Immediate next steps
To prioritize protectections for nature and public health over telecommunications and corporate profits, we'll need to revise our thinkingand our laws. To slow or prevent deployment of new infrastructure, including 5G (fifth generation of mobile networks, with cellular antennas deployed every three to ten houses), we probably don't have time for new laws. We'll need to depend on existing ones. Revisit Letter #9 [16] which recommends requiring signage to protect workers at antenna sites and enforcing professional engineering statutes that require certifying antennas' safety from fire and collapse before deploying new infrastructure.
Long-term protections
For long-term protections of U.S. public health and wildlife, the following legal actions apply; other countries will likely need similar regulations. [17]
- Amend the Telecommunications Act's Section 704 to allow local governments to determine their own setback policy on telecom equipment.
- Mandate a clearly stated federal law that FCC standards do not preempt the ability of injured citizens to go to court and recover damages caused by the trespass of electromagnetic radiation into their bodies.
- Mandate The Cell Phone Right to Know Act. Proposed by Representative Dennis Kucinich in 2012, HR 6358 is still worthwhile: require telecom companies to allow epidemiologists access to cell phone users' records for health research, give the EPA authority to determine biological safety standards on cell phones, and require specific absorption rate (SAR) labeling on mobile devices.
- Include biological harm in the FCC's definition of harmful interference: "acute, chronic or prolonged exposure to radiofrequency signals and emissions that endangers, degrades, obstructs or repeatedly interrupts biological functioning of a person, plant, animal or ecosystem, or that results in adverse health effects from malfunctioning of medical devices."
- Mandate third-party testing of SARs and warning labels on all electronic devices that 1)picture how far radiation penetrates the head when the device is near it and 2)state, "This device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause cancer and other diseases. Users, especially children and pregnant women, should keep this device away from the head and body." [18]
- Enforce National Environmental Policy Act requirements of environmental assessment before deploying new telecom infrastructure near sensitive habitats.
To create cultural change
Given our society's ubiquitous deployment of telecommunications, what is within anyone's control? What is beyond control? How/can anyone impose limits on EMR exposure and telecommunications use?
I don't get easy answers to these questions.
I have learned that cultural change happensand spreadsby meeting in groups of seven. (Think of civil rights and women's movements.) And so my prayer is for each of us to have friends with whom we can discuss questions related to nature and technologyand strengthen our movement toward respecting our own health and wildlife health.
Yours,
Katie
REFERENCES
- O.P. Gandhi et al, "Electromagnetic absorption in the human head and neck for mobile telephones at 835 and 1,900 MHz," IEEE, Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 44 (1996): 1,884-1,892; J. Wiart et al, "Analysis of RF exposure in the head tissues of children and adults," Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 53 (2008): 3681-3695.
- Click Here
- NIH/National Toxicology Program cell phone radiation study. Click Here
- ibid.
- Adams, Jessica A., Tamara S. Galloway, et al., "Effect of mobile telephones on sperm quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis," Environment International 70(2014): 106-112.
- "EMFs and Miscarriages: The Evidence Mounts," Microwave News, December 18, 2017.
- Divan, H., et al., "Prenatal and postnatal exposure to cell phone use and behavioral problems in children," Epidemiology 19(4)(2008).
- Herbert, Martha, and Cindy Sage, "Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a pathophysiological link part I," Pathophysiology 20(3)(2013); Martha Herbert and Cindy Sage, "Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a pathophysiological link part II," Pathophysiology 20(3)(2013).
- Davis, Devra Lee, PhD, MPH, "Cell Phone Radiation and Breast CancerA Review of the Evidence," Environmental Health Trust, 2015. Click Here. Exp Ther Med. 2021 Jan; 21(1): 23.Published online 11.9.20. doi: 10.3892/etm.2020.9455. Ya-Wen Shih, Anthony P. O'Brien, et al, "Exposure to radiofrequency radiation increases the risk of breast cancer: A systemiatic review and meta-analysis," Spandididos, 11. 9.20. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9455
- Incidence of thyroid cancer has nearly tripled over the last three decades, likely because of environmental factors including wireless phone use. Click Here; Carlberg et al, 2020 Click Here shows a steep increase in thyroid cancer in Nordic countries.
- https://www.jmir.org/2020/12/e21923/
- Click Here. Click Here
- Balmori, A., "Electromagnetic pollution from phone masts: Effects on wildlife," Pathophysiology, (2009), doi; 10.1016/j.pathophys.2009.01.007.
- Thill, Alain, "Biological effects of electromagnetic fields on insects," Unwelt * Medizin * Gesellschaft; 33 1 3/2020. In studies a review of 83 studies of EMR's effects on insects, 72 show negative effects. Click Here
Katie Singer writes about the energy, extractions, toxic waste and greenhouse gases involved in manufacturing computers, telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles and other electronic technologies. She believes that if she's not aware that she's part of the problem, then she can't be part of the solution. She dreams that every smartphone user learns about the supply chain of one substance (of 1000+) in a smartphone. Her most recent book is An Electronic Silent Spring. She currently writes about nature, democracy and technology for Wall Street International Magazine. Visit www.OurWeb.tech and www.ElectronicSilentSpring.com.
Find the other letters to Greta at www.DearGreta.com/letters
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