Saturday, July 31, 2010

Mayoral candidate plans to cut waves' / Security Vulnerabilities of Smart Electricity Meters / EMFs Lead to Diabetic Disasters / EMF-Omega News

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

1 August 2010

Mayoral candidate plans to cut waves'
Posted By MIKE BEITZ , STAFF REPORTER

Stratford Beacon Herald

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2692978

The race for mayor of Stratford has officially begun.

Martin Weatherall said the health and safety of city residents is the single most important issue in the October municipal election and he's willing to seek the top elected spot to draw attention to it.

"This is a way of me being able to possibly make a change which will help a lot of people and save a lot of people from getting hurt," he said Thursday, referring to exposure to electromagnetic and specifically microwave radiation, which he believes is a significant danger to people living in the city.

Cordless phones, wireless computer routers and especially the citywide high-speed wireless network and smart meters being installed in Stratford all pose a health risk due to microwave radiation, he said, pointing to short-term effects such as headaches, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, muscle and joint pain and dizziness and longer-term effects such as various cancers, depression and anxiety and heart and cardiovascular problems.

"It's probably the most significant environmental health problem that we have today," he said.

Being elected mayor will afford him the opportunity to better educate citizens about the dangers they face from electric and electromagnetic emissions, said Weatherall, who for the last four years has been the co-director of WEEP, a Canadian non- profit organization dedicated to informing the public about the potential environmental effects associated with them.

"People have to know how dangerous this is," he said, "and we have to find a way to make this city safe. Someone's got to make a start."

Weatherall said he recognizes he may be seen as a one-issue candidate but suggested he has more to offer.

"A councillor or mayor needs to have common sense and experience in life to be able to judge municipal issues and I think I've got that background," said Weatherall, who served for seven years with the British Royal Navy and 28 years with the Toronto Police Service, first as a uniformed officer and then as a forensic crime scene investigator.

"I think I can look at any issue that comes up and look at it evenly and come up with a reasonable solution," he said.

Weatherall, who moved to Stratford with his wife just more than a year ago, said he's concerned with the level of city debt and property tax rates, which he said are too high.

"We're going to have to get the debt to a reasonable level, keep spending within reason and manage the budget much better," he said.

He would also encourage the development of new sustainable industries in Stratford and work to breathe new life into empty factories.

"Marketing Stratford as a nice place to be and to work would be the priority there," he said. "Stratford is a beautiful place with lovely people, and I think that's the way to encourage people to move out here."

Weatherall highlighted a need for greater participation in the decision-making process among residents as another priority.

A lack of public debate over issues such as the installation of smart-meters and the Wi-Fi network, and the potential dangers involved, is evidence of that need, he said.

"This is something that should have been debated in a public meeting," he said. "The health effects should have been talked about, and the costs should have been talked about."

But while those concerns over taxes, industrial development and participation in the public process are all significant, he said, his primary focus in the race for mayor will be on the dangers of electromagnetic radiation.

"Health and safety is the most important thing for the citizens of Stratford," he said.

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

Security Vulnerabilities of Smart Electricity Meters
Schneier on Security

July 29, 2010

"Who controls the off switch?" by Ross Anderson and Shailendra Fuloria.

Abstract: We're about to acquire a significant new cybervulnerability. The world's energy utilities are starting to install hundreds of millions of 'smart meters' which contain a remote off switch. Its main purpose is to ensure that customers who default on their payments can be switched remotely to a prepay tariff; secondary purposes include supporting interruptible tariffs and implementing rolling power cuts at times of supply shortage.

The off switch creates information security problems of a kind, and on a scale, that the energy companies have not had to face before. From the viewpoint of a cyber attacker -- whether a hostile government agency, a terrorist organisation or even a militant environmental group -- the ideal attack on a target country is to interrupt its citizens' electricity supply. This is the cyber equivalent of a nuclear strike; when electricity stops, then pretty soon everything else does too. Until now, the only plausible ways to do that involved attacks on critical generation, transmission and distribution assets, which are increasingly well defended.

Smart meters change the game. The combination of commands that will cause meters to interrupt the supply, of applets and software upgrades that run in the meters, and of cryptographic keys that are used to authenticate these commands and software changes, create a new strategic vulnerability, which we discuss in this paper.

The two have another paper on the economics of smart meters. Blog post here.

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

Electromagnetic Fields Lead to Diabetic Disasters

Natural News.com

In 2008 Dr. Magda Havas, Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University, presented four interesting case studies involving ...

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

EMF-Omega News

Dear Sir, Madam, Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, for your information.

Best regards,
Klaus Rudolph
Citizens' Initiative Omega
<http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/OmegaNews.php>http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/OmegaNews.php
http://www.mastsanity.org/index.php?option=com_newsfeeds&task=view&feedid=1&Itemid=52
http://mast-victims.org/index.php?content=news&action=view&type=newsitem&id=2569
http://weepnews.blogspot.com/search/label/Omega%20News
Member of the Buergerwelle Germany (incorporated society)
Protectorate Union of the Citizens and Initiatives for the Protection against Electrosmog
http://www.buergerwelle.de/cms/content/view/57/70/
A Basic Summary of the Neurological Effects of Radiofrequency Sickness
arrhythmia
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1236/
Pulse-modulated microwave emissions from masts and mobile phones
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1243/
Report on a cancer cluster in an antenna ranges facility
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1242
Killer Cellphones
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1215/
Laptop: Wi-Fi radiation may affect male fertility
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1216/
Cell Phones: Don't Let This Go To Your Head
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1218/
Cancer Mortality near Air Force Bases
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1223/
Parents of leukaemia child want to sue Icelandic power company
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1222/
Radiation Waves from Cellular Tower Melts Mercury Dental Fillings
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1226/
'Safe radiation' an oxymoron
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1217/
Academic persecution for having rendered great public service by testifying
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1229/
France: The precautionary principle applies to antennas
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1214/
Restore people's and council's right to turn down phone masts on health grounds
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1224/
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1235/
Farmland bird numbers in England fall to record low
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1244/
Cell towers have an effect on property values
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1245/
Cell Tower in Campbell Valley Park, South Langley, B.C.
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1237/
Planning application for Dab radio relay at Drumcarrow Craig
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1219/
Electomagnetic Sensitivity warning for Dunedin City Council
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1220/
Telstra facing another battle
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1228/
Burbank ACTION Against Cell Towers In The Neighborhood
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1230/
Burnaby Hospital among highest death rates in Canada
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1234/
The most important issue is the health and safety of the people of Stratford
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1238/
O2 MD 'incognito' in Waltham Abbey mast negotiations
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1240/
10 metre phone mast 'disgusting', say Maida Vale traders
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1246/
Upgrade of mobile phone mast raises health fears
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/1247/
Next-up News Nr 1376
http://sharenews.twoday.net/stories/6439801/
Next-up News Nr 1377
http://sharenews.twoday.net/stories/6444512/
Next-up News Nr 1378
http://sharenews.twoday.net/stories/6446876/
News from Mast Sanity
http://tinyurl.com/2vhcbl6
http://tinyurl.com/aotw3
--------
Our links:
http://tinyurl.com/yjpu7wg
http://tinyurl.com/93epp
http://tinyurl.com/9w2sx
http://tinyurl.com/aotw3
http://tinyurl.com/oya9t
http://tinyurl.com/jyemw
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EMR-EMF/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emf-omega-news/
________________________________________________________________________

Note: EMF-Omega News belongs to the Buergerwelle Germany (incorporated society), Umbrella Organization of the Citizens and Initiatives for the Protection against Electrosmog.

Editor and responsible for the content:

Citizens' Initiative Omega, member in the Buergerwelle. Buergerwelle Germany(incorporated society), which works on non-profit base. Our messages are the result of many hours of daily research, roundup and editing. If you would like to support our activity for people around the world with a donation or an aid fund unique or on regular base, you can do it:

Recipient:

Buergerwelle Germany (incorporated society), bank-connection: Hypo Bank Augsburg, account-No 2250284, BLZ 720 200 70, IBAN: DE83 7202 0070 0002 2502 84, SWIFT (BIC): HYVEDEMM408. Buergerwelle Germany (incorporated society), Umbrella Organization of the Citizens and Initiatives for the Protection against Electrosmog:

1. Chairman Siegfried Zwerenz,

2. Chairman Barbara Eidling,

Mailing address:

Lindenweg 10, D-95643 Tirschenreuth, phone 0049-(0)9631-795736, fax 0049-(0)9631-795734, e-mail pr@buergerwelle.de, Internet http://www.buergerwelle.de .

