Here is the latest update of the links listed on the EMF Refugee Yahoo eGroup:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/emfrefugee/links
Can you connect the dots? Can you put the pieces of the puzzle together? Happy Surfing!
Autism, ADD, ADHD, LD and the power of digital medicine.
The "mysterious" rise in autism, ADD, LD, ADHD and other related mental and emotional ailments these days represents indeed a formidable challenge for the physicians and families involved. http://www.med-articles.com/med/marticles/accutane/accutane-article-20992-1.html
"Will Some Device Save The Bees from Bee-Colony Collapse Disorder?"
Does this radiation, which is emitted from the mobile phone masts and between microwave relay stations and to which many residents are also exposed, also pose a danger to animals? Siegfried Vogel from the Selbitz area of Hüttung believes the radiation emitted from the multitude of surrounding mobile phone masts is responsible for the loss of his four bee colonies during the past year.Mr. Vogel is not alone in his assessment. The loss of birds has also been suspected as being caused by the mobile phone radiation. Recently, there have been numerous reports on the Internet concerning the impairment and loss of bees and messenger pigeons. The authors of these articles are attributing this loss to mobile phone mast radiation. The loss of birds is also spurring fears that the whole of nature may be at risk due to the ever-increasing electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and the like.
http://www.laleva.org/eng/2007/04/protecting_bees_from_mobile_phone_radiation.htm
Advice For Doctors Regarding Electrosensitivity
Electrosensitivity - how to diagnose it and what advice to give your patients.
http://www.detect-protect.com/k/evidence/drguidance.htm
Allergic Reactions Enhanced by Cell Phone Use
Cellular phone use for one continuous hour exacerbates allergic responses to dust and pollen in adults with eczema, according to a new study in International Archives of Allergy and Immunology (2002;129:348–50). The findings of the study, while only preliminary, suggest that the microwave radiation emitted from cell phones may increase sensitivity to specific allergens, potentially making allergy symptoms worse.
http://bastyrcenter.org/content/view/313/
Animal Study EMF Radiation
Photos of animal deformities caused by microwaves
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/animals.htm
Are Electromagnetic Waves the Culprit
A Warning From Deformed Plants
http://www.japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=172
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece
At your own risk
Two minutes of exposure to emissions from mobile phones can disable a safety barrier in blood causing proteins and toxins to leak into the brain, could increase chances of developing Alzheimer's multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's. (Scientists at Sweden's Lund University). Scientists say exposure to the phones' low-level radiation causes red blood cells to leak hemoglobin and can lead to heart disease and kidney stones. Recent studies suggesting a link between cell-phone use and brain tumors, and the possibility that the microwaves could ignite petroleum fumes at gas stations. A cell phone unit, or communications tower, has so many of thee radiation emanating gadgets. This can be a problem for its immediate environment. Two minutes of exposure to emissions from mobile phones can disable a safety barrier in blood causing proteins and toxins to leak into the brain, could increase chances of developing Alzheimer's multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's. (Scientists at Sweden's Lund University) Scientists say exposure to the phones' low-level radiation causes red blood cells to leak hemoglobin and can lead to heart disease and kidney stones. Recent studies suggesting a link between cell-phone use and brain tumors, and the possibility that the microwaves could ignite petroleum fumes at gas stations. A cell phone unit, or communications tower, has so many of thee radiation emanating gadgets. This can be a problem for its immediate environment.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/Home/Newsdetails.asp?newsid=3666&Arch=&Issueid=139
BioPro Technology
Visionary co-founders Ray Grimm and Alfred Hanser launched BIOPRO Technology in February 2004. Their story is a simple one of great synergy and a mutual desire to create a global positive impact on people physically, personally and financially. Ray Grimm has a successful history of experience in the Direct Sales Nutritional arena. He appreciated early on in his career, the power of bringing products to market that physically make difference.
http://www.mybiopro.com/Home.aspx?ID=ourprotection
Bioelectromagnetic Vibrational Healing
Science once again catches up to metaphysics when Georges Lakhovsky (1869-1942), bioelectric pioneer, building on the work of inventor Nicola Tesla (1856-1943), theorized that "cells were vibrating" - they exhibited all the properties required of an oscillator - inductance, capacitance and resistance. Lakhovsky postulated that all living cells could act as both an emitter and receiver of very high frequency oscillations (vibrations). He writes in his article for the February 1924 issue of Radio News, entitled, "Curing Cancer with Ultra Radio Frequencies"
http://www.novaliteresearch.com/research.html
Brain Tumors and Cell Phones
"Brain Tumors Cause More Deaths than Any Other Forms of Cancer"
http://www.emf-health.com/videos/index.htm#videos1
CERSA (CERTIFICATION PROGRAM: ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RADIATION SAFETY ADVISORS)
Over the past five years, the problem of electromagnetic radiation health risks has gained international prominence. While some government bodies around the world have initiated precautionary preventive steps, most regulatory bodies have lagged behind in terms of consumer protection. This has left a void that, of necessity, is being filled by professional clinical practitioners, public health practitioners, representatives of companies promoting various intervention technologies and myriad other concerned parties.
http://www.safewireless.org/CERSA/tabid/209/Default.aspx
Cancer victims ask: "Is it the phone mast's fault?"
Margaret Hines-Randle is fighting cancer, but she is not alone in her struggle. In fact most of the people in her road are battling alongside her, since they have the illness too. At the most recent count, 30 of her immediate neighbours were either suffering with cancer or had already died from it.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687357.ece
Cell Phone Antenna Search
Get detailed info on Existing Towers: Registered and Non-Registered structures where antennas are placed. Towers may be used for various services including Cellular, Paging, Microwave and others.
http://www.antennasearch.com/
Cell Phone Radiation May Trigger Allergies
Bothered by skin rashes and sensitivity to dust mites and pollen? A two-year old study suggested you cell phone use may be to blame.Japanese researchers believe that cell phone radiation can 'excite' antigens - substances which cause allergies - in the bloodstreams of people who already suffer from allergies. They found that cell phone users experience an increase in skin rashes or allergic reactions to dust mites and pollen.Dr Hajime Kimata from Unitika Hospital, Kyoto, carried out research on 52 people with a history of eczema and dermatitis. Half were exposed to cell phone radiation for an hour, while the others were not.Dr. Kimata, whose findings are published in the medical journal International Archives of Allergy and Immunology, said: "When we did blood tests we found that the mobile phones had raised the levels of certain chemicals in the blood which provoke allergic reactions such as eczema, hay fever and asthma.
http://www.emf-health.com/blog/2005/12/cell-phone-radiation-may-trigger.html
Cell Phones
Experts investigating biological effects of cell phone radiation
http://www.laleva.cc/environment/cellphones.html
Cell phone tower radiation may be killing plants and animals
Ever wondered where the butterflies, some insects and birds like sparrows have vanished? Well, your constantly ringing cell phones could be responsible for this.A study conducted by three departments of Panjab University has found that cell phone towers are the dominating source of electromagnetic radiations in environment in the city and this could lead to diseases in plants and animals.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=226423
Cell phones Invisible hazards of the wireless age
Dr. Carlo explained in detail his theory of how cell phones cause brain damage. It begins with the wave. The signals use carrier waves of around 1,900 megahertz (MHz), which are so high in frequency that they pass right through us, and our houses, unnoticed. But harmful information-carrying waves are packed into the carrier waves. These information waves, which carry signals that can be decoded by our computers and mobile phones, are low-frequency waves in the range of one hertz (Hz). That's slow. So slow that our cells can feel them as an aggravating, physical jolt at their surfaces. Within 30 seconds or so of bombardment, our cells temporarily shut down their surface transport and intercellular communication functions, to resist further damage from threatening invaders. Normally, small threats to cells cause them to send out chemical signals to neighbouring cells that tell them to protect themselves from invaders, and they signal for help from our immune system's T-cells.
http://commonground.ca/iss/0612185/cg185_cellphone.shtml
Clean Energy: Our Birthright
trengthening the inner Energy Grid, the Aura, Energy Body, through Purifying and harmonizing the Inner Ecology with the Outer Ecology: Coping
http://www.cleanenergyspace.com/aura.htm
Computer Clear
Software that is supposed to eliminate radiation and improve your immune system.
http://www.computer-clear.com/
Cosmic Energy
Dr. Yayama's Cosmic Energy Website
http://www.cosmic-energy.co.jp/index.cfm
Disease citations re electromagnetic radiation (animal & human)
http://whale.to/b/cit_disease.html
Do You Have Microwave Sickness?
Many people have a hard time fathoming that something that they cannot see, touch, smell, taste or hear - sense with the five senses - can harm them so much. But if people did really know the facts regarding the dangers of cell phones and WiFi and the masts that emit a pervasive level of microwave radiation, would they still be willing to use them? Would they still be willing to allow the antennas to be built in vicinity of their homes, work places, schools, and hospitals?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3277817/
Dr. Martin Pall
Dr. Pall has long-term interests in biological regulatory mechanisms. His current research is focussed on a theory he has developed on the cause (etiology) of chronic fatigue syndrome and the overlapping and related conditions of multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. According to this theory, each of these is initiated by stresses that induce increased levels of nitric oxide and its oxidant product peroxynitrite, followed by a biochemical vicious cycle mechanism associated with chronic elevation of these two compounds. Symptoms of these conditions are produced by both nitric oxide and peroxynitrite and treatment should focus on downregulating this vicious cycle mechanism. Vitamin B-12 injections commonly used to treat these conditions are proposed to act through the action of one form of B-12 (hydroxocobalamin) which is a potent nitric oxide scavenger. Dozens of biochemical and physiological observations provide support for this theory. The most puzzling features of these conditions are explained by this novel theory.
http://molecular.biosciences.wsu.edu/Faculty/pall.html
Dr. Nick Begich - Weapons Technology of the 21st Century
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qxect_DsmU
EMF Bioshield
EMF-Bioshield?is the only protective device of its kind on the market to have been tested in more than six different countries (France, Italy, Germany, USA, Russia, Ukraine), and to have been presented in 47 Scientific Communications published by the Selection Committee of 17 major international scientific and medical congresses. It is also the only one whose manufacturer, S.E.I.C., is certified ISO 9001-2000 for 揜esearch, Development, Manufacture and Commercialisation of New Technologies and Products?
http://www.emf-bioshield.com/
EMR Australia
EMR Australia offers solutions to problems about electromagnetic radiation (EMR) for the workplace, local government and the home.
http://www.emraustralia.com.au/
Effect of microwave irradiation on neurocyte mitochondrial ultrastructure and mtTFA mRNA expression in rats cerebral cortex
After 3 mW/cm(2) microwave irradiation for 0, 3, 24 h, mitochondrial ultrastructure and mtTFA mRNA expression level didn't significantly change in rat cerebral cortex and hippocampus. After 30 mW/cm(2) microwave irradiation for 0, 3, 24 h, mitochondrial ultrastructure obviously changed, mtTFA mRNA expression in rat hippocampus significantly increased by 67.00%, 80.00%, 30.00% respectively, and in rat cerebral cortex by 133.00%, 86.00%, 233.00% respectively. There were significant differences between the corresponding groups of hippocampus and cerebral cortex (P < 0.01 ). CONCLUSION: No obvious change in mitochondria was found after 3 mW/cm(2) microwave irradiation, but it was found after 30 mW/cm(2) microwave irradiation. Mitochondria injury in cerebral cortex was more severe than that in hippocampus. mtTFA mRNA may have certain regulation in mitochondrial energy metabolism
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15130438&query_hl=6&itool=pubmed_docsum
Effects of emitted Qi on in vitro natural killer cell cytotoxic activity.
Am J Chin Med. 2001 ;29 (1):17-22 11321475 [Cited: 1]
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:11321475
Electricity Disorder: A Real Health Problem
has led to an increasing population of people who say they suffer from EHS. Symptoms, which ranged from mild to severe, include chronic fatigue, depression, body aches, memory loss and sleep disruption.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060329/electricity_allergies_060329/20060329/
Electromagnetic Fields Killing Fields
ARTHUR FIRSTENBERG / The Ecologist v.34, n.5, 1jun04
http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2004/Electromagnetic-Fields-EMF1jun04.htm
Electronic smog: The curse of the mobile phone age
Invisible "smog", created by the electricity that powers our civilisation, is giving children cancer, causing miscarriages and suicides and making some people allergic to modern life, new scientific evidence reveals. The evidence - which is being taken seriously by national and international bodies and authorities - suggests that almost everyone is being exposed to a new form of pollution with countless sources in daily use in every home.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article362557.ece
Electrosensitivity-UK
ES-UK is the association for the electrically hypersensitive (EHS). Charity Commission registered number 1103018. We support those made ill by electromagnetic fields/RF/microwaves and campaign for recognition of this illness. We are supported by 'The Foyle Foundation' as we 'make a difference'. This site is regularly updated, especially the 'this week, news update page'.
http://www.electrosensitivity.org.uk/
Epidemiologic evidence relevant to radar (microwave) effects.
