Monday 22nd February 2010.  Lakehead University hosted a public lecture during their ‘Research and Innovation Week’ and invited Drs. Henry Lai (University of Washington), David Fancy (Brock University) and Magda Havas (Trent University) to address the Thunder Bay audience about wireless exposure and the possible health effects.  Read what Thunder Bay News Watch has to say about the event.

Dr. Lai  spoke about the “Biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields” and mentioned studies showing genetic and molecular effects, changes in the blood brain barrier, changes in calcium flux. He said electromagnetic energy can affect the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the immune system, as well as hormones and reproduction, and it can generate behavioural changes and subjective symptoms.  He showed that radio frequency radiation  induces oxidative stress in cells by way of the Fenton Reaction that involves iron, hydrogen peroxide and the production of hydroxy free radicals leading to cellular damage.  The free radicals can lead to functional changes, cell death, or cancer.    These are some of the mechanisms leading to the symptoms described in the literature.

Drs.  Lai and Singh were the first to show DNA damage in rats exposed to cell phone radiation.  The comet assay is one of the most sensitive tests that shows fragmentation of DNA.  The fragments resemble a comet and hence the name.

At  least 60 peer-reviewed papers report biological effects at very low intensities of radio frequency radiation but these are all of short exposure.  Long-term exposure data are scarce.  What these long-term studies show are the following:
1.  effects differ based on exposure duration.
2.  some effects occur only after either prolonged or repeated exposure but not after short-term exposure.
3.  some effects disappear after prolonged or repeated exposure (due to habituation).
4.  an organism becomes more sensitive after repeated exposure.

Dr. Lai reviewed the scientific literature dealing with the biological effects of cell phone radiation.  He found that results were dependent on source of funding.  Sixty-seven percent (67%) of the non-industry funded studies showed an effect of cell phone radiation while only  (28%) of the studies  funded by industry reported similar results.   Huss et al. 2007 came to the same conclusion and stated that “The interpretation of the results from existing and future studies of the health effects of [radio frequency] radiation should take sponsorship into account.”

Dr. David Fancy spoke about  ”Electrosensitivity:  a first person perspective”.   Dr. Fancy’s sensitivity lead him on a journey  that took him through periods of great illness to good health.  He now provides information to those with sensitivity on how to cope and how to recover their health.  David Fancy is an inspiration to those who suffer from electrohypersensitivity because he found a way, not only,  to desensitize his body but also to improve his health.  Dr. Fancy comments on the role of the WHO and other government agencies regarding EHS.  Click here to down load his presentation as a pdf.

Dr. Magda Havas spoke about “Electrosmog and Electrosensitivity” and presentation some of her studies showing how radio frequency radiation can affect the heart (rapid or irregular heart rate) and the blood (rouleaux formation blood cell stick together like a stack of coins); how exposure to compact fluorescent lighting can cause skin rashes; and how dirty electricity may conribute to higher  blood sugar among diabetics and tremors among those with multiple sclerosis.

Based on an estimate of 3% of the population with severe sensitivity and another 35% with moderate to mild sensitivity, as many as 1 million people in Canada may be severely affected by electrosmog and another 12 million may have mild to moderate symptoms when exposed to this type of radiation.  If these values are even close to the real values, we have an emerging human health crisis that is escalenting according to Hallberg and Oberfeld (2006), who state that the prevalence of electrohypersenstivity  (based on self-diagnosis)  may reach 50% of the population by 2017.

While not all students at Lakehead are pleased with the decision to limit WiFi on campus (yes limit as some places, like the student pub, are allowed to have WiFi), students at other institutions would welcome studying in a wireless-free zone.  Dr. Havas quoted from an email sent to her in November 2009 from a student at  Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota who experiences seizures on campus after extended exposure to WiFi.   He would like to know how to convince his college to remove WiFi.

