Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health
evil or more evil, that is the question
evil or more evil, that is the question
reprint from Gear + Gadgets
The concern about Wi-Fi is being taken seriously in Europe. In April 2008, the national library of France, citing possible “genotoxic effects,” announced it would shut down its Wi-Fi system, and the staff of the storied Library of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris followed up with a petition demanding the disconnection of Wi-Fi antennas and their replacement by wired connections. Several European governments are already moving to prohibit Wi-Fi in government buildings and on campuses, and the Austrian Medical Association is lobbying for a ban of all Wi-Fi systems in schools, citing the danger to children’s thinner skulls and developing nervous systems.
I drove down to Annapolis, Maryland, recently to visit with Allan Frey. He was preparing to set out on his forty-foot sailboat for a month at sea, so we talked at a restaurant near the marina. After retiring from full-time research in 1985, Frey, now 75, took up the philosophy of science as an avocation, looking at the question of how science progresses, how it fails to progress, how new ideas are birthed or aborted, how a shift in paradigm is a rare thing. The failure to look squarely at the dangers of microwave radiation is a case study in frozen paradigms, he said, a worldview that can’t keep pace with reality.
To illustrate what he meant, Frey held up a glass of water. “We’re all just big teacups, bags of water that you can heat up—that’s the paradigm,” he said. It’s the engineer’s paradigm, the mind-set of people who had no training in the complexity of living systems. The branches of the military, the major defense contractors, the manufacturers of microwave ovens, the telecom companies, were happy to embrace the engineer’s paradigm. The thinking was simple and easy to understand, and most important, it indemnified their operations from liability.
“It’s a very primitive mind-set,” said Frey. “Plato said we don’t see the reality; we see shadows on the cave walls. We’ve got a lot of people who are seeing shadows and saying this is the reality.” He nodded at his water glass. “We now know a human being isn’t a bag of water.
A human being is a complex organization of electrical fields.
Electroencephalograms and electrocardiograms, for example, measure these fields. Every cell has an electrical field across the cell membrane, which is a regulatory interface and controls what goes into and out of the cell. All nerve signals are electric. And between the nucleus and the membrane there is an electrical field, you can measure voltages of individual cells! Electricity drives biology.
We evolved in a particular electromagnetic environment”—the magnetic fields from the earth’s iron core, the terrestrial magnetism from lodestones, visible light, ultraviolet frequencies, lightning—”and if we change that environment as we have, we either adapt or we have trouble.”
Later, after Frey and I parted, I walked around Annapolis and took note of the number of cell towers poised atop the buildings, the number of people who talked on their cell phones. They were everywhere, and after a while I stopped counting. At one point, I watched two women pacing in a parking lot, heads bent against their microwave transmitters. They talked and talked and aimlessly circled. When I got home, I looked up a line from Orwell that I couldn’t quite remember as I watched them, about the power that machine technology would exert over mankind. “The machine has got to be accepted, but it is probably better to accept it rather as one accepts a drug—that is, grudgingly and suspiciously,” Orwell wrote. “Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous and habit-forming. The oftener one surrenders to it the tighter its grip becomes.”
Modern society, needless to say, is in the grip of wireless technology. All you have to do to understand this is step outside your door. “It just so happens,” Frey had told me, “that the frequencies and modulations of our cell phones seem to be the frequencies that humans are particularly sensitive to. If we had looked into it a little more, if we had done the real science, we could have allocated spectrums that the body can’t feel. The public should know if they are taking a risk with cell phones. What we’re doing is a grand world experiment without informed consent.” As for Louis Slesin’s question—what will it take to change the paradigm?—Frey shook his head. “Until there are bodies in the streets,” he said, “I don’t think anything is going to change.”
christopher ketcham is a reporter in New York City. Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.
Posted by CSea Perkins | EMF | cellphones and cigarettes, christopher ketcham, electrocardiograms, Electroencephalograms, electrohypersensitivity, EMF, WiFi | No Comments Yet
Cell Phones Can Damage Your Eyes get EMF protection
Though this is a somewhat old article, I know more than a handfull of people having eye problems — at an age when they shouldn`t so… this is particularly for them.
paul doyon
From: Iris Atzmon atzmonh@bezeqint.net
http://cellularphones.myblogforseo.com/2010/01/19/cell-phones-can-damage-your-eyes-2/
Cell Phones Can Damage Your Eyes
Image : http://www.flickr.com
A recent scientific study identified a link between microwave radiation of the kind emitted by cellular phones and two different kinds of damage to the eye. At least one type of damage apparently never heals.
When the eye is exposed for a prolonged time to microwave radiation, there is large-scale damage to the optical quality of the lens. But there seemed to be a maximum level to this kind of damage, and when the exposure stops, the damage begins to heal.
