A Swedish man who sometimes wears a silver-coloured suit to protect himself from mobile phone mast radiation had demanded that local officials in Dalarna in central Sweden create a “radiation-free zone” to protect his health that may leave half the county without mobile phone coverage.
Despite a lack of scientific research into the health effects of the radiation emitted by mobile phone masts, Mora municipality in Dalarna County is about to create an area free of radiation following complaints filed by local resident Dan Bengtsson, 62.
”There may be a biological effect that we are unaware of. If we can play it safe it may open up for other authorities to do the same,” said municipal environment inspector Niklas Sjödin to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).
Bengtsson, who lives outside of Mora, has long complained of headaches, back problems, and painful prickles in his heart.
He describes himself as "electro-oversensitive" and claims that his health has deteriorated since the mobile mast network was expanded in the area.
The silver suit he sometimes wears dampens the effect somewhat, but not completely, according to Bengtsson.
”It looks a little bit like a space suit,” Bengtsson told daily Aftonbladet.
According to Bengtsson, his condition is making his wife suffer as well, as she is forced to be there for him all the time.
”If I have to do a bank errand or similar she has to go into the bank and fetch me all the things I need,” he told the paper.
Bengtsson's problems began in 1992 when he lived on the west coast and worked as an electrical engineer for a power company.
“I see this as a work related injury,” he told the paper.
In 2005 he moved with his wife to the little village Venjan in Mora municipality in Dalarna, to escape the electricity and radiation.
“But I still have not managed to find a decent home. Mobile phone radiation is unavoidable. It is everywhere in Sweden,” he said.
The matter has already cost tax payers hundreds of thousands of kronor, according to DN, and there are 140 separate documents pertaining to the affair in the case file.
The municipality environment office is hoping to meet Bengtsson half way, despite the possibility that creating a mobile phone “dead zone” could leave other residents without any reception for their mobile phones and television sets.
The authority is hoping to make an official demand that mobile phone operators, as well as the state run TV and Radio distributor Terracotta, must aim their masts a different direction.
The local authorities argue their right to make such a demand is supported by Swedish environment law.
Experts have criticized the move, however, saying that there are no scientific proof that the radiation is harmful to humans.
”The decision which the municipality is about to take is not based on any scientific evidence. There is no known biological mechanism for how a low level of exposure emitted by mobile base stations could have any detrimental health effects,” Maria Feychting, epidemiology professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told DN.
The Mora environment office want the companies to implement measures to ensure that the electric field strength around the man's property can't exceed 50 nano watts per square metre.
According to DN, this is an extremely low number, the normal radiation level is about 500,000 nano watts per square metres.
”My guess is that this will constitute a problem for many trying to use their mobile phones. That is such a low limit that I'm afraid half of the county will be without TV,” said Yngve Hamnerius, professor of electromagnetics at Chalmers University of Technology.
The limit set on electric field strength is based on what the man estimates to be a tolerable level for his everyday life.
Local authorities did attempt to measure levels around the man's property, but surveying the area was never completed. However, they nevertheless feel that the level is adequate for mobile phone use in the area.
”We have looked through text books and come to that conclusion. W have Googled it and read some comments,” Sjödin told DN.
Rebecca Martin (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=735
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-11-26USA PG&E BEGINS REMOVING ‘SMART’ METERS DUE TO HEALTH EFFECTSFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Joshua Hart, StopSmartMeters.Org
Tuesday, November 1st 2011 info@stopsmartmeters.org
PG&E BEGINS REMOVING ‘SMART’ METERS DUE TO HEALTH EFFECTS
Widening Call for Immediate Return of Analogs; Disconnection of “Mesh” Wireless Network
SANTA CRUZ, CA.—Just as PG&E enters the final phase of its deployment of wireless “smart” meters in California, the largest of the state’s Investor Owned Utilities (IOU’s) has reversed course, quietly beginning to replace the ‘smart’ meters of those reporting health impacts with the old trusty analog version. Consumer rights and health groups immediately seized on the news, demanding that millions of Californians unhappy with their new wireless meters get their analogs returned immediately at no cost.
