The age-old adage First Do No Harm should be the tempering goal of not only medicine, but government and industry, especially when they team up to deploy new technologies, set policies and serve the people.

This blog exists to reveal and analyze areas in which these powerful groups are failing to "first do no harm."

Monday, August 29, 2011

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.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

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!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Wireless Safety Summit Coming October...

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

Thursday, August 25, 2011

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.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

"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.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

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!

Friday, August 12, 2011

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

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Can electromagnetic exposure from cell phones and other devices both cure AND cause alzheimer's???

People jumping up and down for joy about a study that showed exposure to electromagnetic (such as cell phone energy) can prevent the build-up of plaque or protein that inhibits cellular communication in Alzheimer's disease need to sit down and listen. I am not a scientist, but I do try to apply logic to information (a librarian's habit) and here is my little theory:

Electromagnetic energy keeps the build-up of plaque/protein because it keeps the cells continuously activated (stressed?)at low levels so the bad stuff cannot settle.

By the same token, exposure could cause or accelerate brain dullness or Alzheimer's in some people because the same action would mobilize stored toxins/metals/chemicals in the body and brain causing free radical and oxidative damage. Electromagnetic exposure has been shown to cause a breach of the blood-brain barrier, which would allow these metals/toxins access to the brain.

So, the result depends upon the physiology, toxicity and heredity of the individual being exposed to the these emissions. Prevention for some is poison for others within range of exposure. That is why society should practice prudence and precaution in deploying more wireless devices and services.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Let's pump a bit of chloroform into our baby's bedroom...

Here is my comment in response to a heated debate at skeptoid.com on smart meters:

Let's pump a bit of chloroform into our baby's bedroom 24/7. Let's add a tad of lead to our kids' drinking water 24/7. Let's blow a little motor exhaust into our home air supply 24/7. Let's put a smart meter on the wall of our home that pulses radio-frequencies in bursts 24/7, along with all the neighbors' meters, which also pulse 24/7, cutting through our living spaces. Yeah. Let's not take any precautions with potentially harmful exposures, despite the existence of some damning scientific studies and people's reports of harm. Oh, yeah.

And most of all, let's demonize people who report they are made sick by wireless emissions, and get better only when away from them. Let's just label them as crazy and be done with their inconvenient protest. After all, they can't prove it so that automatically means we should ignore and discredit them, and not call for more studies and prudence in the meantime. They surely do not deserve our respect as fellow human beings, and they surely cannot be as smart as we are either. After all, we do not experience what they experience, so it can't be real. Even if they have a different physiology and genetic makeup than we do, their bodies should react like ours to have their experiences be real and valid. Yeah.

Besides, we like our convenient phones, wifi and see no problem with smart meters. No one is going to get in the way of our love affair with wireless technology! No one!

Smart Meter defenders = Dithering Idiots

I recently posted this comment at a site talking about the smart meter situation at Fort Bragg, CA because the article gave the utility industry's tricky explanation of how microwave-emitting meters cannot be harmful because they only send signals for a few seconds per day.

Smart Meters going off "just a minute a day" can mean sending bursts of energy several times or even pulsing short bursts every few seconds, 24/7. Then, all the meters in your neighborhood range "dither" - or go off at different moments. So you get a constant bombardment with this radiation.

Also, if you see these meters put at the edges of properties, especially in city blocks, when you walk by them and they happen to be going off, you get the full, close-up blast of disruptive radiation to you (and you children/pre-born,elderly,etc. ) A lot of times you'll see them at stoplights or near park sidewalks where people go to experience nature. You get exposed there, too, (to the dithering microwave radiation.)

Remember and use this word - dither - which comes from the industry itself. Smart meters dither and no one is keeping track of the COMBINED exposures when they go off in sequence or at the same moment in their patterns.

Dither dither dither dither. Add the word to your quill and use it to explain WHY the industry's description of the harmlessness of a few seconds of transmitted microwave radiation per day is misleading!

Let's respond to the dithering idiots in the utilities, who are feeding the public tricky information to justify their product's deployment!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Ways to protect yourself from wireless radiation at home

Though it is impossible to block the microwave radiation from cell towers, neighbors' smart meters and wifi, here are some things you can do to try to make your home safer, courtesy of Electrical Pollution, Solutions page.

