History of Microwave Mania: Silent Wireless Spring says it all

Anti-microwave radiation trail blazer Arthur Firstenberg exposes the calculated moves by powerful groups in the U.S. and internationally to push forward with a technology that has been proven for decades to be extremely harmful to living creatures. Firstenberg is a founding father, who early on spread the sane and sobering truth about where we are headed. His 2007 article speaks about the dangerous place we are today, despite the willful ignorance of those who refuse to see.

He writes:

One can imagine two very different futures. In one, these stories appear on the front pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The Food and Drug Administration suspends cell phone sales, and the Federal Communications Commission shuts down cell towers. Cities stop building Wi-Fi networks. Internet cafes dismantle antennas and install cables. Public service announcements tell people to put wires back on their home phones and computers. Wireless technology takes a place in history beside other mistakes like lead water pipes, asbestos insulation, thalidomide and DDT.

In the other future nothing changes. The news media continue to ignore those stories, and many others like them. Governments issue no warnings, and take no steps to protect the public or the environment.

We are waist-deep in "the other future." Add in many consumers' growing dependence on and addiction to cell phone products and apps, plus utility, educational and medical groups at the alter of wireless technology, and maybe we are neck-deep?

Many people have symptoms of Radiofrequency Sickness/Microwave Sickness but are unaware of the environmental cause. The growing number of people realizing they have this sensitivity must deal with a culture that would rather ridicule their sensitivity or call it psychological than take in the truth. We are a consumer culture and people like their stuff. They like to point out that all these microwave devices are legal. Of course, this is due to morbidly outdated and lax federal standards. (see Firstenberg's article for historical details)

The questions remain: Are we a stupid culture, unable to understand new information, even with facts staring us in the face? Are we a gullible culture that believes what the authorities tell us even if our experience says otherwise? Are we a cruel and selfish culture that wants what we want no matter what affect it has on others? Before these questions can be wholly answered, the culture must be exposed to the truth and given a chance to understand. And that it where Mr. Firstenberg and the rest of us are working.

Note: Arthur Firstenberg, for his early and continued work and articles bringing the reality of bio-effects from RF/MW to light, is now designated as a FDNHB Hero.

For suffering people at Christmas: a Dickinson poem beautifully sung

To celebrate Christmas 2011, here is a beautiful choral setting of Emily Dickinson's poem, "I shall know why" by Roberto Brisotto (1972); text by Emily Dickinson (Lyric n.193) - Coro "Giovani del Contrà" - direttore: Roberto Brisotto.

I shall know why -- when Time is over -- And I have ceased to wonder why -- Christ will explain each separate anguish In the fair schoolroom of the sky -- He will tell me what "Peter" promised -- And I -- for wonder at his woe -- I shall forget the drop of Anguish That scalds me now -- that scalds me now! -----------Emily Dickinson

History of Microwave Mania: 40-year-old US Government Report issued URGENT WARNING on Electromagnetic Pollution

This 2007 article (or try this link) by Karl Hecht and Elena N. Savoley of IRCHET International Research Centre of Healthy and Ecological Technology should be a call to action. Their well-researched piece, Overloading of Towns and Cities with Radio Transmitters (Cellular Transmitter): a hazard for the human health and a disturbance of eco-ethics, exposes the current US government's shocking disregard for public health and safety.

The article opens with the following quotations from a US government report on electromagnetic pollution from 1971 that issued an urgent warning about these emissions 40 years ago.

“The electromagnetic radiations emanating for radar, television, communications systems, microwave ovens, industrial heat-treatment systems, medical diathermy units, and many other sources permeate the modern environment, both civilian and military.”

“Unless adequate monitoring and control based on a fundamental understanding of biological effects are instituted in the near future, in the decades ahead, man may enter an era of energy pollution of the environment comparable to the chemical pollution of today.”

“The consequences of undervaluing or misjudging the biological effects of long-term, low-level exposure could become a critical problem for the public health, especially if genetic effects are involved.”

Hecht's article also vindicates the existence of electrohypersensitivity syndrome (EHS), also called Radiofrequency Sickness, Radio Wave Sickness or Microwave Sickness. It states that in 1932, the German doctor Erwin Schliephake published scientific data in the German Medical Weekly about radio transmitter-induced "microwave" or "radio wave sickness" with these symptoms: severe tiredness and fatigue during the day, fitful sleep in the night, headaches to the point of intolerability, and high susceptibility to infection. THIS WAS 80 YEARS AGO, people.

The article goes on to show how the newly discovered illness was verified as "microwave sickness, induced by athermal high-frequency EMF radiation." That's ATHERMAL, meaning below levels that cause heating effects. Our current government standards are ONLY based on heating effects, such as happens in higher settings of microwave ovens.