Public and occupational exposures to microwave (RF) are of two main types. The first type of exposures are those connected with military and industrial uses and, to some extent broadcast exposures. It is this type that most of the data cited in this study draw upon. The second type, cellular telephones and their associated broadcast requirements, have raised concerns about current exposures because of their increasingly widespread use. Four types of effects were originally reported in multiple studies: increased spontaneous abortion, shifts in red and white blood cell counts, increased somatic mutation rates in lymphocytes, and increased childhood, testicular, and other cancers. In addition, there is evidence of generalized increased disability rates from a variety of causes in one study and symptoms of sensitivity reactions and lenticular opacity in at least one other. These findings suggest that RF exposures are potentially carcinogenic and have other health effects. Therefore, prudent avoidance of unneeded exposures is recommended as a precautionary measure. Epidemiologic studies of occupational groups such as military users and air traffic controllers should have high priority because their exposures can be reasonably well characterized and the effects reported are suitable for epidemiologic monitoring. Additional community studies are needed.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1469943
Farday Cages and Other Forms of EMR Protective Devices
A radiation (wave of irradiation) electromagnetic is propagated in straight line from a transmitting source which can be antennas relay, a hertzian repeater, a radar or one. . . telephone mobile, at the speed of 3 X 10 power 8 m/s in the vacuum. Various parameters of the ambient conditions can refract, diffract, reflect or absorb radiation according to a coefficient.Moreover, one radiation (wave of irradiation) electromagnetic:is also absorbed by any resonant circuit at its frequency: H2O (water), rain, 02 (dioxygene), atmosphere, our bones, grids metal, etc. . .Interferes with any other wave of close frequency, which results in a modification of the its space and temporal beat.In order to avoid all these interferences and to protect itself effectively in particular at the time of the sleep against the harmful effects of the irradiations microwaves on the metabolism, it is necessary to sleep in a Faraday screen room (integral).
http://trans.voila.fr/voila?systran_lp=fr_en&systran_f=1137612784&systran_id=Voila-fr&systran_url=http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/ProtectionsEmfCem.php&systran_f=100000000000
Freiburger Appeal
Doctors are speaking out and appealing for new regulations to halt the devastating biological and health蔯onsequences of exposure to pulsing high-frequency electromagnetic radiation - as in mobile cell phones, microwaves, and numerous other sources.
http://www.laleva.cc/environment/freiburger_appeal.html
GLUTATHIONE DEPLETION—METHYLATION CYCLE BLOCK
At the Seventh International Conference of the AACFS in 2004, the author proposed and defended the hypothesis that glutathione depletion is an important part of the pathogenesis of CFS (1).In the conclusions of that paper it was noted that it seemed likely that there are vicious circle mechanisms involved in CFS that prevent glutathione repletion from being the complete answer for treating this disorder.Recent autism research (2,3) suggests that in that disorder a vicious circle involving the methylation cycle apparently chronically holds down the level of glutathione.The present author has recently proposed (4) that this same mechanism is active in many cases of CFS. This model for CFS will be referred to as the Glutathione Depletion—Methylation Cycle Block (GD-MCB) Hypothesis.This mechanism appears to be capable of explaining and drawing together numerous features of CFS that have been reported in the peer-reviewed literature.
http://phoenix-cfs.org/GSH%20Methylation%20Van%20Konynenburg.htm
German Doctors unite on RF health effects from masts.
A number of German doctors are combining together to put forward their observations of adverse health effects from pulsed high-frequency EMFs (microwave) to the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Dr. Edmund Stoiber. The health effects include headaches, tiredness, inability to concentrate and dizziness, and show an alarming trend.
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20050722_bamberg.asp
Global Recognition Campaign for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chemical Injury, Chemical Hypersensitivity, Environmental Illness MCS is an increasingly alarming World Wide Public Health Problem Caused By our Toxic Environment
http://www.mcs-global.org/
Healthy Vibes Institute
Radiation and Your Health: Mankind has used the vibration of music, songs and chanting since ancient time to heal our bodies. New developments in science allow us to use the ancient knowledge as a base for creating new products. Our product Computer Clear helps you reduce the threat to your health from electromagnetic vibrations which come from the new machines we live with.
http://www.health-vibes.com/
INCLINE VILLAGE and Microwave Antennas
An example, up in the Sierras, Incline Village had a sudden high rate of chronic fatigue syndrome. And then they discovered that it was related to the new microwave antennas that were put up there. And in that same region, species of frogs just disappeared. They stopped reproducing and vanished. So, these are things that need to be looked at in the course of -- we need to take a closer look.
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/emfrapid/html/EMF_MTGS/SanFrancisco.html
Incidence of allergic diseases in East and West Germany
Using data of the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey 1998, a remarkable difference in the prevalence of hay fever between East and West Germany has been observed. Several studies in children and adults have also shown a considerable East-West divergence in other allergic diseases and in sensitisation rates. The aim of this investigation was to examine whether in a representative sample of the adult German population East-West differences in the frequency of asthma, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, urticaria, contact dermatitis and "other allergies" can be found. The calculations base on data of a physician's interview in which study participants were asked whether a physician had ever diagnosed one of the above mentioned diseases. A higher prevalence of all allergic diseases has been observed in West compared to East Germany and women from both parts of the country have higher morbidity rates than men. At least one physician-diagnosed allergy was reported by 40% of the study participants, whereas in East Germany about 30% and in the West 43% suffer from an allergic disease. The prevalence in women is 47% and in men 33%. Extremely high allergy rates were found among West German women at the age of 30-39 years (62%). Although the frequency of allergies decreases with increasing age, considerably high morbidity rates were ascertained even in the oldest age groups. The prevalence in participants aged 70-79 years amounts to 25%. Clear differences between East and West could be demonstrated in this age group, too (West 27% and East 14%).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10726405&dopt=Abstract
International Cell Phone Coverage Map
Find out where cell phone coverage areas are in various countries of the world. May not be up-to-date.
http://www.cellular-news.com/coverage/
Learning and memorization impairment in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome manifesting as school phobia in Japan.
For the last 15 years, we have tried to understand the pathophysiology of childhood chronic fatigue syndrome (CCFS) in Japan. In this condition, two major symptoms are important: easy fatigability and disturbed learning and memorization. In CCFS patients we clinically evaluated autonomic nervous system function, circadian rhythm of hormonal secretion (melatonin, cortisol and 3-endorphin), core body temperature, and sleep-wake pattern. Most patients showed autonomic nervous system dysfunction and circadian rhythm disturbances, similar to those observed in jet lag. Radiological imaging studies (SPECT, Xe-CT, and MRS) revealed decreased blood flow in the frontal and thalamic areas, and accumulation of choline in the frontal lobe. We analyzed the relationship between the laboratory data and clinical symptoms in CCFS.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed
ME and EMFs
These results, though from a relatively small sample, suggest that ME may be associated with weak chronic exposure to ELF electric fields. The study gives support to recent occupational studies also finding over-representation of adult cancer subtypes where occupational electric field exposure was elevated. The curious correlation between corner homes and cul de sac homes with ME cases in this sample, (which could not have arisen through selection bias), needs further investigation, and a larger study is needed to confirm these results.
http://www.cogreslab.co.uk/mestudy.asp?s_pname=
Mast Victims
Stories from People Who Have Suffered from Cell Phone Masts
http://www.mast-victims.org/
Mast-Victims.org
If you are a victim of mast radiation or strongly concerned about the issue, please write your story and share your thoughts on this website! Please click on "Tell your story" in the left hand menu and create an online case history file. You don't need to register with this website to participate and no personal information will be recorded. You only give out as much information as you wish to. You can also email your story to us at: story@mast-victims.org and we will put it online.
http://www.mast-victims.org/index.php?content=welcome
Melatonin and the Immune System
In a study in the Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents (Oct-Dec 1995), 40 mg a night of melatonin was given in combination with low doses of interleukin-2 to 11 AIDS patients whose T-helper cell count had fallen below 200. After only three weeks of therapy, T- helper cells had risen more than 30% in 36% of the patients. In addition, the treatment produced a significant increase in the mean number of eosinophils, T lymphocytes, and natural killer cells. Finally, the important T-helper:T-suppressor ratio significantly increased during this study. The scientists concluded that the addition of melatonin could be an effective immune enhancing therapy for AIDS patients who do not generally respond to IL-2 alone.
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag97/april-update97.html
Microwave RF Repeaters
Microwave on-frequency RF repeaters are commonly used by telecommunications system operators to reliably and cost-effectively relay radio signals at remote locations, typically mountaintops and when bypassing obstructed paths. Understanding the use of microwave on-frequency repeaters requires an understanding of some basic operating concepts and how to apply the latest techniques....Organizations that use microwave repeaters include telephone companies, wireless operators, energy companies (water, gas, electric), government agencies (including national, state, county, and local agencies), military, aviation, and national security organizations. Such users expect reliable operation; areas of prime concern include path reliability, repeater-equipment reliability, and power-equipment reliability.
http://www.mwrf.com/Articles/ArticleID/8319/8319.html
Microwave Relay Stations
Using microwave relay station to linkup from point to point was common in the 60's. The mountain top repeaters operated as "line-of-sight" bridges. The wireless signals hopped from repeater to next repeater until it reached its destination. However, the microwave relay station also has its major drawbacks in that it is not feasible to install the repeaters on the water (across ocean) and their bandwidth is limited compare to the fiber optics cables so these microwave relay stations are also becoming obsolete.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6285878.html
Microwave Repeater Sites in Northern California
The Echo Summit Repeater is quite close to Incline Village where the first widely publicized outbreak of CFS occured in 1984 - the year the first commercial cell phone networks were installed throughout the USA.
http://www.thecentraloffice.com/Microwave/NMW/NCMW1.htm
Microwaves Weakne Immune System
Radiation from mobile phones can severely damage the human immune system, a scientist has claimed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/194065.stm
Microwaving Iraq
Hank, whose contacts also extend into Congress and the Pentagon, claims that the Humvee-portable microwave 襝rowd control?system was unveiled in September 2004 against some 400,000 Americans protesting genocide in Iraq at the Republican National Convention in New York City. It is not known if the microwave weapons were actually used to augment chemical agents dispensed along with beatings by police. [ www.veteransforpeace.org; EE Times June 6/01]
http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/Microwaving_Iraq.htm
Multiple chemical sensitivity: towards the end of controversy
There are nine well accepted paradigms of human disease. The tenth may explain the features of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and a group of related illnesses including chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Gulf War syndrome appears to be a combination of all four. The elevated nitric oxide/peroxynitrite vicious cycle paradigm explains most of the puzzling features of this group of previously unexplained illnesses (1-16) that afflict tens of millions of people in the US and elsewhere. These illnesses have multiple overlaps with each other. (2-5,13,16) They share many common symptoms and signs. They are repeatedly reported to be comorbid conditions. Cases of each of them typically show a common pattern of case initiation, with cases being preceded by and presumably induced by a short-term stressor, only to be followed by a chronic illness that usually persists for life. These similarities have led many different researchers to propose that two, three or all four of them may share a common etiologic mechanism (3,5,16) but they were unable to suggest what that mechanism might be.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_265-266/ai_n15688810
Mystery in the Skin
You mention mast cells in the skin. A doctor, John Holt, in Australia has written to us saying that when working with microwaves (to irradiate cancer cells) he has observed that the microwaves from cell phones cause a doubling of histamine (which are released from mast cells) and that such electrosmog from mobile phones could be the cause of the ever increasing asthma and other allergies.
http://www.feb.se/ARTICLES/OlleJ.html
Neural Protocol
Antioxidants for Protection Against EMR
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/health/rmeha/rmehztrc.htm
Next-Up: In the Memory of Roger Santini, Founder and Chairman, 1939-2006
To whom it may concern,Without any initial reply related to the problem, we must say that now an overdose of Electro Magnetic-Fields in our environment does exist, which is generated by the exponential developement of mobile telephony. Facing the facts, we call for a duty on national health and we must act and inform people to bring the debate to light. This is next-up organisation goal.If you wish to bring the truth to light, please help us :- Give the next-up.org website adress to your friends and neighbours. Roger SANTINI, Dr ès-sciences, (1939-2006) Chairman of Next-up organisation. Serge C.SARGENTINI, Director of the Board of Directors.Claude MONNET, Dr , Vice-Director of the Board of Directors.The fact of being exposed to the beams of Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF) from mobile phone relay antennas for peoples who, despite their wishes, live close to them, violates a fundamental right of all citizens, the right to own's integrity, in France the right is guaranteed by the Constitution.The Charter of the Environment adopted in 2005 by Members of Parliament and Senator is a historic stage which must be translated into a strong action on the field.We are forced to observe that decree number 2002-775 in relation to mobile telephones is not in accordance with the Environment Charter for what concerns putting into effect the Principle of Precaution.It is vital to have it modified since, further, it allows for essential omissions such as the absence of an irradiation norm for an exposure time of more than 6 minutes to EMF! Today, in the light of a scientific consensus on the biological, health or "Athermal" effects, the argument about the innocuous nature of EMF on humans must cease and what must be adopted at last are norms which conform to the requirements of a real public health policy.
