Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick:
(Copied below my comments, is item 4 of your critique of Michael Moore's "SICKO.")
You are correct that Moore did not address "lifestyle choices." While the choices you mention are undoubtedly causing significant increases in overall healthcare costs, there is another very important issue Moore also chose to ignore. I felt what I am about to write was important enough to appeal to Moore several times -- the last time when he was asking for opinions re our healthcare system.
I am referring to the issue of providing "prudent avoidance recommendations" regarding low level, "close," chronic, prolonged EMF/EMR (electromagnetic fields/electromagnetic radiation) pollution emanating from electric meters, gas meters, electric appliances such as electric clocks, small fans, monitors, noise machines, air purifiers, aquarium pumps and heaters, touchlamps, lamps with dimmer switches, TV's, computers, transformers for cordless phones and electronic games, security alarms, cell phone chargers -- literally any such items that might be in close proximity to persons' beds. Bad wires and even waterpipes running over or under beds may be producing high currents. There may be high frequencies on electrical wiring throughout homes.
Would you consider the placement of an infant's crib against a bedroom wall on which an electric meter is mounted to the outside wall adjacent to the crib to be "a lifestyle choice?"
You, like most of the public, are victims of "governmental neglect" that actually comes closer to outright "fraudulent concealment" thereby rendering citizens "participants in experimentation without informed consent!"
While the act of placing a newborn infant (or any child or person) in a bed that is adjacent to an electric meter may seem innocent and lacking in reasons for concern, I have two grandsons who were diagnosed with rare immune deficiencies. Their cribs/beds were unknowingly placed in harms way -- against the "powerwall" -- because our government, the electric utilities and also the various cancer societies were not announcing "prudent avoidance measures re low level EMF/EMR."
The immunologist asked whether children had died in our family. We were told the boys (cousins living in different cities) may develop Leukemia or Lymphoma or other cancers. We were also told their rare immune deficiency(ies) -- low IgG subclasses 1 and 3 would not be expected to occur in infants or toddlers -- that this was "an adult pattern" (the boys' cells were "aging") -- that there is/was no name for their problem -- only the description "hypogammaglobulinemia" which means "low immune......"
The immunologist said "this must be genetic." Blood tests were run and he then said, "this has to be environmental...." I asked about the two high voltage powerlines only 50 ft. from the front of our house (we had been providing daycare for the boys). The doctor responded, "well, we know that EMF's affect immune function in mice but we don't know how much of what happens to mice happens to people...."
This was all occuring during the $46 mil EMF RAPID Study. The boys' blood was sent to Dr. Fatih Uckun while he was still at the University of Minnesota. We were not told he was one of the scientists participating in the EMF RAPID Study. After Uckun left the University of Minnesota, the National Institute of Health helped him open the Wayne Hughes Institute. (See Uckun's comments re EMF's at: http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMFL-3-98.html )
To this day, the EMF RAPID Interagency Committee Report has never been presented to Congress. I have made several requests of politicians to testify before Congress. EMF's were designated as Class 2B carcinogens. While funds were slotted for "notifying the public," this has not occurred.
Tragically, a teacher, Michael Boyum, unknowingly had a small fan and electric clock on the headboard of his waterbed. Michael focused on "good health" -- he held a black belt in karate. Michael died at the age of 23 from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Ironically, Dr. Fatih Uckun is the doctor who attempted "last ditch, extraordinary measures" to save Michael while he was a patient at the Parker-Hughes Cancer Center.
The costs of just the above three families as result of possibly "preventable health problems," were staggering and not only included considerable payments by insurers but also jeopardized family life (in many ways) for those affected, far into the future.
My husband, Bud, has now improved in three parts of his Executive Function. He is said not to have Alzheimers after all but continues to suffer "moderate" to "severe" memory loss and cognitive impairment. I moved Bud's electric clock radio off his nightstand and started him on a regime of nightly melatonin (as well as a number of other supplements). I also discontinued his statin -- Lipitor. Evidence is mounting that many drugs may be causing severe adverse reactions particularly when individuals are sleeping close to electrical or telephone equipment. Insurers have been and continue to cover a multitude of symptoms related to this type of adverse interaction/reaction.
Since you, Mr. Fitzpatrick, are involved in "communications," why don't you take the lead in regard to informing "Blue members," together with affiliated unions, large corporations, etc., that there is a critical need to move electric and telephone equipment away from persons' beds?
I will be glad to send you a copy of the 1993 "USA Today" afticle that I received from the American Cancer Society recommending electric items be moved away from close proximity to beds. Also, I can send you a copy of a booklet re EMF' that was prepared by utilities' communications' experts with the same recommendations. That booklet was distributed by Florida Power & Light and possibly also Sacramento Power & Light before printing was stopped in 2001.
The above-mentioned health problems in my family are only part of our family's costs of our not being informed re simple, basically cost-free "prudent avoidance measures...." The people need your help, Mr. Fredrickson, to make "important lifestyle choices."
I look forward to hearing good things in regard to your help toward improving our healthcare system!!!
Best wishes and take care - Joanne
Joanne C. Mueller
Guinea Pigs "R" Us
731 - 123rd Avenue N.W.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55448-2127 USA
Phone: 763-755-6114
Email: jcmpelican@aol.com (7-10-07)
"The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity....... --Mahatma Gandhi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/282050/
ARE YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN GUINEA PIGS? Letter 7-22-04 by Joanne Mueller
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Mr. Fitzpatrick's comments (re Michael Moore's "SICKO"):
4. Perhaps most damaging of all, Moore completely fails to address the most significant driver of health care costs - our own lifestyle choices - and seeks to focus attention and efforts on the alluring 'quick-fix' of universal health care.........
Contrast this to the recent Health Care Symposium held in Harrisburg - where a panel of representatives from Government, Insurance, Hospitals, Business, Physicians, and even Lawyers agreed on one thing - that there was no quick fix and that Health and Wellness was the critical area of focus.
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SICKO: Fascinating inside look at Blue Cross's pondering what to do about Moore's expose
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/inside_look_at_bluecross_pondering.htm
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