Life Energies - WiFi

WiFi At The Office?

sarjuna@aol.com (Shivani) — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 08:35:09 -0700

In a recent article in Computing,
Alasdair Philips, chairman of independent watchdog Powerwatch and a
member of the UK Government's Stakeholder Advisory Group on extremely
low frequency electromagnetic fields, shared the following:

"Ive seen several doctors and dentists who have put wireless LANs
into their surgeries and then had complaints from staff who can feel
something in their head or cant concentrate properly. But when
theyve taken out WiFi and put cable in, the problem has disappeared."

"My advice would be not to put a wireless network into your offices. If
youve already got one, be aware of the symptoms some of your staff may
be suffering things like headaches, fatigue, irritability and lack of
concentration,'" he said.

'If you see increasing numbers of those symptoms in particular staff,
it might be worth putting those staff in a different part of the
building with a wired network.

He added that emissions are concentrated near the network's nodes, and
recommended locating access points away from where people sit at work.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My personal physician recently told me that he tried WiFi in his
office, but soon found that it gave him a severe headache, so removed it.

The common approach, unfortunately, is not to think much about how a new exposure may be harmful to health - until symptoms are experienced. If we followed The Precautionary Principle, we'd approach any new chemical, radiation exposure, etcetera, with extreme caution until we we were sure it was safe. As opposed to exposing ourselves until the results begin to prove that it is NOT safe.

This approach is of course encouraged by the industries (definitely including the military), that profit from whatever it is we are being exposed to. In a strange flipflop, harmed individuals are put in the position of needing to prove that what they were exposed to is harmful, rather than the perpetrater being demanded to show that it is not harmful.

Wheras industry has ample funding to hire clever lawyers and spokespersons, a harmed individual lacks the funding and skills needed to fight big industry and government. And, ironically, the more the individual is harmed, the less ability he has to take action at all.

Let's take a second look at the advice of placing further from exposure the office staff who are exhibiting symptoms. Well and good. However, what about the rest of the staff, who are not YET experiencing symptoms? Electromagnetic radiation causes CUMULATIVE damage to living bodies. Minimizing everyone's exposure as much as possible is the wise approach.

Wireless Broadband Forces Relocation

sarjuna@aol.com (Shivani) — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 08:16:06 -0700

The following is excerpted from a translation of a recent article by Swedish journalist Mona Nielsen.

It is interesting that although Sweden recognizes electrical sensitivity and has protective regulations based on this official recognition, officials have not responded to the needs of the affected residents. In contrast, the residents of Simcoe, Canada, where there is no official recognition of electrical sensitivity or of the health damage that occurs at low levels of exposure, the county officials voted to take action to move the offending tower.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As there are several people in Götene parish who suffer health problems from the microwave radiation from the wireless broadband installations [including some who specifically moved to this area to avoid wireless radiation] a group has for some considerable time upheld discussions with Götene parish about the broadband roll-out.

The Parish Council Executive decided on the 8th of June 2004 that the broadband should be landline broadband, or dsl-technology, [but] the council´s civil servants decided to introduce... both the landline and Wimax, the wireless broadband.

Possible health risks were not taken into consideration when the council, with the help of a consultant, evaluated different proposals. On the contrary, the wireless broadband got plus-points for being an Un-tried technical solution which
promises a lot of potential

The affected residents demand, with the support of the Environmental Protection Law (Miljöbalken), that the installations be turned off , but the parish council adheres to the misleading information of the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Against this background, the question of wireless internet
radiation was discussed in the public service prime time TV program
"Debatt", on May 23rd, 2006 by Hans Wiksell, professor at the
Karolinska Institute, Olle Johansson, assoc. prof. at the Karolinska
Institute, Lars Mjönes at the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority, and
Mona Nilsson, freelance writer.