Hecht writes that the Russian author Zinaida Gordon from the Moscow Institute for Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Diseases scientifically verified Dr. Schliephake's findings, and examined over 1,000 people who worked at radio installations, electric utilities, radar stations, etc., over the duration of 10 years. Here are the common symptoms she established for microwave sickness:

daytime tiredness

loss of productiveness

sleeplessness

headaches

cardiovascular regulation changes of various types

neurovegetative disorders

neurosis

depressions

hyperactivity and inner agitation

Professor Gordon also found that the symptoms strengthened with increasing exposures, and sensitivity to microwave radiations increased.

Our government has been well-versed about the dangers of electromagnetic pollution for forty years, and its negligence is causing people to fall very ill from a scientifically documented condition, which has been in the literature since 1936 - nearly 80 years - and there is NO EXCUSE to ignore this. 

Carrier pigeons can beat rural broadband speed - no kidding

Humans get pretty cocky about the speed of technology to carry information. But last year in the U.K., a humble carrier pigeon (named Rory) flew a computer memory card between two counties quicker than a rural computer could upload a five minute video to the web.

Yet humans are bound and determined to flood the air with microwaves to try to get their information from point A to point B. This is like hosing water the streets and through our yards 24/7 to get some water into our homes. Talk about inefficient. And dangerous to the public. Fiber optic is smarter.

In the meantime, I'd consider starting a carrier pigeon information service but the deadly cell towers and wind farms everywhere you look would pose a danger to the birds. Anyhow, bless little Mr. Rory for trying to deliver some sense to humankind despite the odds.

Smart Meter Cartoons are all the RAGE

How about some comic relief in the smart meter battles?
Check these out:

Innovative smart meter use for utility execs

Smart meter stare down 

Poor, lonely smart meters

Smart meter zombie

Another use for smart meters

Microwave Nation is a series of cartoons at Pixton relating to smart meters and wireless.

Microwave Nation: Utility Man

Microwave Nation: Sick from Meter

Microwave Nation: Unite to Fight Smart Meters!

And I leave you with a poem that may give you some fresh ideas about what you could do with your smart meter. The exercise was to write a poem using these five words:

inevitable
flypaper
pretzel
pillow
Chevrolet

Ode to the toxic “smart meter"

(the utility refuses to remove)

Your demise is inevitable.

Someday, I’ll stick you to flypaper    
and take you to the range for target practice.     
I’ll twist your smoking innards into pretzels
and hold you under a pillow to suffocate your last spark.    
Stuffing you in a black trash bag, I’ll dump you in the trunk    
of my ’69 Chevy and gun it to the nearest cliff.

Poking the shiny chrome nose over the teetering edge,
I’ll scramble out, and push, sending you down,
down to the jagged, foam-covered rocks below.
Even if they find the banged up wreck,
they’ll never ID your smashed remains.

History of Microwave Mania : Birth of the Monster Smart Grid

Here is the nifty graphic from an article with the same title by Senior Editor Kathleen Davis at  Electric Light & Power: Power Grid International.

Davis compares today's switch over to the so-called Smart Grid to Godzilla's transition from monster to hero:

The electric T&D industry is attempting a similar Godzilla flip-flop: Taking a huge, hulking, archaic electricity T&D system and creating from that a massive, self-healing smart grid overnight (a few decades in industry terms).

According to the article the birth of the Smart Grid apparently happened in 2007 when Austin Energy CIO Andres Carvallo came up with the term at an industry conference. It is the same year Amy Worthington wrote about the radiation poisoning of America from cell mast proliferation. The Smart Grid also feeds on wireless "smart" technology constantly "talking" to create feedback loops between consumers, the power companies, the appliances in order to "show" them where to save money - based on the new rates the utilities decide to deploy.

The goal is to squeeze out energy use by paying energy companies to provide less, then giving consumer "incentives" so they can "choose" to save money on their new-rated bills.
Here are four prongs of this infrastructure vision from Ken Oshman, Echelon Corp.’s chairman and CEO:

1. Focus on the core end result and mandate that result. (For instance, reduce energy 10 percent over the next three years by responding to the conditions on the grid.)

2. Do not mandate technology. The market will decide which technologies win. The winning technologies will allow the industry to achieve its goal.

3. Remove regulations that deter power generators from saving energy. Competition, technical innovation and creative business models will take care of the rest.

4. Create regulations that pay utilities to sell less energy.

It boils down to consumers paying more for less energy. They will make it more scarce, and then incentivize consumers to use it at different times and use less of it to save money. What a scam. (They are starting to test rationing in Australia!)

However, notice how Oshman says NOT to mandate technology. Yet, wireless utility meters are being forced upon consumers who do not want them due to health, privacy and safety concerns.

So, there, you have it: a bit of history and truth about the Smart Grid monster, which can never become a hero to people who do not want its cold, calculated attacks on their privacy, security and health. The creature cannot live without its wireless pulse. And its lifeblood is poison to the people.

