Wireless Technologies Cause Harm to Children and Adults

Portland, OR, city council is among those asking for more health oversight

by Dr. Magda Havas & Camilla Reese, NISLAPP  

The following article has been excerpted from a longer report sent to public officials on June 30, 2009. Havas is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in Canada, and Rees is the founder of www.ElectromagneticHealth.org. 
 

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 irritability, insomnia, fatigue, chronic pain, difficulty concentrating, poor short-term memory, depression, anxiety, cardiovascular irregularities, nausea, skin disorders, as well as eye and ear disorders.

State and local governments and advocacy groups in the US 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 US 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 US 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 US 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. 

Jennifer Armstrong, MD, President of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, states, “The concerns raised… 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.” 

The National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy (NISLAPP) was founded in 1978. 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. For further information, see www.ElectromagneticHealth.org and www.Citizens.org.