LETTER: Advisories on Wi-Fi are buried
- COMMENT3
- Posted Mar. 26, 2016 at 6:00 AM
Thank you for the Fay School lawsuit update. As former president of the Ashland Education Foundation and grant coordinator for Ashland Public Schools, I helped bring laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, etc., into our district. When an electrical engineering friend mentioned potential harm from Wi-Fi I felt morally obliged to investigate.
I learned all Wi-Fi devices operate off high levels of unshielded microwave radiation that can cause electrohypersensitivity (EHS), infertility, cancers, behavioral issues, DNA damage and more. Children and fetuses are especially vulnerable (see bioinitiative.org)
With health advisories buried in fine print (showthefineprint.org), our School Committee realized most folks, themselves included, didn’t know. Ashland Public Schools implemented Best Practices for Mobile Devices to keep safer distances and turn Wi-Fi off when not in use. I was grateful for this first step although scientists urge using only hard-wired technology. Our bodies cannot repair during sleep while fending off radiation emitted 24/7 by routers, devices, and the Worcester pilot program’s “smart” utility meters.
I realized the rest of our citizens were in the dark, including our public health officials. So, I bought a meter and measured the radiation coming from Senator Karen Spilka’s cell phone and her district director’s laptop. Science indicates harm near .1 milliwatt per square centimeter, and both measured over 100 milliwatts. Senator Spilka introduced Senate Bill 1222: An Act creating a special commission to study the health impacts of electromagnetic fields, which is now under review.
Readers are welcome to peruse my research repository for additional information and solutions, https://sites.google.com/site/understandingemfs/
Cecelia Doucette
Ashland
http://www.telegram.com/article/20160326/NEWS/160329414
Saturday, March 26, 2016
LETTER: Advisories on Wi-Fi are buried
Teachers concerned over WiFi health risks
Teachers concerned over WiFi health risks
Teachers in the city of Kingston Ontario say they want the WiFi in schools turned off due to health concerns.
Two teachers unions in Kingston Ontario say WiFi radiation is on the same cancer watch-list as DDT and car exhaust and that “there is increasing evidence that WiFi in the classroom is not safe”.
Two teachers unions in Kingston Ontario say WiFi radiation is on the same cancer watch-list as DDT and car exhaust and that “there is increasing evidence that WiFi in the classroom is not safe”.
Update
During the Limestone District School Board meeting last week, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Association President Andrea Loken made a presentation to trustees regarding concerns surrounding Wi-Fi, or radio frequency electromagnetic fields, in schools.
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Schools, Unions and PTA Actions
List of precautionary actions being taken.
Toxic Mold and Electromagnetic Radiation
Toxic Mold and Electromagnetic Radiation
BY ANDREA FABRY
Is there a connection between mold toxins that flourish in a water damaged indoor environment and electromagnetic radiation?
Electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) are invisible areas of energy, often referred to as radiation, characterized by wavelength or frequency. These fields are categorized as follows:
1. Non-ionizing
Low-level radiation which is generally perceived as harmless to humans, but increasingly shown to be otherwise. (See my previous post From Wireless to Wired – My Family’s Journey and The BabySafe Project.)
2. Ionizing
High-level radiation which is known to cause cellular and DNA damage.
IMAGE COURTESY OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES
The focus of this article is on our everyday exposures to non-ionizing radiation through electric appliances, home wiring systems, and wireless internet services. (As pictured above.)
Is there a connection between non-ionizing radiation and bio-contaminants such as those found in indoor mold and Lyme Disease?
The research is fascinating on this topic. At the forefront is Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD., PhD., noted for his successful treatment of neurological illness and chronic pain. In the 5 minute video below, Dr. Klinghardt talks about a mold plate experiment which compared a mold plate shielded from electromagnetic fields to an unprotected mold plate exposed to ambient electromagnetic fields.
The unprotected mold plate showed a dramatic increase in the number of biotoxins produced – more than 600 times! Dr. Klinghardt concludes that indoor mold contaminants as well as other biotoxins (such as those found in Lyme Disease), are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields. EMFs therefore easily step up neurotoxin production and have a major impact on the immune system.
Note that Dr. Klinghardt points out cell phone radiation in one cubic inch of air is millions of times higher than it was ten years ago.
(While the caption is in German, the content is in English.)