History of Microwave Mania: Melbourne AU, 2005, World "Health" Organization

Tracing the history of the current insufficient radiofrequency exposure standards to protect public health brought me to this eyewitness account from the World Health Organization's Regional Workshop called Radio frequency fields: Health effects & policy options for protection on November 17-18 2005 in Melbourne, AU. The participants' cavalier attitude towards the health effects were chilling, though I knew it probably had to go something like this - in some obscure meeting of powerful people, who felt it their mission and right to plan world infrastructure with no concern about how it could hurt some of the little people. Or lots of the little people. For decades to come.

Two years later, U.S. journalist Amy Worthington researched and documented early struggles of serious health effects from proximity to cell phone masts in The Radiation Poisoning of America. She details the devastating results of the 1996 Telecommunications Act's gag order on citizens. They could never again use health impacts or concerns pertaining to cell phone masts to legally challenge their placement. Worthington's shattering account of everyday people's sufferings at at the hand of wireless technology has become a classic, though 2007 was not so long ago. Today, you see masts next to schools, on fire stations and in the middle of county fairgrounds, etc. Even if people were to wake up to what is happening, they could not bring up the health issue as a factor to fight it.

I will share more events and details in the history of microwave mania as I find them.
See also the Timeline for Growing Awareness (2000-2011) at the EMFWise blog.

Stop Smart Meters Continues Inside Big Technology and sick from microwaves series

Glad to see Stop Smart Meters is making their series on workers in big technology who are electrosensitive an ONGOING series. Excellent witness and information. Here is part 5.

Harvard Lecturer Dr. Adlkofer Exposes Corruption in Cell Phone Research

As people trek out early on Black Friday to get deals on iPhones and other wireless stuff, they might want to save those receipts until looking at this video. Most people have heard the research into possible harm from cell phone kinds of radiofrequency emissions is inconclusive. What does this really mean? And why haven't people heard about the peer-reviewed, duplicated biological impacts (including DNA damage) of cell phone-type radiofrequency emissions?

This lecture by Dr. Franz Adlkofer during his Harvard Law School presentation presents facts that expose the power, money and corruption that has been influencing the research. The question is will our assumptions, paradigms and preferences allow us to digest this information, or not?

Here is the introductory blurb:

On Nov. 3, Dr. Franz Adlkofer, former executive director of the VERUM Foundation for Behavior and Environment, spoke to a Harvard Law School audience as part of the lectures and events series hosted by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.

In his lecture, “Protection Against Radiation is in Conflict with Science,” Adlkofer discussed the difficulties he and other scientists face when presenting research on the carcinogenic effects of electromagnetic fields emanating from cell phones. He also discussed the institutional corruption which he says obstructs their research.

EUROPEAN ELECTROSMOG PROTEST in Brussels

In the flyer for the upcoming November 16

EUROPEAN ELECTROSMOG PROTEST in Brussels Professor Olle Johansson states:

Governments and health protection agencies usually hide behind out-of-date “official guidelines” that were drawn up when it was thought that the only way that living organisms could be harmed by electromagnetic radiation was if it was sufficiently strong to cause significant acute heating. And in fluidfilled plastic dolls! This is totally false! There has been countless papers in scientific journals over several decades that show very clearly that there are non-thermal biological effects (some of them extremely harmful) of electromagnetic fields that are well below the official safety guidelines.

The protest is organized by StopUMTS.be, and their points sound very familiar:

WE PROTEST <-> THE EXPONENTIAL RISE OF ELECTROSMOG

WE PROTEST <-> THE EMF-EXPOSURE AT CURRENT LEVELS IS A THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH

 

WE PROTEST <-> THE EU-CONFERENCE ON EMF & HEALTH (HELD AT 16 &

17 NOV.) LACKS SCIENTISTS WITH OPPOSING VIEWS

Their 5 demands for all European countries should be OUR demands here in the U.S., which are based on the Precautionary Principle, out of respect for people's human rights to be protected from harm:

1. THE BIOINITIATIVE LIMIT OF 0.6 V/M

2. WHITE ZONES: NO CELL PHONES< WIFI AND DECT_WIRELESS PHONES IN PLACES WITH CHILDREN OR ELDERLY (SCHOOLS< HOSPITALS< CHURCHES,...)

3. RECOGNITION OF ELECTROHYPERSENSITIVITY AS A FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT (as in Sweden)

4. NO 4G/LTE/WIMAX (transmitter masts or antennas)

5. NO "SMART" WIRELESS ENERGY METERS

Good work, StopUMTS.be! This worldwide movement can only grow as more people wake up to the reality and risks of further wireless explosion in their living and working areas.

Technology Industry Workers must Hide Microwave Sensitivity

This four part series at stopsmartmeters.org inteviews people in the wireless industry who have realized that wireless emissions are affecting their health. You'll get a peek at the world inside the industry where engineers with no biological training or awareness blindly rush ahead, creating products that have not been tested for safety. Most of these wireless workers are basically mobots for the industry, with a dangerous blindspot. Check out this excellent series (in process):

part one

part two

part three

part four

Shut Up and eat your nanochips

Smart meters can sing you a pretty song as you eat your daily bowl of government condoned nanochips.