Two main focuses were identified, one being about the handicap perspective
of electrohypersensitivity and the role of municipalities regarding
accessability measures for persons with this functional impairment. A
second focus dealt with the scientific background, the build-up of various
official authorities, like the ICNIRP and the Swedish Radiation Protection
Authority, and the fact that the experts who are critical - and are in
majority in Sweden - are not allowed to participate in scientific
committees as well as writing reviews about this issue.

The TV interview is in Swedish, but is being translated into an English transcript, which should be available soon at the Mast Victims site.

WiFi Forces Relocation

sarjuna@aol.com (Shivani) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:10:47 -0700

The following is excerpted from a translation of a recent article by Swedish journalist Mona Nielsen. It is interesting that although Sweden recognizes electrical sensitivity and has protective regulations based on this official recognition, officials have not responded to the needs of the affected residents. In contrast, the residents of Simcoe, Canada, where there is no official recognition of electrical sensitivity or of health damage at low levels of exposure, the county officials voted to take action to move an offending tower causing similar health problems. [See previous post for details.]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Götene residents forced from home by wireless broadband.

   In February 2006 Götene's municipality in Västergötland, Sweden, put its
wireless internet system into use. Right after this, 8 citizens got ill
(heart palpitations, breathing problems, nausea, headache, dizziness, etc.)
and some of them had to leave their homes and settle down in the woods in
small cottages.

   One woman who was thus forced to leave her family acquired maps shoving the coverage of the broadband and found that their farm lies in the crossbeam of two broadband masts.

    As there are several people in Götene parish who suffer health problems from the microwave radiation from the wireless broadband installations [including some who specifically moved to this area to avoid wireless radiation] a group has for some considerable time upheld discussions with Götene parish about the broadband roll-out.

The Parish Council Executive decided on the 8th of June 2004 that the broadband should be landline broadband, or dsl-technology, [but] the council´s civil servants decided to introduce... both the landline and Wimax, the wireless broadband.

Possible health risks were not taken into consideration when the council, with the help of a consultant, evaluated different proposals. On the contrary, the wireless broadband got plus-points for being an Un-tried technical solution which
promises a lot of potential

The affected residents demand, with the support in the Environmental Protection law (Miljöbalken), that the installations be turned off , but the parish council adheres to the misleading information of the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wi-Fi's Electric Shock

sarjuna@aol.com (Shivani) — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:30:44 -0700

Below are excerpts from a recent Canadian article about WiFi. You can read the entire article at: www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-03-09/news_story.php (Please forgive me as I learn to blog. I don't know how to create live links yet. You'll have to cut and paste.)
Shivani

Wi-Fi's electric shock
NOW magazine, Toronto March 9, 2006
By ADRIA VASIL

....Whether it's fluorescent lights, cellphones or computer screens, more and more of us are realizing that the technology we've welcomed into our homes and offices is making us ill. According to stats from Sweden and Britain, about 2 or 3 per cent of the population suffers from potentially debilitating electro-hypersensitivity, or EHS. Symptoms are all over the map, and include nausea, headaches, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, tinnitus and rashes, to name a few.

Researchers also say that many more, over a third of us, are a little electro-sensitive and just don't know it, blaming restless nights, office brain fog and Motrin moments on everything but our electrified environment.

....Dave Stetzer, a Wisconsin-based electrical engineer, says cordless phones make plenty of people sick. In fact, the consultant recommends people with sensitivities not only get rid of their cordless phones, but also toss their dimmer switches, energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, halogen lights and, yes, baby monitors.

The link between them all? Radio frequencies. We know that wireless technology like cellphones and Wi-Fi emit such frequencies. But Stetzer explains that radio frequency surges created by appliances are also riding the electrical wiring in your home when they shouldn't be.

....Magda Havas, an environmental science professor at Trent, has been studying just that. Havas teaches a course on the biological impact of electromagnetic radiation and radio frequencies - the only one of its kind in Canada.

