Wednesday, June 27, 2012

WiFi in Schools:
CTV Disguised Infomercial as Investigative Report

CTV, is professional ETHICS part of your journalism?

Industry-funded and industry-affiliated infomercial was disguised as credible science by Bell Canada's CTV News in their investigation on Wi-Fi radiation in schools. This piece is a poor attempt to offer false security to the public by using a flawed protocol and skewed data.

It does not appear that CTV has researched or disclosed any conflict of interest with their expert, Mr. Karl Reardon who conducted the testing.

Mr. Reardon is/was:
  • A former Director and General Manager of Motorola
  • A current industry consultant (Planetworks and Radiowize) with close financial ties to the telecommunication industry
  • Collecting paycheques from consultation on cell tower installations
  • Author of a celltower guidebook for the Municipal Engineers
  • Holder of seven US and EU patents on wireless and data technology
  • Chief Technology Officer of Wireless Image whose sole business is the sale of mobile advertising solutions for cellphones.

Did CTV not bother to conduct proper "investigation" on your expert's conflict of interest before presenting this one-sided, crippled testing to stroke the backs of the wireless industry?

This might only be a quick story for your program, but this is an important issue to parents for the health of numerous children. To parents who have electrosensitive children, this is even a matter of whether the child can attend school or not.

Instead of engaging an engineer who makes his money from the wireless industry, Bell Canada's CTV should have interviewed experts who understand the low-level effects of non-ionizing microwave radiation on human cells, such as Dr. Martin Blank, Dr. Leif Salford, Dr. Henry Lai, Dr. Andrew Goldworthy, Dr. Magda Havas, and Dr. Olle Johansson among others.



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

CTV: Flawed Testing & Skewed Data
on Wi-Fi Danger in Schools

It's a shame that CTV – owned by Bell Canada, used a flawed testing protocol to misinform the public about the “low” level of Wi-Fi radiation, in the name of “investigative journalism”.

CTV's reporter, Jon Woodard, requested to speak to parents about this issue and we provided a contact for him, with whom he had made the arrangement to conduct an interview. That parent was informed that the interview was canceled only late today when he tried to reach the reporter.

Perhaps this is just a "programme story" to CTV. To us, parents, this is an important issue about the health of our children. To parents with electrosenstive children, it is a matter of whether the child can attend school at all. 

We strongly protest against this PR piece being presented as “news”.
    Conflict of interest does not only exist at the CTV/Bell level, but also the party conducting the measurements. CTV engaged Planetworks which is a consultant firm serving industry clients. Planetworks is a vendor involved regularly in celltower rental contracts.
    Measuring two schools with Wi-Fi and two different schools without Wi-Fi is a sloppy way to compare. The schools are located in different neighbourhoods.
    The proper way is to measure a number of schools with (a) Wi-Fi on, (b) downloading data/video with 20-30 devices in the room at the same time to represent classroom scenario, (c) measure both the nearfield level - user contact with the devices, and (d) the farfield - ambient levels. Then measure in the SAME schools with the Wi-Fi and all wireless devices (including cordless phones) turned off.
Walking around the school with the RF meter is NOT an accurate way to measure. This kind of measurement does not represent real world usage. Children are using laptops/tablets/smartphones in direct contact with their bodies, either in their hands or on their laps against their abdomens and reproductive organs. This walkaround measurement does not reflect the real radiation level which children are exposed to.

The “scientific studies” which Canadian health agencies cite are even more unrealistic, measuring laptop radiation at 50 cm, 1 meter or other “further distances”. This is done to report a lower reading of microwave radiation and is an example of skewing the data.

    Comparison between inside and outside the school is irrelevant:
    In May 2011 the World Health Organization's IARC (International Agency on Research of Cancer) has classified cellphone/WiFi radiation as 2B Possible Carcinogen. In October, 2011, Health Canada asked parents to reduce children's radiofrequency exposure since "children are typically more sensitive to a variety of environmental agents" and "there is currently a lack of scientific information regarding the potential health impacts of cell phones on children". Just because this type of microwave radiation can be found outside schools does not mean it is safe.
    Homes and schools are the two places where children spend the most amount of time. Parents have the choice to take measures to reduce children's exposure to microwave radiation at home by using wired computers which offer the same educational benefits with better security and speed. However, in schools funded by public money and with a captive audience, children are now FORCED to use wireless laptops and tablets which bear long-term health risks, and they are given no choice to avoid this exposure. Reducing exposure at home and in schools will reduce the majority of cumulative exposure for children.
What do cigarette smoke, asbestos, PCB and DDT have in common?
At one time, all were approved for human consumption, only to have been found harmful to human health later. Safety standards can be slow to change, leading to irreparable harm to human health.