Smart Meters Just the first Piece of the PLAN

This utility industry article celebrates the fact that smart meters finally have "healthy penetration rates" across the U.S., who do not want these meters pulsing radiation into their homes 24/7.

Here is their chart showing projected growth:


The benefits to the utilities are listed: Utilities also are drawn by the prospects of reducing labor hours by remotely addressing service orders such as power connect and disconnect, outage detection and other power delivery issues.

And the article describes how smart meters are just a piece of the whole puzzle - which most everyday people have no idea is gradually being put in place.

Smart meters are not the end goal, but they are important. The goal for most utilities is to tackle inevitable external changes that if unaddressed will compromise grid reliability and availability. Noticeable external changes include the anticipation of electric vehicles, federal and state pressure to accommodate renewable power, and the growing gap between power supply and demand.

Smart meters are just a piece. Real-time visibility and data collection will set the platform for engaging customers in time-of-use and dynamic pricing programs. Eventually the transition to an AMI that integrates meter data management and potentially distribution automation will provide a more complete picture. Recognizing this development, meter vendors are positioning themselves more as holistic solution providers that include consulting services to integrate meters with home area networks, demand response offerings, distribution and substation automation and utility back-office applications. Offerings most likely will include meter data management systems and customer-oriented appliances, and they will support on-network and communication infrastructure.

For anyone who cannot tolerate wireless emissions, or who values their privacy, the Master Grid envisioned is a nightmare. Remember, smart meters are the first piece, a good place to resist before the grid is ingrained.

And look out because smart meters are definately on the move:
...smart meter deployments are underway and utilities are moving to the next strategy for implementing consumer service and demand response programs for residential customers. This will allow utilities to demonstrate what smart meter investments are worth.

Frost & Sullivan identifies 2012 and 2013 as critical years for expanding demand response programs because major regions including California and Texas will be close to completing smart meter deployments. The three largest California utilities—San Diego Gas & Electric Co., PG&E, and Southern California Edison—together have installed more than 11 million smart meters and expect to complete installation of a total of 24 million by the end of 2012. Similarly, the three largest Texas utilities—Oncor, American Electric Power.

Arizona anti- smart meter contacts

Good work is being done in Arizona by and for citizens concerned about smart meters. Here is another AZ site.

Anti- Smart Meter Songs and Videos to Share

Check out these creative expressions born out of the fight against smart meters.

Songs:

Dumb! Meter Song:  Lyrics by Sandi and Chris Maurer (No. CA)

Salt Spring Part 7 "No Wireless Smart Meter" Protest Rally Song (BC)                                  

SMART METER song  sent in by ShaftBottomBoy

Stop Smart Meter Rally : Song (BC)

Activist Nina Beety performs her 'The Get Rid of Smart Meters Song'    (California)

New Rap Song Takes On PG&E (interview): A to Z Smart Meter Rap by Ellen Cecil (California)
Listen to the rap song, plus another song by Ellen, Smart Meter Blues.

Music video:
Smart Meter Pulses,: guitar track put to Amy O'Hair protest talk from 9-14-2011 SAN FRANCISCO [State Building] during a CPUC opt out workshop.

 

 

Smart meter humorous shorts from BC:

Hitler Rants about BC Hydro Smart Meters

Phil Versus the Smart Meter -- Part One

Surgeon General's Warning to go on Cell Phones in San Francisco!

San Francisco Cell Phone Radiation Warnings Start Today

By Sajid Farooq

| Monday, Oct 3, 2011 | Updated 11:49 AM PDT

Smart Meter Update from Wyoming, Ohio and Maine

Here is a link to more reports from earlier this year of utility bullying of Wyoming and Ohio energy customers over installing wireless smart meters.

And here is an update on the fight in Maine, from Dianne Wilkins, June 12, 2011
Her lawsuit may create precedent to HELP US ALL. (stay tuned)
Comment at EMR Health Alliance of BC

In Maine, 7 people, representing over 70 customers of the electric Utility CMP, filed 7 complaints with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, and recently won the right to opt out of the RF smart meter program (for a fee). Because of the publicity generated by our cases, 7,000 people wrote the utility to ask to opt out of the program. I am one of the 7 lead complainants. The Maine PUC only allowed the opt out option on the basis of economic feasability for the customers and the utility, ignoring our constitutional rights to protect our homes/bodies from harm and to prevent anyone from putting something into our homes without our permission. I am now appealing this decision in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (case 2010400) to ask the court to define our legal rights and hopefully set a State Supreme court precedent so that all U.S. Citzens can use this precedent to fight this outrageous, unlawful intrusion into our homes! To see all of our court documents, testimony, & exhibits, visit the Maine PUC website, go to “virtual filings” and type in one of our case numbers 2010400, 2010345, 2010398, 2010389, 2010346, 2011085, & 2011120. Hopefully you can use some of the exhibits to support your fight to hardwire the smart meters instead of using radiofrequency waves that emit harmful radiation. Unfortunately, I have filed a Notice of Appeal but have been unable to find an attorney to take this case on a Pro Bono basis. I am still searching and hoping to find an informed, generous, lawyer willing to fight Golieth for us all!