However, at the same time, a different kind of damage occurs at the microscopic level. Tiny “bubbles” appear on the surface of the lens. This kind of damage reaches no maximum level, but instead accumulates progressively, and it did not heal even after the experiment stopped. It was theorized that the bubbles were caused by friction between cells that were exposed to the radiation.
Bioelectromagnetics July 2005; 26(5):398-405IsraCast July 27, 2005
Dr. Mercola’s Comment:
Electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation from cell phones is a topic that provokes a good deal of controversy. Many experts believe that the radiation is too low-level to cause harm. However, they often base this on an examination of thermal or heat-related effects. The danger from cell phones is far more likely to originate in the low-intensity pulsed microwave radiation that the phones emit.
There is a growing body of evidence that long-term exposure to this kind of cell phone radiation can indeed be a danger. As well as these studies showing they can affect the sensitive cells of your eyes, there has been research indicating that it can cause:Brain cancer Tumor growth on the auditory nerve Possibly Alzheimer’s disease Many other potential problems
Fortunately, the danger decreases exponentially the farther the cell phone is from your body. If you have a cell phone, I strongly recommend you use a headset, and keep the phone itself well away from your body.
Although that reduces the radiation risk considerably, some emissions can still travel up the headset wire and into the head. Probably the best solution is to get a cell phone with a good speaker phone and always use it. Keeping the phone as far away from your body is the ideal solution.
For many of you this is simply not very practical, so I recommend attaching the new air cell phone headsets that we have just introduced. If you use a cell phone without the speaker phone feature, then this is simply a must. There is no excuse to not use this technology, which virtually eliminates all the dangers of using a cell phone.
There are also, of course, more commonplace dangers to using cell phones. If you use one while driving your car, you increase your chance of having an accident by up to 400 percent. Worldwide, auto accidents account for 23 percent of all deaths from injury, which comes to over1 million deaths each year. At the same time, cancer, another deadly cell phone risk, has surpassed heart disease in America as the leading cause of death for those under 85. It kills over 1,500 people every day in the United States alone.
Every year, more and more people are switching to cell phones. Many are now using cell phones as their only phone, especially among younger people, who could be exposing themselves to EMF radiation and other risks over a period of decades.
Please avoid having yourself become a statistic. If you use a cell phone at all, wear a headset with a ferrite bead, don’t use the cell phone in the car, and in general try to minimize your cell phone use. Related Articles: Electromagnetic Fields and Cell Phones Are Cell Phones Safe For Your Children?”If Mobile Phones Were a Type of Food, They Simply Would Not be Licensed”
Optimum Cell Phone Protection, compare http://BioMapped.com
Mother Who Loses Son to Brain Cancer Warns of Cell Phone Use
Posted by: Beach Reporter In: events
19 Jan, 2010 http://www.beachcalifornia.com/blog/?p=4146&cpage=1#comment-4288
My Son, Rich Farver, died Oct. 11, 2008 from glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer. He was 28 years old when diagnosed and lived seven months.
He was a graduate student at SDSU (San Diego State University). There is a brain cancer cluster on campus. Five brain cancers, 4 within the last three years. Some Professor’s and I paid an expert to test a cell tower outside of this area, and it ended up being in normal ranges. There are over 300 antenna’s within a 4 mile radius of the campus.
Mr. Sam Milham, from the,” International EMF Collaborative,” concluded my Son’s brain tumor was cellphone related. Rich’s tumor was in his right frontal lobe, and he was right handed. He also owned a T-Mobile cell phone since 2000. Please, everyone be careful!
My husband and I were walking out of a store locally here in Colorado, and ran into one of our old neighbor’s, who asked how our Son’s were doing. We explained that Rich, was deceased. They told us of one of Rich’s friends from high school, was just diagnosed with brain cancer.
I NO longer have a cellphone, and it isn’t hard to do at all. The only purpose of one is EMERGENCIES only. Our Government isn’t keeping us safe. There are predictions that 2 billion people by the year 2020 will have brain tumors.
As a Mom, who watch a Son lose the ability to walk, see, and have blackouts for seven months, besides the fact losing a child is the worst ever. Do NOT let this happen to you! Rich, was the LOVE of my life, my Best Friend, and all I ever wanted. My hopes, dreams, and future are all but over. I have endless counseling sessions, medications for depression, and many days find it hard to get out of bed. No amount of money, success, material items could even come close. Please, be careful.
Also, WIFI has been eliminated from schools in many other countries. 1 hour of WIFI is equivalent to 20 minutes of cellphone exposure. Look at articles by, “The International EMF Collaborative,” and the,” BioInitiative Working Group!”