http://www.next-up.org/
Nitric Oxide/Peroxynitrite Mechanism & MCS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Post-traumatic Stress - multiple chemical sensitivity
In an article for the Annals New York Academy of Sciences, Martin L. Pall and James D. Satterlee note that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), multiple chemical sensitivity (MSC), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and fibromyalgia (FM) are characterized by many of the same symptoms. According to the authors, each of these chronic conditions usually develop after short-term stress. Martin L. Pall theorizes that these disorders are caused by "elevated levels of peroxynitrite and its precursors, nitric oxide and superoxide." Peroxynitrite is a powerful oxidant.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_2001_Nov/ai_79757220
Nutritional Immune Modulation Therapies for CFIDS Part 3
The Recommended Nutrients for CFS are good for protection against microwaves since we believe (or rather know) that CFS is caused mainly by EMFs and Microwaves
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_244/ai_111271890
Prevalence of hay fever in Germany--East-West comparison and temporal trends
In recent years several studies in children and adults have shown an increase in prevalence of atopic diseases in East and West Germany. The observed frequency of allergic diseases, however, was significantly lower in the East compared to the West. Using data of the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey 1998 and of National Surveys from 1990/92 it was examined, whether the reported increase in prevalence could be confirmed for the total population and whether the differences between East and West are still present. In a self-administered questionnaire, study participants were asked whether they have ever had hay fever. Additionally, in a physician's interview, subjects were asked whether a physician had ever diagnosed hay fever. The questionnaire data were used in comparison with the previous national surveys for the calculation of time trends. A total of 6974 persons filled in the questionnaire and 7099 persons took part in the interview. Physician-diagnosed hay fever was reported by 15% of the total study population. Clear differences in the prevalence rates between East and West Germany are still existing; 11% in the East and 17% in the West suffer from hay fever. In both parts of the country prevalence decreases with increasing age. The highest rates were found among those aged 20-29 and 30-39 years. Based on the questionnaire data the morbidity rose from about 10% in 1990/92 to 17% in 1998. The overall relative increase is quite comparable in East and West Germany. Stratification by age and gender shows considerable differences. In young women from East Germany the increase in prevalence is substantially higher and in women aged 40 years or older much lower than in West German women. In men this pattern has not been observed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=10726404
Q-Link
The human body, like all living things, has its own electromagnetic fequency. Cells in the brain, for example, communicate electronically. But as technology progresses we surround ourselves with more and more equipment which emit their own electromagnetic frequencies - with the potential to interfere with our own. When we are exposed to lower frequencies ranging between 10 hertz and 100 hertz, those particular frequencies have a tendency to disturb cells significantly that they start disorganizing, breaking apart, and giving birth to perceived viruses, bacteria, yeasts, and mold.
http://www.qlinkworld.co.uk/media/london.html
QLink - Live Blood Cells Test
Dr Young postulates that one of the contributing factors of high levels of cellular disorganization is exposure to extended periods of low EMF. A state of cellular disorganization, or dis-ease state, is reflected as changes in certain aspects of blood composition and blood clotting ability. These changes can easily be revealed using video-enhanced optical microscopy and video micrographs. In the past, blood chemistry has been the primary mode of diagnosis or analysis for the presence of pathology or cellular disorganization. Dr Young's research has pioneered the use of video-enhanced microscopy as an alternative method of analysis. Through the use of video micrographs (see examples above), blood can be tested for cellular disorganization.
http://www.emf-health.com/research-bloodtest.htm
Radio Wave Sickness
The Symptoms
http://www.megadisc.com.au/index_files/rfsickness1.htm
Real People with EMS
EMS cases
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/real/
Research Studies Done On Microwave Radiation
http://www.ideaireland.org/emrresearch.htm
Reservatrol
Resveratrol is naturally created by certain vines, pine trees, peanuts, grapes, and other plants. One of these plants (Polygonnum cuspidatum) is an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines that are prescribed for liver and heart conditions. Resveratrol is classified as a polyphenol because of its chemical structure. Polyphenols make up a huge group of plant compounds that are further broken down into other classifications such as flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, and the like. In the early '90s, after wine was pinpointed as the probable answer to the "French paradox," researchers realized that the resveratrol content of wine might be the secret ingredient behind the healthy heart effects attributed to it and the traditional Asian heart medicines containing Polygonnum. Research began in earnest, and just over a decade later, the accolades are enormous: "marked antioxidant activity," "shows great promise for preventing cardiovascular disease," "remarkable inhibitor," "chemotherapeutic, little or no toxic effects in healthy cells," "high efficacy against multiple sites." Dozens of studies were published in this past year alone. Research has uncovered a diverse range of activities that may make resveratrol one of the most useful agents ever discovered for a wide range of human health problems.*
http://www.lef.org/resveratrol/
Resveratrol improves mitochondrial function and protects against metabolic disease by activating SIRT1 and PGC-1alpha.
Diminished mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and aerobic capacity are associated with reduced longevity. We tested whether resveratrol (RSV), which is known to extend lifespan, impacts mitochondrial function and metabolic homeostasis. Treatment of mice with RSV significantly increased their aerobic capacity, as evidenced by their increased running time and consumption of oxygen in muscle fibers. RSV's effects were associated with an induction of genes for oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial biogenesis and were largely explained by an RSV-mediated decrease in PGC-1alpha acetylation and an increase in PGC-1alpha activity. This mechanism is consistent with RSV being a known activator of the protein deacetylase, SIRT1, and by the lack of effect of RSV in SIRT1(-/-) MEFs. Importantly, RSV treatment protected mice against diet-induced-obesity and insulin resistance. These pharmacological effects of RSV combined with the association of three Sirt1 SNPs and energy homeostasis in Finnish subjects implicates SIRT1 as a key regulator of energy and metabolic homeostasis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17112576&query_hl=22&itool=pubmed_docsum
Safe Wireless Initiative: Dr. George L. Carlo
"Scientific studies continue to accumulate showing that information-carrying radio waves from mobile telephones and other wireless devices, now used by more than 2 billion people worldwide, are dangerous. The mobile phone industry has not addressed the problem; governments around the world continue to be burdened by entanglements with the industry that render them unable to protect consumers. Emerging science shows links to conditions ranging from learning and spectrum disorders to cancer. If unabated, the brunt of the disease burden will continue to be borne by our children and grandchildren. Preventive interventions are available. The Safe Wireless Initiative project is intended to promote safety and empower consumers to protect themselves and their families. Please help us by joining this most important cause."
http://www.safewireless.org/
Sierra Nevada Microwave Route Map It
Might explain the Incline Village Outbreak. Since relay stations went digital in the 90s, longer distances were possible so it can be surmised that some of the microwave repeaters from the analog era were decomissioned.
http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=m&q4=Union%20Hill,%20CA,%2095945&q3=Incline%20Village,%20NV&q2=South%20Lake%20Tahoe,%20CA&q1=Topaz%20Lake,%20NV,%2089410&trf=0&lon=-120.344238&lat=39.114079&mag=9
Studying school beginners in western and eastern Germany: allergy trends and sensitisations 1991-2000
AIM: Aim of the study is to examine the hypotheses of a steeper increase in allergies and allergic sensitisations in East than in West German children between 1991 and 2000. METHOD: Between 1991 and 2000 we yearly repeated cross-sectional studies (SAWO: Study on school beginners) and asked 36,645 parents about diagnoses and symptoms of allergies in their six-year old children (response: 79 %). The study was done in Leipzig, Halle, Merseburg, Magdeburg, small towns in the Altmark region, Duisburg, Essen, Koln and Borken during spring. An allergological investigation was included 1991, 1994, 1997 and 2000. Dermatologists diagnosed a prevalent atopic eczema, administered a skin prick test (n = 7,229) and blood was taken for the determination of specific IgE antibodies against common allergens (n = 7,714, RAST). Odds Ratios (OR) for trend were calculated separately for the data from East and West Germany and are given along with their 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Allergies and their symptoms (exception: atopic eczema) were less prevalent in East German children born before the reunification than in West German ones. In East as well as in West Germany bronchial asthma was diagnosed more often in 2000 than in 1991 (OR East: 2.42 [1.78-3.28] West: 2.07 [1.43-3.00]).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=12516017
Subtle Field Technologies
Subtle Field Technologies is a cutting edge company that specialises in the design and development of electro magnetic/pulsed radiation, protection and neutralising devices.
http://www.subtlefieldtechnologies.com/
T-Cell Ratios Modulation by Nutrition: Case Report
I began studying T-cell ratios (T-helper/T-suppressor) because of the increasing number of patients that I saw complaining of viral?like illness of unknown etiology, e.g., sore throats, low?grade fever, weakness, persistent fatigue, and swollen glands. About 50% of these patients have had T-cell abnormalities. Decreases in T-helper cells are found in viral illness and chronic disease. There may be a new syndrome, a pre-AIDS related complex (pre-ARC). Increases in T-helper cells occur in autoimmune diseases, healing ulcers, and forms of leprosy. T-helper cell deficiency is likely to be an increasing problem even in non?AIDS patients....T-cells are particularly valuable in relationship to the control of viral and fungal infections. T-cells play a major role in direct and indirect control of bacterial infections (Blumberg and Schooley, 1985; Braverman and Pfeiffer, 1982). Severe defects in T-lymphocyte functions can lead to an increased susceptibility to viral, fungal, and bacterial infections and may also be an indicator of the degree of exposure to environmental carcinogens and toxins (Blumberg and Schooley, 1985). Most T-lymphocyte immunodeficiencies are due to intrinsic abnormalities in the lymphoid?stem cells (Blumberg and Schooley, 1985). The only curative therapy for T-lymphocyte defects and genetic diseases is the replacement of the normal lymphocyte stem cells. Bone-marrow transplantation is the primary therapy for T-lymphocyte defects. Bone-marrow therapy may have a future role for patients with AIDS and/or other T-helper cell deficiencies.
http://www.pathmed.com/p/119,320.html
TetraWatch: a research based campaign against TETRA Airwave
As UK residents and Council Tax payers, we are concerned about the introduction of the new Home Office police TETRA communications system.TETRAWATCH says NO to TETRA. We are protesting that an untested technology is being planted among us without consent, consultation and in complete disregard for the fears of ordinary people. It is being rolled out across the UK in the face of clear scientific indications that shout out for precaution. TETRA communications antennae have been erected close to schools, on top of hospitals, near nursing homes, and just metres away from housing. Often they are added to existing masts, requiring no planning permission (or with no permission at all). We are concerned about the health risks, (indeed many involved in TETRAWATCH suffer the described adverse symptoms). But we are also concerned about the costs, and the capacity of TETRA to provide effective police communications in any case. We believe that the system, called Airwave, is extremely poor value for public money and will not, indeed cannot, deliver to specification.
http://www.tetrawatch.net/main/intro.php
The 21st Century Smog: Electromagnetic Fields
Modern physics has confirmed what Eastern philosophy has been based upon for thousands of years - the human body is fundamentally a coherent, highly sensitive electrical system, emanating its own electromagnetic field, known as a biofield. All physical matter, including the earth itself, radiates elec-tromagnetic energy. The electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) found within the natural world are harmonious with and supportive of life.On the other hand, artificially created EMFs are 100-200 million times greater than what existed just two generations ago. Every minute of every day, whether we are awake or asleep, we are exposed to a constant barrage of man-made electromagnetic frequencies. Constant interference with our natural energy fields from external sources of EMFs can eventually damage our own fields, resulting in many physiological imbalances, most notably the hardening of the cell membrane. When this happens, waste products can't get out and nutrients can't get in. This leads to free radical damage that alters the DNA and causes cell mutation.Such serious imbalances will also adversely impact hormone production and neurological processes. This massive infusion of artificial energy overwhelms the system and leads to more rapid aging, elevated blood glucose levels, elevated lipid levels, high blood pressure, increased neuro-regulatory disturbances, and it compromises the central nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems.Robert 0. Becker; M.D., researcher and author of "Cross Currents: The Perils of Electropollution", explains that our bodies and immune systems are being adversely affected by man-made electromagnetic fields from sources that include power lines, cellphones, radar, microwaves, satellites, ham radios, computers, video display terminals, electric appliances, and Wi-Fi hot spots. He believes that radiation, once considered safe, is now correlated with increases in cancer; birth defects, depression, learning disabilities, CFS and A'sD.
http://www.bioenergy.timleitch.net.nz/emf_articles/hormones_disrupt.htm
The Ampligen Diaries
The Story of a Women With CFS who trusted the system. If only she had known about the microwaves.
http://www.cfids-me.org/marys/essays.html
The Benefits of Wheatgrass Juice
SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE (SOD), (an anti-cancer factor): There are three enzymes known to have significant anti-oxidant activity. One of these is Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), which is present in wheat grass. It has been found that cancerous cells have a deficiency or a complete lack of SOD. So, if you supplement your diet with wheat grass you will almost certainly be helping your body to avoid, or deal with, cancerous conditions. Anti-oxidants have the ability to mop up free radicals and so reduce or avoid cell mutation. Mutation is part of the first stage of cancer formation. Part two continues next week Just what are these 'anti-oxidants' we hear so much about these days - such as Superoxide Dismutase? During normal metabolism ( i.e. activity of the cells) our body produces waste products with active atoms attached - looking for something to combine with. These are 'free radicals.'
http://www.mpacorn.com/News/2003/1016/Health_and_Wellness/
The IDEA Position on Electro-magnetic Radiation
The Irish Doctors' Environmental Association believes that a sub-group of the population are particularly sensitive to exposure to different types of electro-magnetic radiation. The safe levels currently advised for exposure to this non-ionising radiation are based solely on its thermal effects. However, it is clear that this radiation also has non-thermal effects, which need to be taken into consideration when setting these safe levels. The electro-sensitivity experienced by some people results in a variety of distressing symptoms which must also be taken into account when setting safe levels for exposure to non-ionising radiation and when planning the siting of masts and transmitters.
