Saturday, February 27, 2016

Press Release: Experts Call for Montgomery County Public Schools to Correct Inaccurate Website on Wireless Radiation

Press Release: Experts Call for Montgomery County Public Schools to Correct Inaccurate Website on Wireless Radiation

Safe Tech for Schools Maryland

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 09:39 AM PST

Press Release SBWIRE: Experts Call for Public School District to Correct Inaccurate Website on Wireless Radiation Safety

Parents raising Wi-Fi health concerns lead Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools to issue information about Wi-Fi cancer links resulting in a worldwide response.
Teton Village, WY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/17/2016 -- Fox News reported that Environmental Health Trust (EHT) experts identified numerous false and misleading claims about radiofrequency radiation and children's health on the Montgomery County Public School Maryland (MCPS) School District website. In a letter to MCPS, Lloyd Morgan, senior EHT advisor, detailed extensive errors, adding, "I am appalled that a public agency would rely on and relay outright falsehoods."
Contrary to what MCPS asserts, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, of the World Health Organization, classifies wireless radiation from cell phones as well as wireless radiation from other devices as a possible human carcinogen, Morgan noted.
EHT President Devra Davis PhD MPH commented, "The County assertion that the 20-year old FCC radiofrequency standards 'are not outdated' is wrong. The Government Accountability Office in 2012 reported that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 'RF energy exposure limit may not reflect the latest research.' This prompted the FCC to begin a formal reassessment which remains incomplete. In 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics asked the FCC to update its standards in light of children's growing exposures."
"The erroneous information provided by Montgomery County Public Schools on its website is emblematic of a nationwide problem. Local schools and policymakers are not provided adequate information about the possible health risks of wireless radiation from the federal health agencies on which they rely. The EPA, the CDC and the FDA have not reviewed current science and determined US exposure limits to be safe. Most people assume that the federal government has radiofrequency regulations that protect children from health effects from long-term exposures, but that is a myth. We have no proof of safety," stated Davis.
"Any government agency, in my opinion, that has done a review in the last two or three years and hasn't made a significant change to their safety standard has not done a proper thorough review of the science," stated former President of Microsoft Canada, Frank Clegg, in a Tuesday, February 16, 2016 ABC Catalyst documentary WiFried which also featured Davis who cautioned, "Children today are growing up in a sea of radiofrequency microwave radiation that did not exist five years ago."

Montgomery County has received over 15 letters:
Dr. Martha Herbert’s Letter, Dr. Anthony Miller's Letter, Dr. Lennart Hardell’s Letter , Dr. Carpenters Letter, Dr.  Olle Johansson’s Letter, Dr. Devra Davis' Letter , Cris Rowan Letter,,Dr. Martin Pall’s letter, Katie Singer’s Letter,Cindy Sage and Trevor Marshal  Letter, Ellie Marks Letter , Arthur Firstenberg  Letter, Mikko Ahonen PhD, Lena Hedendahl MD and Tarmo Koppel MSc PhDs Letter, Cece Doucette’s Letter, Alisdair Philips Letter, Lloyd Morgan’s Letter , Peter Sullivan's letter. Letter from Ms. Véronique Terrasse of the World Health Organization confirming Wi-Fi is in the Carcinogenic classification, Dr. Elizabeth Cardis confirming 30 minutes a day resulted in increased brain cancer. 
"MCPS extols the virtues of 21st century learning as a wireless classroom, yet the County has yet to consider 21st century best available science that shows wireless may not be such a smart technology after all," stated mother Thea Scarato in the February 9, 2016 MCPS Board of Education meeting. In a letter posted on a local blog started by concerned parents, Scarato detailed the "over 32 false facts" given by the County on wireless radiation health issues. Fifteen letters were also sent by by scientists, doctors and researchers to MCPS calling for minimizing wireless exposures in schools.
In January, Dr. Devra Davis wrote a letter to MCPS raising concerns about the use of Google's Wireless Expeditions Program in classrooms. Davis presented preliminary imaging showing the radiation absorption into the brain of a child from the virtual reality "cardboard" viewer that is a smartphone held up at the eyes of children, and Davis called on the County to reduce such exposures. Environmental Health Trust scientists also wrote to the US Secretary of Education in October 2015, calling for the implementation of both "safe technology" and a national educational awareness program in schools, in order to reduce cell phone and other wireless radiation exposures.
Montgomery County Public Schools is the largest school district in Maryland and the 18th largest in the United States. For three years, parents have been advocating for safe technology in the classrooms. However, the District continues to implement its Strategic Technology Plan, which includes high-density radiofrequency radiation wireless networks in all classrooms and a Bring Your Own Device Policy so that cell phones and other wireless devices are also used as classroom tools.
Posted: 27 Feb 2016 09:03 AM PST

