Monday, September 20, 2010

WiFi impacts teacher's health and career / Request that you call an inquest / FCC subsidizing schools to put in Wi Fi

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

20 September 2010

Wi Fi Impacts teacher's Health and Career

Dr. Arlene King

Chief Medical Officer of Health

Dear Dr. King,

My name is Nancy Miller; I am an elementary occasional teacher with the Limestone District School Board, and am writing to voice my concerns about WiFi in schools. This technology is having devastating effects on my health and is bringing my career as a teacher to a premature end.

I can no longer tolerate the microwave frequencies emitted by wireless devices and am very concerned for the health of the students I teach. You need to listen to those of us who are feeling direct effects - we are the canaries; our bodies do not lie. Mine is an expert at detecting these frequencies. It will tell me if you have mistakenly brought your cell phone near me or into my home, or if your home or office has WiFi: within a few minutes, the headache, muscle aches and spasms, pounding heart and agitation become much too uncomfortable - a fight or flight scenario happens, and I have to leave. Except that if I'm in a class room with children in my care, I can't leave; I either have to sit down and try and tough it out or get assistance.

These episodes, which also occur in other public places, leave me with lingering fatigue and muscle aches, unable to function when I get home. For several months during the last school year, I would tell myself to "tough it  out", that I should be able to handle it. (I come from a military family whose mantra was "buck up" and "stick to it.") Except that with environmental sensitivities, that is precisely what NOT to do, as each additional exposure makes things worse.

I have had to make my home a refuge in order to get well: Graham Stetzer filters plug into my outlets to ensure that I have no "dirty electricity", I use an ibook on battery with cabled internet, I declined a "Smart Meter", will not use CFL bulbs, and nothing, unless absolutely necessary, is plugged in, especially where I sleep. Actually, my home is for sale, as these circumstances have forced my family to reconfigure our already simple lifestyle.

Other sensitivities have surfaced along with electrical hypersensitivity, including those to various chemicals and foods. I have laboratory confirmed gluten intolerance. I am on a waiting list to be assessed at the Women's College Hospital Environmental Health Clinic in Toronto; the eight month waiting list tells me that I am not the only one who has become ill. The bottom line is that man-made environmental triggers, things that are supposed to make our lives better, have had life-altering consequences on mine (and that of my family).

Please let the Precautionary Principal and stories like mine be your guide when considering this very important issue. The convenience of wireless and its seeming invisibility have made it too readily accepted. Safe, cabled alternatives are available.

Yours sincerely,
Nancy Miller, B.A., B.Ed., O.C.T.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stratford,
Ontario
N5A 8C1

10 September 2010

Dr. Andrew McCallum
Chief Coroner of Ontario
25 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1Y6

Dear Chief Coroner,

I am writing to you to request that you call an inquest into the death of Patricia Smith, which occurred near Woodstock on Jan 27th, 2008. Mrs. Smith was well known in the Woodstock area and was the Founder and Executive Director of the Oxford Community Foundation. Her date of birth was Dec 11, 1948. I did not personally know Mrs. Smith, having met her briefly on only two occasions, and I have no contact with her family. The following paragraphs describe the circumstances and the reason for my request.

During the fall of 2007, my wife was hired as the Executive Director of the Oxford Community Foundation to replace Mrs. Patricia Smith who had become very ill with cancer and could not continue to work. The Foundation office was located with other community offices in Woodstock. Within the first week, my wife started to complain about headaches and difficulty thinking properly when she was at the office. In addition, she felt like she had a constant "buzz" in her head, and she also had significant soreness in her breasts.

I suspected that a wireless device may be causing her symptoms, so she took a small detection device to work. She was not able to find any specific problem, but continued to come home feeling very unwell. A few days later, I visited her office with a high quality radio frequency meter and discovered that the entire office was engulfed in very strong continuous microwave radiation. I soon located the problem, which was a Wi Fi unit tucked away and unseen in the corner, behind the computer screen. My wife, and previously Patricia Smith, sat within six feet of this unit when working at the desk. The microwave radiation readings that I found at the chair were over two thousand microwatts per square metre and were higher than my RF meter could read.

After the Wi Fi unit was disconnected, my wife continued to work at this office for several more months with no adverse health effects. Although I suffer from electro hypersensitivity, my wife had never previously reported adverse health effects from electro magnetic radiation.

I strongly believe that exposure to microwave radiation in the Community Foundation office (and possibly in other locations) played a significant role in the death of Patricia Smith. The time from her first diagnosis of cancer to the time of her death was a very short period of time, and I strongly suspect that microwave radiation hastened her death. There is a large amount of strong scientific evidence to support that concern.

