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EMFacts Blog

    • 27 AUG 17

    Are Corporate Ties Influencing Reuters Science Coverage?

    NOTE: I find it of special interest in the below article the role the Science Media Centre (SMC) has played in spinning science on behalf of its corporate funders. I have written on this previously. See my history of the SMC model of so-called science communication here…

    From EcoWatch
    By Stacy Malkan

    Ever since they classified the world’s most widely used herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” a team of international scientists at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer research group have been under withering attack by the agrichemical industry and its surrogates. SNIP

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    • 21 AUG 17

    UC San Diego Medical Professor opposes “small cell” antenna bill (SB 649)

    From Joel M. Moskowitz PhD

    I have been hearing from scientists around the world who are deeply concerned about the deployment of fifth generation (5G) wireless technology without adequate research on the health effects of exposure to this type of radiofrequency radiation.

    Professor Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, published an open letter yesterday that explains why she is vigorously opposed to SB 649, a bill in the California legislature that would expedite the deployment of “small cell” antennas to facilitate the roll-out of 5G across the state.
    Dr. Golomb’s letter begins with the following warning: SNIP

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    • 20 AUG 17

    Will New Zealand’s 5G research be a spin job?

    I received the below article from the LA Times this morning. Not a very informative article as it is mostly referring to cell phone research which really isn’t that applicable to the frequencies used in 5G technology. However, I noted the brief reference at the end which mentions 5G research which is being conducted by the telecommunications and Network Engineering research group at Massey University, New Zealand. This research is using “modeling” to determine the possible health effects of “many, many transmitters transmitting together”. SNIP

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    • 19 AUG 17

    5G phone network: Expert concerned by lack of understanding of potential health effects

    From ABC News, August 18

    Excerpt

    More research is needed into the potential health effects of new 5G mobile phone technology before it is rolled out in Australia, an international expert says.

    The high-speed mobile phone network could be operational in Australia from 2020, offering up to 50 times the bandwidth currently available on 4G networks, allowing users to download the equivalent of three television episodes in a second.

    Telstra announced last year it would run a world-first test of the technology for visitors to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

    International radio frequency expert Professor Dariusz Leszczynski, from the University of Helsinki, told a public lecture at Griffith University in Brisbane on Thursday night there was a concerning lack of understanding about the health effects….. SNIP

    And note the concluding dismissive remarks by an ARPANSA spokesperson who said “it would be up to individual university research labs to pick up the agency’s recommendations for more research into 5G frequencies”. And just which labs? ACEBR most likely who can reliably be counted upon to find that there’s nothing to worry about, other than that old nocebo effect… In other words business as usual…

    Lets see if Croft, or perhaps Chapman, does a blast on Media Watch as well……

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    • 18 AUG 17

    FCC Packs Broadband Advisory Group With Big Telecom Firms, Trade Groups

    When the Federal Communications Commission went looking this year for experts to sit on an advisory committee regarding deployment of high-speed internet, they took the often favoured route and loaded the 30 member panel with corporate executives, trade groups and free-market scholars. More than three out of four seats on the BDAC are filled by business-friendly representatives from the biggest wireless and cable companies such as AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Sprint Corp., and TDS Telecom. Crown Castle International Corp., the nation’s largest wireless infrastructure company, and Southern Co., the nation’s second-largest utility firm, have representatives on the panel. Also appointed to the panel were broadband experts from conservative think tanks who have been critical of FCC regulations such as the International Center for Law and Economics and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. SNIP

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    • 18 AUG 17

    Cancer Expert Declares Cell Phone and Wireless Radiation as Carcinogenic to Humans

    Longtime World Health Organization advisor Anthony B. Miller M.D. updates opinion linking wireless exposures to cancer based on new scientific evidence.

    Teton Village, WY — (SBWIRE) — 08/16/2017 — An expert cancer researcher and advisor to the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO/IARC) has issued his scientific opinion that radiofrequency (RF) radiation from any source – such as the signals emitted by cell phones, other wireless and cordless and sensor devices, and wireless networks – fully meets criteria to be classified as a “Group 1 carcinogenic to humans” agent, based on scientific evidence associating RF exposure to cancer development and cancer promotion.

    “The evidence indicating wireless is carcinogenic has increased and can no longer be ignored,” stated Dr. Anthony B. Miller at a July 31, 2017 lecture in Jackson Hole, Wyoming sponsored by the Environmental Health Trust where international experts presented the best available science on cell phone and wireless radiation…SNIP

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    • 17 AUG 17

    Parliamentary petition on 5G antenna siting

    To all Australians on this list

    Below is a Parliamentary petition, although not mentioning 5G antennas, is all about a ubiquitous rollout of 5G antennas in Australia. Consider signing and pass it on! The more sign the better. As the act currently stands the carriers will be able to install 5G antennas on utility poles wherever they like. Might be right outside your bedroom and you, or your local government, will have absolutely no say in the matter.