‘Smart’ meters are new wireless utility meters being installed as part of the “smart” grid initiative, spearheaded by technology firms and backed by the Obama administration and the Department of Energy. Promises ranging from lower utility bills to enhanced renewable generation capacity have failed to materialize, with widespread reports of higher bills, privacy violations, fires and explosions, and commonly reported health impacts such as headaches, nausea, tinnitus, and heart problems associated with powerful wireless transmissions. Widely disparate political groups- from members of the Green Party to the Tea Party and Occupy protesters have attacked the program, and dozens of grassroots organizations have sprouted up over the past several months to fight what they call an undemocratic, unconstitutional and dangerous assault on people in their own homes and neighborhoods. Dozens of people have been detained or arrested for peaceful civil disobedience and even simply speaking out against deployments.[1]
In California, more than 47 cities and counties have demanded a halt to halt installation, and a dozen local governments have passed laws prohibiting the controversial technology. [2] The ‘smart’ meter issue has further angered a public already seething at the utilities over repeated gas explosions, safety breaches at nuclear reactors, and an increasingly extortionate rate structure. Word of California’s ‘smart’ meter nightmare has spread across the country and around the world, prompting some utilities to place smart meter plans on hold, and recently Nevada’s PUC to call for investigations into the health effects and other smart meter problems.[3]
Now in a dramatic turnaround that could signal the beginning of a widespread recall of wireless ‘smart’ meters, on October 28th PG&E re-installed a classic spinning disc analog meter on the home of Santa Cruz, CA resident Caitlin Phillips, who had been suffering headaches and other symptoms from her ‘smart’ meter. The move comes in response to verbal directives from the California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, who recently told members of the public that the utility “will provide for you to go back to the analog meter if that’s your choice.” The CPUC has been slow to respond to thousands of ordinary citizens reporting health effects from the new meters.
When a Wellington Energy installer (contracted with PG&E) came to install a smart meter at her home, Caitlin asked the installer to get off her property and not install, because of what a neighbor had told her about possible health damage and privacy violations. “When I returned home later, I discovered a smart meter on my house. That night I awoke to severe anxiety, headache, and buzzing in my teeth, and realized the new smart meter was on the other side of the wall from my bed.” Caitlin reported her experience to PG&E and the CPUC, who both declined to rectify the situation. When the symptoms persisted, Caitlin sought the assistance of the Scotts Valley based group Stop Smart Meters! who provided an analog meter and referred her to a professional who could help her remove her ‘smart’ meter. As soon as the analog was installed, Caitlin’s symptoms disappeared.
Frustrated and outraged about her treatment by the utility and the PUC, Caitlin travelled to San Francisco to speak at a commission meeting on Oct. 20th. About a week later, PG&E crews were at her house replacing her temporary analog meter with a brand new official PG&E analog meter. This is believed to be the first time PG&E have willingly replaced an analog meter on the home of someone suffering from health effects.[4]
An “opt-out” proceeding overseen by an Administrative Law Judge is underway at the CA Public Utilities Commission, yet those suffering (in some cases severe) health impacts have been stuck in limbo as utilities refuse to remove the harmful meters upon request- until now.
“There are hundreds of thousands- if not millions- of people suffering in their homes from forced ‘smart’ meter radiation,” said Joshua Hart, Director of the grassroots organization Stop Smart Meters! “The utilities and PUC’s must respond promptly to all requests that analogs be returned. The alternative is that people will increasingly turn to independent professionals to remove unwanted ‘smart’ meters from their homes, a reasonable action we assert is within our legal rights. Protecting your family’s health is not tampering.”
PG&E and other utilities have also been responding to health complaints by replacing wireless ‘smart’ meters with digital meters that are “wireless-ready.” These digital meters have been associated with health problems from “dirty electricity” frequencies that pass into a home via the electrical wiring. These “trojan horse” meters have been roundly rejected by those who report continuing health impacts after installation. Susan Brinchman, Director of San Diego based Center for Electrosmog Prevention. said “At this point, the burden of responsibility is on the utilities to demonstrate that any new meter they want to install on our homes is safe. Communities have the right to retain analog meters at no extra charge. Period.”
~end~
Industry repeats the mantra 'children should be discouraged from using mobiles excessively' while doing nothing to ensure it happens, says Vicky Fobel from the campaign group MobileWise
The wireless world is exploding. New wireless applications are being developed constantly and there are now more mobile phones than people in the UK. Even young children are buying into mobile technology in their millions.
Along with the convenience mobiles afford, however, come concerns. How is the radiation they produce affecting our health and the health of our children?
Official advice acknowledges that there may be a problem but plays it down. Manufacturers meanwhile imply there is no evidence of ill-effects and that, if mobiles were harmful, those problems would be manifesting themselves by now.