http://www.ideaireland.org/emr.htm
The Research
In the Freiburger Appeal [6], initially 50 doctors in Germany reported reduced therapeutic efficiency of prescribed drugs correlated with the use of pulsed microwaves, such as those from Mobile Telephone Masts. Some 40,000 signatories have now supported the appeal, including 1,200 doctors. Alongside the Freiburger Appeal there are now similar appeals from Lichtenfelser, Hofer, Bamberger and Helsinki. In the Irish Republic, the IDEA group of Doctors has its own reports relating to Mobile Telephone Masts [10] which confirm the findings of the Freiburger Appeal doctors.
http://www.jerseymastconcern.co.uk/theresearch.html
The Tokitsu - Yayama Collaboration Preface by K. Tokitsu to the book Qi Healing, Way to a New Mind and Body, by Toshihiko Yayama. In 1995, I was delighted to find a book entitled Ki no ningengaku (the study of man through ki). This book was written by Toshihiko Yayama, a surgeon and oncologist at the main hospital of the Saga prefecture in Japan. I was particularly impressed by two things - Dr. Yayama's clarity of exposition of his method, and its effectiveness as attested by the number of patients cured.Dr. Yayama directs the cancer department at the hospital and also treats disease and illnesses, depending on the diagnosis, through the kik?(qi gong) method he has developed, through the modern methods of Western medicine, or through an association of the two. The effectiveness of this last method in healing large numbers of people is attested by the fact that it is covered by the local equivalent of Social Security or National Health.The main features of the Yayama method are efficiency, effectiveness and simplicity. The prime objective of kik?is well-being. If you feel good, as if your body had become fused with happiness, there would be no complications in your bodily sensations. If the aim of kik?is simple, the method of practice must be so as well. However, the analytical approach to this form of simplicity is complex. The two things should not be confused. That is, in appearance the Yayama method is simple, but there is, to a certain extent, an opening for analysis, which is welcome news for those who wish to approach things rationally. In the course of his medical practice, Dr. Yayama has discovered that in women, ki (qi) circulates in a direction opposite to the direction found in men. This was a stunning conclusion, since the pattern in men had been considered universal since the classical Chinese period. Today however, more and more Chinese Qi gong Masters are in agreement with this finding.Dr. Yayama experiments with the utilisation of modern means to achieve his aims and enhance effectiveness. He has invented new apparatus, including a 搝ero-search?device.
http://www.tokitsu.com/en/presentation/articles/articles-en-sp/the-tokitsu-yayama-collaboration.html
The Zap Checker
For detecting microwaves and other HF Radiation. It works well. I have one. Paul
http://www.lessemf.com/rf.html#445
The difficult Survival in a Global Microwave Oven
It's getting harder and harder - in fact, almost impossible - to die from natural causes. Coronary diseases and heart attacks are the most common causes of death in the industrialized world, with cancer coming in a close second.
http://www.zeitenschrift.net/magazin/1-microwave.ihtml
Urgent suspicions of serious health damage from pulsed high frequency electromagnetic fields (mobile phone base stations,etc.). Many people have become ill with a characteristic combination of symptoms, which is new to us as doctors, at exposure levels far below the guideline limits, which apply only to thermal effects. Residents in the vicinity of masts have one or more of the following symptoms: Sleep disturbance, tiredness, headache, restlessness, lethargy, irritability, inability to concentrate, forgetfulness, trouble finding words, depressive tendency, noises in the ears, impaired hearing, dizziness, nosebleeds, visual disturbances, frequent infections, sinusitis, joint and muscle pains, feeling deaf, palpitations, increased blood pressure, hormone disturbances, gaining weight, hair loss, nocturnal sweating, nausea.
http://www.tetrawatch.net/links/links.php?id=stoiberlet
Vitamin E as Anti-oxidant and Modulator of Immune System
Vitamin E is an efficient antioxidant and a modulator of the immune system. Although racial differences in both baseline vitamin E level and immunologic subsets are known, no reliable data exist for the Asian population. Furthermore, the extent of the effect of -tocopherol in protecting lymphocyte cells against oxidative stress and its association with cell-mediated immunity have not been elucidated. This study was undertaken to investigate the immunologic and antioxidant effects of vitamin E in healthy ethnic Chinese men and women. Volunteers < 35 y old (n = 26) were supplemented with 233 mg/d dl--tocopherol for 28 d. The in vitro proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of T-lymphocytes was determined in the study group before and after vitamin E supplementation. Cell-mediated immunity subsets and hydrogen peroxide production in T-lymphocytes were investigated by flow cytometry. The oxidant-antioxidant balance in plasma and urine was studied by spectrophotometric and gas chromatography-mass selective detection methods. The antioxidant properties of vitamin E were established (P < 0.01) by the elevation of plasma vitamin E, together with depression in both plasma malondialdehyde and urinary DNA adduct 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine after supplementation. Our data suggest a specific requirement for vitamin E in total-T and T-helper cell proliferation. We present the first evidence of the beneficial effects of supplemental vitamin E in healthy Chinese individuals on cell-mediated immunity and oxidative stress. http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/130/12/2932
World EMF Radiation Studies Archives of EMF Studies ( Big Archive )
http://wbldb.femu.rwth-aachen.de/db_status.php3?l=e
Would You Put Your Head In A Microwave Oven?
Technology has transformed this planet into an open microwave system with its satellite transmissions. This book examines what the health consequences are. This book simply points out that the gradual rise in illness across broad geographic areas are an early indicator of microwave illness, independently of what the experts lead you to believe. The handwriting is already on the wall and most of know that something is wrong. This book discusses in simple terms the effects of microwave radiation on the human body. I utilize dosimetry studies done by the US Air Force, which outline in clear terms what organs of the body are most vulnerable to cumulative microwave exposure. I outline the mechanisms by which slow exposure is masquerading as various illnesses across this country.
http://www.mast-victims.org/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=3&topic=61
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Denial, Self-deception, the Doubting Game, and the Believing Game!
To belong to a group of any sort, the tacit price of membership is to agree not to notice one's own feelings of uneasiness and misgiving, and certainly not to question anything that challenges the group's way of doing things. The price for the group in this arrangement is that dissent, even healthy dissent, is stifled.
- Daniel Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths, 1985
Called 'groupthink,' this psychological dynamic can develop within a decision-making organization in which loyalty to the group or the need to reach a consensus becomes more important than solving the problem at hand. It can be a subtle phenomenon, which participating individuals often fail to recognize, but its byproduct is the suppression, elimination, dismissal, or reinterpretation of dissenting information. Groupthink requires several forms of lying to maintain the status quo, including the ignoring or omission of facts, selective memory, and denial. The subject of electromagnetic fields has collided with organizational denial and groupthink more often than not, and continues to do so.
-B. Blake Levitt, Electromagnetic Fields, 1995
In the preface of Daniel Goleman's first book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception he writes:
We live at a particularly perilous moment, one in which self-deception is a subject of increasing urgency. The planet itself faces a threat unknown in other times: its utter destruction. Whether that death be the quick one, from nuclear war and the catastrophic changes that would follow, or the slow ecological one, from the inexorable destruction of forests, arable land and usable water, the human capacity for self-deception will have played its part.
Consider the rapidly growing ecological deficit - soil erosion, shrinking forests, grasslands turning to desert, depletion of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer, and the poisoning and drying up of water tables.
Our habits of consumption, on a worldwide scale, are destroying the planet's resources at a rate unparalleled in history. In effect, we are destroying the planet for our own grandchildren, simply by our heedlessness of the links between how we live and the effects on the planet.
The virgin rain forests of the Amazon, for example, are being destroyed at an incredible rate, to make room for cattle to graze. Those cattle are raised, in the main, to feed the world's hunger for beef.
How many hamburgers does the destruction of an acre of virgin Amazon jungle yield? We do not know: the answer could be determined, but that bit of homework has not been done. And that is the point: we live our lives oblivious to the consequences for the planet, for our own descendants, of just how we live. We do not know the connections between the decisions we make daily - for instance to buy this item rather than that - and the toll those decisions have on the planet.
It is feasible to weigh, more or less accurately, the specific ecological damage involved in a given act of manufacturing. And having done so, to generate a standard unit that would summarize how much ecological damage has gone into the making of a car, say, or a box of aluminium foil.
Knowing that, we would be able to take more responsibility for the impact on the planet of how we choose to live on it. But there is no such information available, and even the most ecologically concerned among us do not really know the net effect on the planet of how we live. And, for most of us, being oblivious to that relationship allows us to slip into the grand deception, that the small and large decisions in our material lives are of no great consequence.
The question, then, is what can we do to break out of these self-deceptions, and the others that have us in their web. The answer this book proposes is to understand, first, how it is that we are caught at all. For self-deception, by its very nature, is the most elusive of mental facts. We do not see what it is that we do not see.
Self-deception operates both at the level of the individual mind, and in the collective awareness of the group. To belong to a group of any sort, the tacit price of membership is to agree not to notice one's own feelings of uneasiness and misgiving, and certainly not to question anything that challenges the group's way of doing things. The price for the group in this arrangement is that dissent, even healthy dissent, is stifled.
Take the case of the shuttle explosion. The night before the launch two engineers strongly objected, saying that the seals on the propulsion rocket were not designed to bear up in cold weather. Their objections were never passed along to those at higher levels, many of whom already knew of the danger, but had chosen to discount its import. There had been several delays already, and people were questioning whether NASA could ever make the shuttle work well enough to pay its own way.
In the inquiry after the disaster, when the same two engineers testified about what had happened, they were demoted. And yet what they had done was in the highest interests of the entire mission. Had they been heard, the tragedy would not have occurred. Only after public outcry were the engineers reinstated.
Therein lies the lesson for those who want to break through the cocoons of silence that keep vital truths from the collective awareness. It is the courage to seek the truth and to speak it that can save us from the narcotic of self-deception. And each of us has some access to some bit of truth that needs to be spoken.
It is a paradox of our time that those with power are too comfortable to notice the pain of those who suffer, and those who suffer have no power.
To break out of this trap requires, as Elie Wiesel has put it, the courage to speak truth to power.
In her book Electromagnetic Fields, (1995), B. Blake Levitt also talks about the psychology of denial:
The Dynamics of Denial
When we think of denial what comes to mind is someone knowing the "truth" but pretending otherwise. But in fact, the process of denial is a complex psychological dynamic in which a person is actually not experiencing his or her experience.
Denial has a useful healthy purpose for the human ego structure. When a loved one dies for instance it is a way of keeping overwhelming fear and grief at bay until one can come to terms with the loss. A less healthy example of denial is the alcoholic who rationalizes continued drinking in various delusional ways.
Those who study the process of lying have observed that whole communities, organizations, and various official bodies can manifest group denial, which seems to occur most often when the subject under discussion is complex or has important implications for the status quo. Organizational denial is closely linked to another unproductive process that leads to group paralysis. Called 'groupthink,' this psychological dynamic can develop within a decision-making organization in which loyalty to the group or the need to reach a consensus becomes more important than solving the problem at hand. It can be a subtle phenomenon, which participating individuals often fail to recognize, but its byproduct is the suppression, elimination, dismissal, or reinterpretation of dissenting information. Groupthink requires several forms of lying to maintain the status quo, including the ignoring or omission of facts, selective memory, and denial. The subject of electromagnetic fields has collided with organizational denial and groupthink more often than not, and continues to do so.
When talking about the dangers of electropollution, very oftent he reaction of many people is that of denial, skepticism, and self-deception. Some people work for the military where the use of this technology is not to be questioned and a whole paradigmatic mindset has been created to counter such questions, others work for the cell phone industry where the money to be made is astronomical, others own profitable stock in these companies, whereas others are just addicted to the convenience of owning one of these mini weapons of mass destruction. Most people have been conditioned to "play" what Peter Elbow (1973) has called the "doubting game":
Describing yet another continuum, Elbow noted that most scholarly traditions are too myopically involved in what he called the "doubting game" of truth seeking. "The doubting game seeks truth ... by seeking error ... You must assume [an assertion] is untrue.... You make special effort to extricate yourself from the assertions in question.... You must hold off to one side the self, its wishes, preconceptions, experiences, and commitments" (1973:148). Elbow felt that the doubting game has gained a monopoly on legitimacy in Western culture: "...To almost anyone in the academic or intellectual world, it seems as though when he plays the doubting game he is being rigorous, disciplined, rational, and tough-minded. And if for any reason he refrains from playing the doubting game, he feels he is being unintellectual, irrational, and sloppy" (p. 151)
Elbow proposes that we counter the mentality of the doubting game with that of the "Believing Game":
Elbow contended that we need to turn such conceptions upside-down, to look at the other end of the continuum and recognize the importance of what he called the "believing game." In the believing game you refrain from doubting the assertions.... You try to find truths, not errors; you make acts of self-insertion and self-involvement, not self-extrication.
In Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, H.D. Brown (1993).
Since people have been conditioned to accept the "dogma of doubting" everything without really actually seemingly using their brains, it is important to make people aware of and to coax them into participating in the Believing Game.
peace
paul
- Daniel Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths, 1985
Called 'groupthink,' this psychological dynamic can develop within a decision-making organization in which loyalty to the group or the need to reach a consensus becomes more important than solving the problem at hand. It can be a subtle phenomenon, which participating individuals often fail to recognize, but its byproduct is the suppression, elimination, dismissal, or reinterpretation of dissenting information. Groupthink requires several forms of lying to maintain the status quo, including the ignoring or omission of facts, selective memory, and denial. The subject of electromagnetic fields has collided with organizational denial and groupthink more often than not, and continues to do so.