Thank you.

If you have information which you would like to share with your friends and colleges around the world and which are from common interest, please send us this information, we will send them out.

Disclaimer:

The information in our EMF-Omega-News are derived from sources, which we believe to be accurate but this cannot be guaranteed.

We are not responsible for any errors or omissions and disclaims any liability incurred as a consequence of any of the contents of this resources.

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

Are Smart Meters Dangerous, Too? / West Marin Alert / Collected papers of Sam Milham, MD / Smartphone App, It's Watching / Our heads in a microwave oven

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

31 July 2010

Are Smart Meters Dangerous, Too?

PG&E's new meters have been vilified for allegedly overbilling customers. Now there's evidence that they may bad for your health, as well.

By Caitlin Esch

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/are-smartmeters-dangerous-too/Content?oid=1939740&showFullText=true

With a spectrum analyzer pointed skyward, Stephen Scott, a patient, self-described radio-frequency geek, tested for electromagnetic fields in the basement of an apartment building in downtown Oakland. He drew a wand-like instrument and directed it toward a small circular box affixed to a wall. He said he was measuring the strength of the radio frequency signals he caught on the spectrum analyzer. He directed the wand toward the appliance in question and laughed in quiet disbelief.

"I just got a big spike," he said. The wand's meter measures signals ranging in intensity from a weak green to a strong red with yellow and orange levels in between. For a split second, the lights shot into the red.

Scott is a remediation specialist for EMF Services, a company that surveys living and work environments for potentially harmful radiation. He was testing an electric SmartMeter recently installed by PG&E.

SmartMeters — automatic meter reading devices already in 73 percent of buildings in Alameda County — are the first step in creating a national smart grid that will enhance energy efficiency and make widespread adoption of renewable energy easier. The new meters communicate data from houses and businesses to PG&E through a mesh network of radio signals. In replacing antiquated analog meters that require a human to read, SmartMeters allow people to measure their energy consumption in real time in order to reduce it — or at least reduce their bills by using energy during off-peak hours.

But PG&E's SmartMeters have generated considerable controversy. Critics contend they overstate home energy use and cause electricity bills to spike. The cities of Berkeley, San Francisco, Sebastopol, Fairfax, Camp Meeker, Cotati, and Bolinas, along with Santa Cruz County have all come out in favor of a SmartMeter moratorium. And now there are a small but growing number of activists who contend that SmartMeters may be harmful to human health.

For its part, PG&E maintains that SmartMeters are safe, and emit radio frequencies that are well within Federal Communications Commission standards. The utility says electric SmartMeters transmit data for only a fraction of a second every four hours and are far weaker than other everyday radio-frequency emitters like cellphones, cell towers, and wireless Internet.

But as PG&E races to outfit every home and business in the Bay Area with a SmartMeter, there's some reason to doubt the utility's assurances. Independent environmental and electromagnetic-fields consultants, for example, have found that SmartMeters pulse far more often that PG&E claims. In addition, there's evidence to suggest that the peak pulses are far greater in intensity than the "average pulse" PG&E owns up to, thereby raising questions about safety, particularly in children, whose bodies absorb radiation at a far greater rate than adults. In dense urban areas, residents also have raised concerns about banks, or clusters of upwards of thirty meters on some apartment buildings.

However, the precise strength of the powerful "peak pulses" emitted by SmartMeters remains unclear. PG&E refuses to disclose that information, stating only that its calculations are in accordance with FCC specifications.

But how the utility calculates the pulses has become an issue of debate. PG&E's calculations are time-averaged, or stretched out over all the time the meter's not pulsing, making the average significantly lower than the peak. In addition, independent testers can accurately measure how many times a meter pulses, but without military-grade — and cost-prohibitive — equipment, it's difficult to measure the intensity of the strongest bursts. Furthermore, because SmartMeters pulse and most other radio-frequency emitters remain low and constant like a cellphone, it's still unclear how they might affect human health.

Although the World Health Organization maintains there are no consistent studies showing adverse health affects from radio-frequency exposure, there is plenty of research that suggest long-term exposure is linked to cancer and other diseases.

In short, PG&E's rapid deployment of SmartMeters appears to be something of a leap of faith, a "trust us" moment — not unlike the promises made over the years by plastics manufacturers who claimed the chemicals they used were safe, too.

Every evening, Kate Bernier of Berkeley deposits a day's worth of ice into a cooler, then fills the cooler with the contents of her fridge. She turns the power off and crawls into bed. Sometimes she listens to French poetry on a battery-powered tape player. She kind of likes it. She says it makes her feel like she's camping.

Around the same time Bernier shuts off the electricity, Annie Mills of Walnut Creek slides into a faraday cage, or a mesh box that shields from electromagnetic fields. Mills and her husband sleep in the cage every night.

What motivates such behavior? Both women are trying to escape the reach of electromagnetic radiation. Both say they're electro-hypersensitive — that anything that's electrically charged literally makes them sick. And they're not alone. At least a dozen people interviewed for this story in recent weeks claim to suffer electro-hypersensitivity or have tumors caused by electromagnetic exposure. Sue, who asked her last name remain anonymous for this article, wrote in an e-mail: "I am living in the near vicinity of 32 SmartMeters and it has made my life a living hell."

Although electro-hypersensitivity is not a disease recognized by most medical practitioners, Bernier, Mills and others insist their suffering is real. One by one, they approached the Berkeley City Council at meetings in June and July to speak publicly for the first time about what many consider to by a purely psychosomatic condition.

Dozens of anti-meter residents begged council members to send a strongly worded letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, the body that regulates utilities like PG&E. Speakers pleaded with council members, rattling off a long list of complaints, chief among them, electromagnetic-induced illness afflicting both normal and electro-hypersensitive residents.

The council seemed largely unsympathetic. Councilman Gordon Wozniak called the symptoms "phantom" — a comment that inspired hisses and boos from the audience. The council eventually decided to reconsider the issue at a later meeting.

The anti-meter crew was so outraged, they formed the citizen group ACRCASM, or Alameda County Residents Concerned About SmartMeters. The part-time group boasts a few dozen members. Cognizant of the controversy surrounding claims that SmartMeters may be unsafe, they drafted a letter outlining their grievances and listed overbilling, fire safety, data security, and job loss as their primary concerns. They left out any mention of meter-induced physical illness, but they did request a halt to the disposal of analog meters, a moratorium on the installation of new meters, and the ability opt-out of the SmartMeter program in the future.

Councilman Kriss Worthington was the first to support the letter. At a meeting earlier this month, the council voted to approve the letter, and thus support a moratorium on SmartMeters. Six councilmembers voted for it, one against, and one was absent. Mayor Tom Bates abstained.

Councilman Max Anderson generated cheers from the anti-meter crowd of about thirty people who stayed late into the night when he likened PG&E to a hitman, referring to the utility's $40-plus million support of Proposition 16, a June ballot measure that sought to make it nearly impossible for local governments to jump into the public power market. "If somebody takes a shot at you and misses and then shows up on your doorstep with a care package for you with a suspicious ticking sound coming from it," Anderson said, "I think you'd be very justified to be extremely suspicious of their intentions."

Berkeley's letter to the public utilities commission is one more in a small but growing stack. The commission said it had already received about 2,000 health-related complaints as of June 1, in addition to more than 1,500 non-health-related complaints pouring in from across the state — though most are from Northern California, and are specifically in reference to PG&E.

The commission contracted the Structure Group, headquartered in Houston, to provide an independent evaluation of PG&E's SmartMeters. However, the evaluation will not look at radio-frequency emissions — only meter accuracy and the company's billing and operational practices. PG&E is quick to point out that it already paid Richard Tell Associates to conduct a radio-frequency study and found that SmartMeters fall 15,000 times below FCC limits.

But many local activists are suspicious of the utility. "If one wants to believe PG&E, one would be considered naive," said Lloyd Morgan, a 68-year-old retired electrical engineer and self-made radio-frequency expert. "Would that we had government agencies that actually checked to see if it's all true."