And I echo Dianne: When are the lawyers going to get on this???

Smart Meters DO NOT save energy

Devvy Kidd has another well-researched smart meter column with lots of information, this time on how smart meters do NOT save energy.

Here are more informative wireless smart meter informational sites worth a look:

Smart Meters can reveal your personal habits on the worldwide energy web.

Who gets the power the smart grid creates? Who is in charge of the new technocracy? Not You or Me!

And for people not yet aware of "what's wrong with smart meters" here is a beginner's guide.

"Information is power."

Should Wisconsin Public Utility Institute Ban Public Input?

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute (WPUI) has announced cancellation of the September 27 Smart Meter roundtable meeting for unspecified “financial” reasons shortly after public notice was given here that a smart meter protest was being planned outside the event.

Citizen inquiries about the event, suggesting a desire to attend and join the discussion, led to clarification that, while citizens could attend (for a $125 fee), they could not participate. Chatham House Rules were also instituted after that first inquiry, so it was against conference rules for attending utility officials to be held accountable for statements they made. Roundtable content could only be discussed in abstract terms. Journalists were not invited. It seems that when it became clear that there would be some coverage, due to the protest, the conference was cancelled.

Wireless smart meters are causing health problems for many individuals. They also pose a threat to national and personal security since data is broadcast wirelessly, making it easy for knowledgeable hackers to obtain data or even shut down large segments of the electrical grid. (See Electrical Pollution or Stop Smart Meters sites.)

Contrary to utility claims, transmitting smart meters are being found to be out of compliance with the FCC. And despite the assertion that "power range of wireless signals from smart meters is much less severe" than WiFi networks or cell phones, smart meters have been measured to give off more radiation than a cell phone TOWER.

The utilities do not "acknowledge" any health effects from the radiofrequency (rf) radiation transmitting devices they install. Yet, they admit the "RF issue" is a Key Barrier to their plans as they scramble to try to control consumer perception and get everyone to happily climb aboard the new system. But people experiencing illness relating to wireless meter installation, and those with concerns about privacy and security cannot or will not climb aboard. This is the precisely the point that needs to be openly, publically aired.

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute supposedly incorporates the “Wisconsin Idea,” meant to foster outreach, forums and debate on utility policy to benefit the citizens and the state. Their (cancelled) Smart Meter Roundtable violated that mission. WPUI Director Cara Lee Mahany Braithwait told me in an email that Chatham House Rule was common during institute meetings, but none of the other events in their archives mentioned using the rule, or the overt exclusion of public input. So, why expend such great effort to control the information at the Smart Meter Roundtable? And is this a proper use of WPUI resources?


Public participation at the upcoming WPUI Energy Utility Basics 2011 – where smart meters will be a topic – will be curtailed by expense and prohibition of discussion during the “training” sessions. In order to be heard, concerned Wisconsin citizens plan to protest outside the conference during the smart meter segments October 24-28, 2011. Details will follow later.

--co-written by myself and Catherine of Electricalpollution.com.

Anthony Swerdlow telecom investor's study says cell phones safe

Evidence "increasingly against" phone cancer risk

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_113933.html (*this news item will not be available after 10/02/2011)

Monday, July 4, 2011

• Brain Cancer
• Electromagnetic Fields

The Reuters article by Ben Hirschler touted a new study that found no link with brain cancer and cell phone use, despite the World Health Organization's new classification of cell phone use and other wireless radiofrequency sources of radiation as potential cancer agents.

Turns out the guy who led the study and his wife own shares in telecom companies world wide, creating a blatant conflict of interest. Anthony Swerdlow of Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, IARC, "said it should become much clearer over the next few years whether or not there was any plausible link," since his study did not back up the WHO's call for caution.

In plain words, the industry stockholder conducted a study and said he found no link of health harm from the devices he was invested in. So, let the great experiment on the people continue until all studies show harm, even those conducted by industry shills like him. Amazing.

Microwaves Cause Leakage of Albumin through Blood Brain Barrier - and WHAT IT MEANS TO Human Kind

Please read this crucial 2008 evidence for the biological harm manmade microwaves are unleashing on the world, especially human health. The Blood Brain Barrier was created to keep harmful toxins and and substances in the blood away from the brain. Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields causes this natural protective mechanism to FAIL, and allows a brain to be damaged by leakage of harmful substances, such as stored metals or pesticides, now entering the BRAIN.

