Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
3 September 2010
PICK OF THE WEEK #8: FAILED ATTEMPT TO REDUCE SAFETY CODE 6 GUIDELINES IN 1977.
August 31, 2010. Pick of the Week #8: Failed Attempt to Reduce Safety Code 6 Guideline in 1977.
Dr. Michael Repacholi, prior to becoming the Coordinator of the Radiation and Environmental Health Unit at the World Health Organization, was involved in formulating Canada's Safety Code 6 Guideline for microwave radiation. In 1977, he and Maria Stuchly gave a talk at the I.E.E.E. meeting in Toronto entitled "Emission and Exposure Standards for Microwave Radiation."
In this presentation Repacholi and Stuchly proposed a Canadian maximum permissible level (MPL) for microwave radiation that was between the then U.S. guideline (10 mW/cm2) and the Russian guideline (0.01 mW/cm2). The recommended MPL was 1 mW/cm2 for occupational exposure and 0.1 mW/cm2 for public exposure. These proposed guidelines are much lower than what we currently have (5 mW/cm2 for occupational exposure and 1 mW/cm2 for unlimited public exposure).
Here are a few key statements in this document:
- "The fact that maximum permissible exposure levels are recommended indicates that confirmed biological effects have been found, and that definite health hazards exist."
- " . . . there is increasing dissatisfaction in the U.S. with the 10 mW/cm2figure since it does not contain sufficient safety factors to allow for the increased effects observed with pulsed beams . . . [Note WiFi and mobile phones have a pulsed beam.]
- The USSR allows its workers to be exposed to 1 mW/ cm2 (current 24-hour public exposure limit for Canada and U.S.] for only 20 minutes a day and to 0.1 mW/ cm2 for only 2 hours a day (proposed guideline for public exposure that was NOT adopted).
- Although most of the non-thermal effects have not yet been confirmed in the West, this does not mean the effects do not exist.
- The general public represents a much larger population than the radiation workers and so one cannot accept as high a risk probability.
Health Canada Statement on Radiofrequency Energy and Wi-Fi Equipment
2010-142
August 31, 2010
For immediate release
OTTAWA - Wi-Fi is the second most prevalent form of wireless technology next to cell phones. It is widely used across Canada in schools, offices, coffee shops, personal dwellings, as well as countless other locations. Health Canada continues to reassure Canadians that the radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment is extremely low and is not associated with any health problems.
Based on scientific evidence, Health Canada has determined that exposure to low-level radiofrequency energy, such as that from Wi-Fi equipment, is not dangerous to the public.
Radiofrequency energy levels from Wi-Fi equipment in all areas accessible to the general public, including school settings, are required to meet Health Canada's safety guidelines (Safety Code 6). The limits specified in the guidelines are based on an ongoing review of thousands of published peer reviewed scientific studies on the health impacts of radiofrequency energy. Levels of radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment are typically well below these safety limits. As long as exposure is below these established limits, there is no convincing scientific evidence that this equipment is dangerous to schoolchildren or to Canadians in general.
Health Canada scientists continually review new scientific studies in this area to ensure safety guidelines are sufficient for the protection of the health and safety of Canadians. Health Canada also continues to participate in international standards development and advisory bodies and undertakes its own focused research to support the development of its safety recommendations.
For more information, please consult our fact sheet on the safety of wireless devices.
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In its every move, the ACS promotes the interests of the major manufacturers of mammogram machines and films, including Siemens, DuPont, General Electric, Eastman Kodak, and Piker.
This bias hypes mammography, which Dr. Epstein and Dr. Rosalie Bertell emphasize is an avoidable cause of breast cancer itself.
According to World Wire:
Read the rest of this story at"Routine mammography delivers an unrecognized high dose of radiation, warn Drs. Epstein and Bertell. If a woman follows the current guidelines for premenopausal screening, over a 10 year period she would receive a total dosage of about 5 rads. This approximates the level of exposure to radiation of a Japanese woman one mile from the epicenter of atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki."
-magda
How Dirty Electricity Affects Your Health
Are you feeling tired, suffer from sleepiness, depression, increased irritability, unexplained aches and pains, headaches, skin rashes, ringing in the ears, numbness, an irregular heart beat, increased blood pressure or a foggy brain? If so, you may be suffering from "Electrosensitivity". Dr. Magda Havas, a renowned international expert on electromagnetic radiation (EMR), says "dirty electricity" is a growing worldwide health concern.
