever exercized a property right that says your radio signal is trespassing on my property. Under that scenario, you could go over after WBLM radio."

So far, CMP has installed about 137,000 smart meters. About 3,000 households have opted out while the issue is pending before the PUC, Carroll said.

CMP and some lead complainants have met to discuss a settlement of the smart meter dispute. One possible resolution could give customers a choice to opt out -- if they agree to pay a higher fee for wireless-free meters.

However, allowing customers simply to opt out would jeopardize the benefits of the entire project, as well as the $96 million in federal funds for the two-year smart-meter project. "That could erode the effectiveness and efficiency of the system," Carroll said.

Linda

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Microwave Radiation Affects the Heart

March 7, 2011.

During the past year I have become increasingly interested in the effects of microwave radiation on the heart. This interest is based on a number of observations.

Some people who are electrically sensitive complain that they have a rapid or irregular heart beat and feel chest pressure or pain (Eltiti, 2007). We conducted a "proof of concept" study to determine if we could measure heart rate changes caused by microwave radiation with real-time monitoring. We found that some individuals developed a rapid or an irregular heart beat when exposed to pulsed microwaves (from a cordless phone base station) at levels considered safe by the WHO, FCC, and Health Canada (Havas et al. 2010).

During the past year I have heard stories that children who attend schools with WiFi are complaining of a racing heart while in school (link to video). Two of these students in the Barrie area (Canada) were given heart monitors to wear and one young girl was scheduled for heart surgery because her cardiologist couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her parents postponed the operation, removed the WiFi in their home, and her symptoms did not return during the summer when she wasn't attending school.

To read more and to download the documents cited, visit . . .

http://www.magdahavas.com/2011/03/06/pick-of-the-week-24-microwave-radiation-affects-the-heart/

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GPS fail: How a little black box could cause chaos

New Scientist

Cellphone companies use GPS time signals to coordinate how your phone talks to their towers. ... because GPS points the antenna in the right direction. ...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20202-gps-fail-how-a-little-black-box-could-cause-chaos.html

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Infrasound: The hidden annoyance of Industrial Wind Turbines

By admin Wednesday March 2, 2011

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/news/2011/infrasound-the-hidden-annoyance-of-industrial-wind-turbines-france/

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Doubt over green energy's clean bill of health

March 05, 2011 12:00AM

Rosemary Quinn, 74, says she spends her nights locked inside the 1900s stone house she has occupied for 55 years. She shuts the windows and sets the ceiling fan on high to cover the noise of the wind turbines 2km away.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/doubt-over-green-energys-clean-bill-of-health/story-e6frg6z6-1226016137554
Linda

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'We will not pick up toxic new bulbs': Councils say energy-saving lights are too dangerous

By George Arbuthnott
Last updated at 12:05 AM on 6th March 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363448/We-pick-toxic-new-bulbs-Councils-say-energy-saving-lights-dangerous-binmen.html

David

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Cities burning midnight oil on lightbulb disposal

by Katie Schneider, The Calgary Sunday Sun

March 6, 2011

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2011/03/05/17508816.html

Lavone

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Japan is showing videos from across Canada about WiFi in Schools. They also have one Dutch video on effect of WiFi on plants. Hope their government and school boards are listening as ours, we have come to realize, are deaf!

Scroll down.

http://ameblo.jp/kitakamakurakeitaing/entry-10717547820.html

-magda

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Worried residents fear impact on health

The Star

PLANNERS at Sheffield Council have received hundreds of letters raising concerns about the possible health impact of the latest wave of mobile phone masts. ...

http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/useful-info/worried_residents_fear_impact_on_health_1_3151779

Robert

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Wireless Pollution

How Electromagnetic Communications Affects You

- video recorded on February 16, 2011. You may watch the program on-line by clicking here:

http://www.cctv.org/node/103320

www.emrpolicy.org

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