Her work with people with MS, diabetes and other illnesses documents how many found their symptoms improved when their environments were electrically cleaned, so to speak, by placing capacitators (filters) throughout their homes. Brad Blumbergs has progressive multiple sclerosis and says he walked with a cane until he volunteered for Havas's experiment. Michelle Illiatovitch's daughter suffered from chronic fatigue from the time she was eight and saw her energy return once an electrician fixed some faulty wiring in their home and filters were put in her North York school.

Explains Havas,"We can take a person who is diabetic and put them in an [electrically] dirty environment, and their blood sugar levels rise. We then put them into a clean environment, and within half an hour their blood sugar levels are lower. It becomes a barometer."

.... Columbia cellular biophysics prof Martin Blank (says})that electromagnetic waves and radio frequencies actually trigger stress responses in cells.

"If you need any more evidence that the body is telling you, 'I'm hurting,' this is it," says Blank. "That's what the stress response is - it's the testimony of the cells." And that response, he adds, is activated by very weak fields, not just the kinds emitted by major transmission lines, but the kind inundating your home.

"Who knows what being exposed to [multiple sources] simultaneously does? You've got TV broadcasting outside, you've got cellphones broadcasting outside. God knows what's going on with all these things coming and going together. There's no attempt to deal with it except in the vaguest way." And Wi-Fi? Blank says he wouldn't want it in his home.

Bottom line, says the prof, "the guys who say they're protecting us with these standards are not protecting us."

...."I wonder how many people out there are being misdiagnosed," asks MartinWeatherall, a retired Toronto cop who started developing a ringing in his ears and headaches when he moved into a new home. "They're being harmed by their electrical environments, and doctors are just sending them to a psychiatrist."

....Toronto Hydro's website encourages anyone concerned to move clock radios away from their bed and to air dry for a few minutes after bathing to cut down on hair dryer time. Kind of strange for a company that says there's nothing to worry about.

....Sweden, with an estimated 250,000 sufferers, leads the pack by recognizing EHS as a full-on disability. Authorities there will not only electrically retrofit your home and your office, but will make a restaurant remove, say, offensive lighting if an electrically sensitive person wants to eat there but can't - kind of like Canada's policy on wheelchair ramps. Stockholm's even planning a special EHS-friendly village.

A little closer to home, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay recently shocked onlookers by banning wireless Internet from most of its campus. A controversial move in these parts, but school prez Fred Gilbert says the jury's still out on Wi-Fi's health impact. That, he says, is enough to justify a precautionary approach....

"You run a certain risk if you go against the wave of implementation," says Gilbert. "But I think...when you can do something to avoid exposure ... I think we're making the right decision."

Warren Bell sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. He says .... "Our industrial civilization has embarked on a lot of courses without a lot of documentation on their safety or lack of safety. As a result, we've got ourselves in a number of different corners, something we have subsequently come to regret."

Continue reading "Wi-Fi's Electric Shock"

EMF and RFR: Where You're Exposed and What to Do:

sarjuna@aol.com (Shivani) — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:52:50 -0700

Layna Berman, host and producer of Your Own Health and Fitness on KPFA and the Pacifica Network, will interview environmental consultant, Cindy Sage, and science journalist and author, B. Blake Levitt, on the disturbing science showing wireless technology's dangers to humans and the environment. Included will be practical alternatives and protection from electrosmog exposures.

Air Time is Tuesday, 3/14/06 from 1-2 PST (Pacific Standard Time)

To listen live, go to the KFPA web site and follow the links to listen live to Your Own Health and Fitness. The program will be archived on Your Own Health and Fitness website, available 24/7, for one week. Click on "LISTEN to the latest show".

Information and Resources:
Blake Levitt's website
Layna Berman's website
Janet Newton, EMR Policy Institute
Cindy Sage's website

Mitigation information:
EMF Safety Superstore
YSHIELD: EMR-Protection

Continue reading "EMF and RFR: Where You're Exposed and What to Do:"