Monday, August 29, 2011

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.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

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!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

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.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

"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.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

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!

Friday, August 12, 2011

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

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Can electromagnetic exposure from cell phones and other devices both cure AND cause alzheimer's???

People jumping up and down for joy about a study that showed exposure to electromagnetic (such as cell phone energy) can prevent the build-up of plaque or protein that inhibits cellular communication in Alzheimer's disease need to sit down and listen. I am not a scientist, but I do try to apply logic to information (a librarian's habit) and here is my little theory:

Electromagnetic energy keeps the build-up of plaque/protein because it keeps the cells continuously activated (stressed?)at low levels so the bad stuff cannot settle.

By the same token, exposure could cause or accelerate brain dullness or Alzheimer's in some people because the same action would mobilize stored toxins/metals/chemicals in the body and brain causing free radical and oxidative damage. Electromagnetic exposure has been shown to cause a breach of the blood-brain barrier, which would allow these metals/toxins access to the brain.

So, the result depends upon the physiology, toxicity and heredity of the individual being exposed to the these emissions. Prevention for some is poison for others within range of exposure. That is why society should practice prudence and precaution in deploying more wireless devices and services.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Let's pump a bit of chloroform into our baby's bedroom...

Here is my comment in response to a heated debate at skeptoid.com on smart meters:

Let's pump a bit of chloroform into our baby's bedroom 24/7. Let's add a tad of lead to our kids' drinking water 24/7. Let's blow a little motor exhaust into our home air supply 24/7. Let's put a smart meter on the wall of our home that pulses radio-frequencies in bursts 24/7, along with all the neighbors' meters, which also pulse 24/7, cutting through our living spaces. Yeah. Let's not take any precautions with potentially harmful exposures, despite the existence of some damning scientific studies and people's reports of harm. Oh, yeah.

And most of all, let's demonize people who report they are made sick by wireless emissions, and get better only when away from them. Let's just label them as crazy and be done with their inconvenient protest. After all, they can't prove it so that automatically means we should ignore and discredit them, and not call for more studies and prudence in the meantime. They surely do not deserve our respect as fellow human beings, and they surely cannot be as smart as we are either. After all, we do not experience what they experience, so it can't be real. Even if they have a different physiology and genetic makeup than we do, their bodies should react like ours to have their experiences be real and valid. Yeah.

Besides, we like our convenient phones, wifi and see no problem with smart meters. No one is going to get in the way of our love affair with wireless technology! No one!

Smart Meter defenders = Dithering Idiots

I recently posted this comment at a site talking about the smart meter situation at Fort Bragg, CA because the article gave the utility industry's tricky explanation of how microwave-emitting meters cannot be harmful because they only send signals for a few seconds per day.

Smart Meters going off "just a minute a day" can mean sending bursts of energy several times or even pulsing short bursts every few seconds, 24/7. Then, all the meters in your neighborhood range "dither" - or go off at different moments. So you get a constant bombardment with this radiation.

Also, if you see these meters put at the edges of properties, especially in city blocks, when you walk by them and they happen to be going off, you get the full, close-up blast of disruptive radiation to you (and you children/pre-born,elderly,etc. ) A lot of times you'll see them at stoplights or near park sidewalks where people go to experience nature. You get exposed there, too, (to the dithering microwave radiation.)

Remember and use this word - dither - which comes from the industry itself. Smart meters dither and no one is keeping track of the COMBINED exposures when they go off in sequence or at the same moment in their patterns.

Dither dither dither dither. Add the word to your quill and use it to explain WHY the industry's description of the harmlessness of a few seconds of transmitted microwave radiation per day is misleading!

Let's respond to the dithering idiots in the utilities, who are feeding the public tricky information to justify their product's deployment!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Ways to protect yourself from wireless radiation at home

Though it is impossible to block the microwave radiation from cell towers, neighbors' smart meters and wifi, here are some things you can do to try to make your home safer, courtesy of Electrical Pollution, Solutions page.