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    • 17 AUG 17

    Dr. Martin Pall’s lecture on the biological effects of wireless radiation

    From Cecelia Doucette

    Dear EMF Stakeholders,

    Dr. Martin Pall, who lectured on the biological effects of wireless radiation in Ashland, Massachusetts this summer, just returned from ​lecturing in Spain and provided our local cable station with his slides for the video below. ​(​​The Comments section under the YouTube video ​will, once approved, provide links to the military studies he references showing evidence of harm, and options for solutions.​)​ SNIP
    ​

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    • 14 AUG 17

    Are smartphones causing unhealthy teenage isolation?

    Today’s teenagers are known for spending hours on end holed-up in their bedrooms scrolling through Instagram feeds and snapchatting with their friends.

    Professor Jean Twenge from San Diego State University says there has been an abrupt shift in teen behaviours since 2012 and believes young people are on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades.

    Her new book, “IGEN: Why Today’s Super-Connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy — and completely unprepared for Adulthood” explores the changing world of teenagers. SNIP

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    • 11 AUG 17

    2017: US Gov’t Scientists – Health Effects from Interaction of Wireless Radiation and Other Environmental Agents

    The following is a welcome relief to the viewpoint of Rodney Croft from ACEBR (recent message): “We have no reason to think that anyone getting exposed to cell site towers are going to be adversely affected in terms of their health. Large amount of research has failed to find any evidence that anyone has been hurt just because they were exposed to these telecom facilities.”

    Too bad Australia doesn’t have the calibre of scientists like Kostoff and Lau. who do more than just speak ICNIRP’s pro-industry orthodoxy…

    A book was published in 2017, Microwave Effects on DNA and Proteins

    Chapter 4 (pp. 97-158) of that book is about health effects resulting from interaction of wireless radiation exposure with other environmental agents by Kostoff, R.N. and Clifford G.Y. Lau. 2017. “Modified health effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation combined with other agents reported in the biomedical literature.”
    They bring up an important point – that government standards are based on the effect of non-ionizing radiation acting alone. The effects of the radiation in combination with other agents on biological systems would be much more severe than if it was acting alone (p.98) SNIP

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    • 10 AUG 17

    Excellent new website on 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT)

    Excerpt from the website:

    WHAT ARE 5G AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS?

    Industry and government are promoting 5G and the Internet of Things as the “next big thing” hoping these will generate enormous economic growth, a colossal amount of data, and unimagined benefits to society. 5G and the IoT are being foisted on us all in what can only be described as a mad rush. The Telecom industry, echoed by our government officials insist they are responding to public demand, although the vast majority of people have no idea what either 5G or the IoT are… SNIP

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    • 10 AUG 17

    Rodney Croft: Spruiking for the industry in the Philippines

    Croft on his recent visit to the Philippines :

    “Croft emphasized there are no risks but only benefits in deployment of cell sites necessary for the country’s growing requirement for digital connectivity ”
    ““We have no reason to think that anyone getting exposed to cell site towers are going to be adversely affected in terms of their health. Large amount of research has failed to find any evidence that anyone has been hurt just because they were exposed to these telecom facilities,” Croft said during the conference.” SNIP

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    • 08 AUG 17

    5G Wireless Technology: Millimeter Wave Health Effects

    Excerpt

    5G Wireless Technology: Millimeter Wave Health Effects

    Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.
    Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
    August 7, 2017

    The emergence of 5G, fifth-generation telecommunications networks, has been in the news lately because the wireless industry has been pushing controversial legislation at the state level to expedite the deployment of this technology. The legislation would block the rights of local governments and their citizens to control the installation of cellular antennas in the public “right-of-way.” Cell antennas may be installed on public utility poles every 10-12 houses in urban areas. According to the industry, as many as 50,000 new cell sites will be required in California alone. SNIP

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    • 07 AUG 17

    Free viewing this week – Take Back Your Power 2017!

    The internationally award-winning documentary Take Back Your Power, originally released in 2013, exposed the ‘smart’ meter agenda.

    Watch the new and updated 2017 Final Cut of Take Back Your Power for FREE through to August 11th (for Australian viewers this equates to the afternoon of August 12th) at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/05/smart-meter-dangers.aspx

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    • 02 AUG 17

    GM crop moratorium opposition. The SPIN hots up in Australia

    It seems that no matter how convincing the evidence for harm from GM technology is, the often used tactic in contentions issues is to raise doubts over that science or deny it altogether. Take for example the recent ABC Landline TV program on South Australia’s continuing ban on the growing of genetically modified foods (GM). The program gave voice to the concerns of the state’s grain growers who wanted the state government to end the ban when the state GM moratorium expires in 2019. However, Mr. Weatherall, the state premier wants to maintain the state’s GM-free status, arguing that it is more valuable to the state’s farm economy. On the other hand, Wade Dabinett, chairman of Grain Producers South Australia made the astonishing statement; “The State Government’s role is not to regulate on the safety of GM, it’s to grow the economic pie.” Dr Geoff Fincher, emeritus professor from the University of Adelaide who has been involved in the study of GM crops for over 20 years. said; “When you really look hard at the evidence of any serious dangers or harm associated with the technology, proven with rigorous and rigid experimentation, you don’t find that evidence.” Perhaps they should read the new ‘Monsanto Papers’ before making such ill-founded statements. Read on….

