Do you have health-related questions for Dr. John, the Naturopathic Doctor? Send them to the Free Press at 1463 E Republican #178, Seattle WA 98112, or email to WAfreepress@gmail.com. Please keep questions short. Health information in the WA Free Press should not be construed as medical advice. Always make your own choice regarding medical treatment by seeking multiple sources of information and consulting with your personal physician.

Cellular Antennas

Dear Nature Doc:

I was recently at a shopping mall, and within one minute, I passed seven people using cell phones. Some time ago there was controversy as to the health effects of radiation from these phones. Should I be concerned about walking near people using cell phones?

Doctor John responds:

Indeed you should be concerned about what is called Second Hand RFR, or radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown in numerous European studies to be harmful to living things.

Robert Kane, PhD, a former Motorola Senior Research Scientist, has written a paper on the subject, entitled "On Second-Hand RF Radiation." It is available at www.emrnetwork.org.

The cellular communications industry has spent large sums of money to prevent the topic of negative health effects of RFR from being widely discussed in this country. One way they have done this is by funding and publishing numerous studies they know will downplay the true dangers.

They also hire "scientists" to argue interpretation of studies in a way that downplays the dangers. The cellular communications industry was actively involved in the writing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, an act that is supposed to regulate them. The way the act is currently being interpreted prevents states or cities from banning cellular antenna on the basis of negative health effects, despite scientific research showing such effects.

Cellular antennas are being sited all over Seattle. As cell phones users and people who are near these users are being exposed to harmful levels of RFR, people living near the antennas are also exposed to radiation very dramatically higher than environmental background radiation levels.

Instead of a few minutes of exposure, people near cell antennas are exposed many hours day after day. I believe in thirty years, the true negative health effects of RFR will become widely known. Meanwhile, our immune systems will be pushed further than they already have been with the many types of toxic exposures we are being subjected to.

Since you express concern, one way of reducing the harmful effects of RFR is working to develop a rational way of siting antennas away from residences, schools, and daycares. In Seattle, according to The Stranger, Qwest has registered a cellular PAC. It has put approximately $50,000 into an account which the PAC appears to be using to influence Seattle city councilmembers, in order to prevent Mayor Nickels' new legislation from being introduced to the city council. The new legislation by the Mayor would limit the placement of cellular antennas in single-family residential areas. Judy Nicastro--the chair of the committee which is supposed to bring the legislation to council--has delayed doing so, and has also received $2500.00 from the industry. (See The Stranger "Cell-Phone-Gate" 8/21/03.)

For more information on the negative health effects of cellular antennas, see www.emrnetwork.org. The website for the Seattle group fighting cellular antennas is www.nocelltower.org.

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