Both ignore the mounting scientific evidence pointing to damage to health from prolonged mobile use, which was acknowledged in May by the World Health Organization’s scientific panel. It classified the radiation emitted by mobile phones and wireless devices as “possibly carcinogenic” on the basis that a causal link between mobile phone exposure and two types of tumour was possible based on current evidence.
This classification is often the first step towards an exposure being classified as probably or definitely carcinogenic. Indeed, some of the scientists on the panel argued that the higher level categorisation (probably carcinogenic) was already justified.
Knowing the evidence of harmful effects to be substantial, MobileWise wanted public and policy-makers to see for themselves. Our new report, endorsed by senior scientists and medics, reviews and references more than 200 peer-reviewed published studies which together point to health effects ranging from brain tumours to genetic damage and from damage to fertility to suppressed melatonin production.
This substantial evidence-base has been largely obscured in a debate played out in the media, with its tendency to simplify complex issues. The literature encompasses so many separate specialities that it hadn’t all been assembled in one place before. Even some of the scientists working in the field are not familiar with the full body of research.
However, despite the accumulating research and the decision of the World Health Organization’s scientific panel, the phone industry and governments are predictably downplaying the risks. It’s a response that is all too familiar from other cases where the scientific picture has been unclear – from tobacco to global warming. Even when the evidence of a health problem has been overwhelming, action has been delayed: some 16 years elapsed between Sir Richard Doll publishing his seminal research confirming the smoking-cancer link and warnings appearing on cigarette packets. Even then, the warnings were anodyne.
As David Michaels illustrated exhaustively in his book Doubt is their Product, the tobacco industry enthusiastically manufactured doubt as incriminating research accumulated, so as to delay regulatory action. In the light of this history of evasion, are we really going to allow ourselves to be persuaded – by the mobile operators and manufacturers, and by a Government that nets billions from mobile phone tax and licence revenue – that these devices are safe enough even for our children to use habitually?
Waiting for conclusive proof of harm is surely irresponsible when the safety steps – from using a speakerphone or headset to not carrying the phone in a trouser pocket - are so simple and can dramatically cut exposure to potentially harmful radiation.
Advice to children
When we know that children absorb twice as much radiation into their heads as adults when on a call, how acceptable is it to allow the use of mobiles by the young to go uncontrolled? The Government and manufacturers seem content to reiterate the mantra that “children should be discouraged from using phones excessively” while doing nothing to ensure that it happens. The government first issued guidance 11 years ago recommending children limit their use of mobiles but we are yet to find a child or parent aware of that advice.
The industry, confronted by an increase in the medical evidence supporting biological harm from mobiles, is sticking doggedly to its line that the risks have not been “established”. You can almost hear the wheels of the doubt-manufacture machine turning.
While industry and our Government are paying lip service to precaution, some administrations are acting. France has brought in restrictions on use in primary schools, while Israel has just launched an education programme to teach schoolchildren about the dangers of radiation exposure. Phone shops in San Francisco will soon be obliged to give out safety information.
They have not waited for absolute proof of the dangers to emerge – and neither should we.
Nine out of ten children now have a mobile phone by their eleventh birthday. Will we look back one day and be ashamed of the casual way we gave our children mobiles, just as nowadays our having given children candy cigarettes seems shocking?
Surely it is time the Government and phone industry started acknowledging what they have implicitly admitted for some time – that the safety of phone use by children is not assured – so they can start getting on with the job of protecting the next generation?
Vicky Fobel is a director at MobileWise.
Mobile phone health risks: the case for action to protect children can be downloaded at www.mobilewise.org
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=716
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-11-14Smart meter Petition 2011http://www.smartmeterpetition.org/
Please sign!
The Government are planning to install Smart Meters in every home and workplace in the UK to provide real-time monitoring of your gas and electricity. The meters will transmit your information (how and what you’re using) every 30 minutes via pulsed microwaves to a hub in the street which will pass the information on to a new central Data and Communications Company. Some areas have already started installation. The scheme raises concerns about privacy, security and health.
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=715
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-11-13European Electrosmog Protest on the 16th of Nov. in Brussel 2011The EU-conference on EMF and Health will be held on the 16th and the 17th of Nov. in Brussels (Belgium) in the Charlemagne building (Rue de la Loi 170).