-B. Blake Levitt, Electromagnetic Fields, 1995
In the preface of Daniel Goleman's first book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception he writes:
We live at a particularly perilous moment, one in which self-deception is a subject of increasing urgency. The planet itself faces a threat unknown in other times: its utter destruction. Whether that death be the quick one, from nuclear war and the catastrophic changes that would follow, or the slow ecological one, from the inexorable destruction of forests, arable land and usable water, the human capacity for self-deception will have played its part.
Consider the rapidly growing ecological deficit - soil erosion, shrinking forests, grasslands turning to desert, depletion of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer, and the poisoning and drying up of water tables.
Our habits of consumption, on a worldwide scale, are destroying the planet's resources at a rate unparalleled in history. In effect, we are destroying the planet for our own grandchildren, simply by our heedlessness of the links between how we live and the effects on the planet.
The virgin rain forests of the Amazon, for example, are being destroyed at an incredible rate, to make room for cattle to graze. Those cattle are raised, in the main, to feed the world's hunger for beef.
How many hamburgers does the destruction of an acre of virgin Amazon jungle yield? We do not know: the answer could be determined, but that bit of homework has not been done. And that is the point: we live our lives oblivious to the consequences for the planet, for our own descendants, of just how we live. We do not know the connections between the decisions we make daily - for instance to buy this item rather than that - and the toll those decisions have on the planet.
It is feasible to weigh, more or less accurately, the specific ecological damage involved in a given act of manufacturing. And having done so, to generate a standard unit that would summarize how much ecological damage has gone into the making of a car, say, or a box of aluminium foil.
Knowing that, we would be able to take more responsibility for the impact on the planet of how we choose to live on it. But there is no such information available, and even the most ecologically concerned among us do not really know the net effect on the planet of how we live. And, for most of us, being oblivious to that relationship allows us to slip into the grand deception, that the small and large decisions in our material lives are of no great consequence.
The question, then, is what can we do to break out of these self-deceptions, and the others that have us in their web. The answer this book proposes is to understand, first, how it is that we are caught at all. For self-deception, by its very nature, is the most elusive of mental facts. We do not see what it is that we do not see.
Self-deception operates both at the level of the individual mind, and in the collective awareness of the group. To belong to a group of any sort, the tacit price of membership is to agree not to notice one's own feelings of uneasiness and misgiving, and certainly not to question anything that challenges the group's way of doing things. The price for the group in this arrangement is that dissent, even healthy dissent, is stifled.
Take the case of the shuttle explosion. The night before the launch two engineers strongly objected, saying that the seals on the propulsion rocket were not designed to bear up in cold weather. Their objections were never passed along to those at higher levels, many of whom already knew of the danger, but had chosen to discount its import. There had been several delays already, and people were questioning whether NASA could ever make the shuttle work well enough to pay its own way.
In the inquiry after the disaster, when the same two engineers testified about what had happened, they were demoted. And yet what they had done was in the highest interests of the entire mission. Had they been heard, the tragedy would not have occurred. Only after public outcry were the engineers reinstated.
Therein lies the lesson for those who want to break through the cocoons of silence that keep vital truths from the collective awareness. It is the courage to seek the truth and to speak it that can save us from the narcotic of self-deception. And each of us has some access to some bit of truth that needs to be spoken.
It is a paradox of our time that those with power are too comfortable to notice the pain of those who suffer, and those who suffer have no power.
To break out of this trap requires, as Elie Wiesel has put it, the courage to speak truth to power.
In her book Electromagnetic Fields, (1995), B. Blake Levitt also talks about the psychology of denial:
The Dynamics of Denial
When we think of denial what comes to mind is someone knowing the "truth" but pretending otherwise. But in fact, the process of denial is a complex psychological dynamic in which a person is actually not experiencing his or her experience.
Denial has a useful healthy purpose for the human ego structure. When a loved one dies for instance it is a way of keeping overwhelming fear and grief at bay until one can come to terms with the loss. A less healthy example of denial is the alcoholic who rationalizes continued drinking in various delusional ways.
Those who study the process of lying have observed that whole communities, organizations, and various official bodies can manifest group denial, which seems to occur most often when the subject under discussion is complex or has important implications for the status quo. Organizational denial is closely linked to another unproductive process that leads to group paralysis. Called 'groupthink,' this psychological dynamic can develop within a decision-making organization in which loyalty to the group or the need to reach a consensus becomes more important than solving the problem at hand. It can be a subtle phenomenon, which participating individuals often fail to recognize, but its byproduct is the suppression, elimination, dismissal, or reinterpretation of dissenting information. Groupthink requires several forms of lying to maintain the status quo, including the ignoring or omission of facts, selective memory, and denial. The subject of electromagnetic fields has collided with organizational denial and groupthink more often than not, and continues to do so.
When talking about the dangers of electropollution, very oftent he reaction of many people is that of denial, skepticism, and self-deception. Some people work for the military where the use of this technology is not to be questioned and a whole paradigmatic mindset has been created to counter such questions, others work for the cell phone industry where the money to be made is astronomical, others own profitable stock in these companies, whereas others are just addicted to the convenience of owning one of these mini weapons of mass destruction. Most people have been conditioned to "play" what Peter Elbow (1973) has called the "doubting game":
Describing yet another continuum, Elbow noted that most scholarly traditions are too myopically involved in what he called the "doubting game" of truth seeking. "The doubting game seeks truth ... by seeking error ... You must assume [an assertion] is untrue.... You make special effort to extricate yourself from the assertions in question.... You must hold off to one side the self, its wishes, preconceptions, experiences, and commitments" (1973:148). Elbow felt that the doubting game has gained a monopoly on legitimacy in Western culture: "...To almost anyone in the academic or intellectual world, it seems as though when he plays the doubting game he is being rigorous, disciplined, rational, and tough-minded. And if for any reason he refrains from playing the doubting game, he feels he is being unintellectual, irrational, and sloppy" (p. 151)
Elbow proposes that we counter the mentality of the doubting game with that of the "Believing Game":
Elbow contended that we need to turn such conceptions upside-down, to look at the other end of the continuum and recognize the importance of what he called the "believing game." In the believing game you refrain from doubting the assertions.... You try to find truths, not errors; you make acts of self-insertion and self-involvement, not self-extrication.
In Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, H.D. Brown (1993).
Since people have been conditioned to accept the "dogma of doubting" everything without really actually seemingly using their brains, it is important to make people aware of and to coax them into participating in the Believing Game.
peace
paul
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
"The Collective Unconscious" & "Diffusion of Responsibility": "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".
When trying to understand the "Collective Unconscious" use of mobile phones and hence the damage it is leveling to not only to one's own and other people's health but also to all life on this planet, it may indeed be very helpful to consider how the concept of "diffusion of responsibility" is connected here. Since, after all, "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".
paul
Psychology of Communication: social influence
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/socinf/diffusion.html
Social Influence - Diffusion of responsibility
This phenomenon has been thoroughly researched since the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. She was attacked at night just outside her home. She fought the murderer off, but he returned and attacked her again as she lay in the street. Repeatedly he ran away and returned, the murder taking a full half hour. Although she was screaming for help in a densely populated neighbourhood, no one came to her assistance, nor even alerted the police, although police established afterwards that her screams were heard by at least 38 of her neighbours.
Psychologists have supposed that in this case a process known as diffusion of responsibility was at work. This means that when individuals know that many others are present, then they as individuals do not bear the full burden of responsibility. They make the assumption that someone else must be taking care of that or surely someone must have done something by now'.
In the College where I work, the Psychology lecturer once arranged for her class to have to use the language laboratory on some kn. of pretext. Not long after she had started the lesson in the language laboratory, she was called away to the telephone. While she was away, someone was attacked in the room next to the language lab. There were screams and the sound of falling furniture. Eventually everything went quiet. None of the Psychology students went to investigate. The Psychology lecturer had set the whole thing up before she left. She had taken care to start the language lab recording before she left. She played the students the recording of how they had behaved during her absence. Sure enough, the consensus view was that 'somebody'll do something about it'.
This is similar to risky shift found in the decisions taken by committees. You might think that when decisions are taken by a committee, the decisions are likely to be rather unadventurous. After all, a committee consists of all sorts of different people, often with conflicting views. Committee procedure - with chairman, secretary, minutes secretary and so on - is designed to minimise open conflict between the members, so you would expect committees to arrive at decisions which are rather pallid compromises.
In fact, however, it has frequently been observed that committees reach bolder, more adventurous decisions than any single committee member would take. This phenomenon is known as risky shift. It is not quite clear why it happens. It could perhaps be due to the greater persuasiveness of the more adventurous members of the committee, but it seems fairly certain that it is in part due to the diffusion of responsibility which occurs amongst the members. Neither one of them is fully responsible for the decision taken and so they are free to take risky decisions without bearing the burden of responsibility for them. More recent researchers have, however, shown that committees are also very likely to reach extremely cautious decisions. As a result, the term group polarization has been introduced, which encompasses both extremes. Either way, it remains odd, on the surface of it, that groups do not simply reach a decision which is the aggregate of all their members' views. Conceivably, this is not due solely to deindividuation, but also in part to groupthink.
Various psychological experiments have been conducted and the results appear to support the hypothesis that people do feel that their responsibility is diffused amongst any others they know to be present.
Is it likely that in a democratic society diffusion of responsibility is likely to be a reason for inaction? What do you think? It seems to me that it is, though I can't find any research to support my view. In a democracy there are formally established channels for protesting against government policy. We all have access to these channels - writing to the press, establishing a pressure group, organising a march, phoning in to the radio, writing to our MP etc. Because we know that all citizens have the right to protest in those ways, could it be that we are inclined to leave the protests to someone else.
diffusion of responsibility
http://www.answers.com/topic/diffusion-of-responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned.
Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself:
in a group of peers who, through action or inaction, allow events to occur which they would never allow if alone (action is typically referred to as groupthink; inaction is typically referred to as the bystander effect) or
in hierarchical organizations as when, for example, underlings claim that they were following orders and supervisors claim that they were just issuing directives and not doing anything per se.
This mindset can be seen in the phrase "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".
Examples
Kitty Genovese, a New York woman, was stabbed to death near her house. More than 30 of Genovese's neighbors heard her screaming for help, yet no one helped her, each thinking that somebody else would.
In a firing squad, one random shooter is traditionally given a blank bullet, allowing all members of the firing squad to believe that they only fired a blank.
In some electric chairs there are many switches, one of which is not connected. The executioners may then choose to believe that they pulled a non-functional switch.
This phenomenon also applies to much more mundane circumstances, such as cleaning and maintenance of shared space/items or unassigned work in large organizations getting neglected.
Legal uses
The latter definition of diffusion of responsibility was used as a legal defense (unsuccessfully) by many of the Nazis being tried at Nuremberg. It has been used with varying degrees of success in other situations.
See also
Groupthink
Milgram experiment
Design by committee
Bystander effect
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
paul
Psychology of Communication: social influence
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/socinf/diffusion.html
Social Influence - Diffusion of responsibility
This phenomenon has been thoroughly researched since the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. She was attacked at night just outside her home. She fought the murderer off, but he returned and attacked her again as she lay in the street. Repeatedly he ran away and returned, the murder taking a full half hour. Although she was screaming for help in a densely populated neighbourhood, no one came to her assistance, nor even alerted the police, although police established afterwards that her screams were heard by at least 38 of her neighbours.
Psychologists have supposed that in this case a process known as diffusion of responsibility was at work. This means that when individuals know that many others are present, then they as individuals do not bear the full burden of responsibility. They make the assumption that someone else must be taking care of that or surely someone must have done something by now'.
In the College where I work, the Psychology lecturer once arranged for her class to have to use the language laboratory on some kn. of pretext. Not long after she had started the lesson in the language laboratory, she was called away to the telephone. While she was away, someone was attacked in the room next to the language lab. There were screams and the sound of falling furniture. Eventually everything went quiet. None of the Psychology students went to investigate. The Psychology lecturer had set the whole thing up before she left. She had taken care to start the language lab recording before she left. She played the students the recording of how they had behaved during her absence. Sure enough, the consensus view was that 'somebody'll do something about it'.
This is similar to risky shift found in the decisions taken by committees. You might think that when decisions are taken by a committee, the decisions are likely to be rather unadventurous. After all, a committee consists of all sorts of different people, often with conflicting views. Committee procedure - with chairman, secretary, minutes secretary and so on - is designed to minimise open conflict between the members, so you would expect committees to arrive at decisions which are rather pallid compromises.
In fact, however, it has frequently been observed that committees reach bolder, more adventurous decisions than any single committee member would take. This phenomenon is known as risky shift. It is not quite clear why it happens. It could perhaps be due to the greater persuasiveness of the more adventurous members of the committee, but it seems fairly certain that it is in part due to the diffusion of responsibility which occurs amongst the members. Neither one of them is fully responsible for the decision taken and so they are free to take risky decisions without bearing the burden of responsibility for them. More recent researchers have, however, shown that committees are also very likely to reach extremely cautious decisions. As a result, the term group polarization has been introduced, which encompasses both extremes. Either way, it remains odd, on the surface of it, that groups do not simply reach a decision which is the aggregate of all their members' views. Conceivably, this is not due solely to deindividuation, but also in part to groupthink.
Various psychological experiments have been conducted and the results appear to support the hypothesis that people do feel that their responsibility is diffused amongst any others they know to be present.