The organizers of this event invited industry representatives, scientists affiliated with other universities who hold different views on this subject, as well as scientists from Health Canada to give presentations but all invitations were declined.  Why are these people unwilling to appear in public to present their perspective on this issue?  How can we have an open debate if one side is not willing to participate.  Isn’t this what we value about democracy and isn’t this one of the important roles of a university to provide a forum for  free and open discussions about things that matter?

Dr. Fred Gilbert, President of Lakehead University, has taken an unpopular stance regarding wireless technology because he does not think it is as safe as some would like us to believe.  He has provided fibre optic connections in place of wireless routers for student and staff access to the internet.  The National Library in France has done the same thing.

Interestingly, fibre optics provide much faster and  more secure service than wireless and may very well be the ideal form of interconnectivity in places where there is a high volume of traffic and  where security and speed are important.  See Google offers alternative to WiMax.  Fibre optics also has the advantage of not contributing to electrosmog and not making people ill.  Here we have an example where the best technical solution (fibre optics) is also the best for our health.  It doesn’t get better than this.

Posted February 2010. Dog killed by stray voltage in ground.  Stray voltage zaps child.  Stray voltage scare costs $14 million to fix.  Toronto Hydro says stray electricity an on going problem.

These are some of the headlines that have been bringing the issue of stray voltage to the attention of Toronto residents.

The latest story, Stray voltage safety primer, was launched by Toronto Hydro to tell pedestrians and pet owners how to protect themselves and their pets from stray voltage. They recommend that pedestrians walk closer to storefronts and stay away from street lights, that pet owners walk their dogs before dark while the street lights are off, and that they use a non-conductive leash made of nylon rather than metal.  This way if your dog gets zapped at least you won’t be harmed.

One women in New York, wasn’t so lucky.  Jodie Lane, a Columbia University doctoral student was killed when she stepped on a metal plate in East Village while walking her dog in 2004.  Stray voltage was to blame.

While stories like this get a lot of attention and millions of dollars are spent trying to solve the problem, the same cannot be said for what happens in rural North America.  Here, stray voltage, preferably called ground current, is a silent killer that gets little attention.  It affects farmers,  their livestock, and their livelihood.

In the country, ground current, may be due to both on farm and off farm sources.  A growing concern is that we have an aging infrastructure and an inadequate capacity to keep the electricity flowing along the wires.  As a result, electric utilities allow the energy to flow along the ground, making the ground into another wire.  Any animal in contact with the ground is exposed to this current.  The consequences are just as lethal as being electrocuted, although the suffering is prolonged.

The video below shows what happens to dairy cows exposed to ground current.

Cows exposed to ground current have swollen joints, open sores that fail to heal, and they “dance” (lift their feet) as they try to break the flow of electricity through their body coming from the ground. Milk production is reduced and many have difficulty conceiving. Once they are unable to stand they are no longer useful to the farmer.

Ground current is a serious problem in both Canada and the United States and requires immediate attention.

Hydro One in Ontario is beginning to take this problem seriously.  They have a website and a procedure to deal with farmers who think they have a stray voltage problem.

Posted February 2010.  In December 2009 an array of cell phone antennas was placed on an apartment building in downtown Toronto, much to the surprise of the residents who first became aware of this construction as the cranes moved in.  Watch the video and listen to what one woman experienced.

Within two months, those who lived on the top floor of this apartment building began to feel ill. Nausea, dizziness, buzzing in the ears, headaches, head pressure, difficulty sleeping, brain fog, skin rash, burning sensation in the skin, and a metallic taste in the mouth were just some of the symptoms. One woman and her daughter became so sick, they could no longer stay in their apartment and moved in with friends. The antennas were close enough to be touched by a broom from the top floor balcony.

On February 13, 2010, the tenants asked us to visit their building and measure the radiation in their penthouse apartment and on their balcony.   Levels of radiation were among the highest we’ve ever measured and we used several meters that  all gave similar readings.

In Canada, Industry Canada approves the location of antennas on roofs. Indeed some believe  that the lowest levels of radiation are immediately below the antennas so putting them on school rooftops, hotels, or apartment buildings is safe.  This is wrong.   Some of the highest readings we recorded were immediately below the antennas in the various bedrooms.