Dr. Thomas Rau, medical director of the Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland, shares his assessment of the microbial connection with EMFs in an interview featured on the website Electromagnetic Health. Not only do the artificially produced electromagnetic waves cause toxic mold to grow faster, they suppress the production of beneficial microbes.
We have more organisms than cells in our bodies. Cultures of normal human endogenous bacterial cultures grow much less when exposed to EMR. They grow less when they are around a mobile phone, a tower or cordless phone.Growing less good bacteria in your body means you will have an overgrowth of bad bacteria that can result in things like Lyme’s disease. Especially from the east coast of the USA, we have many patients with Lymes. Antibiotics only make it worse. We look how the good flora responds and how they grow, recolonise. We have to reimplant the good bacteria. Within six weeks the Lyme’s patients get well or much better.Toxic mould in homes grows much faster under the load of high electromagnetic loads. They grow much faster in a disturbed milieu. Mercury / heavy metals can also exacerbate the growth.
There are other studies that highlight the connection between electromagnetic radiation and microbial multiplication.
- Researchers at NYC’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University found evidence that certain types of fungi have the ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for growth. (Read more here.)
- Russian scientists report that EMR induces growth in a certain yeast strain. (See Effect of Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Radiation on Psychological Features of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Strain UCM Y-517.)
- A completely different study shows a similar relationship between this strain and EMR. (SeePreliminary Results on the Non-Thermal Effects of 200-350 GHz Radiation on the Growth Rate of S. Cerevisiae Cells in Microcolonies.)
THE IMPLICATIONS
What does this mean when it comes to electromagnetic fields and microbial growth? Since the government is soft on both EMR and toxic mold, unfortunately it is up to us to take charge of our environment.
1. Eliminate mold from the home
Most homes today are built with drywall, which consists of cellulose. Cellulose is the ideal “food” for mold, causing the spores to multiply rapidly. Therefore, it is imperative to eliminate water damage from the home. If flooding or a water leak occurs, quick action is required. If the water intrusion is extensive, radical action is sometimes necessary. If mold is an issue in your home, learn more in the article A Beginner’s Guide to Toxic Mold.
2. Reduce electromagnetic field exposure
While this is a complex issue, thankfully there are numerous ways to reduce our exposure. Dr. Kinghardt as well as those in the field of Building Biology advise everyone, whether immune compromised or not, to create a sleep sanctuary. This involves sleeping away from devices and appliances, shutting off power to the bedroom, and turning off the Wi Fi at night. For more specifics and a complete explanation, see the International Institute for Building Biology and Ecology’s free downloadable article Creating a Sleep Sanctuary – Reducing Electrosmog, as well as my post Sleep, Melatonin, and Electronic Devices.
As a certified Building Biology Practitioner I have been working diligently to reduce our EMF exposure in our home. Learn more about our effort in the previous post From Wireless to Wired – Our Family’s Journey.
I believe the wireless revolution is wreaking havoc with our immune systems. Thankfully knowledge is power when it comes to our health. Understanding the connection between microbial growth and electromagnetic radiation is a critical part of a complex puzzle.
FILED UNDER: ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION, MICROBES & MOLD, MICROBES AND MOLD, UNSEEN REALITY
TAGGED WITH: CHRONIC, DIETRICH, DR. DIETRICH KLINGHARDT, ELECTRIC, ELECTROM
HTTP://IT-TAKES-TIME.COM/2015/
HTTP://IT-TAKES-TIME.COM/2015/
Friday, March 25, 2016
How Safe is an Airport Full Body Scanner?
How Safe is an Airport Full Body Scanner?
“Step onto the body scanner platform and place your hands in the air; it’s for your safety and security.”
If you’ve traveled through a U.S. airport within the past few years, you’ve probably had a government screener say something along these lines. Every day travelers are herded through the checkpoint corrals into one of these anti-terrorism full body scanners. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) claims these so-called “advanced imaging technology” devices are just as safe as traditional metal detectors. But is this really true?
When they were first rolled out post-911, backscatter X-ray tunnels quickly became standard fare at commercial aviation facilities nationwide. The TSA claimed the amount of low-intensity radiation emitted by these machines was safe, releasing less than 10 microREMs of radiation per screening. This is an amount equivalent to what an airplane passenger might incur after just two or three minutes of flying at cruising altitude.