So are SmartMeters bad for your health? It's a difficult question to answer. Though similar in wattage and frequency to cellphones, SmartMeters infrequently pulse at a greater intensity, while cellphones emit lower levels of constant radiation.

Still, both devices emit radio frequencies, and recently, cellphones and cell towers have come under intense criticism as information has surfaced suggesting that they may cause cancer.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a bill in June that was signed into law by Mayor Gavin Newsom, requiring cellphone retailers to post radiation levels for each type of phone they sell. Last month, Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio announced he would introduce a bill to create a national research program that would look at the safety of electromagnetic fields, particularly in cellphones. The World Health Organization has also said it would conduct a formal study of the effects of radio frequencies on human health by 2010, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer will review the carcinogenic potential of cellphones by next year.

But so far, the science on cellphones has been somewhat contradictory. Recent studies from Sweden have found that placing a cellphone to your head everyday for ten years or more increases your chance of developing a brain tumor by 280 percent in adults and 420 percent in teenagers.

However, the overall conclusion of the separate, and costly, 13-country Interphone study found no connection between cellphone use and brain tumors. Some scientists have criticized this ongoing study as flawed because some of its sub-studies concluded that cellphones actually prevent brain tumors.

More interesting still, different interpretations of the Interphone study yield different results. Henry Lai, a professor in the bioengineering department at the University of Washington found that studies not funded by the industry were far more likely to find that cellphones cause cancer. Industry-funded studies found electromagnetic fields affect our health just 28 percent of the time, while non-industry-funded studies found human health is affected 67 percent of the time.

And most people don't realize that cellphone manufacturers acknowledge a link between phone use and human health.

To meet FCC standards, the fine print in most cellphone manuals state that users are not supposed to put the devices up to their bodies. A Motorola V195 GMS, for example, is supposed to be held an inch away from the head while in use.

Lloyd Morgan says he almost died from exposure to electromagnetic fields. In 1995, Morgan was having lunch with a friend when he suffered a grand mal seizure that literally knocked him off his feet. Turns out, Morgan had a tumor the size of his fist growing inside his head.

"My neurosurgeon said to me, perhaps EMFs [electromagnetic fields] caused your tumor — and that was fifteen years ago," Morgan said. He's since engaged in a battle against the cellphone industry, attempting to save others from untimely deaths by brain tumor.

As an electrical engineer, Morgan was certainly exposed to electromagnetic fields. He was also a ham radio operator in high school, had a full dental X-ray when he was young, and slept next to a clock radio for several decades — all possible contributors, he believes, to his tumor. Morgan does not use a cellphone and he does not have WiFi in his North Berkeley home. But he does have SmartMeters.

Though Morgan doesn't appear as concerned about the gas and electric SmartMeters affixed to the wall outside his living room, he took time during a recent interview to point out a bank of about a dozen SmartMeters just a few yards away on the wall of the apartment building next door. And a dozen more across the street.

Morgan likens exposure to electromagnetic fields to smoking: If constant cellphone exposure is like sucking down a cigarette, SmartMeters are analogous to second-hand smoke. Cigarettes are generally believed to cause lung cancer in about 10 percent of heavy smokers. If the same holds true for heavy cellphone users, Morgan foresees an epidemic of disastrous proportions. "I believe there will be a tsunami of brain tumors that will show up in ten to fifteen years," he said. If 10 percent of cellphone users worldwide developed a brain tumor, that could mean tens of millions of people.

Lafayette resident Alan Marks is a prime example of an early cellphone adopter/brain cancer victim. His wife Ellie, his greatest advocate, says Marks has been on the phone for at least an hour a day since the late 1980s. Marks suffered a grand mal seizure in 2008 and was diagnosed with a malignant glioma a month later. Ellie sent her husband's cellphone and medical records to experts around the world and says she got a collective "absolutely" — absolutely his cellphone use could have contributed to his brain tumor. Ellie has filed a large lawsuit against The Wireless Association and others. She has testified before Congress and appeared on Larry King Live. As a side note, she says she received a phone call from Erin Brockovich.

Consequently, Ellie Marks was extremely upset to find a SmartMeter installed on her property. She called PG&E, explained her husband's condition, and the company soon agreed to come out and remove the SmartMeter. Ellie says by doing so, PG&E acknowledged there was cause for concern. She has since received a letter stating her SmartMeter will be reinstalled, along with a packet of what she called, "propaganda," stating that there is no known health risk associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields.

So how do SmartMeters compare to cellphones? Cellphones, cell towers, and other electronic devices emit a near-constant stream of radio frequencies that can vary in strength, while SmartMeters emit short, fraction-of-a-second-long bursts called "pulses." In addition, most health studies on electromagnetic fields have focused on cellphones and other sources that cause constant, low-level exposure — but not on electronic devices that pulse. Moreover, there's disagreement about how strong the SmartMeter pulses are, and how often they pulse in the first place.

For example, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said that electric SmartMeters emit low-level radio frequency bursts that last a fraction of a second, and occur only once every four hours.

But Dan Mattson, an independent electromagnetic-fields consultant and a former Navy technician in North Oakland discovered that a client in San Leandro had a SmartMeter that pulsed about 100 times in fifteen minutes. And Cindy Sage, a Santa Barbara-based environmental consultant and an outspoken critic of SmartMeters and the utility companies that install them, has measured several SmartMeters in the Bay Area: one in Berkeley pulsed about six times in one minute. Another just north of Berkeley pulsed between eight and fifteen times a minute.

And Stan Hartman, an engineer in Colorado with a different, but similar smart meter installed by Xcel, measured his meter and said it rapidly transmitted four or five signals in a short period, and then sat idle for fifteen minutes. "There's a lot that's not known about them, because it's hard to get information about them," Hartman said. "But I do know there are some really high spikes that go through the walls, I do know that."

Stephen Scott measured a SmartMeter in the basement of a downtown Oakland apartment that pulsed erratically, several times a minute.

Why the discrepancy? Brian Seal, senior project manager for the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit, science and technology research organization that has studied automatic meters, said a SmartMeter firing more frequently than the PG&E estimate of once every four hours is likely acting as a relay, or a go-between. It transmits data from houses whose SmartMeters cannot reach all the way to the "access point" where the information is gathered before it's sent back to PG&E. The smart grid is set up so that if, for some reason, one SmartMeter cannot transmit data all the way to the end goal, it can pass the information off to another SmartMeter. Any well-positioned SmartMeter can pass along the information of up to 1,000 homes, if necessary. But a single SmartMeter carrying too large a load would be a flaw in the smart grid design, Seal said, and too many "bottleneck" meters would indicate the mesh isn't functioning in proper mesh fashion.

PG&E's Moreno says he does not know why independent electromagnetic-fields consultants are measuring pulses at greater far frequency than once every four hours. Moreno also insists that that SmartMeters pose less of a threat than practically any other appliance in your house. The Electric Power Research Institute seconds that assertion. Senior Technical Executive Rob Kavet said a typical SmartMeter transmits data only 1 percent of the day, at an average power of 1/100th of a watt, and falls way below FCC standards. Furthermore, following the inverse square law, radiation strength rapidly drops off. So positioning your body a foot away from the source dramatically reduces your exposure.

However, it gets a bit more complicated than that.

FCC safety standards are calculated through a complex formula, but are based entirely on thermal affects — meaning: How high can radiation go before body tissue literally starts cooking? (Think of a small man in a microwave. How long will it take for that man to heat up?). So take that number, reduce it by a lot, and the FCC says you're safe.

But Sage, co-editor of the BioInitiative Report, a self-published study co-authored by fourteen scientists, researchers, and health policy professionals, has been insisting for years that studies have shown electromagnetic fields damage DNA at levels well below the FCC limit — possibly 6,000 times below the limit. Such studies have prompted medical professionals like UC Berkeley School of Public Health director Joel Moskowitz to suggest FCC standards might be woefully inadequate.

The standards also are time-averaged, which means the peak pulse is considered over a thirty-minute period. So if a SmartMeter pulses for a fraction of a second, and that pulse is averaged over all the time the meter is not pulsing, the average will be far lower than the peak.

Sage says this calculation gives an inaccurate "safety" reading. Sage likens SmartMeters to radio-frequency nail guns. "It's an enormous, short pulse," she said. "It goes right through walls and it only stops when it hits something juicy. You become a walking antenna."