One of our more expensive meters stopped working when we tried to measured the exposure on the balcony and later learned this meter was programmed with a safety feature  that turned itself off, to protect the electronics, when exposed to high levels of radiation.

You might expect levels this high to exceed Health Canada’s guideline for microwave exposure.   This was not the case. Safety Code 6 states that if  the power density,  averaged over 6 minutes, is below a certain value (1000 micro  Watts per square centimetre for cell phone frequencies) it will not heat your tissue and is considered safe.   This guideline may be appropriate for cell phones where the user talks for, at most, a few hours, but for antennas on top of your bedroom, where you spend a third of your life sleeping, an exposure guideline of 6 minutes is grossly inadequate.

Let’s use cooking as the analogy for this thermal guideline.  If it takes 6 minutes to cook a potato in a microwave oven set at high power, then we may assume that cooking the potato twice as long may require half the power.  We can extend this cooking analogy to an 8-hour period during sleep or possibly a 24-hour period for those who are home all day.  Based on this type of calculation the residents in the penthouse apartment of this building are “cooked” within one week.  In other words, if exposures were weighted for time, the Safety Code 6 Guideline would be exceeded within one week.

Epidemiologists have found high cancer rates on the upper floors and  residents have successfully removed cell phone antennas from apartment buildings, but only after years of struggle because of long-term,  iron clad contracts that are highly profitable to landlords.

If landlords knew that these microwave transmitters affected the health of their tenants and of those in nearby apartment building, and if they knew that they might be legally liable for health claims attributed to these antennas they might not be so quick to sign these lucrative deals.

As awareness increases, occupants are likely to move out of these “sick” buildings resulting in vacant apartment complexes that are “condemned” by the neighbourhood.  This type of action will surely send a strong signal to landlords and developers who think of  roof-top towers as vertical realestate for cell phone antennas.

I’m not against cell phone antennas being placed on towers far from human habitation.  However,  these antennas should not be placed on top of or near apartment buildings, hotels, office buildings, schools, hospitals and fire halls, in other words,  where people spend more than a third of their life.  No amount of concealment will reduce the radiation from these antennas.

The media needs to bring attention to this issue.  They need to  investigate the microwave dangers lurking on the roof especially in large urban centres where roof-top antennas are the norm.

February 2010.  Almost everyone who reads the papers, watches TV or listens to the radio has now heard that the H1N1 pandemic did not pan out as was anticipated and is causing the World Health Organization to come under fire by health officials that spent billions of dollars on vaccines that are now useless.

In regards to the dangers of electromagnetic radiation, the WHO has still not released the final reports of the safety of cell phones from its Interphone studies, and these findings are now 4 years late. It is becoming clear that the WHO is quickly losing credibility with the media and the governments from around the world.

In reaction to this image problem,  a report was made by Dr. Margaret Chan,  the Director-General to the Executive Board at its 126th session Geneva, Switzerland. 18 January 201o.

“Although the virus has not yet delivered any devastating surprises, we have seen some surprises on other fronts. We anticipated problems in producing enough vaccine fast enough, and this did indeed happen. But we did not anticipate that people would decide not to be vaccinated.

I mentioned the revolution in communications and information technologies. In today’s world, people can draw on a vast range of information sources. People make their own decisions about what information to trust, and base their actions on those decisions.

The days when health officials could issue advice, based on the very best medical and scientific data, and expect populations to comply, may be fading. It may no longer be sufficient to say that a vaccine is safe, or testing complied with all regulatory standards, or a risk is real.

In my view, this is a new communications challenge that we may need to address.”

It is clear that the Internet has changed the way the public gets their information concerning health issues.  Health website like Mercola.com, Andrew Weil, and many others are now the beacons of light that shine the truth.  Some traditional media publishers such as Prevention and GQ no longer fear the wrath of the FCC or the wireless industry advertiser and now use their print publications and websites to inform the public that the dangers of EMF are real and the governments need to change the safety limits now.