For some of that evidence, you should look at the research paper produced by the Royal Society of Canada for Health Canada in March, 1999. Pages 41 to 45 show significant health effects caused by exposure to microwave radiation, and, in particular, you should be concerned about sec 6.3.3., where salivary enzymes can be activated and promote cancer in humans.

I also refer you to the research of Stanislaw Szmigielski, Cancer morbidity in subjects occupationally exposed to high frequency (radiofrequency and microwave) electromagnetic radiation, Department of Biological Effect of Non-Ionizing Radiations, Center for Radiobiology and Radiation Safety at the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, 128 Szaserow, 00-909, Warsaw, Poland. Szmigielski found huge increases of cancer in people who were exposed to microwave radiation during their military service, compared to those who were not exposed. By extrapolation, this research indicates that large numbers of our population who are currently being exposed to microwave radiation may develop cancer later in life.

There are over two thousand scientific papers about the health effects of electro magnetic radiation that are referenced in the Bio Initiative Report www.bioinitiative.org

Prior to 1972, Lt. Zory Glaser of the US Navy had collected more than 2000 Documents on the bioeffects of radio frequency radiation. During the remainder of his career, he collected many more. All of this research showing the health effects of electro magnetic radiation is available for your investigation. I can also arrange for researchers, scientists, and heath care professionals to provide further evidence.

Because of the massive use of this technology in homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, stores and throughout our environment in Ontario, it is critical for you to examine the evidence that microwave radiation is hurting, or has the potential to hurt and kill, a large number of Ontario residents. There are many research papers indicating that microwave radiation causes serious harm to health, but I have never seen even one paper that proves that there are no adverse effects from microwave radiation or states that it is completely safe.

There are no real and practical microwave "safety" standards in Canada because the Canadian Government ignores all health effects other than heating effects. Canadian radiation standards are based simply on "thermal effects". Health Canada fails to take into account the "biological" effects that radiation has upon cell structure, blood, the heart, muscles, the skin, the brain and the nervous system etc. Independent scientists from around the world have demonstrated harmful effects exist at very low radiation exposure levels, but Health Canada has consistently and negligently ignored these findings.

Your motto and mandate state:

We speak for the dead to protect the living

The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario serves the living through high quality death investigations and inquests to ensure that no death will be overlooked, concealed or ignored. The findings are used to generate recommendations to help improve public safety and prevent deaths in similar circumstances

As a retired Toronto Police Officer (Forensic Identification) who has spent many hours conducting homicide investigations within the morgue at your office, I ask you to ensure that you live up to your motto by fully investigating this death. I feel that an inquest should be called to answer the following questions:

  1. Did exposure to microwave radiation cause or hasten the death of Patricia Smith?
  2. Did microwave radiation from the office Wi Fi cause adverse health effects (immune system damage, cancer etc.) that had a subsequent negative impact upon her health and lead, ultimately, to her death?
  1. Is Wi Fi a dangerous device that may harm and eventually kill many people in Ontario?
  2. Should Wi Fi and devices similar to it be banned from Ontario?
  3. Should a public warning be issued for people to stop using these devices?
  4. Should children be protected from these Wi Fi devices and other forms of microwave radiation, since they are more vulnerable?
  5. Should microwave emitting devices like Wi Fi be banned from public buildings, such as libraries, sports complexes, shopping centres etc?
  6. Why is Health Canada ignoring significant biological effects of microwave radiation and issuing guidelines that address only thermal effects?

I apologize to the Smith family for re-opening memories of a very sad time in their lives. I hope that they will understand that the concerns I raise may save many other lives and may help to explain Pat's rapid decline and early death.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Weatherall

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FCC subsidizing schools to put in Wi Fi.

Is it accepted practice and even legal to promote and subsidize a dangerous technology, that you are supposed to be regulating?

The FCC is working to make every school and library in America wireless.

** the FCC is subsidizing schools to put in Wi-Fi.  the poorer the district....the fancier the system.....

http://www.fcc.gov/learnnet/

** the new " N" Wi-Fi system will allow devices to charge over the microwave network- won't even need to plug in access points- higher power- more radiation- ubiquitous "pervasive wired campus"

** schools are looking into each kid wearing an id with a chip so central system would monitor kids' whereabouts in school from central command dashboard

** poor school districts and rich school districts are getting Wi-Fi- cash strapped ones- no, or just have a 1 or 2 mobile cart for as-needed situations

** campus is either pervasive (every nook and cranny covered) or uses a cart system-- router rolled in on cart- laptops distributed- and then system shut off when not needed.  some schools have 20 carts (with 30 laptops each)

http://www.wirelesswatchblog.com

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