Sincerely,
Virginia Farver
The Impact of Magnetic Pulsations on Humans and Animals
Dear GCI Member,
With the start of the New Year, the GCI team is excited to announce that we now have over 20,000 members! We are grateful for our growing community and your contributions and care towards raising global consciousness at such an important time of the planetary shift. The future of our planet depends on all of us because we are co-creating the world we live in.
The Magnetic Sense of Animals
Figure: Earth’s magnetic field, courtesy NASA
As many of you may be aware, a large variety of animals possess a “magnetic sense.”
The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field which is generated by the flow of molten material in the earth’s core and the flow of ions in the atmosphere. Amazingly, a number of animals are able to sense this magnetic field. Just as a compass helps us navigate by detecting Magnetic North, animals that possess a magnetic sense are able to identify direction and navigate over long distances. It is not fully understood how these animals actually sense the earth’s magnetic field. However, researchers have found that each of these animals have deposits of biological magnetite in their nervous systems. Magnetite is a small magnetic mineral. The presence of magnetite is not a definite evidence for the perception of the earth’s magnetic field. However, these magnet-like minerals align themselves with the magnetic fields of the Earth and might act like microscopic compass needles.
Migratory birds use magnetic clues to guide their journey during migration. When birds migrate over long distances they usually end up in the same place, year after year. One of the first concrete signs that animals can tap into the magnetic field was observed by chance in the fall of 1957 as Hans Fromme, a researcher at the Frankfurt Zoological Institute in Germany, noticed that several European robins he kept in a cage were becoming restless and were fluttering up into the southwestern part of the cage. A paper published in Nature in 2004 reported, “Resonance effects indicate a radical-pair mechanism for avian magnetic compass,” suggesting that birds “see” the earth’s magnetic field with their eyes, where receptors sensitive to magnetic fields feed data to the brain through the optic nerves.
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Also marine animals, like salmon, whales and turtles to name only a few, are known to migrate with the seasons, and studies of turtles reveal that hatchlings have the ability to sense the direction and strength of the earth’s magnetic field, which they use for navigating along their regular migration route (Triverdi, 2001).
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However, even animals not known for their migration habits display a magnetic sense, also called magnetoreception. Recent publications from a German research group (Begall et al, 2008), made the discovery that cattle (and other herd animals, such as red and roe deer) tend to situate themselves on a magnetic North-South axis, as if involuntarily directed by the earth’s magnetic field. These surprising results were discovered when satellite images provided by Google Earth were used to analyze herding patterns and behavior. However, the built-in magnetic compass gets out of alignment the closer the cattle get to high voltage power lines, and the cattle then align with the power lines instead.
But what about humans? Dr. Kirschvink of the California Institute of Technology detected magnetite in the human brain and heart. Some people report that they can sense Magnetic North, however, it is not clear if the magnetite helps the orientation sense of all humans. It has been speculated that maintaining a symmetric position to the earth’s field lines somehow influences certain physiological processes. For example, the onset of rapid eye movement in sleeping humans is shortened in the E-W orientation of sleepers compared to the N-S position (Ruhenstroth-Bauer et al,1987).
Not only is there a fascinating connection between mammal and human magnetic sense, but also processes in the magnetosphere and solar wind produce magnetic waves which influence us.
The presence of Ultra Low Frequencies (ULF) has already been mentioned in previous commentaries. The GCI team is pleased to now have the ability to see these ULF waves (also called geomagnetic pulsations) in the spectrogram data we are recording due to the new magnetometers we are using. These waves overlap closely with the frequencies of the heart, while Schumann resonances overlap with the frequencies of the brain waves. (To see the Live Data go to: http://www.glcoherence.org/monitoring-system/live-data.html).
Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves on the Earth are produced by processes occurring in the magnetosphere and by the solar wind. Some of these waves originate as far away as the Sun and are carried by the solar wind, while other sources are much closer to Earth. There are many sources of these waves, both external and internal to the earth’s magnetosphere. ULF waves are created by a variety of processes in magnetized plasma. Plasma is the name given to ionized gases (see “Plasma Sheet”, in the figure below) which is formed by the earth’s magnetic field.
In a magnetized plasma at ULF frequencies there are three wave modes and a variety of names used to describe each mode. Any force that moves the ions also moves the magnetic field (and vice versa). Hannes Alfven was the first person to describe the process that creates a low frequency wave which propagates along the magnetic field lines, for which he received a Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1970. Hence, this wave is named after him. However, the Alfven wave is only one type of wave which can propagate in plasma. In addition, a gas (such as the ionosphere) also supports sound or pressure waves which travel through the density the gas provides.