Governments can no longer quote the World Health Organization hoping to placate the public that questions the safety of cell phones, WIFI, cell towers, powerlines and other sources of electromagnetic radiation.

We are witnessing a culture shift where the public no longer trusts their own doctors or Public Health Board – or local media providers that quote the WHO.

February 2010.  Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make internet access safer, better, and faster for everyone. They plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Their networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. They’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

From now until March 26th, they are asking interested municipalities to provide them with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which they will use to determine where to build their network.

If you are a school IT administrator or community and are thinking of going WIFI – think again – Fibre Optics are the best way to go. Do it once and do it right and perhaps Google can give you a helping hand. Click here to learn more.

January 19, 2010.  Don Coombs,  Mayor of Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, proclaimed January 2010 as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Awareness Month.  Click here for Proclamation.

This is the now the forth mayor in Canada who has recognized that electrohypersensitivity (EHS) is a serious health concern that requires greater awareness .  Mayor Coombs follows in the steps of Mayors David Sanders of Colwood BC (August 2009); Dennis O’Keefe of St. John’s, NFL (August 2009) and Fred Budgell of Norris Arms, NFL (October 2009).

In 2009, Governors in Florida, Connecticut, and Colorado, made a similar proclamation, although Governor Charlie Chris (Florida) withdrew his proclamation shortly after releasing it without a clear explanation for his decision.

Health Canada also recognizes that “Certain members of the general public may be more susceptible to harm from radio frequency and microwave exposure” (Safety Code 6 Guideline, page 11).

Despite this, those who are sensitive to electrosmog and are unable to work are often denied compensation for their illness.  This is due, in part,  to  the absence of reliable ways to diagnose this EHS, which takes multiple forms.  It has been estimated that 35% of the population in industrial countries may have moderate symptoms of EHS and that 3% may be severely disabled by electromagnetic fields and radiation.  Funding to promote research in this area is lacking and currently there are no formal programs to inform medical professionals about the health effects of electrosmog and ways to help those who are suffering.

Posted January 2010.  ‘Mobile-Boro Man’ -is his second addiction a cancer-cell phone? was written by Michael Moffa and appeared in the Hong Kong Edition of China Daily on December 25, 2009.  It questions whether we are becoming addicted to our cell phones and, as you might guess from the title, it  makes a connection between mobile phones and  cigarette smoking.

Credits:  Photo by Timothy Chui.

January  2010.  A few years ago I was contacted by a Susan Stankavich who complained that she and her husband were experiencing ill health and their  symptoms were getting worst as more cell phone antennas were constructed in their community.

She mentioned that her electricity bill was also increasing at the same time despite the fact that they owned few electronic devices as they were both electrically sensitive.   She wondered if her electrical bill was affected by the radiation from the cell phone antennas.

I discussed this with Dave Stetzer, power quality expert in Wisconsin, and he told me that some watt-hour meters give inaccurate readings because they are calibrated for a pure 60-Hz sine wave. Higher frequencies cause the meter to spin more quickly, giving the impression that you are consuming more electricity than in fact you are.

I asked the Stankavichs to send me their electricity bills for the past few years and I compared the values to local weather conditions to see if that could account for the difference in readings.  I also compared the monthly bills to the installation of antennas and to other things that they did in their home.

The results are shocking!  See the attached pdf.

In brief, the annual cost of electricity increased in the Stankavich home by $1000 (from $1400 per year to a whopping $2400) and this increase corresponded to the construction of an antenna nearby and not to unusual weather patterns or changes in usage.

Dave Stetzer suggested that they install a choke at their watt-hour meter and immediately their electrical bill began to fall.   The choke was install on March 7th 2005 and they noticed a difference in their monthly bill by April.  That year the amount they paid for electricity dropped by $600 and they did this by buying  a few meters of electrical wire and a clip.