Though the utility company in Santa Barbara where Sage lives is Southern California Edison — not PG&E — she says SmartMeters are pretty much the same across the country. And Edison's SmartMeters carry a peak power density of 229,000 microwatts per centimeters squared at 8 inches away, according to data provided to Sage by the utility that she shared with the Express. By comparison, a cellphone usually emits a power density of around 250 to 300 microwatts per cm squared when pressed to your head.

So in the fraction of a second that the SmartMeter is transmitting data, it's almost 1,000 times more powerful than a cellphone, though a cellphone emits a lower radio frequency over an extended period. Sage said that because of the intensity of the pulses, it's crucial to accurately count how often the meters are firing.

But tracking pulses is difficult because complicated time-averaging calculations inaccurately suggest peak pulses are far less frequent than they really are. Morgan says he calculated the peak power density to be 288,184 times larger than the average power density calculated by PG&E.

When asked for a comment on these numbers, PG&E declined. But spokesman Moreno did say concerned customers are welcome to call PG&E, and that comparing Southern California Edison's meters to PG&E's was like comparing "apples to oranges."

It's nearly impossible for consumers to accurately measure for themselves the magnitude of SmartMeter pulses, because high-end testing equipment is prohibitively expensive. Even Scott, a professional with a $5,000 instrument, couldn't get an accurate reading of the meter in the basement of the downtown apartment building. He did find the transmissions were weak — closer to PG&E's estimates than Sage's. But he worries that the people with the skills and the expensive equipment needed to measure the full extent of a meter's activity are already working for the telecom and power industries.

"More research is needed, more people with instruments are invited to measure this phenomenon," he said. "And hopefully, people will generously share their information so we can get a big picture of what's going on." Scott says he will continue to investigate SmartMeters in single and multiple configurations around neighborhoods and apartment complexes. "I have the feeling this is just the beginning of this issue," he said.

In the meantime, people like Annie Mills say they will take matters into their own hands. Mills plans to test the method of wrapping her SmartMeter in aluminum foil to obstruct its transmissions, until PG&E "comes out to see why it's not working."

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

Subject: smart meters due to be put on your home in july- how to fight it!!

Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 08:57:39 -0700

Dear West Marin Neighbor,

You are receiving this alert as part of a new organizing strategy in West Marin, where local organizations and individuals are collaborating to call the attention of our community to urgent issues that effect our health, environment & local sustainability. We encourage you to forward this widely to your network- we need help in getting the word out as soon as possible. Thank you for participating in local democracy.

West Marin Alert  - Look out for Smart Meters!

Did you know that PG&E plans to install "Smart Meters" on every home and business in Marin County and throughout their California territory?

These wireless devices will replace your current electric meters and will allow PG&E to track and control your gas & electricity usage without having a meter-reader come to your home.

Millions of these devices have already been installed in California, and consumer complaints are pouring in to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and to the media.

The CPUC is currently conducting an investigation as a result of these complaints. At this time, customers are being told by PG&E that they cannot opt out of having "smart meters" installed.

Why should we be concerned?

  • Increased electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by these meters from every house, apartment & business will add a massive additional layer of man-made EMR to our environment that will pulse radiation every minute throughout the day and night; utility poles, buildings, and telephone poles will also be transmitting EMR as repeaters for the "smart meters"; EMR will infiltrate all other home wiring.

 

  • No FCC safety standards exist for chronic long-term exposure to EMR or from multiple sources.

 

  • Adverse health effects from electromagnetic pollution include sleep disorders, irritability, short term memory loss, headaches, anxiety, nausea, DNA breaks, abnormal cell growth, cancer, premature aging, etc.

 

  • Untested technology; international scientists, environmental agencies, advocacy groups and doctors are calling for the use of the precautionary principle for wireless technologies that are already causing illness in many people.

 

  • Skyrocketing utility bills - sometimes 2 to 3 times higher than before the "smart meters" were installed, even for vacant homes.

 

  • Fire hazards and risk of electrical shock.

 

  • Waste of our money - $2 billion is being spent on "smart meters" in our area of California.

 

  • Loss of thousands of jobs - at a time when job creation should be a top priority.

 

  • The undemocratic process that has been used by PG&E in pursuing this new technology, telling people that they have absolutely no choice in the matter.

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

Collected papers of Sam Milham, MD

are now available at his website:

http://sammilham.com/contact.shtm

Male Breast Cancer in Office Workers

Magnetic Fields From Steel-Belted Radial Tires:
Implications for Epidemiologic Studies

A New Electromagnetic Exposure Metric:
High Frequency Voltage Transients Associated With 
Increased Cancer Incidence in Teachers in a California School

Historicall Evidence That Electrification Caused the 
20th Century Epidemic of "Diseases of Civilization"

Low Proportion of Male Births and Low Birthweight of Sons
of Flour Mill Worker Fathers

Historical Evidence That Residential Electrification Caused 
the Emergence of the Childhood Leukemia Peak

Most Cancer in Firefighters is Due to Radio-Frequency 
Radiation Exposure Not Inhaled Carcinogens

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) 
is Caused by Electric Currents Applied to or Induced 
in the Body

Increased Mortality in Amateur Radio Operators Due to

Lymphatic and Hematopoietic Malignancies

You can download his recent papers on dirty electricity, ALS and other health effects of EMF and radiofrequency radiation.

His new book "Dirty Electricity" is available from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon Books as well.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dirty+electricity+sam+milham&x=0&y=0&ih=24_1_1_1_1_0_0_0_0_1.48_167&fsc=-1


Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization -

Hardcover (July 16, 2010) by Samuel Milham MD MPH

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

Serious security threat identified to smart phones

Your smartphone apps are watching you -- more closely than you might like. A mobile-phone security firm says many apps pull sensitive info off users' phones and ship it to third parties without notice.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13100005T907&nl=2

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

Our Heads in a Microwave Oven

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/841732--fiorito-our-heads-in-a-microwave-oven

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

Friday, July 30, 2010

Pulse-modulated microwave emissions / Farmland bird numbers fall / Science blog / Laptops in backpacks / effect on property values / EHS Refuge Zone / Insects