This claim was later debunked. It was revealed that concentrated radiation blasted directly at a person’s body is much more harmful than the random patterns of ionizing radiation sent in all directions from the cosmos and by an airplane’s navigational equipment during flight. Not long after these facts came to light, the TSA came up with a different type of screening technology that it said was safer − the millimeter wave machine.
According to the TSA’s Frequently Asked Questions page, millimeter wave imaging technology “uses harmless electromagnetic waves to detect potential threats, which are highlighted on a generic outline of a person appearing on a monitor attached to the unit. If no anomalies are detected, an ‘OK’ appears on the screen with no outline.”
It all seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, this explanation by the TSA is trite at best, and deliberately misleading at worst. A closer look into millimeter wave technology and the ways in which it affects the human body during an average TSA screening reveals a truth that the government doesn’t want you to know. The doses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the TSA’s millimeter wave technology machines can cause cancer.
What’s Wrong With Millimeter Wave Radiation?
The fact that millimeter wave technology is used in the treatment of skin cancer (due to its known skin-heating properties), means it undeniably has an effect on human cells. This heating is a direct result of microwave frequencies entering the skin and inducing a certain level of atomic motion within the cellular structure. This is really just a fancy way of saying that millimeter wave radiation microwaves your skin.
Just how much this millimeter wave radiation microwaves your skin is where push comes to shove. But most scientists are in agreement that any amount of radiation poses at least some level of risk. The public deserves to know both this level of risk and what they can do to minimize or eliminate it.
Though not ionizing in nature, millimeter wave radiation is still potentially damaging to the human body. A 2012 paper published in the journal Radiation Research admits that the safety of millimeter wave body scanners is “difficult-to-impossible to prove using publicly accessible data.” This means that TSA claims of negligible risk associated with their use represent the opinion of the TSA, and not scientific fact.
What we do know is that millimeter waves, which exist in the 30-300 GHz range, cause “multiple biological effects,” according to another study published the same year in the International Journal of Oncology. Though this study looked specifically at millimeter wave radiation in the context of cancer treatment, the morphological effects demonstrated reveal that this supposedly “safe” form of radiation causes cellular change that inhibit cellular growth.
Like all other forms of radiation, millimeter waves don’t differentiate between healthy cells and malignant cells. Whatever cells they’re targeted at are the cells they destroy. In the case of concentrated radiation blasts from millimeter wave body scanners, it means every cell on the surface of your body.
How Millimeter Waves From a Full Body Scanner May Cause Cancer
What this all means is that millimeter wave body scanners act as giant microwaves that literally heat travelers’ bodies at the cellular level using ultra-high frequencies not normally found in nature. Microwave ovens operate at nearly the same frequencies as these machines. They induce cellular vibrations strong enough to generate heat in food, so imagine what it’s doing to your skin.
But these are just minor thermal effects, you might be thinking, since an airport body scan only lasts a mere two seconds or so as opposed to 30 seconds to a minute to warm a bowl of soup in a microwave oven. But the principle is still the same, especially when taking into account repeated exposures.
And you also have to consider the non-thermal effects of millimeter wave radiation, which disrupt cellular communication in ways that science has yet to fully delineate. The United States Air Force conducted its own research into ultra-high frequency, non-ionizing radiation as a potential weapons technology. Interestingly, in the process they uncovered evidence that the non-thermal activity of millimeter wave radiation directly interferes with the body’s ability to protect and heal itself.
A World Health Organization (WHO) report adds even more to the conversation, revealing that millimeter waves not only heat the skin but also damage eyesight and cause cancer, particularly cancer of the skin.
A team of researchers from the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico recognized the lack of scientific research into this questionable technology. They decided to investigate for themselves how high-frequency terahertz (THz) waves, like the kind emitted from the TSA’s millimeter wave full body scanners, affect human DNA. They learned that:
“THz waves … unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.”
Skip the Full Body Scanner and Opt for a Pat Down
Recognizing these inherent dangers, the best thing air travelers can do is opt out of the TSA screening process when presented with a body scanner rather than a traditional metal detector. By choosing a manual pat-down, air travelers can minimize their radiation exposure and thus minimize the risk of developing cancer.
Though physically invasive and admittedly unconstitutional, a physical pat-down is still better than being blasted with a concentrated vortex of electrical and magnetic energy. As it sweeps around your body, the full body scanner exposes each square centimeter of your body to about 0.013 milliwatts of radiation. Collectively, this is enough to induce gene mutations, nerve damage, sterility, and even cancer.