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    • 31 JUL 17

    The Poison Papers

    100,000 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust in an Oregon Barn for Decades – Until Now

    From The Intercept

    Sharon Lerner

    July 27 2017, 12:43 a.m.

    For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. Creaky, damp, and prowled by the occasional black bear, the listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others.

    As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers. Together, the library contains more than 200,000 pages of information and “lays out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment,” said Peter von Stackelberg, a journalist who along with the Center for Media and Democracy and the Bioscience Resource Project helped put the collection online. SNIP

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    • 28 JUL 17

    The Science Inquisition in America

    From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

    Excerpt

    After the Spanish Inquisition arose during the 15th century, it spread across most of Europe. In 1616, the Roman Inquisition judged the Copernican proposition that the Earth moves around the sun “formally heretical” leading to placement of Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres on the Index of Forbidden Books.

    Because he expanded Copernican theories, Galileo was tried by the Inquisition in 1633 and found “vehemently suspect of heresy.” He was forced to recant and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Does any of this sound familiar? The Trump White House currently regards as heresy the idea that human activity has an effect on the 60-mile thick blanket of the Earth’s atmosphere – or that something can be done about it. As a result, our climate is becoming like the weather – everyone talks about it but nobody does anything about it. SNIP

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    • 27 JUL 17

    Leszczynski: Free Public Lecture at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    From Dariusz Leszczynski

    In conjunction with my annual visit to Australia, this time to present a key-note presentation at the meeting of the Australasian Radiation Protection Society, I will also present:

    Free Public Lecture – Thursday 17 August 2017 @ 6:00 pm

    Location: Griffith University, Nathan Campus
    Lecture Theatre: Building N16 Lecture Theater No. 0.03
    RSVP (for catering purposes) – contact info will be soon provided here…

    Global Expansion of the Wireless: The 5G dive into the great unknown

    Excerpt

    by Adj. Prof. Dariusz Leszczynski, University of Helsinki, Finland

    In 2011, I was one of the 30 invited experts who classified radiation emitted by the wireless communication devices (WCD) as possible human carcinogen. Since that time several new studies have been published and the current scientific evidence suggests that the radiation emitted by the current WCD could be re-classified as probable human carcinogen. This evidence of health risk indicates that the current safety limits are insufficient to protect all users of the WCD. SNIP

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    • 26 JUL 17

    The smartphone is eventually going to die, and then things are going to get really crazy

    Excerpts

    One day, not too soon – but still sooner than you think – the smartphone will all but vanish, like beepers and fax machines before it.

    Make no mistake, we’re still probably at least a decade away from any kind of meaningful shift away from the smartphone. (And if we’re all cyborgs by 2027, I’ll happily eat my words. Assuming we’re still eating at all, I guess.)

    Yet, piece by piece, the groundwork for the eventual demise of the smartphone is being laid by Elon Musk, by Microsoft, by Facebook, by Amazon, and a countless number of startups that still have a part to play….
    Microsoft, Facebook, Google and the Google-backed Magic Leap are all working to build standalone augmented reality headsets, which project detailed 3D images straight into your eyes. Even Apple is rumoured to be working on this, too. Microsoft’s Alex Kipman recently told Business Insider that augmented reality could flat-out replace the smartphone, the TV, and anything else with a screen. There’s not much use for a separate device sitting in your pocket or on your entertainment center, if all your calls, chats, movies, and games are beamed into your eyes and overlaid on the world around you….

    This week, we got our first look at Neuralink, a new company cofounded by Elon Musk with a goal of building computers into our brains by way of “neural lace,” a very early-stage technology that lays on your brain and bridges it to a computer. It’s the next step beyond even that blending of the digital and physical worlds, as man and machine become one. SNIP

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    • 23 JUL 17

    Hi-tech Google Home and Alexa not smart enough to be error-free

    “Alexa, make tea. Now.” Wouldn’t it be great if we all had our own intelligent robot house assistants to deal with the boring chores of everyday life? “OK, Google, dim the lights.”

    So-called “smart homes” offer varying degrees of automated assistance, and Google Home, launched this week in Australia, is multi-talented – it can speak with an Australian accent, translate phrases, do simple sums, get definitions, play music, and list news stories, among other skills.

    Alexa, the tea-maker, is Amazon’s voice-controlled personal helper and she sometimes features in new-age homes. Sadly, it seems Alexa, being American, has had some trouble with Australian accents and occasionally stumbles. If you ask her to make tea she might play you a Beatles song… SNIP

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