February 25, 2016
To the Montgomery County Board of Education:

My wife and I love to empower children and are proud to help fund education here in Silicon Valley. Our first large grant to education 12 years ago was used to buy new computers and upgrade the wireless network at our local public school.

So it may come as a surprise that I now believe that was a mistake. Obviously, we are still big supporters of education, but I believe the role of wireless networks (as opposed to wired Ethernet networks) needs to be carefully re-evaluated.

With the same goal of empowering children in mind, I am also an environmental health funder. I look at factors like toxic lead exposures that can undermine intelligence and the ability to learn. After researching wireless for the last 5 years and connecting with researchers who have spent over 30 years on the topic, I now have some grave concerns. I was surprised by how much evidence of harm has been published, not just recently, but for more than three decades.

This brings up some basic questions for educators:
  • Does wireless exposure impact attention and learning?
  • Do current wireless safety standards protect children? 
  • What are the safety limits of other countries compared to the US?
  • Why is school funding for wireless discussed in an ethics paper from Harvard?
Finally, there is the issue of liability. Will your Wi-Fi vendor or cell tower carrier be liable, or have they already exempted themselves from liability for health in their contact? If you find there are health concerns, can you get out of a cell tower contract with a wireless carrier? If you don’t look at the research after being informed about it, does the state of willful ignore exempt you from liability?

Like most people, I assumed this had been fully tested and failed to do adequate due diligence on this topic.

Please don’t repeat my mistake.

A short video version of this letter can be watched here: http://bit.ly/wirelessEd

Sincerely,
Peter Sullivan Founder and CEO Clear Light Ventures






Download the letter here. 

Alster, Norm. Captured agency: How the Federal Communications Commission is dominated by the industries it presumably regulates. Cambridge, MA: Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University. 2015. Read it here. 



Who is Peter Sullivan? 
Peter Sullivan is founder of Clear Light Ventures whose mission is to improve human health and performance by removing widespread environmental health threats.  He has spent the last 15 years successfully recovering his two sons from autism and sensory issues. 

Read about his work in Autism Magazine. Click here to read. 
Over the last 10 years, he has funded efforts to reduce mercury and other toxic metals from the environment. He funded roughly half of the National Resource Defense Fund’s mercury program, and in 2008, they successfully sued the EPA to close the cement industry’s exemption from the Clean Air Act. This victory resulted in an annual healthcare savings of approximately 6.7 billion dollars.
Today he is one of the leading funders in the country in EMF research, funding work at Harvard, Stanford, University of California, Berkeley and several leading environmental health non-profits. Peter speaks about autism and environmental health at conferences throughout the United States and abroad. Previously, he was a software designer for Netflix, Inc., Interwoven, Inc., Excite@Home, and Silicon Graphics. Prior to working in high-tech, Peter was an Executive Officer and pilot in the United States Navy. He has a B.A. in psychology from University of Detroit and an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University.
Peter's work has been featured in the book "Toxin Toxout: Getting Harmful Chemicals Out of Our Bodies and Our World", the book The Out of Sync Child Grows Up: Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder in the Adolescent and Adult Years, and will be featured in the 2016 season of CNN's Inside Man with Morgan Spurlock. 
He has an excellent blog Clear Light Ventures and readers may be interested in this recent post on college: Campus Safety: How to Survive and Thrive in the Wireless Era

at

No comments:

Post a Comment