Today, few of us would want to discard our electronic devices. But before researching this and the next column, I never realized how modern electrical gizmos generated so much dirty electricity.
Dr. Havas says clean electricity originally powered our homes and workplace using a safe frequency of 60 Hertz (Hz). Today, transformers convert 60 Hz to low voltage power for electronic devices. This creates micro surges of dirty electricity that contain up to 2,500 times the energy of a conventional 60 Hz electrical system. In effect, we've created electrical pollution, a contamination that's not good for us.
I discovered it's easy to get fooled by dirty energy if you're not an electrical engineer. For instance, our home has several dimmer devices. I naively believed this was a prudent move, but these devices, along with fluorescent lights, energy saving light bulbs, electrical entertainment centers and computers, generate dirty electricity. In fact, they generally emit more electromagnetic exposure than power lines.
If you want to get a major dose of dirty electricity, use a hair dryer. This device uses up to 500 times more dirty EMR than microwave ovens, electric ranges and washing machines.
This past week I also used a GPS device to keep me from getting lost in Boston. It showered me with electrical signals from satellites in outer space. Most people are not aware of this invisible fog of EMR and its implications on our health. But it's not fooling wildlife. Birds, bats and bees are known to abandon regions where cell towers are built.
Scientists in Russia have been at the forefront of EMR research. During World War II they noticed that radar operators often suffered from symptoms that we now attribute to EMR. And during the height of the cold war they secretly bombarded the U.S. embassy in Moscow with microwave radiation causing radiation sickness in American staff.
Later, in 2007, a collaboration of scientists from the U.S., Sweden, Denmark, Austria and China released a 650 page report citing 2,000 studies that detailed the toxic effects of EMR. It concluded that even low level radiation could impair immunity and contribute to Alzheimer's Disease, dementia and heart disease. Other studies have linked EMR to miscarriage, birth defects, suicide, Lou Gehrig's and Parkinson Disease.
But in addition to these disorders there's evidence that EMR triggers cancer. In Australia in 1956, when television was introduced, researchers documented a rapid increase in malignancies in people living near transmission towers. Later, in the 1970s Nancy Wertheimer, a Denver epidemiologist, noted a spike of leukemia among children living near electrical power lines. Other studies reached the same conclusion.
In 1988 Hydro Quebec contracted researchers at McGill University to study the health effects of power lines on employees. They discovered that workers had a 15 fold increased risk of developing leukemia. The utility decided to end the study after the results were published!
What about the use of cordless and cell phones? Today with so many people using them, it's prudent to use what's called the "precautionary principle". A Swedish study suggests that those who start using a cell phone as a teen have a 5 times greater risk of brain cancer than those who start as an adult. This information correlates to the recent World Health Organization study on cell phones which identified a need for more research into teen phone use and deadly malignant brain tumours.
Sue
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"This was a business decision," said Jacqueline Murray, an attorney with C. Davis Associates that was handling the petition. She could not say whether the company would seek approval for the antenna and associated ground equipment at a later date.
Murray requested a postponement of Planning Board action last month when it became evident there was opposition to the development not only from area residents, but also the Planning Department.
The project has also become an issue in the campaign of William Russo, who is running as an independent for the Ward 7 Council seat. Russo picked up on the proposal from a legal advertisement published in the Beacon and took it upon himself to inform residents what was being proposed.
"We've got the airport hanging over our heads, how much more do we need," Russo said on Monday.
The petition was to have been heard Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
Russo circulated letters urging residents to attend the session and to call the Planning Department to voice their opposition. A petition opposed to the tower was also being circulated.
Russo said he found widespread opposition to the project in his door-to-door campaign.
"I just think the neighbors and the neighborhoods need to be protected," he said.
The Planning Department found the petition not to be generally consistent with the city's Comprehensive Community Plan in that it would be an incremental zone change and encroachment of non-residential uses in a residential area. In addition, the cell phone tower would have been within two miles of another facility and exceeded the maximum structural height as set forth by zoning.
The department recommended denial of a master plan.
The structure would have stood in a wooded area that is part of the church's 15.3-acre property
San Jose Mercury News
By Diana Samuels A cell phone tower rises above a home in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County near Los Altos on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. ...
