logo

EMFacts Blog

    • 02 JUN 13

    Expert speaks at Arizona public meeting on smart meters

    Smart meters have become a big subject in the media lately and opponents have challenged utilities and public commissions on their safety, health effects and privacy concerns. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) is looking into the concerns as mentioned in a recent article in The Independent.
    A public meeting on smart meters was hosted by the White Mountain Conservatives and held at the Show Low VFW Hall on May 22. Elizabeth Kelley of Tucson was the speaker at the meeting. She has been a public advocate on electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) since the mid 1990s and has made numerous presentations to state, national and international officials. She founded and directs the Tucson-based Electromagnetic Safety Alliance and is the coordinator for Arizonans for Safer Utility Infrastructure, where she has been challenging the installation of smart meters.
    A 2010 Harpers Magazine article by Nathaniel Rich identifies Kelley as “the voice for EMF safety” in the United States. She was co-producer of the award-winning documentary film “Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy and the Wireless Revolution.”
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 01 JUN 13

    Wi-Fi technology – an uncontrolled global experiment on the health of mankind

    Just published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, June 2013

    Wi-Fi technology – an uncontrolled global experiment on the health of mankind

    Marko Markov – Research International, Williamsville, NY, USA, Yuri G. Grigoriev – National Committee of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, Moscow, Russia

    More than 10 years ago, at the WHO organized meeting on harmonization of standards one of the authors pointed out that neglecting the hazard of high-frequency EMF for children is a crime against humanity (Markov, 2001). We believe that scientific community must be more insisting in comprehension of potential hazard that mobile exchange of information is potentially invoked in human organisms. In that aspect, it is very important that the IARC classified the RF EMF as a possible cancerogene (2B). It is important to note that for less than two years this major International Agency switched from “no conclusive evidence for health hazard” to “possible cancerogen”….In 2003, IEEE published astandard that affirmed that biological effects can only be thermal (Cho & D’Andrea, 2003). No heat – no effect. This policy serves very well in the industry and creates a serious barrier preventing biology-based assessment of the human health. The scientific community must be more insisting in comprehension of potential hazard that mobile exchange of information potentially invoke in human organisms.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 31 MAY 13

    Fukushima’s radioactive water: What to do with 400 tons a day?

    May 31, 2013

    By Antoni Slodkowski

    HISANOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) – Dozens of crabs, three small sharks and scores of fish thump on the slippery deck of the fishing boat True Prosperity as captain Shohei Yaoita lands his latest haul, another catch headed not for the dinner table but for radioactive testing. Japan’s government banned commercial fishing in this area, some 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Tokyo, after a devastating 2011 tsunami and the reactor meltdowns and explosions that followed at the nearby Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, has battled since then to keep radioactive water used to cool the crippled reactor from leaking into the ground and the sea…..The fishermen and Tepco are in dispute over the utility’s plans to dump 100 tons of groundwater a day from the devastated plant into the sea. The complicated clean-up plan for Fukushima could take 30 years or more. Tepco’s challenge is what to do with the contaminated water that has been pooling at the plant at a rate of 400 tons a day – enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in a week.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 30 MAY 13

    Canadian Tech Leader Warns of Wi-Fi, Smartphone, Cell Tower Radiation

    The former president of Microsoft Canada is among those warning about the dangers of Wi-Fi and electromagnetic radiation exposure, and he’s heading up initiatives to find safe alternatives to current wireless uses. Frank Clegg, a leader on the Canadian technology scene for many years, says he supports those parents and concerned individuals who object to wireless Internet in schools. Former Microsoft Canada President Frank Clegg is actively involved with raising awareness about threats to children and health, particularly those posed by wireless technology or online activity. Photo from KINSA. Former Microsoft Canada President Frank Clegg is actively involved with raising awareness about threats to children and health, particularly those posed by wireless technology or online activity. Photo from KINSA.

    “This is a real hazard and we shouldn’t wait for the government to catch up to the technology,” said Clegg, who was head of Microsoft Canada for nearly 15 years and now leads a national organization called Citizens 4 Safe Technology (C4ST). “We should exercise caution, especially with children.”
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 29 MAY 13

    Violations of the Right to Health in Fukushima – Will WHO Listen to the UN Special Rapporteur?