School Districts are constantly complaining about the lack of funding. They should use the funding to improve existing wired networks instead of spending additional money on wireless technology.
See this white paper written by BC ERAC (Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium) which represents BC School Districts' IT Departments.

Wireless Networking for K-12 Education in BC - July 2007
" the majority of school buildings have some or most teaching and administrative areas serviced by wired network connections... with sophisticated router and switching capability for managing traffic and security."
" wireless technologies are not able to provide the type of data speed experienced with wired connections, typically running at 100Mbps or faster. Thus wireless is still not an obvious replacement for a wired environment."
" Many of the risks associated with wireless... Reliability, slow speed of connections, interference from other devices, cost, security, manageability, compatibility, scalability and consistency of technology implementation."

    Reporting “average measurements” is a sneaky way to skew data. See these videos: http://www.safeinschool.org/2012/01/ipad-iphone-wi-fi-radiation-and.html Wi-Fi signals spike every few seconds (at levels higher than cellphone transmission). They stop and go, emitting in bursts. Therefore, by averaging the figures, the resulting numbers look ridiculously low. This is similar to telling people that driving at 120 km/hr is not dangerous because when averaging with the time the car stopped at the red light, the "average speed" was only 20 km/hr.
    Reporting only as a % of Health Canada's Danger Code 6 (misnamed as Safety Code 6).
    By reporting a percentage, most of the public would not know how the figure converts to actual units and how it compares to other countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg and China, whose national maximum exposure limits are actually hundred to thousands times more stringent than our “danger” standard. The Canadian guideline is outdated and obsolete, protective of corporations' unrestrained wireless expansion but not protective of human health, especially children. http://goo.gl/4pzyE The European Parliament and the Council of Europe have passed repeated resolutions calling their member states NOT to use Wi-Fi. The truth is, even the lowest national exposure limit is already a million times higher than cosmic background radiation. Human bodies are simply not developed for the constant artificial pulse-modulated radiation from cellphone and Wi-Fi, which is being rapidly deployed all around us. Human bodies conduct electricity and absorb such radiation. Schools are imposing this human conduction on our children without parental informed consent.

Russia is among the earliest countries to have started research on microwave radiation. This week, Russia is calling for the replacement of Wi-Fi with wired networks in schools, out of health concern.

The following is the announcement by Professor Yuri Grigoriev, Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, and member of the WHO's International Advisory Committee on “EMF and Health”.


19th June 2012.  Translation from the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CemiJ-yIA4&feature=youtu.be

Programme of the Russian Committee on the protection from non-ionising
radiation with regard to the need to introduce strict regulations on the use
of Wi-Fi in kindergartens and schools.

'I have already been informed that pushy parents are already trying to get
this installed in kindergartens... Everybody sees Moscow... '

Mobile network connections are very popular amongst children of various
ages.  The duration of conversations on mobile phones is higher for children
compared to the adult population.  At the same time electromagnetic fields
and radio frequencies are irradiating the brain every day.
Furthermore, children are constantly subjected to electromagnetic radiation
and radio frequencies from the base stations round the clock.

The problem of preserving the health of children subject to the developing
conditions of wireless radio communications is referred to as a priority by
the World Health Organization.

Electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi presents an additional burden to a
child whose body is in a state of development and whose mental activities
are in the formative stage.  During this period children are most
susceptible to negative environmental factors.

WHO, Publication 3, April 2004

Furthermore it is necessary to highlight that the current regulations were
developed without taking into consideration this additional influence of
electromagnetic fields.  We don¹t have these regulations yet.

Our Committee believes it is necessary to:

Firstly, draw the attention of the RF Ministry of Health and of all of the
other organizations responsible for the safety of the population, including
children, to the regulations regarding the use of Wi-Fi in kindergartens and
schools, and to increase the sanitary and epidemiological control over
the use of Wi-Fi, and the development of the relevant regulatory framework.

