electromagnetichealth.org

30th June, 2009

Washington, D.C., June 30, 2009; Today The National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy (”NISLAPP”) mailed a report on the health hazards of wireless technologies to Governors, Members of Congress, President Obama and his Administration, as well as to thousands of health and environmental journalists.

Legislators and journalists are being urged to learn about the health consequences of microwave radiation exposure from cell phones, neighborhood antennas, wireless networks, wireless routers, DECT portable phones, and the potential health consequences of further chronic exposures from wireless broadband and new wireless utility technologies. The National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy is encouraging all to become engaged with this important public health issue impacting adults and children, as well as animals and nature.

Co-authored by Dr. Magda Havas, Assoc. Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent
University in Canada, and Camilla Rees, Founder of www.ElectromagneticHealth.org, “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution” reviews the independent science on the health hazards of wireless radiation and offers recommendations to the public on how to live more safely in a wireless world. It answers 110 questions posed by the audience at the Commonwealth Club of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, at an event co-organized by Wide Angle Health, LLC, Citizens for Health and the American Academy of Environmental Medicine.

Globally, public health officials and health advocacy groups are increasingly concerned about
symptoms people are associating with rising levels of indoor and outdoor microwave radiation, known as ‘electrosmog’, including sometimes debilitating symptoms experienced near cell phone towers (http://sn.im/kt6pe). In addition, they are troubled by the impact this radiation may be having on children, who are more vulnerable. Schools increasingly use wireless networks to access the internet, instead of hard-wired connections, and many schools are being paid to place cell phone towers and antennas on school property. Several countries, but not the United States, recommend limited cell phone access for children, including Germany, Russia, India, Belgium, and Finland. Last month France banned cell phones in primary schools (http://sn.im/ktfa2).

There is concern, as well, about involuntary, chronic radiation exposure in workplaces, and also that home equity values can drop precipitously if a cell phone tower is erected nearby.

Symptoms people experience in the presence of microwave radiation from wireless technologies,
which get progressively worse during or following exposure, include:

State and local governments and advocacy groups in the U.S are disturbed to be learning of the vast body of independent science showing biological effects from electromagnetic fields, well below federal exposure guidelines, and of the connection between these fields and many chronic illnesses, as documented in The BioInitiative Report in 2007 (www.BioInitiative.org).

Because of a provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, state and local governments have been prohibited from limiting cell towers and antennas on health or environmental grounds, despite symptoms residents may be experiencing.

Over the past four months, governments have increasingly acknowledged electromagnetic field-related health concerns and taken stands to protect health:

• Three U.S. Governors declared May 2009 “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Awareness Month” (http://sn.im/ksv30).
• Los Angeles Unified School District called for the return of state and local governments rights to limit antennas (http://sn.im/j05ag).
• The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety voted overwhelmingly to recommend precautions be taken to protect human health with regard to mobile phones, Wi-Fi/Wi-Max, Bluetooth, DECT portable phones and cell towers. (http://sn.im/ksrev)
• The City Council of Portland, OR asked its Congressional delegation to recommend the FCC ”work in cooperation with the FDA and other relevant federal agencies to revisit and update studies on potential health concerns arising from RF wireless emissions in light of the national proliferation of wireless use”. (http://sn.im/ipl16)
• L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to seek and support federal legislation that would repeal Section 704 of the Federal Telecommunication Act of 1996, the provision which has prevented state and local governments from influencing siting of telecommunications towers and antennas on health or environmental grounds (http://sn.im/ksx2i)

• Queens, NY City Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. introduced a bill requiring phone companies to give advance warning of their intent to install new antennas before the permit is issued, the Buildings Department commissioner to establish rules for how and where antennas can be erected and cell phone companies to demonstrate efforts to locate antennas in non-residential areas. (http://sn.im/kw94a)
• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a “Briefing Paper on the Need for Research into the Cumulative Impacts of Communications Towers on Migratory Birds and Other Wildlife in the United States” (including crop pollinators, such as bees). (http://sn.im/kw96a)

But the U.S. Congress has not taken any steps to protect the health of American citizens from wireless radiation, though some consider this issue as important to the future of life as global warming.

An EMF Petition to Congress, signed by Americans in 47 states and citizens in 25 countries
(http://sn.im/j4c8a), calls for Congress to:

1) mandate the Federal Communications Commission revisit its exposure guidelines for radiofrequency radiation (RF), in light of the independent science showing current standards are not protective;
2) repeal Sec. 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which prevents state and local governments from limiting antennas on health or environmental grounds;
3) declare a national moratorium on further wireless infrastructure build-out, including the coming “Wi-Max”, the wireless components of the National Broadband Plan being supported by the Obama Administration and new wireless utility technologies; and
4) to establish cell phone and wireless-free zones in neighborhoods, government buildings, schools, public spaces and places of employment.

The National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy is distributing “Public Health SOS: The
Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution” to Congress, Governors, the Obama Administration and
the media with endorsement from Citizens for Health, the International Commission on
Electromagnetic Safety (ICEMS), The EMR Network, ElectromagneticHealth.org and the EM-
Radiation Research Trust (U.K.), along with a supporting letter from the American Academy of
Environmental Medicine.

Jennifer Armstrong, MD, President of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, states,

“The concerns raised in “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution” regarding adverse health effects associated with exposures to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from cell phone towers, cell phones, and other wireless technology are understandable given the strength, consistency, and dose response of the associations reported in the scientific literature.”

NISLAPP Chairman, James Turner, Esq., who also is Chairman of Citizens for Health, states,

”We believe it is essential that President Obama and his administration, legislators, other government officials, health care providers and journalists become educated on the hazards of electromagnetic fields so that a dialogue can begin about how to safely meet our nation’s communications objectives without jeopardizing the health of this generation and those to come. Congress must take steps now to educate the public on how to protect health, halt nationwide wireless broadband until legislators are better educated on the potential short and long-term health effects, and encourage innovative solutions to this difficult set of circumstances, where technologies have been introduced without adequate pre-market health testing or post-market surveillance.”

The National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy (NISLAPP) was founded in 1978 to bridge
the gap between scientific uncertainties and the need for laws protecting public health and safety. Its
overriding objective is to bring practitioners of science and law together to develop intelligent policy
that best serves all interested parties in a given controversy. NISLAPP’s focus is on the points at
which these two disciplines converge.