W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
30 July 2010

Pulse-modulated microwave emissions from masts and mobile phones

by glyden on July 28, 2010 at 08:23PM
Since residents and their pets - 2 got cancer - in my village suffered many symptoms immediately on activation of a phone mast near their homes, I have been studying the reason for the symptoms! Finally, after getting help from  Barrie Trower an expert on microwaves and Andrew Goldsworthy- expert on human biology, I know what is causing damage to human health and our whole environment!
It is the Pulse-modulated non-heating aspect of microwaves emitted from masts and phones which make us ill - causing damage to individual cells wherever they enter our bodies!
Individual Cells form impermeable skins when they sense emissions and cannot communicate with other cells - still living, they continue to develop into benign tumours or carcimonas. The microwaves pierce the skins and take calcium from the cell - in the brain -this is what causes Alzheimers in the old and Autism in the developing foetus in the womb!
In the heart and circulatory system the results are heart attacks; arrhythmia; nose-bleeds; raised blood pressure and strokes.
The worst aspects of microwave emissions are Tetra; Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. Wi-Fi in schools should never have been allowed without preceding stringent tests as children are particularly vulnerable - and there is evidence of damage to Chromosomes and the Human genome.
When have parents or teachers been given the informed opportunity to protect their helpless children against damage to their health? I consider Wi-Fi in schools to be an illegal experiment
- See Barrie Trower's 'Open Letter to the Chair of the Police Federation' on Tetra being forced on policemen-quote:-
'I believe that this is breaking the law.** If your Officers are not informed of all aspects of this experiment; it contravenes the "Regulations and Ethical Guidelines" – Directives for Human Experimentation – Nuremberg Code (enclosed).  This is to say that the risks of all radiation experiments must be understood before it is started and it cannot be against their will. At your Airwave Conference 23rd October 2002, your Dr Levey told your Officers: "Use it or resign".
When I told the HPA of my discovery that epidemiological testa in Switzerland had proved that emissions inhibit melatonin - without which we cannot sleep, and insomnia being the main symptom in Kensworth - they refused to investigate on the grounds there is NO PROOF. The SYMPTOMS are the proof! See:Dr Neil Cherry;' EMR reduces melatonin in animals and people'. I hear rumours that the HPA is being abolished! That will save millions of pounds on useless tests which since the late 1990s have proved absolutely nothing -especially not that emissions are safe - because that is impossible!
glyden
Why the contribution is important
My idea is important, because people are deliberately being kept in ignorance as to the dangers of these emissions. So far, the government has listened only to our 'protective' agencies when setting the 'safe' permitted levels of emissions.
The advice of Michael Repacholi (of the WHO and ICNIRP) to take into account only the thermal aspect of microwaves, and our 'safe' levels ignore completely the non-thermal emissions which make us ill. YET! Repacholi himself proved in 1997 that the same non-thermal emissions used to irradiate rodents brains caused cancer of the brain - lymphomas. A few days ago an articlein the telegraph commented on the large number of young children having strokes! There can be only one reason for the increase - the proliferating invasion of our environment by microwaves! I loved my mobile phone - completely addicted from 1986 until 2004, when I realised the danger after 2 years of investigation.
We need emissions to be lowered as in the Salzburg resolution - to 0.1 microwatts.
Ours are now highest in the world at 450 microwatts. The honey bees communication system is puls- modulated, and Microwave emissions interfere with it when they try to communicate with their antennae. This can be measured on an oscillograph. See: Disappearing bees:
1974
"In 1974, the Russian researchers Eskov and Sapozhnikov found that bees generate electromagnetic signals with a modulation frequency between 180 and 250 Hz when they do their communications dances. (It is important to note that our GSM mobile system is modulated with 217 Hz). Hungry bees react to those frequencies by erecting their antennaes [8]. Warnke reported that the communication impulses of the antennae when touched by a fellow bee can be measured with an oscillograph [9]."
This clash of modulation is a valid explanation of the disappearance of these irreplaceable insects – 1,500 beekeepers in France alone have gone out of business recently and America has accepted bees from Australia to replace their lost bees.
As humans also have electrical impulses in their brains and bodies it is obvious, that of course long term chronic exposure to electromagnetic radiofrequencies is going to affect us badly!
Smart metres should not be placed in our homes! Wi-Fi will affect us all in some way.
I and many others will be unable to live comfortably in our own homes. In addition - I have heard that this is a surveillance system which will enable the powers that be to spy on innocent people going about their lives wthout harming anyone. My wonderful Conservative MP has been helping me for many years in my efforts to make this country comfortable and safe to live in as it always was - I am hoping that the new government in which he is now thankfully ensconced will insist on lowering emissions and removing Wi-Fi from our schools.
glyden
Submitted by Robert R
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Farmland bird numbers in England fall to record low

Bird numbers plunge to 44-year low after dramatic habitat loss and harsh winter
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 17.15 BST
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Martin
Your readers may be interested in my non-techy science blog, that offers new perspectives on conventional scientific views on fundamental issues
I've recently posted another article - about popular AND scientific misconceptions re the Quantum Leap phenomenon.  It has major implications for future possibilities.
Cheers
Grahame
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Schenectady Gazette (blog)
Better still, there are six large prefab "Connection Zone" buildings where Scouts can go to use cell phones and netbooks, free of charge. ...


Robert R


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

On 16 Avenue, you can be sure that the towers will primarily be serving truckers and other vehicle operators who use their phones while driving. ...

Robert R


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




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



Decline in Insect Populations

I live in the northern plains, Jamestown, North Dakota. Up to a year ago I was living 60 miles south of Jamestown in Ellendale, North Dakota.
About 4 or 5 years ago, probably 4 years, I noticed a definite decline in the mosquito population. I ride a bicycle and in summer like to ride at night to avoid the heat. In June I am picking cat tails.  They do spray for mosquitoes in Ellendale, but not outside of the city limits, and I could not imagine what was disrupting the life cycle of the mosquito.  Everyone I mentioned this to thought I was crazy to be concerned about fewer mosquitoes.
About two years ago I noticed a decline in all insects in Ellendale, and this summer in Jamestown the decline is very noticeable.
Tonight I found an article on your site dated March 19, 2008, by Art Kab . Art blames the decline in insect populations to the use of microwaves.  After thinking about this for a while I remembered that 4 or 5 years ago there was an explosion of microwave towers in the area from Ellendale to Aberdeen, South Dakota.  Aberdeen is the nearest town to Ellendale and where I did all my shopping.  The distance is 40 miles.
This is not good science, but it is an indication to me that Art is right and widespread microwave use is the villain. 
It's also further proof that there is no hope for the planet.
Thanks for that 2008 article. I will be a regular reader.
Skip Corrao
Jamestown, ND
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

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Stratford Municipal Election / Burnaby Hospital / Your Boxspring / Cell Tower in Campbell Valley Park / Neurological Effects of Radiofrequency

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

29 July 2010

Hi All

The Ontario Municipal elections take place on October 25, 2010.  Today I filed papers and now I am a candidate for Mayor of Stratford, Ontario.  This is an excellent opportunity for me to provide public education on the most important single issue, the dangers caused by exposure to electro magnetic radiation.  If elected, I could continue to advise a much greater audience.

If you live in Ontario, I encourage you to take part in the Municipal elections to raise awareness of EMF issues, to make your community safer.  While the position of Mayor may be daunting to some,  an opportunity for those who need experience is the position of councillor.  Common sense and a concern for the community are some of the best attributes.  Those who are able to get elected to school boards can strongly influence the issue of Wi Fi and electro magnetic issues which are harming children in schools.

In my election race, I face an uphill battle because the two main newspapers (Beacon Herald and Gazzette) in Stratford, have already failed to report my concerns about smart meters and city wide Wi Fi.  In fact after providing strong scientific evidence showing the dangers of Wi Fi and microwave radiation, the Beacon Herald printed a false story about how safe the smart meters are.  This is a serious mistake on their part and I hope they come to their senses and realise the danger they are placing their readers in.  The third newspaper in town, the Stratford Citizen published a fair and accurate story describing my address to council on June 28, 2010, as reported by Adam Gardiner.

Only time will tell if the two newspapers will report accurately report the details of my campaign and advise the citizens of Stratford about the serious harm they face from dangerous microwave radiation.  At this stage I request your help to get my message to other people though various social media outlets.  Any help on this front would be greatly appreciated.  By this means, can I be assured that my campaign will be heard and not hidden.

Sincerely

Martin Weatherall

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

Press Release 28 July 2010

Martin Weatherall candidate for Mayor of Stratford.

The most important single issue

in the Stratford Municipal elections is the health and safety of the people of Stratford. The people of Stratford are facing the greatest danger in their history because of exposure to electro magnetic radiation and in particular microwave radiation from wireless devices. Stratford residents are not being warned of that danger.

Even more worrying, public officials working for the City at Festival Hydro and Rhyzome networks are greatly increasing that danger with implementation of a city wide Wi Fi system and the installation of dangerous smart meters, both of which emit very strong amounts of microwave radiation. These officials and the present Mayor, have been provided with important scientific information about the dangers, but have done nothing to stop implementation of these dangerous systems, or finding a safe solution.

Thousands of scientific reports over the last sixty-five years have documented serious health effects from exposure to electro magnetic radiation. There is far more information documenting this danger, than there is for cigarette smoking, yet most of our citizens, including the very young and the elderly, are being exposed to microwave radiation that may be the equivalent to smoking a large number of cigarettes each day. The effects of microwave radiation are usually gradual, in the short term people may suffer from: headaches, sleep disruption, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, muscle and joint pain and dizziness. In the long term adverse health effects include various cancers, depression and anxiety, heart and cardiovascular problems, neurological effects, genotoxic activity and reproductive harm.

Martin Weatherall will ensure that Stratford citizens are educated about the dangers of electro magnetic radiation and will work to make Stratford the safest City in Canada, from this invisible but deadly new pollution.

Martin Weatherall is very concerned about the long-term debt of the city and the high property taxes. He will give this problem a very high priority in order to find solutions.

He will encourage development of new sustainable industries and he will work to ensure that empty factories become productive again.

If elected he will encourage citizens to become more involved with the council and the decision making process.

Martin Weatherall has well-rounded experience that would complement mayoralty duties. He served seven years with the British Royal Navy and two years as a British press photographer. He served for twenty eight years with he Toronto Police Service, first as a uniformed officer, then several years as a Forensic Crime Scene Investigator and nearly six years as an elected, Toronto Police Association, Director of Legal Services.