Is it likely that in a democratic society diffusion of responsibility is likely to be a reason for inaction? What do you think? It seems to me that it is, though I can't find any research to support my view. In a democracy there are formally established channels for protesting against government policy. We all have access to these channels - writing to the press, establishing a pressure group, organising a march, phoning in to the radio, writing to our MP etc. Because we know that all citizens have the right to protest in those ways, could it be that we are inclined to leave the protests to someone else.
diffusion of responsibility
http://www.answers.com/topic/diffusion-of-responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned.
Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself:
in a group of peers who, through action or inaction, allow events to occur which they would never allow if alone (action is typically referred to as groupthink; inaction is typically referred to as the bystander effect) or
in hierarchical organizations as when, for example, underlings claim that they were following orders and supervisors claim that they were just issuing directives and not doing anything per se.
This mindset can be seen in the phrase "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".
Examples
Kitty Genovese, a New York woman, was stabbed to death near her house. More than 30 of Genovese's neighbors heard her screaming for help, yet no one helped her, each thinking that somebody else would.
In a firing squad, one random shooter is traditionally given a blank bullet, allowing all members of the firing squad to believe that they only fired a blank.
In some electric chairs there are many switches, one of which is not connected. The executioners may then choose to believe that they pulled a non-functional switch.
This phenomenon also applies to much more mundane circumstances, such as cleaning and maintenance of shared space/items or unassigned work in large organizations getting neglected.
Legal uses
The latter definition of diffusion of responsibility was used as a legal defense (unsuccessfully) by many of the Nazis being tried at Nuremberg. It has been used with varying degrees of success in other situations.
See also
Groupthink
Milgram experiment
Design by committee
Bystander effect
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Worst Hay Fever Season Ever
Obviously, this reporter isn't aware of the connection betweeen an increase in Electrosmog and an increase in Allergies.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=631582005
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/344/C4482/
http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=3548
http://www.emf-health.com/chinese.php?u=/blog/2005/12/cell-phone-radiation-may-trigger.html
Duh! It is no wonder why one out of every four children suffer from atopic dermititis (eczema) and one out of four adults suffer from hay fever in heavily electropolluted Japan. When will they put the pieces together? When will they connect the dots?
Personally, I suddenly started to get hay fever around 1993 just when cell phones started to become popular in Japan. Though I never connected with an increase in ambient microwave radiation at the time, over the years my allergies just progressively got worse and worse and I kept on getting stricter and stricter about what I ate. However, I did notice that when I left Japan to go on short visits to other countries that my allergies would suddenly and mysteriously get better. Finally, after getting CFIDS they became unbearably worse and this started me on my search to look for the cause and the cure for this illness. Along the way, I discovered that microwaves and other forms of EMR are very likely indeed responsible for the drastic increase in allergies worldwide. There is research showing a causal effect and there is the correlation between the increase in ambient electromagnetic radiation and the increase in allergies. The Hygiene Theory holds no water whatsover. It is only correlative and there is no research showing cause and effect to back it up.
paul
THE RAPE OF SPRING: HEALTH CONCERNS OVER CROP
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2533988.ece
It's the worst hay fever season ever. And more of the English countryside than ever before is carpeted in garish oilseed rape. Are the two phenomena connected? Jeremy Laurance investigates
Published: 12 May 2007
From the air, England looks as if it is preparing for an emergency. Where once farmers grew wheat and barley, a tide of oilseed rape, bolstered by EU subsidies, has swept across the country. Slicks of Day-Glo yellow lie daubed across the land, cladding the countryside in a protective suit, as if it were caught in an intercontinental crisis. Some people think that is exactly what it is.
There are those who admire the luminous brilliance of the crop, and there are those who complain it has created a garish patchwork which has despoiled the glory of the English countryside. But concern about the spread of oilseed rape is not only aesthetic. This year, with record temperatures and low rainfall in April, it flowered early, releasing its sweet, cloying scent along with sackfuls of pollen. And pollen, to Britain's 13 million hay fever sufferers, spells trouble.
As the flowering season has peaked in what threatens to be a record year for hayfever, so have complaints from people living and working in, or merely passing through, the areas where oilseed rape is grown. Stricken by rasping throats and itchy eyes, some claim the yellow tide is destroying our health as well as our countryside. Others insist it is unfairly blamed.
Two letters, published in The Daily Telegraph last week, encapsulate the dispute. Anna Dickie of Sudbury, Suffolk, described bitterly how the county was "blighted by smelly fields of rape which brings misery to hayfever sufferers and asthmatics". Even the family pets suffered, she added. "We can't hang washing out to dry as clothes become impregnated with rape pollen. My asthmatic cat is particularly affected by this horrid crop and has to be treated with daily inhalers and pills at this time of year."
A couple of days later Chris Clarke from Moelfre, Abergele in north Wales, sprang to the crop's defence. "We consider ourselves blessed by large areas of rape. Our bees are busy now converting its nectar into honey in one of the best and earliest starts to the beekeeping season in memory.
"My wife who suffers seriously from hayfever, wanders among our hives at the rape fields without ill effects. Closer to home she suffers and we think it likely that birch, lilac and other pollen is the cause."
Who is right? Allergy specialists favour Mr Clarke's analysis. In the league table of hayfever triggers, oilseed rape ranks low. True allergy to rapeseed pollen is rare, specialists say. On the other hand they do not dismiss Ms Dickie's view. Even though true allergy to rapeseed pollen may be rare, it can still cause widespread irritation to large numbers of people thanks to the organic compounds it gives off and its garish colour and overwhelming smell. Whether this reaction is correctly labelled "hayfever" or not is immaterial to those who suffer its symptoms.
This year the hayfever season has started earlier and threatens to last longer than ever. Boots, the high street chemists, released figures last week showing sales of hayfever remedies were up 146 per cent compared with the same time last year. In inner cities, where pollution is worst, sales are up even higher at 177 per cent above last year.
Conditions have been ideal for pollen production with plenty of rain in January and February followed by a long hot spring promoting good grass growth. People have been out and about in the hot weather at weekends, exposed to tree pollen, and there is already some grass pollen, the main hayfever trigger, about.
Professor Jean Emberlin, director of the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at the University of Worcester, said: "We could be facing a record year for hayfever. In 2006 we had enough rain to keep the season going and we saw record amounts of pollen across the Midlands. This year it will depend on how much rainfall we get.
"We had enough rain in the spring to get good grass growth so we are expecting the main grass pollen season to start in the last week of May, a week or 10 days earlier than average."
Hayfever is critically dependent on the weather. As temperatures rise, pollen seasons are lengthening and the pollen itself is provoking a more powerful reaction, especially in cities where pollution increases the irritant effect.
This year, the Meteorological Office says there is a 70 per cent chance of unusually hot weather and a one in eight chance of a heatwave. Global warming was identified as a factor behind rising pollen counts by the UN's Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change in 2001. Last year had one of the warmest summers on record and one of the worst for hayfever.
Professor Emberlin said: "Temperature stress, pollution input and climate change all add up to more pollen, a longer pollen season and pollen that is more allergenic."
The message is that if you think it is bad now, it is bound to get worse over the next few weeks. Most people currently suffering symptoms are reacting to tree pollen, made worse, in towns and cities, by car exhausts. Air pollution from exhaust fumes seems to have an enhancing effect on the release of allergenic substances, particularly from birch pollen. Pollen in cities thus causes more allergy than pollen in the country.
By the end of the month we will be in the peak grass pollen season, which affects many more people, and is the commonest cause of hayfever. Even though this is still a week or two away, there is already a fair amount around, because of the warm conditions.
But when people cough and itch, like Ms Dickie's cat, they look around for the cause and the strong smelling, canary yellow fields of oilseed rape are the most obvious culprit.
An estimated 600,000 hectares of land are covered in the bobbing yellow flower heads, which were practically unknown in Britain 30 years ago. Production last year grew by 17 per cent and is predicted to top two million tonnes next year by the Department for Rural Affairs.
For farmers it turns a healthy profit with unlimited demand for the seed as a biofuel - much of the UK's production goes to Germany to make biodiesel - and to make "extra virgin rapeseed oil", an alternative to olive oil.
Its unhealthy effects on the populace remain a matter of dispute. Until the 1980s, when the acreage under cultivation rapidly increased, there was no public suspicion that it might be harming health. Nor was the anxiety in Britain seen in other countries.
As the crop advanced across the country during the 1980s and 1990s, concern mounted and in 1996 the UK Medical Research Council decided it was time for a closer look. Its Institute of Environment and Health in Southampton launched an investigation which concluded there was "no clear evidence" that oilseed rape has adverse effects on health. Allergy to rape pollen was rare, even in areas of intense cultivation, and those affected tended to be multiply sensitive to other substances with no indication that rapeseed was the trigger.
Rapeseed pollen is sticky and heavy and transmitted by insects (unlike grass pollen which is disseminated on the wind). So it does not travel far and only those within 50 metres or so of a field are likely to be in range. Some experts have suggested that mould which affects the crop during seed ripening could trigger a reaction but the researchers found no evidence for this.
However, oilseed rape does give off volatile organic compounds such as terpenes and aldehydes which could account for its irritant effect on the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth and throat. Yet the Southampton researchers remained puzzled as to why in other rapeseed-growing countries such as France, Germany and Denmark, there was no public concern.
Specialists today say that in the 10 years since publication of the MRC report, no significant new evidence has come to light to alter its conclusions.
Professor Pamela Ewan, consultant allergist at Addenbrookes Hospital, said: "The amount of allergy to rapeseed is very low. People think they are allergic to it because of its bright colour and powerful smell when they are really allergic to other pollens that they can't see. There could be some adverse reaction to the volatile chemicals the plant produces. But I think the perception is much greater than the reality. Grass pollen is by far the most potent cause of hayfever in Britain, though it is different in other countries. In the US the main cause is ragweed."
Others take a less rigorous approach to the science, preferring to emphasise sufferers' reported experience. Muriel Simmons, spokeswoman for the charity Allergy UK, said: "Rapeseed very rarely triggers an allergic response, but it may be an irritant. For sufferers from rhinitis or asthma it may exacerbate their symptoms through the fumes it gives off. The best way to deal with this is to close the windows of the car if you are driving through an area of oilseed rape. If you are affected, the symptoms disappear in 10 minutes once you are through the area."
She added: "I think it is worrying that we are seeing the yellow tide advancing and the number of fields turned over to rapeseed spreading. Whether it is affecting the immune system or not is irrelevant - it is making a lot of people feel very uncomfortable."
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=631582005
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/344/C4482/
http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=3548
http://www.emf-health.com/chinese.php?u=/blog/2005/12/cell-phone-radiation-may-trigger.html
Duh! It is no wonder why one out of every four children suffer from atopic dermititis (eczema) and one out of four adults suffer from hay fever in heavily electropolluted Japan. When will they put the pieces together? When will they connect the dots?
Personally, I suddenly started to get hay fever around 1993 just when cell phones started to become popular in Japan. Though I never connected with an increase in ambient microwave radiation at the time, over the years my allergies just progressively got worse and worse and I kept on getting stricter and stricter about what I ate. However, I did notice that when I left Japan to go on short visits to other countries that my allergies would suddenly and mysteriously get better. Finally, after getting CFIDS they became unbearably worse and this started me on my search to look for the cause and the cure for this illness. Along the way, I discovered that microwaves and other forms of EMR are very likely indeed responsible for the drastic increase in allergies worldwide. There is research showing a causal effect and there is the correlation between the increase in ambient electromagnetic radiation and the increase in allergies. The Hygiene Theory holds no water whatsover. It is only correlative and there is no research showing cause and effect to back it up.
paul
THE RAPE OF SPRING: HEALTH CONCERNS OVER CROP
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2533988.ece
It's the worst hay fever season ever. And more of the English countryside than ever before is carpeted in garish oilseed rape. Are the two phenomena connected? Jeremy Laurance investigates
Published: 12 May 2007
From the air, England looks as if it is preparing for an emergency. Where once farmers grew wheat and barley, a tide of oilseed rape, bolstered by EU subsidies, has swept across the country. Slicks of Day-Glo yellow lie daubed across the land, cladding the countryside in a protective suit, as if it were caught in an intercontinental crisis. Some people think that is exactly what it is.
There are those who admire the luminous brilliance of the crop, and there are those who complain it has created a garish patchwork which has despoiled the glory of the English countryside. But concern about the spread of oilseed rape is not only aesthetic. This year, with record temperatures and low rainfall in April, it flowered early, releasing its sweet, cloying scent along with sackfuls of pollen. And pollen, to Britain's 13 million hay fever sufferers, spells trouble.
As the flowering season has peaked in what threatens to be a record year for hayfever, so have complaints from people living and working in, or merely passing through, the areas where oilseed rape is grown. Stricken by rasping throats and itchy eyes, some claim the yellow tide is destroying our health as well as our countryside. Others insist it is unfairly blamed.
Two letters, published in The Daily Telegraph last week, encapsulate the dispute. Anna Dickie of Sudbury, Suffolk, described bitterly how the county was "blighted by smelly fields of rape which brings misery to hayfever sufferers and asthmatics". Even the family pets suffered, she added. "We can't hang washing out to dry as clothes become impregnated with rape pollen. My asthmatic cat is particularly affected by this horrid crop and has to be treated with daily inhalers and pills at this time of year."
A couple of days later Chris Clarke from Moelfre, Abergele in north Wales, sprang to the crop's defence. "We consider ourselves blessed by large areas of rape. Our bees are busy now converting its nectar into honey in one of the best and earliest starts to the beekeeping season in memory.