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The forces of the solar wind are carried by charged particles that are pushing against the earth’s magnetic field, thus creating distortions around a cavity of the Earth, named magnetosphere (see figure to the right). The magnetosphere is the region in space where the earth’s magnetic field is present. In spite of its name, the magnetosphere’s actual shape is nonspherical. Its shape and size is determined by the magnitude of the earth’s internally generated field, the solar wind pressure and the interplanetary magnetic field. The particles carried by the solar wind create a tiny magnetic field that shifts as it flows through the solar system. Scientists call this the interplanetary magnetic field.
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The following paragraph is a summary from:
Sources of variation in the steady magnetic field, Robert L. McPherron, Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 04 Nov. 2009. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/229754/geomagnetic-field.
There are also other sources causing variations in the earth’s steady magnetic field. Waves originating in the outer regions of the magnetic field propagate along the fields and reach the earth’s surface where they can be measured. On reaching the earth’s surface they cause minute oscillations in the magnetic field, and are therefore often called micropulsations. Magnetic pulsations have been classified into two types: pulsations continuous (Pc) and pulsations irregular (Pi). Because the frequencies are so low, they are usually characterized by their period of oscillation or the time it takes them to complete one cycle (periods from 1 to 1,000 seconds), rather than by their frequency as expressed in the number of cycles occurring in a second. There are a variety of interesting mechanisms that produce such low frequency waves. One mechanism is the resonant oscillation of the earth’s main magnetic field in response to interactions with the solar wind. In simple words, we can imagine a wave travelling along a stretched string. The magnetic field line tension is analogous to string tension, and when the magnetic field is “plucked” by a perturbation, the disturbance propagates along the field line.
In summary, the ULF waves seen on Earth contain information about the processes that created them and the regions through which they have traveled. Each type of magnetic pulsation is further subdivided into frequency bands or ranges that roughly correspond to the specific phenomena that created them (Jacobs et al, 1964).
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The first class of pulsations is characterized by their irregular form and is divided into two sub-groups, depending on their period.
The second class, known as Pc, covers the whole range of pulsations with periods from 0.2 to 600 s.
On the spectrogram, these resonant or continuous magnetic waves can be seen between 0.001Hz and 5 Hz .
The Pc1 waves are often created as the solar wind compresses the magnetosphere facing the sun. They then move towards the ionosphere along the magnetic field lines, interact with the ions and fields they encounter and finally end up being measured on the ground, (which was first observed by Sucksdorff in 1936).
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The Impact of Pc Frequencies On Humans and Animals
Scientific research has reported that an increase in Pc-1 frequencies can affect the human cardiovascular system because Pc-1 frequencies are in a comparable range with those of the human heartbeat and rhythms (Kleimenova et al, 2007).
A study carried out in India on animals and humans also demonstrated that humans and animals can be affected by Pc frequencies (Subrahmanyam et al, 1985). The experiments on the animals showed changes in the electrophysiological, neurochemical and biochemical parameters. The following results were observed:
- Changes in the cardiac functions during exposure to 0.01 Hz and 0.1 Hz frequency waves.
- Biochemically: the exposure to 0.01 Hz to 0.1 Hz (facing North), caused an increase in blood sugar in animals.
- Brainwaves (EEG): An accentuation of alpha and beta rhythms was observed in humans facing East, indicating a state of restful mental alertness. Yoga practitioners had a more prominent accentuation of alpha and beta waves. The subjects felt calm and relaxed and reported a state of pleasant feelings.
- In normal subjects facing North, the EEG was reduced considerably (as compared to before the recording). The subjects experienced uneasiness, confusion and restlessness and a lack of sense of well-being when subjected to the pulsating fields. Some complained of headaches. The effects were less severe in yoga practitioners.
Obviously, the geographic location will impact the experience of humans and animals, when exposed to the magnetic waves in the Pc-1 range and more experimentation is required to study the effects at different geographical locations.
Subrahmanyam et al, 1985, found, that yoga practitioners were able to better remain in balance when subjected to stress generating fields. Almost two decades of stress research carried out by the Institute of HeartMath also provides evidence that humans are better able to adjust to stress when trained in heart coherence. The advantage of heart coherence is that even for people with very little time to spare, a few minutes of daily heart coherence practice can help to significantly reduce daily stress.
Much still has to be learned about the processes that generate the Pc waves and the GCI team is continuing to work on observing these waves in regards to our global coherence research. We hope to be able to report more concrete results in the future.
Time seems to be moving quickly and as we begin 2010, let’s join our hearts’ intentions together in love as we acknowledge, honor and give gratitude and appreciation for those who have contributed both energetically and monetarily to GCI from around the world.