For the last four years he has been the Co-Director of W.E.E.P. ( www.weepinitiative.org ), a Canadian non profit environmental organization that specializes in the health effects of electro magnetic radiation and helping those who have been harmed by it.

Contact information: e-mail at weather@golden.net

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

Burnaby Hospital among highest death rates in Canada: report

BY LORI CULBERT, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 11, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER - Burnaby Hospital has the worst mortality rates in B.C. and among the highest in Canada for the second year in a row, according to a national report card.

However, the Fraser Health Authority, which oversees Burnaby Hospital, says its mortality rates are improving – according to data that is not included in the annual Canadian Institute for Health Information report.

At issue is CIHI's fourth annual Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio report, which tracks death rates at large hospitals across Canada.

After taking into consideration factors such as age, diagnosis and pre-existing medical conditions, the report produces a score for each hospital: More than 100 indicates a hospital has higher mortality rates than the Canadian average, and a score of less than 100 suggests a lower mortality rate. (The numbers don't reflect actual numbers of deaths, only how a hospital's mortality rate compares to the national average, which is deemed to be a statistical range around 100.)

Burnaby Hospital is the only one of 14 B.C. health facilities with a higher mortality rate than the statistical range, with a score of 116. That's up from last year's 113. Other B.C. hospitals were either at or below the average.

The CIHI statistics did not include patients admitted to hospitals for palliative care, but did include those who were admitted for acute care and were eventually transferred to palliative care, said CIHI senior analyst Brooke Kinniburgh.

However, Arden Krystal, a vice-president at Fraser Health, said CIHI produces a second group of numbers that excludes all palliative care patients, and that those - unpublished - numbers show a marked improvement in Burnaby over the last year.

Kinniburgh said those numbers were not made public because the non-profit organization no longer considers them the best way to track trends in mortality rates.

Regardless of how you interpret the numbers, following last year's poor showing, Burnaby Hospital investigated its mortality rates and largely attributed them to the way charts were being coded with patient death information - not to flawed medical procedures, Krystal said.

Administrative changes made since then have shown "reassuring" results in mortality stats, she said. "We have a really active quality improvement program at Burnaby."

Overall, B.C.'s five health authorities were either at or below the Canadian average for mortality, and their rates have generally been falling year over year.

Vancouver Coastal Health had the lowest rate (83) in 2007-08 and the Northern Health Authority had the highest in B.C. (101).

Among large health centres across Canada, about half a dozen had higher mortality rates than Burnaby Hospital.

Dr. Patrick O'Connor, a vice-president at Vancouver Coastal Health, said the CIHI report is valuable because it's the only one to track national mortality rates. He said it is important for hospitals to monitor their own numbers, but not to compare themselves to other hospitals because every city has a different population with different challenges.

While Lion's Gate, Vancouver General and St. Paul's had mortality rates well below the Canadian average, Richmond Hospital had a higher rate of 107, which was within the CIHI's average range. O'Connor said this was lower than in other years, but was still being analysed by the health authority.

O'Connor said Richmond has a large Asian population that typically prefers hospitals to hospices when someone is terminally ill, which might explain the slightly higher numbers.

Health Minister George Abbott said he finds the CIHI numbers "a bit misleading and somewhat unfair" for including any palliative care cases at all. He said the scores in Burnaby and Richmond come down when those cases are excluded.

Abbott argued that B.C. is a healthy province, and he wasn't concerned about the Northern Health Authority's slightly higher score. In the north, Abbott said, there are factors that contribute to poor health such as higher smoking rates, more obesity, and a larger percentage of deaths from car crashes.

He said the province has undertaken some initiatives, such as creating the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council, to improve care in hospitals.

lculbert@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

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

Note - From the links below you can see photographs of the large cell phone mast that is mounted on top of Burnaby hospital.

How many deaths may have been caused by the radiation from these antennas?

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Burnaby+Hospital+among+highest+death+rates+Canada+report/1064508/story.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whyfry/3608462894/

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

Your Boxspring Could Be Acting As A Gigantic, Cancer-Causing Radiation Antenna

Gizmodo Australia
Some researchers think it's because people tend to sleep on their right side, and their boxsprings are pulling in electromagnetic radiation from FM and TV ...

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/07/your-boxspring-could-be-acting-as-a-gigantic-cancer-causing-radiation-antenna/

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

Dr Reese Halter

5525 Agoura Glen Dr

Agoura Hills, Calif

91301

http://DrReese.com/

Langley City Hall

Mayor Rick Green

20399 Douglas Crescent,

Langley, BC

V3A 4B3

July 27, 2010

RE: Cell Tower in Campbell Valley Park, South Langley, B.C.

Dear Mayor Green:

My name is Dr Reese Halter, I am a practicing conservation biologist specializing in tree physiology with over two decades of experience in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Currently, I am stationed at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif. I'm also the founder of Global Forest Science an international conservation institute with operations in 8 countries. I oversee approximately 165 scientists. I am also a prolific writer and one of my books, The Incomparable Honeybee and the Economics of Pollination, Rocky Mountain Books, documents the known deleterious hazards of high frequency electro-magnetic radiation from cellular towers on honeybees. This year alone North America is missing at least 55 billion honeybees from a mysterious disease called Colony Collapse Disorder.

I urge the City Council to re-consider the recent license for a cellular tower in Campbell Valley Park. The radiation will not only adversely impact honeybees and native bees but all wildlife including other beneficial insects like ladybugs and dragonflies as well as frogs, newts, all birds including raptors like eagles, hawks and owls and other critters like raccoons and deer.

I am including a pdf from a recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune.

Should you have any questions I am more than happy to discuss this further.

Reese Halter (Dr)

rhalter@GlobalForestScience.org

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

A Basic Summary of the Neurological Effects of Radiofrequency ...

Studies finding no health effects are predominantly industry funded.9 A report by Hallberg and ... A number of studies show that electromagnetic radiation, ...

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/48033736/A-Basic-Summary-of-the-Neurological-Effects-of-Radiofrequency-Sickness-arrhythmia

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/48033736/A-Basic-Summary-of-the-Neurological-Effects-of-Radiofrequency-Sickness-arrhythmia

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

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Dear Ambassador Nikolaos Matsis / Radio Frequency Permanent Birth Control / Body Scanner / Burbank ACTION / Decreased real estate value

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

28 July 2010

Dear Ambassador Nikolaos Matsis,

Consuls General Dimitris Azemopoulos and Maria Karnoutsou,  and to whomever else it may concern among representatives of Greece in Canada,

On April 27 and 29, 2010, the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA) heard important testimony on a most serious topic, of interest not only to Canadians.  Committee Members, being Members of Parliament (MPs) from all seated parties in the House of Commons, were addressed not only by Canadians, but as well by international researchers into the impact on public health of exposure to microwave radiation, such as is involved in cell telephony and associated wireless communications.

In preparation for the HESA hearings, it was noticed that very important recent topical research had been conducted by a scholar at the University of Athens. Along with three other European colleagues, Dr. Dimitris Panagopoulos graciously accepted the HESA invitation to testify before and submit documentation to this Parliamentary Committee.

Biophysicist Dr. Panagopoulos' contribution at his appearance by teleconference April 29 was, in line with his work, outstanding in its clarity and competence. Committee MPs should be expected to pay close attention to his submission in particular, as they decide on a course of action protective of public health to recommend to the Canadian government.

What moves me to write you is unfortunately not only desire to praise a citizen of Greece making a vital international contribution, but to appeal to you to intervene favourably on his behalf. 

To the great dismay of the very many people internationally who are working selflessly, to improve public health by urging governmental reconsideration of current obsolete national standards of permissible exposure to microwave radiation; to all our great dismay, it appears that witnesses, including Dr. Panagopoulos, have suffered academic persecution at least in part for having rendered great public service by testifying on this high public record in Canada.

Shortly after those meetings in April, three international witnesses before HESA urging revision of microwave standards based on their scholarly work, Dr. Panagopoulos, as well as Dr. Olle Johansson of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and Dr. Annie Sasco of Bordeaux University in France; all three have had their offices removed from them! The fourth international witness, Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy of Imperial College London, England, could not have his office removed, being recently retired, but he has attested to having suffered similarly prior to retirement.