"My wife who suffers seriously from hayfever, wanders among our hives at the rape fields without ill effects. Closer to home she suffers and we think it likely that birch, lilac and other pollen is the cause."
Who is right? Allergy specialists favour Mr Clarke's analysis. In the league table of hayfever triggers, oilseed rape ranks low. True allergy to rapeseed pollen is rare, specialists say. On the other hand they do not dismiss Ms Dickie's view. Even though true allergy to rapeseed pollen may be rare, it can still cause widespread irritation to large numbers of people thanks to the organic compounds it gives off and its garish colour and overwhelming smell. Whether this reaction is correctly labelled "hayfever" or not is immaterial to those who suffer its symptoms.
This year the hayfever season has started earlier and threatens to last longer than ever. Boots, the high street chemists, released figures last week showing sales of hayfever remedies were up 146 per cent compared with the same time last year. In inner cities, where pollution is worst, sales are up even higher at 177 per cent above last year.
Conditions have been ideal for pollen production with plenty of rain in January and February followed by a long hot spring promoting good grass growth. People have been out and about in the hot weather at weekends, exposed to tree pollen, and there is already some grass pollen, the main hayfever trigger, about.
Professor Jean Emberlin, director of the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at the University of Worcester, said: "We could be facing a record year for hayfever. In 2006 we had enough rain to keep the season going and we saw record amounts of pollen across the Midlands. This year it will depend on how much rainfall we get.
"We had enough rain in the spring to get good grass growth so we are expecting the main grass pollen season to start in the last week of May, a week or 10 days earlier than average."
Hayfever is critically dependent on the weather. As temperatures rise, pollen seasons are lengthening and the pollen itself is provoking a more powerful reaction, especially in cities where pollution increases the irritant effect.
This year, the Meteorological Office says there is a 70 per cent chance of unusually hot weather and a one in eight chance of a heatwave. Global warming was identified as a factor behind rising pollen counts by the UN's Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change in 2001. Last year had one of the warmest summers on record and one of the worst for hayfever.
Professor Emberlin said: "Temperature stress, pollution input and climate change all add up to more pollen, a longer pollen season and pollen that is more allergenic."
The message is that if you think it is bad now, it is bound to get worse over the next few weeks. Most people currently suffering symptoms are reacting to tree pollen, made worse, in towns and cities, by car exhausts. Air pollution from exhaust fumes seems to have an enhancing effect on the release of allergenic substances, particularly from birch pollen. Pollen in cities thus causes more allergy than pollen in the country.
By the end of the month we will be in the peak grass pollen season, which affects many more people, and is the commonest cause of hayfever. Even though this is still a week or two away, there is already a fair amount around, because of the warm conditions.
But when people cough and itch, like Ms Dickie's cat, they look around for the cause and the strong smelling, canary yellow fields of oilseed rape are the most obvious culprit.
An estimated 600,000 hectares of land are covered in the bobbing yellow flower heads, which were practically unknown in Britain 30 years ago. Production last year grew by 17 per cent and is predicted to top two million tonnes next year by the Department for Rural Affairs.
For farmers it turns a healthy profit with unlimited demand for the seed as a biofuel - much of the UK's production goes to Germany to make biodiesel - and to make "extra virgin rapeseed oil", an alternative to olive oil.
Its unhealthy effects on the populace remain a matter of dispute. Until the 1980s, when the acreage under cultivation rapidly increased, there was no public suspicion that it might be harming health. Nor was the anxiety in Britain seen in other countries.
As the crop advanced across the country during the 1980s and 1990s, concern mounted and in 1996 the UK Medical Research Council decided it was time for a closer look. Its Institute of Environment and Health in Southampton launched an investigation which concluded there was "no clear evidence" that oilseed rape has adverse effects on health. Allergy to rape pollen was rare, even in areas of intense cultivation, and those affected tended to be multiply sensitive to other substances with no indication that rapeseed was the trigger.
Rapeseed pollen is sticky and heavy and transmitted by insects (unlike grass pollen which is disseminated on the wind). So it does not travel far and only those within 50 metres or so of a field are likely to be in range. Some experts have suggested that mould which affects the crop during seed ripening could trigger a reaction but the researchers found no evidence for this.
However, oilseed rape does give off volatile organic compounds such as terpenes and aldehydes which could account for its irritant effect on the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth and throat. Yet the Southampton researchers remained puzzled as to why in other rapeseed-growing countries such as France, Germany and Denmark, there was no public concern.
Specialists today say that in the 10 years since publication of the MRC report, no significant new evidence has come to light to alter its conclusions.
Professor Pamela Ewan, consultant allergist at Addenbrookes Hospital, said: "The amount of allergy to rapeseed is very low. People think they are allergic to it because of its bright colour and powerful smell when they are really allergic to other pollens that they can't see. There could be some adverse reaction to the volatile chemicals the plant produces. But I think the perception is much greater than the reality. Grass pollen is by far the most potent cause of hayfever in Britain, though it is different in other countries. In the US the main cause is ragweed."
Others take a less rigorous approach to the science, preferring to emphasise sufferers' reported experience. Muriel Simmons, spokeswoman for the charity Allergy UK, said: "Rapeseed very rarely triggers an allergic response, but it may be an irritant. For sufferers from rhinitis or asthma it may exacerbate their symptoms through the fumes it gives off. The best way to deal with this is to close the windows of the car if you are driving through an area of oilseed rape. If you are affected, the symptoms disappear in 10 minutes once you are through the area."
She added: "I think it is worrying that we are seeing the yellow tide advancing and the number of fields turned over to rapeseed spreading. Whether it is affecting the immune system or not is irrelevant - it is making a lot of people feel very uncomfortable."
Town rejects mast to save bees after IoS report
Town rejects mast to save bees after IoS report
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2516739.ece
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 06 May 2007
Council chiefs are rethinking plans for mobile telephone masts because of fears that their radiation may be causing bees to disappear.
Eastbourne's planning committee has refused permission for a new mast unless and until it is convinced there is no danger to the insects, and Bolton council has launched an investigation into the threat.
Last month, The Independent on Sunday reported exclusively that exploratory research at Germany's Landau University suggested the radiation interferes with bees' navigation systems. The German scientists, whose work has won two international awards, found that bees failed to return to their hives when "cordless DECT mobile phones" were placed in the masts.
The research was designed to indicate the effect mobile phone radiation and other "electrosmog" may have on human brains. But it may also provide a clue to the reasons behind "Colony Collapse Disorder", when hives suddenly empty, which has hit half of all US states and is spreading in continental Europe.
This was supported yesterday by Ferdinand Ruzicka, emeritus professor at the University of Vienna. He revealed that two-thirds of the beekeepers he surveyed who had a mobile phone mast within 300m had suffered "unexplained colony collapse". Professor Ruzicka believes the radiation may increase the insects' vulnerability to disease.
At the end of April, Eastbourne's planning committee overturned its officers' advice and refused permission for T-Mobile to erect a 14.7m mast on a roundabout.
Officially, the committee rejected it for aesthetic reasons, the only grounds open to it under planning law. But Councillor Barry Taylor, the chairman, said the threat to bees was "an important issue" and permission for masts should be refused unless they could be "proved" to be safe for the insects. Bolton council has asked its planning working party to investigate the issue.
Last month, one London beekeeper reported that 23 of his 40 hives had been abruptly abandoned; there are reports of similar collapses in Scotland and the North-west. The British Beekeepers' Association says the situation is "under scrutiny".
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2516739.ece
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 06 May 2007
Council chiefs are rethinking plans for mobile telephone masts because of fears that their radiation may be causing bees to disappear.
Eastbourne's planning committee has refused permission for a new mast unless and until it is convinced there is no danger to the insects, and Bolton council has launched an investigation into the threat.
Last month, The Independent on Sunday reported exclusively that exploratory research at Germany's Landau University suggested the radiation interferes with bees' navigation systems. The German scientists, whose work has won two international awards, found that bees failed to return to their hives when "cordless DECT mobile phones" were placed in the masts.
The research was designed to indicate the effect mobile phone radiation and other "electrosmog" may have on human brains. But it may also provide a clue to the reasons behind "Colony Collapse Disorder", when hives suddenly empty, which has hit half of all US states and is spreading in continental Europe.
This was supported yesterday by Ferdinand Ruzicka, emeritus professor at the University of Vienna. He revealed that two-thirds of the beekeepers he surveyed who had a mobile phone mast within 300m had suffered "unexplained colony collapse". Professor Ruzicka believes the radiation may increase the insects' vulnerability to disease.
At the end of April, Eastbourne's planning committee overturned its officers' advice and refused permission for T-Mobile to erect a 14.7m mast on a roundabout.
Officially, the committee rejected it for aesthetic reasons, the only grounds open to it under planning law. But Councillor Barry Taylor, the chairman, said the threat to bees was "an important issue" and permission for masts should be refused unless they could be "proved" to be safe for the insects. Bolton council has asked its planning working party to investigate the issue.
Last month, one London beekeeper reported that 23 of his 40 hives had been abruptly abandoned; there are reports of similar collapses in Scotland and the North-west. The British Beekeepers' Association says the situation is "under scrutiny".
Monday, May 14, 2007
Health concerns over mobile phone masts prompt review
'IoS' report on the dangers of electronic smog from wireless technology examined by ministers
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2536863.ece
By Marie Woolf and Geoffrey Lean
Published: 13 May 2007
Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of "electronic smog".
They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools.
Originally promised three years ago, and then shelved, the review follows articles in The Independent on Sunday about possible effects of the radiation on children and bees. The Government will take account of new scientific and medical evidence, and consult experts and campaigners, as part of a wider review of planning guidelines which ministers send to local authorities.
More than 47,000 "base stations", like masts, have already been erected in Britain to service its 50 million mobile phones, often in defiance of intense local public opposition. Successive governments have made extraordinary concessions to the companies to ensure that coverage was rolled out across the country as quickly as possible.
Masts up to 45ft high do not need planning permission in the normal way. Instead, companies merely have to notify councils of their intentions and can go ahead unless they are formally stopped within 56 days.
Overworked planning authorities struggle to cope with these applications on time, and companies have frequently put up the masts against councils' opposition because news of a refusal has reached them shortly after the deadline.
Seven years ago, an official inquiry - headed by Sir William Stewart, a former government chief scientist - concluded that "the siting of all new base stations should be subject to the normal planning process".
Ministers said that they were "minded" to implement this recommendation, and then failed to do so, even though full planning permission has long been required in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The inquiry also urged that masts should not be built near schools unless parents agreed, but ministers refused to agree.
The planning rules also make it clear that councils cannot object to masts on health grounds because "the planning system is not the place for determining health safeguards". Yet studies are revealing worrying levels of symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, difficulties in sleeping and concentrating, and learning and memory problems in people living near the masts - and there is also some suggestion that there may be an increase in cancers and heart disease.
Nevertheless, councils are instructed by the rules to "respond positively" to the phone companies' plans and, in practice, can reject a mast only on aesthetic grounds. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, promised a review by the end of 2004. It never took place, but last week the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed that the advice to local authorities is to be re-examined.
A spokesman for the department said: "We are examining developments in research on this issue. It is something that is going to be looked at."
Parents fight Wi-Fi at primary school
Parents have been battling plans to install a Wi-Fi only system in their children's school in north London for the past two years. They are worried that the health implications of Wi-Fi have not been fully researched and radioactivity created by the technology could harm the children at Tetherdown Primary School. They argue it is better and cheaper to install cables with local Wi-Fi connectors.
Rani Jowett, 35, who has three children at the school, said: "It's taking a risk with our children because it's still under study. People in the 1950s took a risk with smoking, but we have the power to stop this. In my own home I have a choice over Wi-Fi, but I don't have the choice in school."
Governors, however, claim that a wired infrastructure would be too expensive. A spokesman for Haringey council said: "Safety standards for this sort of equipment are set nationally and we follow government guidelines."
Andrew Johnson
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2536863.ece
By Marie Woolf and Geoffrey Lean
Published: 13 May 2007
Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of "electronic smog".
They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools.
Originally promised three years ago, and then shelved, the review follows articles in The Independent on Sunday about possible effects of the radiation on children and bees. The Government will take account of new scientific and medical evidence, and consult experts and campaigners, as part of a wider review of planning guidelines which ministers send to local authorities.
More than 47,000 "base stations", like masts, have already been erected in Britain to service its 50 million mobile phones, often in defiance of intense local public opposition. Successive governments have made extraordinary concessions to the companies to ensure that coverage was rolled out across the country as quickly as possible.
Masts up to 45ft high do not need planning permission in the normal way. Instead, companies merely have to notify councils of their intentions and can go ahead unless they are formally stopped within 56 days.
Overworked planning authorities struggle to cope with these applications on time, and companies have frequently put up the masts against councils' opposition because news of a refusal has reached them shortly after the deadline.
Seven years ago, an official inquiry - headed by Sir William Stewart, a former government chief scientist - concluded that "the siting of all new base stations should be subject to the normal planning process".
Ministers said that they were "minded" to implement this recommendation, and then failed to do so, even though full planning permission has long been required in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The inquiry also urged that masts should not be built near schools unless parents agreed, but ministers refused to agree.
The planning rules also make it clear that councils cannot object to masts on health grounds because "the planning system is not the place for determining health safeguards". Yet studies are revealing worrying levels of symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, difficulties in sleeping and concentrating, and learning and memory problems in people living near the masts - and there is also some suggestion that there may be an increase in cancers and heart disease.
