- In April, I spoke about EMR-related issues in Boulder, Colorado and Eugene, Oregon. In both cities, I gave a talk called “Aiming to First Do No Harm: The Education of Electronics Users.” https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/aiming-to-first-do-no-harm/. It describes electronic interference commonly experienced by people with medical implants. (According to NIH, in 2000, 8-10% of the American population had an implant–i.e. a cardiac pacemaker, insulin pump or deep brain stimulator.) Walking through metal detectors, driving a Prius, being near “smart” meters…can reprogram or shut off some medical implants. Please have a listen to this talk. Public radio stations in Berkeley and Boulder have already requested permission to air it; they’ll include live discussion of local issues after the recording. Please let me know if you’d like to do this in your community.
- In Eugene, I began learning about Community Rights. More than 200 communities in nine states have passed legally-binding and locally-enforceable community rights laws that
* ban harmful but currently legal corporate activities like fracking, dumping sludge on farmland, unsustainable energy development, water withdrawal for bottling, etc.;
* strip corporations of all of their constitutional “rights;”
* restore a municipality’s right to govern itself and protect its public health and environment.
Could your town apply Community Rights ordinances around “smart” meters, Wi-Fi and telecommunications equipment? YES…with a public vote at the ballot box.
Because our federal laws grant corporations “First Amendment free speech rights,” telecom corporations claim, for example, that a municipality cannot require them to post SAR labeling on mobile devices. Because that would violate their right not to speak about a product’s potential harms.
Community Rights ordinances nullify existing state, federal and corporate trade-treaty pre-emption laws when those laws violate our inherent right of local self-governance.
A community could declare that its neighborhoods shall have the authority to deny any industrial, residential or commercial project proposed by a corporation. A community could create an ordinance banning Wi-Fi in schools, “smart” meters, distributed antenna systems, new cell towers.
What’s the catch? Your community has to reach majority rule at the ballot box; or your city or county councilors have to pass such an ordinance. (And so, public education continues.)
For more info, visit www.CommunityRightsPDX.org, www.democracythemepark.org, www.CELDF.org and ‘Community Rights TV’ on Youtube. Here’s a recent talk from Community Rights leader Paul Cienfuegos: https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/civil-rights-cell-tower-corporations/
- Ideas for Schools emerged during my week in Eugene: Encourage students to:
- a) Compare the growth of seeds planted beside a Wi-Fi router and far from a router (as Danish students did)
- b) Learn the difference between “safe” exposure levels set by the FCC, the Air Force (see the Radio Frequency Radiation Dosimetry Handbook, 5th Edition, edited by William P. Roach), and the BioInitiative Working Group (www.bioinitiative.org).
- c) Learn about likely diseases caused by various EMR exposures. (See Color Charts at www.bioinitiative.org; new studies at www.saferemr.com.)
- d) Learn how to measure EMR emissions with meters, then test their own electronic devices’ emissions.
- Determine their own safety standards–for themselves and their school.
If any school does this, I’ll post the report on my website.
These ideas contrast markedly with corporations’ drive to create “digital citizens.” Apple and Pearson are selling school districts packages that include digital curricula and testing, an iPad for every child, routers in every classroom, apps that take away classroom conversation and replace it with typed answers to a screen. The corporations collect billions of dollars and data-mined profiles of each child for lifelong marketing.
YIKES.
- Dr. Joel Moskowitz, researcher at UC/Berkeley’s School of Public Health, posts new, significant studies about the health effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure nearly every day. New posts include a U-turn from a German researcher who now finds that cell phone use does increase brain cancer risk; increasing rates of brain tumors in the Swedish National Inpatient Registter; Dr. Devra Davis’s, “Save the Girls! Make the Bra a No-Phone Zone,” based on new papers about breast cancer in young women who keep phones on their breasts; a study from the Environmental Working Group showing that some “protective” cell phone cases increase EMR exposure by as much as 70%. Dr. Moskowitz’s website is www.saferemr.com. For more breaking news about EMR from Dr. Moskowitz:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaferEMR
News Releases: http://pressroom.prlog.org/jmm716/
Twitter: @berkeleyprc
- If you’d like to help keep this newsletter going, please donate! Please go to www.electronicsilentspring.com and look for the donate button in the lower right column.
Thanks to everyone who’s getting informed about these issues and taking steps to reduce their use of electronics and exposure to EMR,
Katie Singer