HESA MPs have been notified of these examples of apparent outrageous persecution, an apparently concerted attack on academic freedom and competence.  It would be a sorry situation indeed, where praise for an international contribution emanating from Greek scholarship, would be attenuated by outrage that the contributor be subsequently precluded from continuing his vital work.

Already letters in support of the embattled Dr. Johansson have been addressed to the appropriate parties at the Karolinska Institute, easily generated for his having been an influential eminence in the field for many years. We fear that his younger colleague in your country is very vulnerable for various reasons. This is why in distress I address myself first to your country's representatives in my own, Canada, where his recent important contribution was made, with apparent dire and completely untoward consequence.

Surely representatives of Greece in Canada would strive to forestall a situation where Canadian MPs themselves intervene to address this issue directly, as it may have been generated by their own invitation in good faith to a citizen of your country.

Will you do the great service of enquiring further into this situation at the University of Athens? Will you express the great dismay felt here, and the desire to avoid further internationally embarrassing repercussion?  Will you intervene to restore our confidence that an institution such as the University of Athens not be a venue where inappropriate influences on academic independence are had, but rather continue to provide scholarship of world importance, such as drew the HESA Committee to invite Dimitris Panagopoulos?

Thank you very much for your urgent attention to this affair, which has already drawn the attention of Canadian journalists and politicians.

Dr. Panagopoulos' email address is [...]. The HESA proceedings including his own oral contribution, of which you should be proud, can be heard or read via

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeMeetings.aspx?Cmte=HESA&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#DT20100429HESAMEE13  ,

Meeting 13.  Academic papers by him were also submitted to the Clerk of the Committee, significant reference to which one should expect to be found in an upcoming draft report to come before the Committee. Thus a citizen of Greece might have rendered great public service protective of public health in Canada, as a result of which he faces persecution at home.

Sincerely,
Daryl Vernon (Toronto [...]),
with immediate support from Lorraine Penner, Barbara Payne, Sharon Noble, Catherine Mullally, François Therrien, Charlene Creelman, Una St. Clair-Moniz, Elizabeth Barris, Linda Ewart, Susan Yurychuk, Edna Pettipas, Emily Duffy-Arsenault, Catherine Gamba, 

many more names forthcoming

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

Jul 26, 2010 5:53 pm US/Central

FDA Approves New Permanent Birth Control 

The Adiana System is a new type of permanent birth control, recently approved by the FDA.

http://wcco.com:80/health/permanent.birth.control.2.1825857.html

For decades, women have been looking for less invasive options to permanently prevent pregnancy.

Now, there's a new type of contraception that can be done in minutes under local anesthesia.

The FDA approved a procedure called the Adiana system.

There are no incisions or cuts. Instead an instrument delivers low-level radiofrequency energy to each fallopian tube.

A tiny insert, about the size of a grain of rice, is then placed in each tube.

"We place this little spongy material inside. We kind of drop it there," said Dr. Jacques Moritz, of Roosevelt Hospital. "Then, the body forms scar tissue around the spongy material and just seals everything shut."

The procedure cannot be reversed.

Submitted by David

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

Here is a copy of my e-mail "Letter to Editor" Los Angeles Times re Full-body Scanners at Los angeles International airport.

Helen Hibbing

Body Scanner Invades More than Privacy; Cancer Risks

Re:  "LAX receives two more full-body scanning units," July 21:

I agree with Mel Frohman, Los Angeles in his letter to the editor (dated July 25, 2010) that "No one should be cheering the installation of full-body scanners at LAX." Dr. David Brenner, head of Columbia University's center for radiological research warns that the dose of radiation emitted by airport body scanners could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated. He warns that children and people with gene mutations whose bodies are less able to repair damage to their DNA are most at risk. He has urged medical authorities to look at his work, pointing to the dangerous notion of mass scanning millions of people without proper oversight. (www.infowars.com/columbia-university-body-scanners-increase-risk-of-skin-cancer/) The article further states, "In the United States, people can refuse the body scanner and opt for an aggressive and intrusive hand-search. but people traveling out of the UK and other areas of Europe don't even get the choice--they are forced to go through the scanner if asked and cannot refuse or they are banned from travelling." To Urge Congress on EMF Safety, FCC Must change Guidelines one can "sign" an electronic petition at

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/6/urge-congress-on-emf-safety-fcc-must-change-exposure-guidelines-for-microwave-radiation-exposure.

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

Burbank ACTION (Against Cell Towers In Our Neighborhood)

http://sites.google.com/site/nocelltowerinourneighborhood/

Decreased real estate value

http://sites.google.com/site/nocelltowerinourneighborhood/home/decreased-real-estate-value

Anna

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

Cancer Mortality near Air Force Bases / Wi Fi male fertility / EMF breast cancer / EHS Warning / phone masts / Consumers wary of smart meters

W.E.E.P. News

Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News

27 July 2010

Cancer Mortality  near Air Force Bases.

Lester, J.R. and D.F. Moore.  1982.  Cancer Mortality and Air Force Bases.  Journal of Bioelectricity 1(1): 72-82.

Abstract:

Nationally, counties with an Air Force Base were found to have significantly higher incidences of cancer mortality during 1950-1969 compared to counties without an Air Force Base.

RESULTS

This study is based on 92 active Air Force bases that were in operation during 1950-1969 in the United States. The authors hypothesize that the chronic low intensity microwave exposure to peak pulse patterns, characteristic of radar, could influence immunocompetence and account for the high cancer mortality near air bases. They cite a 1979 study by Meecham and Shaw that documents a 20% higher mortality rate for residents within 2 to 3 miles of the Los Angeles International Airport compared to a neighborhood 8 to 9 miles away.  In addition to cancers a higher incidence of birth defects and nervous breakdowns, among residents who live near airports, was reported in Japan and Great Britain.

COMMENTS

This study brings to mind, PAVE PAWS, the US Air Force Radar Base that was installed in 1979 and was the focus of several cancer cluster studies in Cape Code, including an elevated rate of Ewing's Sarcoma (a malignant tumor often found in bone with a peak occurrence between 10 and 20 years of age).  According to the National Academies' National Research Council report in 2005 and the Massachusetts Department of Health report in 2007 the radiation was unlikely to have played a primary role in the incidence of the various cancers and health effects.

However, based on Air Force measurements outside the security fence, values for average and maximum power density  (attachment 4) are well above the Russian guidelines of 10 microW/cm2 with "corrected average" values ranging from 10 to 230 microW/cm2.

continued at . . . www.magdahavas.com

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

Wi-Fi radiation may affect male fertility

http://www.digitaljournal.com:80/article/295085

By Igor I. Solar.

Buenos Aires - Argentine researchers have found that radiation emitted by an Internet-connected computer resting on the user's legs may affect male fertility by reducing sperm motility and fragmenting DNA.

The research, first in the world on the subject, was carried out by experts from Nascentis, a reproductive medicine center located in Córdoba, Argentina. The results of the study will be presented at the 66 Congress of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) taking place in October in Denver, USA.

The researchers (led by Conrado Avendaño, a biochemist specializing in andrology, in collaboration with Ariela Mata, reproductive biology specialist and César Sánchez Sarmiento, director of the medical center, among others) demonstrated that the motility of spermatozoa is impaired when these cells are exposed to the radiation from laptops, according to a report published in the Córdoba newspaper "La Voz" (in Spanish).

For this study, the researchers evaluated semen samples from healthy donors with no history of recent illnesses. Each sample was divided into two equal fractions, which were placed in separate temperature-controlled rooms. One of the sub-samples was incubated under a laptop connected to the Internet, to replicate the conditions that occur when a man places the computer on his lap.

"After four hours of incubation of sperm under the two different conditions, we found that in the sample exposed to the laptop, a large percentage of the sperm cells were affected,"

said Dr. Avendaño to "La Voz". The investigator concludes that their study shows that exposure of sperm to the radiation from the device did not kill the sperm cells, but affected their motility. Further, by evaluating the sperm cells' DNA integrity, they found that there was a significant difference between both sub-samples:

"The fraction exposed to radiation had a significant increase in sperm cells with fragmented (broken) DNA,"said Avendaño.

