Please sign citizen statement to European Commission

Please sign citizen statement to European Commission

January 12, 2016

To: European Commission

From: Citizens of the world opposed to space-based wireless radiation deployments on the basis of hazards posed to human health and the environment

We the undersigned are knowledgeable about the health and safety effects of electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation. We bring to your attention that Google Inc. has applied for an experimental license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement an internet/communication wireless network of balloons called “Project Loon”, over the United States beginning on January 1, 2016. Project Loon is already operating on an experimental basis in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, United States and other locations. Google states that it plans through Project Loon to deploy a global wireless communications network to both the developed world and the most remote parts of the Earth. The FCC and other U.S. Government agencies have a pending application by Google to begin Project Loon “experimentation” on an expedited basis. However, such approval has prevented the level of scrutiny, public notice and review that a proposal of this size and scope warrants. This expedited process may have subverted critical analyses required to ensure that environmental protection and aviation safety standards are met. 

We know that millions of people in the developed world have already become functionally disabled, due to the electromagnetically polluted environments produced by terrestrially based wireless communication infrastructures.

Many persons have been forced to flee their homes and jobs, experiencing great difficulties finding a safe and sustainable place to live. Some have sought refuge in remote areas where wireless internet is spotty or nonexistent. 

With the deployment of Project Loon and other space-based wireless communications projects proposed or underway, and the Project’s widespread deployment of microwave radiation, such persons will have no place to go. 

In May 2015, a large group of international scientists, each of whom had published peer-reviewed research on the biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from extremely low frequencies through microwave radiation, appealed to the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Environmental Programme to institute precautionary measures and to revise international EMF exposure guidelines that are obsolete and inadequate. Presently, 218 scientists in 40 nations have signed The International EMF Scientist Appeal, which states: “Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.” 

The Brussels International Scientific Declaration on Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, released in 2015, builds on several prior resolutions calling for greater protection to prevent what may become “a major public health concern in years to come worldwide, i.e. in all the countries implementing unrestricted use of electromagnetic field-based wireless technologies...”

Given the compelling scientific evidence demonstrating harm from the proliferation of terrestrial wireless communication infrastructure and devices; and given the emerging human rights, public health and environmental crises there from, we find the deployment of space-based wireless communications hazardous on the largest scale, and hereby call attention to the biological plausibility that such deployments will increase rates of global species decline and extinction. 

We therefore urge the European Commission to heed our warning, and, recalling Resolution N°1815 of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe, adopted May 27, 2011, The potential dangers of electromagnetic fields and their effect on the environment, to enact and promote precautionary measures that productively address this urgent matter. We specifically urge the EC to advise EU member states to defer proposed business agreements to participate in space-based wireless communication deployments. 

Signed,

Elizabeth Kelley, Electromagnetic Safety Alliance, USA

Arthur Firstenberg, President, Cellular Phone Task Force, USA 

Barbara Payne, Regional Representative, Citizens For Safe Technology, Canada

Oram Miller, BBEC. EMRS, Create Healthy Homes, USA