    Japanese citizen associations have been reporting violations of the right to health of populations in Fukushima since the first months of the accident. Meanwhile WHO continues to minimize health risks, despite reports from independent scientists, health professionals and citizen groups of high levels of contamination, inadequate radioprotection and early signs of very serious health problems. The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Anand Grover, has issued a strong statement (1) following his visit to the stricken area.
    SNIP
    Within days of the Fukushima nuclear accident and on the basis of no information whatsoever, WHO stated that “at the moment there is very little public health risk outside the 30 km (evacuation) zone”. In contrast, independent researchers (2) stated – on the basis of the composition of the emissions – that core meltdowns had occurred with massive radioactive contamination. They were right of course as TEPCO and the Japanese government conceded a few weeks later – too late to avoid harm.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 29 MAY 13

    The Impact Of Screen Media On Children: A Eurovision For Parliament

    by Dr Aric Sigman
    Health Education Lecturer, Fellow of the Society of Biology, Associate Fellow of the British
    Psychological Society.

    Introduction
    The EU discusses many aspects of its citizens’ lives. Yet the main waking activity of Europeans – watching screen media – has never been thought of as an issue requiring parliamentary consideration. Over the course of childhood, children spend more time watching TV than they do in school (Zimmerman et al 2007a). The average seven-year-old will have already watched screen media for more than one full year of 24-hour days. By age 18 the average European young person will have spent a full 4 years of 24-hour days in front of a screen. But screen time is no longer merely a cultural issue about how children spend their leisure time. Screen time has now become a medical issue. Research published in the world’s most reputable medical and scientific journals shows that the sheer amount of time children spend watching TV, DVDs, computers and the internet is linked with significant measurable biological changes in their bodies and brains that may have significant medical consequences.Given that children undergoing key stages of development are spending increasingly large parts of their lives watching screen media, the EU must take a serious interest and establish a view on the matter. The following will provide the reasons why.

    Read more →
    • 26 MAY 13

    Neurosurgeon Vini Khurana on brain tumour incidence

    Statement from Australian neurosurgeon Gautam (Vini) Khurana:

    “I believe that in the present decade, a significant increase in primary brain tumor incidence will be detected internationally. The first indication of this phenomenon may be the plethora of high-profile individuals diagnosed with primary brain tumors in the last few to several years: Senator Ted Kennedy, professional golfer Seve Ballesteros, Cable television host Eleanor Mondale, director and producer Dan Curtis, broadcaster Stan Zemanek, high profile attorney Johnnie Cochran, celebrated pilot Dennis E. Fitch, inventor Robert Moog, political pundit Robert Novak, US Senator Arlen Specter, renowned cancer surgeon Professor Chris O’Brien, baseball pro Gary Carter, journalist David Shaw, Stock broker Rene Rivkin, actress Elizabeth Taylor, actor Mark Ruffalo, actor and musician Martin Kemp, singer Sheryl Crow, rock star Doc Neeson, corporate leader Holly Ann Norwick (partner of Chris Gardner, who was played by Will Smith in film The Pursuit of Happyness), actor / model Rona Newton-John (sister of singer and Grease star Olivia Newton-John), actress Valerie Harper (star of the Mary Tyler Moore Show),…
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 22 MAY 13

    War-Gaming Cell Phone Science Protects Neither Brains Nor Private Parts

    By Devra Davis,
    In science news as in life, timing is everything. As soon as the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer expert review declaring cell phone radiation a “possible human carcinogen” — just like lead, DDT, and jet fuel — was drafted in 2011, the global multi-trillion dollar cell phone industry set up a quarter of a billion dollar defense fund to produce and promote science that would discredit the WHO. Whenever a report pops up questioning cell phone safety, a contrary report stands ready in the wings to cast doubt about its legitimacy.