“Low levels (below 10 mW/cm2) of NIR (non-ionizing radiation) have been found to produce many adverse health effects in animals including temporary sterility, genetic changes, and changes in the transmission of nerve impulses,”explains the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapy (FACT).
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found preliminary evidence that these low levels may affect the immune system, which means the body may be less able to fight off disease.”
Article Summary
- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) claims their “advanced imaging technology” devices are just as safe as traditional metal detectors. Research shows this isn’t the case and that the doses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the TSA’s millimeter wave technology machines can cause cancer.
- Millimeter wave technology is used in the treatment of skin cancer (due to its known skin-heating properties), which means it undeniably has an effect on human cells.
- Like all other forms of radiation, millimeter waves don’t differentiate between healthy cells and malignant cells. In the case of concentrated radiation blasts from millimeter wave body scanners, it means every cell on the surface of your body is targeted.
- A World Health Organization (WHO) report revealed that millimeter waves not only heat the skin but also damage eyesight and cause cancer − particularly skin cancer.
- By choosing a manual pat-down, air travelers can minimize their radiation exposure and thus minimize the risk of developing cancer.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Berkeley's Cellphone "Right to Know" Law Takes Effect
Berkeley's Cellphone "Right to Know" Law Takes Effect
On Monday, Berkeley's cell phone "right to know" ordinance took effect. Cell phone retailers in the City of Berkeley now must either post the following notice or provide a handout containing this safety information to their customers.
Cell phones and user manuals already contain RF safety information. The official notice required by the ordinance simply informs consumers that the City wants them to know that if they carry or use their cellphone next to their torso, they may exceed these safety guidelines. It encourages consumers to read the instructions in their phone or user manual for information about how to use their phone safely.
Nonetheless, the major lobbying association for the telecommunications industry, the CTIA, sued the City. The CTIA recently submitted a brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that the Circuit Court overturn Federal Judge Chen's denial of the CTIA's request for a preliminary injunction to block implementation of the ordinance.
Although many scientists believe that the current radiofrequency (RF) exposure guidelines are inadequate to protect cellphone users (e.g., see the International EMF Scientist Appeal at https://emfscientist.org), the ordinance does not challenge the Federal government's position. Rather, the ordinance is based upon science that has been recognized by the government for two decades which constitutes the basis for current RF exposure guidelines. The current RF guidelines were designed only to protect cellphone users from the thermal risk due to acute exposure to RF radiation. Many scientists now believe that there are serious health risks from chronic exposure to non-thermal levels of RF radiation.
Unlike the Berkeley ordinance, San Francisco adopted an ordinance in 2010 which required cellphone retailers to provide customers with a notice that informed consumers about the health risks from cell phone use including the potential cancer risk. Mayor Gavin Newsom (now California's Lieutenant Governor) was one of the law's major supporters. The CTIA sued the city, and the Federal court blocked the law's implementation because it communicated scientific findings that are not acknowledged by the Federal government. After a three-year court battle, the City opted to disband with this law rather than continue to fight and risk having to pay the industry’s legal fees should the City lose the case.
To see updates about the ordinance and some preliminary data on compliance, see my Electromagnetic Radiation Safety web site at
http://bit.ly/
Since July, 2014, more than 170 news stories have been published regarding the Berkeley ordinance which the City Council unanimously adopted on May 12, 2015. News stories have appeared in 13 countries. Links to these news stories are available athttp://bit.ly/berkeleymedia.
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Berkeley's 'Right to Know' Cell Phone Radiation Warning Ordinance Now in Effect
http://bit.ly/
Since July, 2014, more than 170 news stories have been published regarding the Berkeley ordinance which the City Council unanimously adopted on May 12, 2015. News stories have appeared in 13 countries. Links to these news stories are available athttp://bit.ly/berkeleymedia.
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Berkeley's 'Right to Know' Cell Phone Radiation Warning Ordinance Now in Effect
Jean Elle, NBC Bay Area, Mar 21, 2016
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Upcoming Public Presentation on UC Berkeley Campus
"Wireless Phone Radiation Risks and Public Health"
Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.
182 Dwinelle Hall, University of California Berkeley
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM, April 16, 2016 (on Cal Day)
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Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
Website: http://www.saferemr.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaferE
News Releases: http://pressroom.prlog.org/
Twitter: @berkeleyprc
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