With gratitude,
Annette Deyhle, Ph.D. and GCI Research Team
Global Coherence Initiative
14700 West Park Ave., Boulder Creek, CA 95006 | tel (831) 706-2981 | fax (831) 338-8504 | info@glcoherence.org
Cell Phone Antennas Blamed for Kindergarten Cancer Cases
Perhaps some people reading this — especially those with credentials after your names – would like to post their comments on the Bayville Blog:
http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/12/02/bract-press-conference.aspx
Paul Doyon wrote:
Cell Phone Antennas Blamed for Kindergarten Cancer Cases
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/wpix-cancer-bayville-school,0,7715148.story
BAYVILLE, N.Y. (WPIX) – A lawsuit is set to be filed Monday alleging that the cancer afflicting students and teachers of a Bayville school is caused by the dozens of cell phone antennas attached to a nearby water tower.
Three young students of Bayville Primary School have already died of leukemia and many more are sick.
“We believe as much as 30 percent of the teachers, administrative staff and employees have been diagnosed with some type of illness, cancer, leukemia and things of that nature,” said Attorney Andrew Campanelli.
A brief email to WPIX from the school district denies Campanelli’s statement.
However, the cell phone antennas are a painful reminder for Beverly Pacifico, whose son Mitchell, a student at Bayville, recently won a painful two-year battle with leukemia.
“My son went through 102 weeks of chemotherapy,” Pacifico said. His leukemia has been in remission for the past two years.
Bayville is a public school, and those parents in the district without the financial means to enroll their child in a private school face a terrible decision.
Madeleine Parrin, whose requests to transfer her children to neighboring public schools were denied, said, “It kills me every day when I drop them off or send them on the bus to go to that school.”
The lawsuit seeks to have the antennas removed, citing a village law that states that public property near a school or within a mile of residences cannot be used for profit. The cell phone antennas bring $200 thousand annually to the village coffers.
So far, the mayor of Bayville has not returned phone calls from WPIX.
Cell Phone Towers / Antennas harm health with dangerous levels of Radiofrequency Radiation (RFR).
Cell Tower Health Hazard Alert – January, 2010 Update
Cell tower installation planned by T-Mobile at Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, MD
The T-Mobile tower will be 120 feet tall, rising above the tree top level, and will be approximately 400 feet from homes on Clearwood Road. According to the plans in the MC PTSA Cell Tower Report, T-Mobile will rent out 3 additional antennas, which will further increase the RFR levels
Check Out – www.BioInitiative.Org (published August 2007) for peer-reviewed, published studies on the non-thermal bio-effects of wireless emissions.
“Studies link cell tower radiation to learning difficulties, leukemia, eye tumors, diabetes, brain tumors, fatigue, headache, damage to blood-brain barrier, DNA strand breaks, chromosome aberrations, sleep disorders, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and cancer at EMF/RFR levels hundreds or even thousands of times below limits currently established by the FCC. The lowest limits are in Salzburg Austria at the BioInitiative recommended exposure level of 0.1 umW/cm2. In the U.S. it is 1000 uW/cm2.
STAND UP FOR THE HEALTH OF THE WALT WHITMAN COMMUNITY.
Oppose The Installation of this Radiation-Emitting Cell Tower!
Contact the following to tell them you do not consent to this dangerous radiation-emitting cell tower:
- Owner: T-Mobile 240-264-8800
- Walt Whitman Principal Dr.Goodwin Alan_S_Goodwin@mcpsmd.org 301-320-6585
- Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jerry D. Weast Suzanne_Peang-Meth@mcpsmd.org 301-279-3381
- PTSA Co-Presidents: Vicky Strella strella@att.net & Sue Kanter kanterdsw@aol.com
- Wireless Radiation Alert Network (WRAN): Angela Flynn angelaflynn80@msn.com 301-229-0282
(Additional contacts found here: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/whitmanhs/parents/ptsa/committees.shtml
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/superintendent/ http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/whitmanhs/general/contact.shtml )
Concerns about Cell Tower Radiofrequency Radiation (RFR)
“Radio frequencies emitted from mobile telephone towers will have deleterious medical effects to people within the near vicinity according to a large body of scientific literature. Babies and children will be particularly sensitive to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of the radio frequency radiation. It is therefore criminal to place one of these aerials on or near a school.” Helen Caldicott, MD, pediatrician and co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility
“The FCCs current exposure guidelines…are thermally based, and do not apply to chronic, non-thermal exposure situations…. Therefore, the generalization that the guidelines protect human beings from harm by any or all mechanisms is not justified.” Norbert Hankin, Radiation Protection Division, EPA
Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles, California, and New Zealand prohibit cell phone towers and antennas on school property due to safety concerns. The European Parliament recommends that cell towers should not be sited near schools. The National Academy of Science called for more research on risks on long-term exposure to children and pregnant women.