My reading also has shown evidence of exposure to bursts or pulses of low level microwave radiation to "excite" atoms and cells, thereby making them release STORED TOXINS into the blood. This interferes with the body's natural protective and immune measures, and would logically progress to more free radical damage as toxins are re-circulated again and again.

The same process of atom/cell excitation could account for some positive effects in some conditions and circumstances, where this activity keeps plaques from settling and causing damage, for example, in Alzheimer's patients. But at the same time, the stored toxins in their bodies could be causing brain damage from now entering the brain across the blood-brain barrier.

When will the scientists wake up? When will the legislators wake up? When will the people awaken to the truth about these harmful effects and take action to prevent devastating results to the population? Will it take bodies lining the streets as the human guinea pigs fall? Will it happen only when wireless industry leaders' families fall beside the rest? When, oh, when will the human race wake up?

Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement No. 173, 2008 283

The Mammalian Brain in the Electromagnetic Fields Designed by

Man with Special Reference to Blood-Brain Barrier Function,

Neuronal Damage and Possible Physical Mechanisms

Leif G. Salford,1,∗) Henrietta Nittby,1 Arne Brun,2 Gustav Grafstr¨om,3

Lars Malmgren,4 Marianne Sommarin,5 Jacob Eberhardt,3 Bengt Widegren6

and Bertil R. R. Persson3

1Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, Sweden

2Neuropathology, Lund University, Sweden

3Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Sweden

4Applied Electronics, Lund University, Sweden

5Department of Plant Biochemistry, Lund University, Sweden

6Tumour Immunology, Lund University, Sweden

Life on earth was formed during billions of years, exposed to, and shaped by the original

physical forces such as gravitation, cosmic irradiation, atmospheric electric fields and the

terrestrial magnetism. The Schumann resonances at 7.4 Hz are an example of oscillations

possibly important for life.1)

The existing organisms are created to function in harmony with these forces. However,

in the late 19th century mankind introduced the use of electricity, in the early 20th century

long-wave radio and in the 1940-ies short-wave radio. High frequency RF was introduced in

the 50-ies as FM and television and during the very last decades, microwaves of the modern

communication society spread around the world. Today, however, one third of the world’s

population is owner of the microwave-producing mobile phones and an even larger number

is exposed to the cordless RF emitting systems. To what extent are all living organisms

affected by these, almost everywhere present radio frequency fields? And what will be the

effects of many years of continuing exposure?

Since 1988 our group has studied the effects upon the mammalian blood-brain barrier

(BBB) in rats by non-thermal radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). These have

been shown to cause significantly increased leakage of the rats’ own blood albumin through

the BBB of exposed rats, at energy levels of 1W/kg and below, as compared to non-exposed

animals in a total series of about two thousand animals.2)−6) One remarkable observation

is the fact that the lowest energy levels, with whole-body average power densities below

10mW/kg, give rise to the most pronounced albumin leakage. If mobile communication,

even at extremely low energy levels, causes the users’ own albumin to leak out through the

BBB, also other unwanted and toxic molecules in the blood, may leak into the brain tissue

and concentrate in and damage the neurons and glial cells of the brain.

In later studies we have shown that a 2-h exposure to GSM 915 MHz, at non-thermal

SAR-values of 0.2, 2 and 200 mW/kg, gives rise to significant neuronal damage, seen not

only 50 days after the exposure7) but also after 28 days but not after 14 days. Albumin

extravasations and uptake into neurons was enhanced after 14 days, but not after 28.8)

In our continued research, also the non-thermal effects on tissue structure and memory

function of long-term exposure for 13 months are studied.9) We have also performed microarray

analysis of brains from rats exposed to short term GSM both at 1,800 MHz and at

900MHz and have found significant effects upon gene expression of membrane associated

genes as compared to control animals.10),11)

(etc...)

Wisconsin UPDATE: One Utility Meeting Protest Cancelled, Another One Planned

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute cancelled the Smart Meter Roundtable after a protest was announced, but said it was due to undisclosed "financial" reasons. Here is the update.

Sunspots: Devvy Kidd posts Smart Series on "smart meters"

Blogger Devvy Kidd has posted her experience fighting the smart meter installation on her home in Texas, including tons of links and information on the nationwide fight. Share these information packed columns with newbies and experienced researchers in the smart meter battle.

Part 1: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

Part 2: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

My Fight Against the 'Smart Meter(you don't want one of those dangerous things on your house)

New scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity "a bona fide syndrome"

A new scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity to be "a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome." But did the authors really need to call it a "novel" neurological syndrome in the title? Novel means strikingly new, unusual, or different.

Radiofrequency Sickness Syndrome has been around for decades, and there is nothing "unusual" about having functional impairment upon exposure to radiofrequency/microwave radiation. Just the fact that the syndrome is currently experienced by a small percentage of the population does not make it unusual any more than having a deadly reaction to peanuts is unusual.