Secondly, to recommend the use of wired networks and not networks using
wireless broadband access systems, including Wi-Fi, in schools and
educational establishments.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Toronto Hospital recognizes Electro-magnetic Hyper-sensitivity


Toronto Hospital is First to Recognize Symptoms from Wireless Radiation

TORONTO, June 18, 2012 /CNW/ - Women's College Hospital says family doctors must learn to detect the symptoms of exposure to wireless radiation.

The hospital released a statement saying the symptoms include disrupted sleep, headaches, nausea, dizziness, heart palpitations, memory problems, and skin rashes. These symptoms are now labelled Electro-magnetic Hyper-sensitivity, or "EMS".

"Health-care practitioners need to better understand EMS so they can help their patients," said Dr. Riina Bray, medical director of the hospital's Environmental Health Clinic.

Dr. Bray says the world is becoming dominated by wireless internet, cell phones and cell towers, and there can be a broad range of health impacts.

The hospital's Environmental Health Clinic has begun holding educational workshops on the subject for doctors.

Last year the World Health Organization placed microwave radiation from wireless internet and cell phones on an official Cancer watch-list. Since then several schools have removed their wifi systems and the Catholic teacher's union in Ontario has called for a moratorium on wifi installations in classrooms.

For further information:  



Saturday, June 2, 2012

EHS Electrohypersensitivity (ES, Electrosensitivity) Physiologically Explained at last by Health Research in France


L’intolérance électromagnétique élucidée (2011)

In 2002, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland told journalists that microwaves emitted by cellphones made her sick, even if the phone was only turned on and hidden in a pocket or purse located up to four meters away. Nonetheless, the World Health Organization stated in 2005 that electrosensitivity symptoms may be of psychosomatic origin, a claim that French oncologist Dominique Belpomme says is refuted by recent discoveries.
French researchers recently demonstrated that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) substantially alter the physiology of the blood and brain of electrosensitive people and that the impact on these biological markers increases and decreases according to the intensity of EMF exposure.
We know with certainty that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is not psychosomatic”, Dr Dominique Belpomme stated in a [November 2010] telephone interview. “EMFs provoke major effects in the brain. The most important of these is the opening of the blood-brain barrier. This allows mercury, organochlorines and other pollutants to enter the brain, where they cause various neurodegenerative diseases. ”