For more information contact: Wireless Radiation Alert Network (WRAN) Angela Flynn angelaflynn80@msn.com
Montgomery County PTSA cell tower report for the proposed Walt Whitman Site http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/whitmanhs/events/2009/7WAN526A-A&E-LERevC.pdf
OET Bulletin 65 FCC Guidelines for Evaluating Exposure to RF Emissions http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/bulletins/oet65
BioInitiative Report – http://www.bioinitiative.org/
Los Angeles Unified School District and Local U.S. Resolutions on Cell Towers
2009 Resolution on Wireless Telecommunication Installations http://www.cloutnow.org/
2009 European Parliament Resolution Health concerns associated with electromagnetic fields – http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0216+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
The European voted to recommend precautions be taken to protect human health with regard to wireless technologies, such as mobile phones, Wi-Fi/Wi-Max, Bluetooth, DECT portable phones and cell towers. That certain establishments be kept free of wireless radiation, including schools, day care centers, retirement homes and health care institutions;
January 2008 National Academy of Science Report Identification of Research Needs Relating to Potential Biological or Adverse Health Effects of Wireless Communication Devices – http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12036.html
The National Research Council (NRC), an arm of the National Academy of Science issued a report saying that we don’t know enough about the potential health risks of long-term exposure to RF energy from cell phones, cell towers, television towers, and other components of our communications system. The scientists emphasized the unknown risks to the health of children, pregnant women, and fetuses as well as of workers whose jobs entail high exposure to RF (radiofrequency)
EMF resolutions signed by concerned scientist and medical doctors
Vienna resolution 1998 www.emrnetwork.org/research/vienna.htm
Salzburg Austria Resolution 2000 www.salzburg.gv.at/salzburg_resolution_e.pdf
Freiburger Appeal 2002 www.laleva.cc/environment/freiburger_appeal.html
Catania Italy 2002 www.emrpolicy.org/faq/catania.pdf
Benevento Italy Resolution 2006 http://www.icems.eu/benevento_resolution.htm
Venice Italy Resolution 2008 http://www.icems.eu/resolution.htm
Puerto Alegre Resoltuion 2009 www.icems.eu
Advocacy Groups in US
http://emrpolicy.org/ www.electromagnetichealth.org http://www.momsforsafewireless.org/
www.thepeoplesinitiative.org http://www.microwavenews.com http://www.cloutnow.org/
PowerWatch UK Database of Cell Tower Studies http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/science/studies.asp
(Please scroll down to the section on Mobile Phone Masts, the term for Cell Towers in the UK)
WHO Database – 10 Out of 14 Peer Reviewed Studies Found Significant Health Symptoms
Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy, BSc, PhD and other EMF/RF Researchers http://bemri.org/archive/hese-uk/en/heseuk/who.php
The Birds, Bees and Mankind, Destroying Nature with EMF/RFR http://www.broschuerenreihe.net/international/index.html
2002 letter from EPA stating that the FCC’s standards are “thermally based, and do not apply to chronic, non-thermal exposure situations” http://www.emrnetwork.org/position/noi_response/noi_epa_response.pdf
International Association of Firefighters moratorium of cell tower siting on Fire stations http://www.iaff.org/hs/Facts/CellTowerFinal.asp
Report: Cell Towers and Wireless Communications – Living with Radiofrequency Radiation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24352550/Cell-Tower-Rpt
Will cell tower snafus decline as shot clock looms?
REPRINT: January 12 2010 – 10:44 am ET | Matt Kapko | RCR Wireless News
Depending on your locale, they may be more hidden or disguised, but make no mistake – cellular towers continue to multiple at a heavy rate. Providing the equivalent of a lifeline by which the entire wireless industry flows to and from, cell towers remain as controversial as ever.
Whether it’s a perceived blight, unmitigated environmental impacts, radiation concerns or a general opposition from local zoning boards, cell tower developers often face a tall order before they can even dream of breaking ground.
It’s not the only bottleneck in the tower development cycle, but many delays can occur at the ground level, where approval is required from local zoning authorities. In rare and the most ridiculous cases, developers and carriers have been tangled up in bureaucratic red tape for five years or even longer.
The issue of tower siting came to a new head when CTIA filed a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to impose a “shot clock” under which state and local zoning boards are required to vote up or down before a pre-determined deadline. Without fail, requesting an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 is sure to highlight the need to bring guidelines into the modern age of wireless.