    Case in point. The WHO published detailed documentation for its year-long 2011 expert review last month. Extending this work, Santosh Kesari, chief of neuro-oncology at the University of California, San Diego, two of Canada’s top physician-epidemiologists, Antony B. Miller and Colin Soskolne, and I have just published a technical report concluding that more recent studies indicate that cell phone radiation constitutes a “probable human carcinogen.”
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 18 MAY 13

    Interesting and new and innovative science with plants

    A group of 5 girls have carried out a science experiment at Hjallerup School in North Jutland, Denmark that saw garden cress seeds placed in 12 tubs and split into two batches. Both batches were placed in different rooms that remained the same temperature, and were given the same amount of water and sunlight over the course of 12 days. …. The girls’ experiment was geared towards testing the potential impact of phone radiation on surrounding objects. They didn’t have phones to use though, so decided the routers were a good alternative.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 17 MAY 13

    Swedish Review Strengthens Grounds for Concluding that Radiation from Cellular and Cordless Phone s is a Probable Human Carcinogen

    Abstract
    With 5.9 billion devices in use, mobile phones constitute a new, ubiquitous and rapidly growing exposure worldwide. Mobile phones are two-way microwave radios that also emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Inconsistent results have been published on potential risks of brain tumours tied with mobile phone use as a result of important methodological differences in study design and statistical power. Some studies have examined mobile phone users for periods of time that are too short to detect an increased risk of brain cancer, while others have misclassified exposures by placing those with exposures to microwave radiation from cordless phones in the control group, or failing to attribute such exposures in the cases.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 16 MAY 13

    Video – NO Smart Meter Protest March, Melbourne, 5th May 2013

    I recommend taking the time to view the video below. In this posting I have also listed some of the many ill-health reports coming out of Victoria. I find it a disgrace that while there is such an outcry about the physical and mental anguish being experienced by the unfortunate asylum seekers detained in the Manus detention centre, the anguish of Victorians suffering from smart meter exposures is simply ignored. Perhaps they are being ignored by the Victorian government because the government’s sole adviser on the issue in the Victorian Radiation Advisory Committee, a telecommunications industry consultant, was formerly Motorola Australia’s Director, Global EME Strategy and Regulatory Affairs. Some would say that is a teeny-weeny bit of a conflict of interest……..

    Read more →
    • 14 MAY 13

    New report: Brain diseases such as dementia affecting more people under 55 than ever before

    Professor Colin Pritchard’s latest research published in Public Health Journal has found that the sharp rise of dementia and other neurological deaths in people under 74 cannot be put down to the fact that we are living longer – the rise is because a higher proportion of old people are being affected by such conditions, and what is really alarming, it is starting earlier and affecting people under 55 years.
    SNIP

    Professor Pritchard said, “These rises in neurological deaths, with the earlier onset of the dementias, are devastating for families and pose a considerable public health problem. It is NOT that we have more old people but rather more old people have more brain disease than ever before, including Alzheimer’s. For example there are two new British charities, The Young Parkinson’s Society and Young Dementia UK, which are a grass-roots response to these rises. The need for such charities would have been inconceivable a little more than 30 years ago.”
    SNIP

    “This has to be speculative but it cannot be genetic because the period is too short. Whilst there will be some influence of more elderly people, it does not account for the earlier onset; the differences between countries nor the fact that more women have been affected, as their lives have changed more than men’s over the period, all indicates multiple environmental factors. Considering the changes over the last 30 years – the explosion in electronic devices, rises in background non-ionising radiation- PC’s, micro waves, TV’s, mobile phones; road and air transport up four-fold increasing background petro-chemical pollution; chemical additives to food etc.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 14 MAY 13

    EU institutions agree on new rules to protect workers from electromagnetic fields – but are they protective enough?

    [ NOTE: Due to a change in servers there were problems sending out two postings. They are now being re-posted.]

    The following EU agreement, on the face of it, reads like a real breakthrough. However note the qualifying statement: “not to unduly hamper the use and development of industrial and medical activities”. My reading of this indicates that ICNIRP”s rational for health protection (short term/ acute exposure protection) will likely remain the basis for this new directive.