We will protest during the conference. The European Electrosmog Protest will be held on Wednesday the 16th of November 2011 between 16h and 18h30. The protest will take place in the street 'Rue de la Loi' in Brussels, across from the Charlemagne building, at the entrance of the Schuman metro station.
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=663
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-10-18LED Tube Light Installation Made SimpleLED Tube Light Installation Made Simple
Installing LED tube lights is a great way to save money on electricity and get potentially hazardous fluorescent lights out of your home or office. However, most <a href="http://www.ztlights.com/LED-Tube-Light.html">LED tube lights</a> on the market today can not just be directly installed in an existing fluorescent fixture. You will have to make some simple modifications to the fixture to properly install the bulbs. The good news is that installing an <a href="http://www.ztlights.com/LED-Tube-Light.html">LED tube light</a> in an existing fluorescent fixture is relatively simple. In addition, you should be able to buy fixtures especially designed for <a href="http://www.ztlights.com/">LED tube</a> lights in the near future, and they should actually be cheaper than the equivalent fluorescent fixtures. This article will provide a brief overview explaining what you need to know in order to install the new energy-saving fluorescent tube lights in an existing fluorescent lighting fixture.
Fluorescent fixtures are designed to support a specific types and size of fluorescent tube. A fluorescent tube is incorporated into a fluorescent lighting system which consists of two or three main components: (1) the fluorescent lamp (fluorescent bulb or tube), (2) the ballast, and (3) the starter system. In addition, the system for a tube lamp includes a lamp holder and a switch. Depending on the particular fluorescent lighting system, the starter may be a replaceable component, a starter may not be required, or the starter function may be integrated into the ballast. The starting function may also rely on the physical design of the fixture. To retrofit a fluorescent light fixture to support an <a href="http://www.ztlights.com/LED-Tube-Light.html">LED tube light,</a> the ballast (and the starter if a separate one is present) must be disconnected.
Make sure that the LED replacement tube lights are the correct size for the fixture. Also, always remember that when servicing a fluorescent fixture or lamp for any reason, electrical power to the entire fixture should be disconnected. This is not always practical in situations where a large number of fixtures are controlled from the same power control (such as in open office areas). In these cases, insulating gloves and a nonmetallic ladder should be used if the fixtures must be serviced when power is present.
You will need a few simple tools, including a wire cutter and wire stripper (often incorporated into the same tool), a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and a few wire nuts for reconnecting the wires once you have removed the ballast.
Once the old bulbs are removed from the lamp holders and the electricity to the fixture is turned off, you will probably have to remove the reflector that is located behind the bulbs and provides a housing for the wiring and ballast that lie behind it. Typically, it is fairly simple to remove the reflector or cover, but if it is not clear how to do this, you should consult the documentation from the fixture manufacturer.
If the fixture has an electronic ballast, you only need to remove that and then wire the power directly to the lamp holders, completing one circuit for each bulb. This is fairly simple, and typically you can use the existing wire in the fixture and then just add some wire nuts. If you have an older fixture with a magnetic ballast and starter, you will have to remove or open the starter and remove or short the magnetic ballast.
to more information: http://www.ztlights.com/
in the Spanish press where the various impacts of modern human-made non-ionizing radiation are discussed, especially from the point of potentially harmful effects on children. Focus is set on the national "Schools without wifi campaign" in Spain [http://www.escuelasinwifi.com] headed by Irina Rodriguez de la Flor.
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=680
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-10-27Magda Havas / News report KTVU.COMhttp://www.ktvu.com/video/29335616/index.html
http://www.es-uk.info/forums/thread.asp?threadID=645
ResearcherNews and Current Events2011-10-2Threat Alert when visiting MobileWise siteHi everyone,
I got an email alert from PowerWatch regarding the flawed study due to be published tomorrow in the BMJ.
It gave no details and asked for media people ONLY to call them, but listed the MobileWise phone number.
I went onto their site at around 12:45 today Thursday 20th October and immediately my anti-virus package sent a pop-up window about 2 threats to my computer.
I unplugged the cable quickly and then rang MobileWise and left a message. Vicky Fobel or Sobel rang me immediately and I told her what happened.
Along with PowerWatch, MobileWise are letting the media know the study "New BMJ Mobile Phones and Brain Tumour Study" is flawed.
Be very careful if you go onto the MobileWise site for the time being. I just went on it again at 13:30 and no similar threat alert popped up so hopefully they've fixed it.