Nevertheless, this is an important finding to add to the long, growing list of "studies to ignore" by the U.S. FDA and FCC if they ever want to update their grossly outdated wireless exposure standards.

ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPERSENSITIVITY: EVIDENCE FOR A NOVEL NEUROLOGICAL SYNDROME

Authors: David E McCarty, Simona Carrubba, Andrew L Chesson, Clifton Frilot, Eduardo Gonzalez-Toledo, Andrew A Marino

The International journal of neuroscience. 07/2011

ABSTRACT Objective: We sought direct evidence that acute exposure to environmental-strength electromagnetic fields could induce somatic reactions (EMF hypersensitivity). Methods: The subject, a female physician self-diagnosed with EMF hypersensitivity, was exposed to an average (over the head) 60-Hz electric field of 300 V/m (comparable to typical environmental-strength EMFs) during controlled provocation and behavioral studies. Results: In a double-blinded EMF provocation procedure specifically designed to minimize unintentional sensory cues, the subject developed temporal pain, headache, muscle-twitching, and skipped heartbeats within 100 s after initiation of EMF exposure (P < 0.05). The symptoms were caused primarily by field transitions (off-on, on-off) rather than the presence of the field, as assessed by comparing the frequency and severity of the effects of pulsed and continuous fields in relation to sham exposure. The subject had no conscious perception of the field as judged by her inability to report its presence more often than in the sham control. Discussion: The subject demonstrated statistically reliable somatic reactions in response to exposure to subliminal EMFs under conditions that reasonably excluded a causative role for psychological processes. Conclusion: EMF hypersensitivity can occur as a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome.

California Smart Meter Protest Heating UP

First Wisconsin Smart Meter Protest Planned outside Utility Meeting

Smart Meter Protest Planned Outside Wisconsin Utilities Roundtable

Man Who Invented First @#&*$$$!@(!%$! Cell Phone - FROM California

How ironic that the man who build the first cell phone hails from California, where the high profile struggle against PG&E wireless utility meters (another source of this kind of radiation) is happening. Martin Cooper working for Motorola in 1973 created the first cellular phone. Built the blasted thing in three months.

Cooper promises the cell phone revolution is only beginning: "There are all kinds of things coming that will surprise you," he told the reporter at Fox 5 News. So, folks, raise your hand if you want to be "surprised" by more cellular technology in your lives. Come on, let's see those hands.

EHS people hunger strike in France, Professor Olle Johansson responds

Letter from Professor Olle Johansson
Karolinska Institute Stockholm Sweden. August 22, 2011

The link gives the entire letter, and French news media coverage of hunger strikers in France. Here an an excerpt from the Pros. Johansson's letter:

When I see the pictures of French EHS people having to go on hunger strike, just to get heard, respected and supported, then I get a feeling of another Europe, far away from democracy, and liberté, égalité & fraternité.

In Sweden, electrohypersensitivity (EHS) is an officially fully recognized functional impairment (i.e., it is not regarded as a disease, thus no diagnosis* exists). Survey studies show that somewhere between 230,000 – 290,000 Swedish men and women - out of a population of 9,000,000 - report a variety of symtoms when being in contact with electromagnetic field (EMF) sources (The National Board of Health and Welfare).

In the U.S.A. many doctors and their organizations dump people who complain of environmental illness when exposed to electromagnetic field sources into psychosomatic or another psychiatric category.

It would be interesting to see what American doctors said about cigarette smoke a few decades ago. Oh, that's right, quite a few doctors smoked themselves. Some even said it was good for you. One cigarette company based its ads on the fact that "more doctors" smoked its brand than other brands. So much for doctors having the ability to see beyond the biases of their time. C'est la vie!

Wireless Safety Summit Coming October...

If you can't go, you can still participate online.

Keep Wi-Fi Out of the Schools: links and resources

Our school and several others are installing Wi-Fi building-wide this coming year. I collected sources and resources to inform them about the risks they were taking on, regarding the children's (and staff's) health.

"Smart Grid Slavery" - the ultimate goal behind smart meters

Without smart meters, the smart grid could not successfully collect and control everyone's energy use to the most minute detail. So, smart grid creators and supporters who want all that power over people's lives will be sure to fight to keep their dream intact. They aim to "train" the public to use new behavior - of compliance. This training will be coming from the public utilities soon to try to convince people of the great benefits of the smart grid. Don't buy it.

Sunspots: Harrison Barritt, a warning to share

Every time I find another voice singing in the darkness the warning about wireless technology, I feel more hope and not so alone. Harrison Barritt, a high school English teacher and part time adjunct, works in the Mid Hudson Valley of upstate New York and lives with his wife and two children in Gardiner, NY. Here is his well-written and researched warning that reveals the truth about the impact of cell towers and phones on our lives. It is a clear, succinct introduction to the issue for people who never heard of it - share it with everyone!