    Will the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) be happy with these new rules? The ETUC has previously opposed the draft EU agreement because it followed the ICNIRP limits which “only considers short-term effects of exposure and disregards the long-term impacts on workers’ health”. The ETUC have called for binding legislation needed to protect worker’s health from EMF exposure risks.

    The question is: Are these new rules still just a rehashing of ICNIRP’s industry friendly limitations?

    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 11 MAY 13

    Cell Phone Use, Acoustic Neuroma and Cancer of the Pituitary Gland

    From Joel Moskowitz:

    PRLog (Press Release) – May 10, 2013 – BERKELEY, Calif. — Cell phone use was associated with increased risk of acoustic neuroma and cancer of the pituitary gland in a prospective study of more than 790,000 women in the United Kingdom. (1)

    Acoustic neuroma is a rare, non-malignant tumor that develops on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain. The pituitary gland is an organ that produces hormones which regulate important functions of the body and is located in the middle of the base of the brain.

    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 09 MAY 13

    Money talks louder than reason

    From the blog “Between A Rock And A Hard Place” by Dariusz Lesczcynski:

    San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors wanted that fact sheet describing possible dangers of cell phone radiation would be available for every buyer of the cell phone. They also wanted that this information would be clearly and visibly displayed by cell phone selling establishments.
    CTIA did not agree and the court sided with them.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 06 MAY 13

    Children’s Cell Phone Use May Increase Their Risk of ADHD

    A new study finds that children who use cell phones who are exposed to lead are at greater risk of developing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than lead-exposed children who do not use cell phones much or at all.

    Joel M. Moskowitz, PRLog (Press Release) – Apr. 2, 2013

    Eleven percent of American children have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) including nearly one in five high school age boys according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 03 MAY 13

    Touchy feeley cell phone underpants

    We’ve all heard of the underpants bomber who in Dec. 2009 unsuccessfully tried to set off an al-Qaeda fundamentalist inspired underwear bomb on a Northwest Airline plane. Perhaps inspired by this ingenious new concept for underwear, Durex has taken the fundamentalist doctrine to a whole new level with its Fundawear range where you too can also set off a ‘charge’ in someone’s (or your own) underwear.

    Read more →
    • 03 MAY 13

    More on telco takeover of the FCC

    For more on this unfolding story of a blatant industry takeover of the FCC see the latest blog by Dariusz Lesczcynski

    Excerpt

    Mr. Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of CTIA, was nominated to be the next Chairman of the FCC. He has clear conflict of interest. The planned revision of the cell phone safety standards by FCC is now in danger to be adjusted to the industry liking.

    Read more →
    • 02 MAY 13

    Telco industry lobbyist to Be Chairman of “independent” FCC

    From Bloomberg.com:

    White House to Name Wheeler to Be Chairman of U.S. FCC

    President Barack Obama will name Tom Wheeler, a top campaign fundraiser and former leader of wireless- and cable-industry groups, to head the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

    Wheeler, managing director at Core Capital Partners LP in Washington, would succeed Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat who has pushed to expand access to high-speed Internet service, said a White House official who asked not to be named because the appointment hasn’t been announced.

    Wheeler’s appointment will be announced by the White House today, the official said. Genachowski on March 22 announced his departure from the post he has held since 2009.

    Wheeler needs Senate confirmation before joining the independent agency that regulates broadcasters, cable companies and telephone-service providers.

    Read more →
    • 28 APR 13

    Now its smart pajamas for the toddlers!

    ‘Smart’ story-telling pajamas invented by father of 6

    Wilson Rothman NBC News
    April 25, 2013 at 2:26 PM ET
    Kids wearing Smart PJs

    A group of kids – two of inventor Juan Murdoch’s children, plus a handful of their friends – wearing Smart PJs. Note the dot clusters: There are 47 unique patterns on each pair.

    As a dad who loves to read to his kids at bedtime, I was a little skeptical about Smart PJs. They’re certainly clever: Each of the jammies’ 47 unique dot patterns triggers a story or an animal lesson when the kid scans it with a smartphone or tablet. But I am wary of products that may outsource crucial parental tasks to machines. So I spoke with the inventor.

    Read more →