The findings are important because previous studies on reproductive medicine have shown that some of the problems in fertilization and embryonic development are caused by damage in the DNA molecules of the sperm.

While agreeing that further research on the matter is required, the researchers advise men to avoid holding laptop computers on the legs, "especially if they are connected to Internet through Wi-Fi."

This research brings new knowledge on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on human health. EMF levels from Wi-Fi devices are much lower than those emitted by mobile phones, and there is less public concern on potential health issues for wireless LAN devices. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) claims that if a person spends one year in a Wi-Fi hot-spot, they will receive a dose of radio waves equivalent to a 20-minute call on a mobile phone.

Often wireless access points are in close proximity to humans, but the drop off in the already low power over distance is fast, following the inverse-square law (*). Nonetheless, the results of this study suggest that when a laptop is operated for long periods, the close proximity to the source of the EMF may affect a male user sensitive reproductive cells causing damage to DNA and reducing sperm cell motility.

(*) The radiation passing through any unit area is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.

Sarah

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

Household appliances linked to breast cancer

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Environment/household_appliances_linked_to_breast_cancer_2207100704.html
22/07/2010

A study led by researchers in Israel suggests that exposure to household low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) may increase risk of breast cancer and other mammary tumors.

The study reported in the May-June 2005 issue of In Vivo was based on 1290 clinical case-records of women aged 60 and older over a 26-year period who visited the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Israel.

Participants were included in two groups, one group (group 1) of women with mammary tumors such as breast cancer followed up between 1978 and 1990 who rarely used EMF-generating appliances.

Another group of women (group 2) were followed between 1991 and 2003 who extensively used personal computers (more than 3 hours a day), cell phones, TV, air conditioners and other household electrical
appliances that generate EMF.

Researchers examined reports on 200,527 biopsy and surgery samples and mammary tumors were found in 2824 women or 1.4 percent of the women in the study. Nearly half of the cases were elderly women.

The most common tumor was epithelial neoplasms. 585 elderly women in group 1 and 705 women in group 2 were diagnosed with mammary tumors.

In group 1, 19.5 percent of elderly women with mammary tumors were regularly exposed to EMF (mostly using computers) for more than 3 hours a day, compared to 51.1 percent in group 2.

The researchers found there was a significant effect of EMF on the formation of all epithelial mammary tumors in Group 2, particularly in those with invasive ductal carcinoma - breast cancer that is the most
common form of cancer in elderly women.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 175000 women in the United States and the disease kills about 50,000 annually, according to the National Cancer Institute.
David Liu

Sylvie

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

Electromagnetic Sensitivity warning for DCC

July 26, 2010 - 6:45pm

An opponent of widespread cellular and wifi-internet coverage today voiced his concerns to the Dunedin City Council.

Electromagnetic Sensitivity is said to cause symptoms similar to a hangover, along with more serious health complications and the City Council was today warned that providing wireless internet to the Octagon may in fact be putting people into the wireless firing line.

See the video at -

http://www.ch9.co.nz/node/15582

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

U.K. News

Restore people's and council's right to turn down phone masts on ...

There is much evidence that the ICNIRP guidelines are not adequate for determining the health risk of mobile phones, masts or other wireless technology . ...

http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/restoring-civil-liberties/restore-people2019s-and-council2019s-right-to-turn-down-phone-masts-on-health-grounds

Robert R

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

(Note - re the story yesterday's from Victoria, Australia about smart meters) -  

"a government official there told me the newspaper had got it wrong and there had never been a moratorium on the meters themselves, but only on the time-of-use tariff".

However, an example of the plan being shelved for economic reasons is Maryland:

Arlene

Nationwide Consumers wary of smart meters

Written by CA Political News on July 26, 2010

By Joey Peters, Special to Stateline, 7/23/10 

http://capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/5788

When President Obama signed his economic stimulus bill into law last year, he singled out for praise funding for installing advanced electric meters. It was part of $3.5 billion set aside for so-called smart grid improvements. This investment will place smart meters in homes to make our energy bills lower, make outages less likely and make it easier to use clean energy, Obama said.

There’s universal agreement that new high-tech meters to replace dials that spin in circles can help do all of the things Obama said they would. Smart meters can be used to send consumers price signals so as to encourage them to use less energy when it is most expensive. They also can let utilities reap new efficiencies by automating meter reading and quickly identifying power outages. But implementation of the idea has been controversial. Increasingly, consumers are calling on state regulators to move cautiously on smart meters, citing complaints in some states that the meters are raising electric bills rather than lowering them.

The latest evidence of a backlash comes from Maryland. Last month, the states public service commission rejected an $835 million smart-meter installation plan put forward by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, or BGE. The commissions order professed enthusiasm for the long-run potential of smart meters, but said BGE was asking ratepayers to take significant financial and technological risks and adapt to categorical changes in rate design, all in exchange for savings that are largely indirect, highly contingent and a long way off.

Consumer groups were relieved by the decision. We don't reject the technology, says Tiffany Lundquist, a spokeswoman for AARP Maryland, which testified against the plan. Apart from $136 million of federal stimulus money, BGE proposed to have ratepayers fund the installations using a smart grid charge on customers bills. The entire cost shouldn't be borne by the consumer, Lundquist says There has to be a balance between the customer and the utility itself.

BGE submitted a new plan immediately after the rejection, keeping a looming July 30 deadline in mind as a last-chance grab for the stimulus money. This time, BGE pushed back the date when customers would begin paying for the meters and dropped a mandatory time-based pricing requirement that would have allowed it to charge different rates at different times.

The Maryland Public Service Commission doesn't plan to hold hearings on the revised proposal until August, a timeline that may put the federal money at risk. A $136 million discount on an $835 million ratepayer investment cannot dictate the outcome here, the commission said of the stimulus funds.

In California, some 6 million of the new high-tech meters already are in use.

States across the country, including Maryland, have been experimenting with smart meters on a pilot basis for the past several years. But only recently have regulators begun allowing utilities to roll them out in force. Ohio and Oklahoma recently approved smart meters, to go along with large concentrations of them in California, Colorado and Texas. In California alone, some 6 million homes are equipped with smart meters.

Along with the new technology have come consumer complaints. Individual and class action lawsuits have been filed against utilities in California and Texas, claiming that the meters aren't reliable and have only produced mounting utility bills for customers. In California, the state Public Utilities Commission launched an investigation into the Pacific Gas & Electric Company after consumers in Bakersfield said that their utility bills shot up around the same time PG&E installed smart meters there.

PG&E, which supplies much of Northern California with natural gas and electricity, has denied any problems with the meters. But Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group in San Francisco, says his office receives 20 to 30 complaints about smart meters each week, most of them citing utility bills mysteriously going up.

In April, a state Senate hearing drove PG&E to release records showing that that there were indeed some problems associated with smart meters but that getting accurate readings wasn’t one of them. There were some problems with faulty installations, failure to preserve customer usage information and trouble sending usage data back to the utility. But the company found only eight meters measuring energy use incorrectly.

In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest that smart meters actually are more accurate than older meters, says Katherine Hamilton, the president of GridWise Alliance, a coalition of technology companies and utilities. Analog meters degrade and slow down over time, she says. Immediately, when you put in a digital meter, the reading will become more accurate.

That may explain why some consumers are seeing higher bills, Hamilton says. She suggests that the real problem with smart meters may be that consumers have false expectations that they will save money just from having new meters installed. A meter in the wall doesn't save money itself, she says. It isn't smart unless the consumer is actively engaged in it.

New meters are not enough

That message is reinforced by a recent study from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which says that meter initiatives alone aren't enough to save energy. It concluded that households could cut their electricity consumption by 12 percent and save at least $35 billion over the next 20 years if utilities use them to give consumers more information about how they're consuming power in ways that will motivate them to cut back.

One of the reasons AARP Maryland didn't support BGEs first proposal was because the meters didn't come with an in-home display unit that would give up-to-date information on energy consumption.

Instead, consumers would have to buy that extra piece of equipment. The only alternative would lie in checking the information online, which couldn't be posted until the next day.

Hamilton says the key to success it to make consumers a part of the process. GridWise Alliance is attempting to do that with focus groups designed to educate consumers about the technology and listen to their feedback. Its difficult to do, because its not a straightforward project, she says. If you don't know how your consumers will respond, its kind of a risk for the utility companies.

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