Nevertheless, councils are instructed by the rules to "respond positively" to the phone companies' plans and, in practice, can reject a mast only on aesthetic grounds. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, promised a review by the end of 2004. It never took place, but last week the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed that the advice to local authorities is to be re-examined.
A spokesman for the department said: "We are examining developments in research on this issue. It is something that is going to be looked at."
Parents fight Wi-Fi at primary school
Parents have been battling plans to install a Wi-Fi only system in their children's school in north London for the past two years. They are worried that the health implications of Wi-Fi have not been fully researched and radioactivity created by the technology could harm the children at Tetherdown Primary School. They argue it is better and cheaper to install cables with local Wi-Fi connectors.
Rani Jowett, 35, who has three children at the school, said: "It's taking a risk with our children because it's still under study. People in the 1950s took a risk with smoking, but we have the power to stop this. In my own home I have a choice over Wi-Fi, but I don't have the choice in school."
Governors, however, claim that a wired infrastructure would be too expensive. A spokesman for Haringey council said: "Safety standards for this sort of equipment are set nationally and we follow government guidelines."
Andrew Johnson
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Move and More Evidence That It Is Indeed Mobile Phone Radiation from Masts Killing The Bees
If one looks at all the variables, EMR (Electromagnetic Radiation) in the form of microwaves from cell phone masts seems to be the most likely candidate that can really explain why bees - and frogs for a while now - are dying all over the world - especially in places like Costa Rica, which has an environmentally conscious government (though they seem to be completely oblivious to the dangers of electropollution) and quite a pristine environment. So one really cannot blame it totally on pesticides, (which have been around for decades, but of course would most likely play a contributing variable), which are not used everywhere, though perhaps ChemTrails may also be playing a role.
Now, wouldn't it be nice if people were (1) a little more conscious, (2) a little less selfish, (3) a little more intelligent, and (4) a little less addicted to their cell phones so that they could finally get rid of them, and would do the right thing and actually pressured others to do the same? After all, it does say in the bible, "Thou Shall Not Kill" everyone else insidiously with their electromagnetic weapons which can be equated to mass genocide and mass suicide - and I think that includes the bees. :) Yes, the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) may very well indeed be in your pockets.
peace
paul
Are mobile phone masts killing bees?
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3697498/
Ben Rooth
7/ 5/2007
AN investigation has been launched by Bolton Council to discover whether radiation from mobile phone masts is killing the town's honey bees.
Some scientists blame them for dwindling bee populations believing that it interferes with their ability to find their way back to their hives.
Councillors in Bolton last week agreed to ask their planning improvement working party - made up of two councillors from each of the three parties on the council - to investigate.
Coun Ebrahim Adia, executive member for development, said that the party meets quarterly to look at ways of improving the planning system.
"Our powers in relation to phone masts are limited but here in Bolton we are committed to promoting bio-diversity and ecology as part of the planning process," he said.
"The issue about the impact of mobile phone masts on bees was raised at the last council meeting by Coun Norman Critchley who also said that he had also heard that the radiowaves could also affect birds that are migrating.
Evidence
"I think that as councillors we have a duty to look at all the evidence to assess the wide impact on radiation from mobile phone masts in regard to our planning policy."
Academics at Landau University in Germany recently discovered that 70 per cent of bees exposed to radiation failed to find their way back to their hive after searching for nectar and pollen.
Last week, research carried out at the University of Vienna in Austria also discovered that two-thirds of the bee-keepers surveyed who had a mobile phone mast within 300 metres had experienced "unexplained colony collapse."
But John Charlton, of the Manchester Beekeepers Association, said that none of their members had noticed any decline yet.
"The association has an apiary in Heaton Park virtually straight under one of these masts and we've not noticed any radical changes there," said Mr Charlton, from Sale, who has kept bees for 50 years.
"I suppose that the masts are still a comparatively new technology but I have to say that I personally have not noticed any evidence of what these studies are finding."
What do you think? Have your say.
Submit your comments
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/sc/1006336_are_mobile_phone_masts_killing_bees.html
© M.E.N media 2007
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1006/1006336_are_mobile_phone_masts_killing_bees.html
--------
Town rejects mast to save bees after IoS report
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3694394/
To Bee or not to Bee
Colony Collapse Syndrome (CCS) poses a serious risk to bees as well as to global agriculture. What was not explored in your article [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3672147/ ] is the fact that CCS is being caused by the globalization of microwave radiation that is utilized by telecommunications. Bees orient themselves to the earth's electromagnetic fields. This is a reliable, simple and dependable means of orientation and navigation that is not dependent on the variables of light or weather. The ability to navigate tells someone where they are in time and space. This forms the basis for laying down memory tracts and organizing information, the very basis for learning. Bees like humans share a similar mechanism for orientating themselves and remembering. A similar evolutionary mechanism is shared by other life forms. In bees, the compass that they use is called the mushroom gland. It responds to frequencies that are similar to those emitted by cell phones. In essence artificial microwave frequencies jam this mechanism and the bees become disoriented. They cannot figure out where they are. Illness and pesticides would cause a gradual die off and dying bees would be found in the hives. With CCS no bees are found in the hives. Microwave interference is the only plausible means of explaining why this phenomenon is being observed at this time. It also explains why it is occurring simultaneously and on a global basis. As with bees, so the same effect is being observed in humans, note the rise in autism, memory disturbances and related disorders. The global alteration of our environment without regard to the limitations of our biology will have profound effects for all life on this planet. This is a timely and urgent matter that involves everyone.
Gerald Goldberg, MD
Glgmd32 @hotmail.com
Author: "Would you put your head in a microwave oven"
[ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1604071/ ]
Betreff: Bees immune systems damaged
Von: Martin Weatherall
Datum: Mon, 7 May 2007 23:46:48 -0400
Here are another three interesting stories about honey bees dying or vanishing.
In the Australian story researchers have dissected bees that have died and they have found that their immune systems have "totally gone to pieces". "It like they just lost their immune system and anything will kill them".
For anyone who has looked at the evidence of human cancer cases (and pets) around cell phone antenna and strong sources of electromagnetic radiation, this will not be a surprise. There is evidence of DNA damage, cell damage and changes in blood composition etc. from EMR. I have strong reasons to believe that it was exposure to high levels of EMR that compromised my own immune system, made me ill and caused me to develop prostate cancer. Damage to the human and animal immune systems, by EMR, has been shown by much research. I have little doubt that the immune systems of bees can be damaged by EMR.
It is interesting that honey bees in Australia are not being harmed as they are in California. I would place a bet that the environment in California has far higher levels of electro magnetic radiation than found in most of Australia.
The second article is about - "Taiwan, the latest country stung by vanishing honey bees". This is interesting because several months ago there was a news story from Taiwan which stated a large number of citizens were suffering from the effects of electro magnetic radiation and many antenna masts were being removed. There has been widespread debate in Taiwan about EMR, and the removal of base stations.
The third story is about GM modified foods and their possible influence on bees.
Martin.
Bees dying vanishing
Australian bees in high demand
ABC Online - Australia
The US Department of Agriculture says bees have been vanishing from 22 states, and no one really knows why. It means commercial beekeepers, ...
See all stories on this topic
Taiwan Is Latest Country Stung by Vanishing Honey Bees
Voice of America - USA
"What we're thinking is happening is the bees are dying," he said. The US Congress held hearings last month to consider remedial measures, including ways to ...
See all stories on this topic
Give Bees a Chance
The Simon - Los Angeles,CA,USA
And when you consider bees are big business as well as a critical part of the food chain, that vanishing act is no laughing matter. Consider: ...
See all stories on this topic
Now, wouldn't it be nice if people were (1) a little more conscious, (2) a little less selfish, (3) a little more intelligent, and (4) a little less addicted to their cell phones so that they could finally get rid of them, and would do the right thing and actually pressured others to do the same? After all, it does say in the bible, "Thou Shall Not Kill" everyone else insidiously with their electromagnetic weapons which can be equated to mass genocide and mass suicide - and I think that includes the bees. :) Yes, the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) may very well indeed be in your pockets.
peace
paul
Are mobile phone masts killing bees?
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3697498/
Ben Rooth
7/ 5/2007
AN investigation has been launched by Bolton Council to discover whether radiation from mobile phone masts is killing the town's honey bees.
Some scientists blame them for dwindling bee populations believing that it interferes with their ability to find their way back to their hives.
Councillors in Bolton last week agreed to ask their planning improvement working party - made up of two councillors from each of the three parties on the council - to investigate.
Coun Ebrahim Adia, executive member for development, said that the party meets quarterly to look at ways of improving the planning system.
"Our powers in relation to phone masts are limited but here in Bolton we are committed to promoting bio-diversity and ecology as part of the planning process," he said.
"The issue about the impact of mobile phone masts on bees was raised at the last council meeting by Coun Norman Critchley who also said that he had also heard that the radiowaves could also affect birds that are migrating.
Evidence
"I think that as councillors we have a duty to look at all the evidence to assess the wide impact on radiation from mobile phone masts in regard to our planning policy."
Academics at Landau University in Germany recently discovered that 70 per cent of bees exposed to radiation failed to find their way back to their hive after searching for nectar and pollen.
Last week, research carried out at the University of Vienna in Austria also discovered that two-thirds of the bee-keepers surveyed who had a mobile phone mast within 300 metres had experienced "unexplained colony collapse."
But John Charlton, of the Manchester Beekeepers Association, said that none of their members had noticed any decline yet.
"The association has an apiary in Heaton Park virtually straight under one of these masts and we've not noticed any radical changes there," said Mr Charlton, from Sale, who has kept bees for 50 years.
"I suppose that the masts are still a comparatively new technology but I have to say that I personally have not noticed any evidence of what these studies are finding."
What do you think? Have your say.
Submit your comments
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/sc/1006336_are_mobile_phone_masts_killing_bees.html
© M.E.N media 2007
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1006/1006336_are_mobile_phone_masts_killing_bees.html
--------
Town rejects mast to save bees after IoS report
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3694394/
To Bee or not to Bee
Colony Collapse Syndrome (CCS) poses a serious risk to bees as well as to global agriculture. What was not explored in your article [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3672147/ ] is the fact that CCS is being caused by the globalization of microwave radiation that is utilized by telecommunications. Bees orient themselves to the earth's electromagnetic fields. This is a reliable, simple and dependable means of orientation and navigation that is not dependent on the variables of light or weather. The ability to navigate tells someone where they are in time and space. This forms the basis for laying down memory tracts and organizing information, the very basis for learning. Bees like humans share a similar mechanism for orientating themselves and remembering. A similar evolutionary mechanism is shared by other life forms. In bees, the compass that they use is called the mushroom gland. It responds to frequencies that are similar to those emitted by cell phones. In essence artificial microwave frequencies jam this mechanism and the bees become disoriented. They cannot figure out where they are. Illness and pesticides would cause a gradual die off and dying bees would be found in the hives. With CCS no bees are found in the hives. Microwave interference is the only plausible means of explaining why this phenomenon is being observed at this time. It also explains why it is occurring simultaneously and on a global basis. As with bees, so the same effect is being observed in humans, note the rise in autism, memory disturbances and related disorders. The global alteration of our environment without regard to the limitations of our biology will have profound effects for all life on this planet. This is a timely and urgent matter that involves everyone.
Gerald Goldberg, MD
Glgmd32 @hotmail.com
Author: "Would you put your head in a microwave oven"
[ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1604071/ ]
Betreff: Bees immune systems damaged
Von: Martin Weatherall
Datum: Mon, 7 May 2007 23:46:48 -0400
Here are another three interesting stories about honey bees dying or vanishing.
In the Australian story researchers have dissected bees that have died and they have found that their immune systems have "totally gone to pieces". "It like they just lost their immune system and anything will kill them".
For anyone who has looked at the evidence of human cancer cases (and pets) around cell phone antenna and strong sources of electromagnetic radiation, this will not be a surprise. There is evidence of DNA damage, cell damage and changes in blood composition etc. from EMR. I have strong reasons to believe that it was exposure to high levels of EMR that compromised my own immune system, made me ill and caused me to develop prostate cancer. Damage to the human and animal immune systems, by EMR, has been shown by much research. I have little doubt that the immune systems of bees can be damaged by EMR.
It is interesting that honey bees in Australia are not being harmed as they are in California. I would place a bet that the environment in California has far higher levels of electro magnetic radiation than found in most of Australia.
The second article is about - "Taiwan, the latest country stung by vanishing honey bees". This is interesting because several months ago there was a news story from Taiwan which stated a large number of citizens were suffering from the effects of electro magnetic radiation and many antenna masts were being removed. There has been widespread debate in Taiwan about EMR, and the removal of base stations.
The third story is about GM modified foods and their possible influence on bees.
Martin.
Bees dying vanishing
Australian bees in high demand
ABC Online - Australia
The US Department of Agriculture says bees have been vanishing from 22 states, and no one really knows why. It means commercial beekeepers, ...
See all stories on this topic
Taiwan Is Latest Country Stung by Vanishing Honey Bees
Voice of America - USA
"What we're thinking is happening is the bees are dying," he said. The US Congress held hearings last month to consider remedial measures, including ways to ...
See all stories on this topic
Give Bees a Chance
The Simon - Los Angeles,CA,USA
And when you consider bees are big business as well as a critical part of the food chain, that vanishing act is no laughing matter. Consider: ...
See all stories on this topic
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