When CTIA filed its petition more than a year ago, it counted no less than 3,300 applications pending at the time, and of those, 760 applications were more than one year old and 180 of those applications were more than three years old. CTIA, carriers and the untold number of tower developers that have run into resistance during the permitting process over the years got their wish, albeit with a more forgiving timeline and stipulations than CTIA wanted.
The FCC adopted a tower siting shot clock, as expected, but permit applications won’t simply be considered free and clear if a jurisdiction fails to meet the deadline, as CTIA had hoped.
The unanimous declaratory ruling from the FCC requires tower-siting decisions to be made within 90 days on tower collocation applications and 150 on all other tower-siting proposals.
The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors has been lobbying against the shot clock, claiming that imposing any deadline on the permit process would preempt local authority.
Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director of telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors, tells RCR Wireless News it’s unclear if NATOA’s interpretation stands on solid legal ground, but adds that it’s also possible the matter could wind up in court.
“You know, it’s not a victory until it lands on the books,” Silva said. “The big rub here is whether the local entities are being pre-empted of their local jurisdiction.”
NATOA isn’t showing its cards yet, but if it’s planning to take the issue to court it sure didn’t show it in a dry reaction it issued immediately following the FCC’s ruling.
While the issue isn’t completely free of controversy (what is?), it’s still much less radioactive than issues like net neutrality and spectrum, for example. In essence, the tower-siting shot clock ruling is one piece of the FCC’s signature issue of the day: rapid broadband growth and penetration.
Calm before the storm
There’s little doubt the tower industry is on the verge of a phase of feverish building as carriers move to new spectrum, upgrade networks to 4G, and continue to fill in coverage gaps across the country. CTIA hopes the tower-siting shot clock will at least alleviate some of the hurdles standing in the way.
Brian Josef, director of regulatory affairs at CTIA, said towers are just as important as spectrum and spectrum efficiency when it comes to pushing the wireless industry into the broadband wireless era.
“I would argue that you haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg,” Josef said, referring to the aggressive buildout requirements attached to 700 MHz spectrum and the increased buildout being led by AWS-1 licensees just for starters.
He, like many others in the space, expects tower development to hit full stride in 2010. The shot clock is “no quick fix,” he said, but towers play an integral role in delivering coverage and capacity so their potential impact should be evaluated under a more clear-cut timeline.
So what are the potential repercussions of the shot clock? When asked if there’s any concern that these deadlines could lead to more tower applications being denied, Josef replied with an emphatic negative.
“When a carrier sees that a local zoning board is engaged and moving productively to process and they understand the implications of the tower siting application, they’re happy. It’s the instances when like Berkeley, Calif., for example, took a year before they even scheduled the first hearing,” Josef told RCR Wireless News.
“What really concerns carriers is these cases when these applications are put on a shelf and no action is taken,” he added. “I think if a carrier sees that a municipality is engaged and says it’s going to go beyond the time period and there’s good reason for that, I don’t the carrier is going to drop everything and run to court.”
While the tower-siting shot clock is getting mostly cheers from those working in the wireless space, there’s no getting around the fact that cellular towers could just as likely hit snags of another kind entirely. Imposing deadlines is one thing, but working through the unique red-tape flavor of each community is another battle entirely. It’s also becoming more common for municipalities to simply impose a moratorium on zoning applications for towers. Oftentimes, development is being put on hold for months while local authorities struggle to identify their community’s unique wants and concerns.
It just goes to show that the shot clock won’t cure all that ails the tower industry. To their chagrin, most readily admit that issues will continue to crop up and boggle down the process one way or another.
But at the local level, you can be sure developers and contractors are excited to carry some more muscle with them – in the form of an FCC ruling no less – as they make their way through the process.
Matt Kapko can be reached at matt@eyeonm.com
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Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves
By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer
Sun Dec 27, 1:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Wireless devices such as Apple’s iPhone are transforming the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the go. All this has a price — in airwaves.
As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive more data over the airwaves. But the spectrum of wireless frequencies is finite — and devices like the iPhone are allowed to use only so much of it. TV and radio broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks and other communications services also use the airwaves. Each transmits on certain frequencies to avoid interference with others.
Now wireless phone companies fear they’re in danger of running out of room, leaving congested networks that frustrate users and slow innovation. So the wireless companies want the government to give them bigger slices of airwaves — even if other users have to give up rights to theirs.
“Spectrum is the equivalent of our highways,” says Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group. “That’s how we move our traffic. And the volume of that traffic is increasing so dramatically that we need more lanes. We need more highways.”
That won’t happen without a fight. Wireless companies are eyeing some frequencies used by TV broadcasters, satellite-communications companies and federal agencies such as the Pentagon. Already, some of those groups are pushing back.