20 new patients per week


A professor of oncology at Paris-Descartes University, Dr. Belpomme is President of the French Association for Research in Therapeutics Against Cancer (www.artac.info), which has shifted in the prevention from 2004. Since May 2008, his team has studied what he coined the Electromagnetic Intolerance Syndrome (SICEM in French). “I have 450 patients and see up to 20 new cases every week, including children who have headaches, impaired memory, concentration or language. We have the largest cluster of electrosensitive patients in Europe. This is a major public health concern.”
The SICEM [EHS] is an extreme reaction to low-level exposure to 50/60 Hz electric and magnetic fields emitted by electrical cables and devices as well as radio frequencies (10 MHz to 300 GHz including microwave) from wireless devices and antennas.
”In Sweden, electrohypersensitivity
 (EHS) is an officially fully recognized functional impairment, explains Swedish dermatologist and EHS expert Olle Johannson. Thus, the first step for a person in Sweden with a functional impairment is to contact the municipality’s special civil servant for disability issues, as well as the various handicap organizations and authorities, to achieve accessibility measures of various types with the sole aim to have an equal life in a society based on equality according to the The UN Convention on Human Rights for Persons with Functional Impairments, www.un.org.”
People with EHS are often incorrectly referred in psychiatry while many experts such as Belpomme say the first treatment they require is reducing or eliminating their exposure to EMFS. Their symptoms (neurological, cardiovascular, dermatological, muscular, etc.) are sometimes so serious that they must shield themselves with special clothing, curtains as well as grounded paints and vapor barriers. Others move into forests, caves or other remote locations if they are unable to find a low-EMF environment where their symptoms can recede or  disappear.
Dr. Belpomme’s team has developed a diagnostic method based on blood tests and a special brain scan (pulsed Doppler echography) to visualize blood flow. “These patients clearly have vascular disorders in the brain, said the oncologist. In addition, our biological tests show that 30% of them have high levels of histamine, 50% have too much stress proteins, most have low levels of melatonin (an potent anti-cancer hormone), and 30% have levels of antibodies and proteins that are signs showing thermal shock and brain damage.” He adds that half of his patients suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and that MCS and EHS share the same brain abnormalities.
The oncologist explained that there are three distinct levels of sensitivity to pollutants. First, there is intolerance, caused by polymorphism. “This means that we are all different. For example, 30% of the population is most at risk of developing cancer.”
Second, there is the susceptibility factor demonstrated by Swedish oncologist Lennart Hardell who studied 16 families who were electrosensitive because of shared genetic factors. There are also active susceptibility factors, “such as dental amalgam that behave like antennas capturing airwaves”, explains Belpomme.
Finally, electromagnetic hypersensitivity appears in two stages. “The first phase is induced by exposure to a specific EMF frequency, either an acute or chronic exposure, such as talking on a cell phone 20 minutes every day. The first signs of hypersensitivity are pain and a heat sensation in the ear. In the second phase, the disease sets in. That’s when you become intolerant at all frequencies.”
Experienced researchers
ARTAC’s scientific council is chaired by virologist Dr. Luc Montagnier, 2008 co-Nobel Prize winner for discovery of the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). And its research coordinator is nutrition specialist, Dr. Philippe Irigaray, one of five international experts recently appointed by Quebec’s Health Research Fund to select the most promising research projects in environmental cancer prevention. Dr. Irigaray stresses that the human brain contains magnetosomes, iron oxides that behave like magnets. Electrosensitivity may depend on their quantity, which varies from one individual to another.
ARTAC researchers are currently preparing five scientific papers on electrosensitivity. “It requires a lot of time", said Dr Belpomme. "They will be published in a year or two. But independent and immediate action is needed to reduce people’s overexposure to EMFs.
In France, an estimated 5% of the population is already electrosensitive, and the proportion is constantly increasing with the ever-growing popularity of wireless technologies. “Studies show that 10 to 50% of the population may become very intolerant to EMFs over the next 25 to 50 years, Dr Belpomme said. I have two cases of multiple sclerosis triggered after overuse of cellphone, three cases of breast cancer – two relapses after exposure to EMFs and daily use of computers – and proof is building up against Autism and Alzheimer’s disease whose risk is much higher than for cancer. Causal links with electromagnetic fields are highly possible.”
Dr Belpomme said he has relieved some EHS patients by administering medication to tone-up the nervous system and antihistamines to close the blood-brain barrier.
No causal link, says WHO
In 2005, the World Health Organization published Fact Sheet No 296 entitled Electromagnetic hypersensitivity. It stated : ”Well controlled and conducted double-blind studies have shown that symptoms were not correlated with EMF exposure… The symptoms are certainly real and can vary widely in their severity… Further, EHS is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem. 
Physicians: Treatment of affected individuals should focus on the health symptoms and the clinical picture, and not on the person’s perceived need for reducing or eliminating EMF in the workplace or home. This requires:
• a medical evaluation to identify and treat any specific conditions that may be responsible for the symptoms,
• a psychological evaluation to identify alternative psychiatric/psychological conditions that may be responsible for the symptoms,
• an assessment of the workplace and home for factors that might contribute to the presented symptoms. These could include indoor air pollution, excessive noise, poor lighting (flickering light) or ergonomic factors. A reduction of stress and other improvements in the work situation might be appropriate
.”
Bull, said Dr. Dominique Belpomme. “This is a political backwardness that has nothing to do with science. WHO will be forced to revise its judgment in the upcoming months. It is a societal denial that does not take into account the current knowledge which is constantly building up. ” [read Microwave News's coverage of conflicts of interest at WHO]
According to this oncologist, the causal link between exposure to magnetic fields and leukemia is no longer in doubt. “When we increase the dose, the rate of leukemia increases. Dozens of laboratory toxicological studies have demonstrated this most clearly, in vitro as well as in animals.”
For her part, Ontario researcher Magda Havas of Trent University said EHS studies with negative results have major biases. “The researchers assumed that reactions to EMFs are immediate, while there is often a delay between exposure and response. People are not switches that can be turned on and off. These studies incorrectly insinuate that if you can not feel anything, it can’t harm you. We know very well that we can’t detect the taste of arsenic, lead, DDT nor asbestos, but they are all toxic.”
Editor: Dr. Lennart Hardell, "It is a wrong satement that we have studied familiar EHS. Instead we measured persistent organic pollutants."