FDNHB Heroes: Ted Litovitz (see side bar video)

Ted Litovitz is Hero #1 of this series I have begun at FDNHB. See the side bar to view the presentation that Ted Litovitz gave to the U.S. Congress over a decade ago where he warned - from a scientists' point of view - about the expansion of wireless technology, especially cell phones. This creative, prolific scientist/inventor/professor should be considered a national treasure for his contributions to the research on health effects of electromagnetic radiation.
--FDNHB (First Do No Harm Blog)

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 6, 2006; B06

Theodore A. Litovitz, 82, a Catholic University physics professor and prolific inventor who discovered a way to store nuclear waste more safely, created an electronic chip to shield cellphone users from harmful electromagnetic radiation and developed some of the early fiber optics now used for telecommunications, died of complications of kidney cancer May 1 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.

Dr. Litovitz held 25 patents, and from those inventions several businesses were born. He co-founded Catholic University's Vitreous State Laboratory, where hundreds of students learned the basics of working with materials in a glasslike, amorphous solid state.

One of the companies he co-founded, now known as Duratek Inc. in Columbia, arose out of his research at the laboratory. Dr. Litovitz, with Pedro B. Macedo, discovered how to immobilize radioactive waste by making it part of a durable glasslike solid in a process called vitrification. The process, which Duratek sells, is expected to save 20 years and $20 billion in cleanup costs at the government's Hanford Nuclear Reservation alone.

He was known among his colleagues as "a force of nature" for his relentless but engaging interest in people and ideas. A lover of coffee breaks, he used the time to talk about the potential applications of basic research to problems that popped up in the media.

"He was one of those people who always wanted to learn," said his daughter, Toby Litovitz of Potomac. "He was on a cruise in Alaska, and for something to read, picked up a high school biology book. He came back with an idea that turned out to be seminal in the field, how electromagnetics worked in a cell."

His interest in physics was triggered as a Navy radar repair technician during World War II, and although he was educated in the field of acoustics, his intellectual curiosity led him into fiber optics, glasses and electromagnetics.

"His science was very much grounded in the topics of the time," said Joanne Smith-Farrell, an executive at Gene Logic Inc., who was his last doctoral student and often found herself under questioning about the interests of her generation. "His inspiration came from living and experiencing the world."

His most recent work centered on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on organisms. The field had been characterized by controversy and inconclusive findings when Dr. Litovitz noticed a Swedish researcher's tantalizing report of increased incidences of brain cancer in people who used cellphones for more than 2,000 hours. The cancer also seemed to occur on the side of the face where the phone was held.

Dr. Litovitz began experimenting with eggs, said Macedo, who is director of the Catholic University lab. He discovered that the type of electromagnetic radiation emitted from cellphones or power lines can cause biological changes at the cellular level. That radiation, he found, could be masked by superimposing electrical white noise. So he developed and patented an electronic chip that could be attached to cellphones and override the radiation.

His research, published in the Journal of Cellular Biology in 2002, caused a stir among cellphone users torn between the emerging science and reassurances from phone companies. Dr. Litovitz, however, did not hesitate to stake out a position.

"These findings have important implications with regards to potential health effects from prolonged or repeated exposure to mobile-phone radiation,'' he told a trade journal, RCR Wireless News. "Because stress proteins are involved in the progression of a number of diseases, heavy daily cell-phone usage could lead to great incidence of disorders such as Alzheimer's and cancer.''

At a 1993 scientific meeting, he was asked to explain why he persisted in a field where so many others had failed.

"It was just youthful exuberance," he quipped. "I was only 66 at the time. Now that I'm 70 and mature, I might not have tried it."

The New York native moved to Washington at the age of 2 and grew up in an apartment above his parents' grocery store at Third and O streets NW. He graduated from the old Central High School and attended George Washington University until his studies were interrupted by World War II.

After returning from the South Pacific, he graduated from Catholic University, where in 1950 he also received a doctoral degree in physics. He immediately began working at the university and soon co- wrote a standard reference book, "Absorption and Dispersion ofUltrasonic Waves" (1959), with his mentor, physicist Karl Herzfeld.

Under contract to the government during the Vietnam War, Dr. Litovitz and Macedo built an infrared transmitting window used in a U-2 spy plane. In the 1970s, in competition with giant Corning Glass Co., the pair developed a cheap glass fiber intended to replace copper wire, a giant leap to the fiber optics revolution.

Dr. Litovitz published more than 130 scientific research papers, and after 48 years, when he retired from teaching in 1998, he said, "I hope no one will think I can't stick to a job." He continued to work as a researcher until his death. He also was helping to found another biotechnology company.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 59 years, Charlotte Litovitz of Annapolis; a son, Gary Litovitz of McLean; and four grandchildren.

C 2006 The Washington Post Company