That means tough choices are ahead. But one way or another, Washington will keep up with the exploding growth of the wireless market, insists Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. He is sponsoring a bill that would mandate a government inventory of the airwaves to identify unused or underused bands that could be reallocated.
“It’s not a question of whether we can find more spectrum,” says Boucher, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. “We have to find more spectrum.”
CTIA, the industry group, is asking the government to make an additional 800 megahertz of the airwaves available for wireless companies to license over the next six years. That would be a huge expansion from the industry’s current slice of roughly 500 megahertz. The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to make more frequencies available for commercial use, but has just 50 megahertz in the pipeline.
Two trends are driving the demand.
First, advanced new wireless applications — such as mobile video and online games — devour far more bandwidth than voice calls or basic text messages, says Neville Ray, senior vice president for engineering operations for T-Mobile USA Inc.
Second, consumers are flocking to wireless Internet connections, in some cases dropping landline accounts altogether. ABI Research projects U.S. mobile broadband subscriptions will climb to 150 million by 2014, up from 48 million this year and 5 million in 2007.
The predicament, says Jamie Hedlund, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, is that many users “assume the wireless experience should be the same as the wired experience, but the capacity is just not there for that.”
The industry’s concerns are finding a sympathetic ear in Washington.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency’s broadband plan. That plan, mandated by the 2009 stimulus bill, is due in February and will propose using wireless systems to bring high-speed Internet connections to corners of the country that are too remote for landline networks.
“If we are going to have a world-leading broadband infrastructure for the nation, wireless is an indispensable ingredient,” says Genachowski aide Colin Crowell.
Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that manages the federal government’s use of the airwaves, says the agency is also hunting for more frequencies the wireless industry can use.
Some of the crunch can be addressed with technologies that make more efficient use of airwaves and new equipment that lets users share bands. The FCC also wants to promote greater use of frequencies that aren’t licensed to anyone, such as the “white spaces” between the bands used by TV channels.
But such solutions alone won’t solve the crisis, the wireless industry warns.
The FCC’s attention for now is on TV broadcasters, which hold nearly 300 megahertz of airwaves that are mainly used to serve just 10 percent of American homes — those that still rely solely on over-the-air TV signals.
The FCC is exploring multiple options, most of which would leave broadcasters with enough capacity to deliver a high-definition signal over the air. One possibility, which might require congressional approval, is a voluntary program that would let broadcasters sell excess bandwidth through an auction, to either the government or directly to wireless companies. Although the FCC awarded spectrum licenses to broadcasters for free many years ago, those licenses are worth millions today.
“Fewer people are getting over-the-air TV and at the same time, more and more people are using mobile broadband,” says Blair Levin, the official overseeing the FCC broadband plan. “So it only makes sense … to get that asset into the hands of whomever can realize its greatest value.”
The idea faces opposition from the powerful broadcast lobby. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, says the proposal would stunt the industry’s plans to make innovative use of the airwaves that became free when it turned off analog broadcasts and went entirely digital in June. Broadcasters have already returned more than 100 megahertz of those airwaves to the government and plan to use the rest to transmit high-definition signals, “multicast” multiple channels and deliver mobile TV to phones, laptops and cars.
“The FCC proposal would kill many of our future business plans in the cradle,” Wharton says.
Wireless carriers are also setting their sights on frequencies held by companies that deliver voice and data services through satellites.
Hedlund, of the Consumer Electronics Association, notes that some of these companies have a lot of bandwidth but not a lot of customers. TerreStar Corp., for one, launched its satellite in July and is just building a subscriber base. And ICO Global Communications, which is running tests on a satellite launched last year, has not announced when it will begin commercial service.
But TerreStar General Counsel Doug Brandon believes the company has a strong argument for keeping its airwaves: Satellites can provide a critical lifeline in emergencies when other communications links go down and in rural areas where other carriers don’t offer service.
If anything, added ICO Vice President Christopher Doherty, satellite phone companies are ideal partners for cell phone companies that want to expand coverage. TerreStar, for one, has a deal for AT&T Inc. to resell the satellite service.
More potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations. The Defense Department, for instance, needs the airwaves for such critical equipment as radars, precision-guided weapons and drone planes.
The Pentagon has vacated some frequencies and is developing technology that can make more efficient use of airwaves. It also says it is committed to finding compromises that work for the government and commercial sector, so long as those don’t jeopardize military capabilities.
Karl Nebbia, head of the NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management, points out that federal agencies may be open to moving to different bands because the government is “a huge user of commercial broadband services.” But one challenge will be to ensure federal users get the resources to relocate — including new equipment, potentially paid for with spectrum auction proceeds.
For now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings in the airwaves.
“There is no open space anywhere,” says Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.
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