By the way, the electrical utilities know about this.  Ontario Hydro identifies this as a problem in their 1996 Power Quality Reference Guide.  They state that harmonics (these are multiples of the fundamental 60 Hz frequency) can generate additional torque which can cause improper operation and thus generate ‘incorrect readings’ on watt-hour meters

I don’t know how wide spread this problem is but if you want to test it on your own home, this is what you need to do. Buy approximately 2  meters of 12 or 14 gage building wire  at a hardware store.  Strip the ends.  Wrap this wire around the electrical line that connects to your electrical meter at the side of your home.  Ten coils around the line should be sufficient and then connect the two stripped ends with an electricians plug.  That’s it.  This is called a choke and it reduces (or chokes out) the high frequencies on the line leading to you watt-hour meter.  The meter should become more accurate and the electricity bills should be lower if there was indeed some high frequency interference on the line.

If you decide to test this I would be interested to know what happens.

Date: January 12, 2010

To: Open letter to Librarians, Library Administrators and Visitors to Libraries.

From: Dr. Magda Havas, BSc, PhD, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada.

ALERT: WiFi Hotspots in Libraries may be Harming Staff and Visitors and may Prevent Access to those with Medical Implants.

While a growing number of libraries are installing WiFi hotspots for their visitors and staff, they seem not to be reading the literature on this topic related to health effects, interference with medical implants, speed of data transmission, and data security issues.

WiFi uses a microwave frequency of 2.45  GHz. This is the same frequency used in many mobile phones (cell and cordless) and these microwave frequencies have been linked to various illnesses including cancer, reproductive problems, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, skin disorders, sleep disorders, cognitive dysfunction, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, etc. That is one reason why the France National Library (BNF) decided to give up WiFi in 2008.

Based on reports of genetic alternations in human cells at WiFi frequencies (a study conducted at the University of Chicago, Department of Medicine by Lee et al. 2005) and on an increasing number of scientific reports documenting ill effects of microwave exposure (including The Bioinitiative Report) the safer route is to provide wired rather than wireless access to the internet.

While it might take years of exposure to develop cancer (as has been shown in mobile phone studies) changes in gene expression occurred within a matter of a few hours for cultured human cells under controlled laboratory conditions. Lee and colleagues noticed that 221 genes altered their expression after a 2-hour exposure and 759 genes after a 6-hour exposure at levels below thermal effects, on which guidelines are based. If it doesn’t heat your tissue it is assumed to be safe, according to federal guidelines in many countries. However, scientific studies are showing that this ‘thermal effect assumption’ is no longer valid.

Another consideration is that some people with medical implants may be adversely affected because of radio frequency interference (RFI) and may not be able to visit libraries unless the WiFi service is turned off during their stay. This violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar acts in other jurisdictions.

Dr. Gary Olhoeft, Professor of Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, brought this to my attention last November at a presentation he gave in Golden Colorado organized by the EMR Policy Institute.   Not only is he an expert when it comes to electromagnetic interference (EMI) but he is also one of 20 million Americans who has a medical implant. In his case the implant is a deep brain stimulator to control tremors due to Parkinson’s Disease. Malfunctions of deep brain stimulators may constitute a medical emergency and can be fatal. According to Dr. Olhoeft, interference may prevent normal therapeutic function, reset or reprogram the device, bring damaging energy into the device or body, and cause injury including death.

Medical implants include cardiac pacemakers/defibrillators, neurostimulators, infusion pumps for diabetics, artificial hearts, metal rods to support broken bones, spinal stimulators, and hearing aids.

In addition to WiFi there are a growing number of devices that can cause electromagnetic interference (EMI) including: cell phones, CB or ham radios, TV and radio transmitting antennas, theft detectors and security gates (airports, schools, stores, libraries), power lines, electric arc welding equipment, electricity substations and generators, cardiac defibrillators, diathermy equipment and MRI (magnetic Resonance Imaging).

The France National Library replaced WiFi not only because of health concerns but because wired service can handle a larger volume of data transmission more rapidly, something that is essential for a large library with many researchers, and because it is a more secure and reliable way of transmitting data. The France National Library is not the first and will not be the last replacing WiFi terminals with wired terminals.

The purpose of this open letter is to alert libraries considering WiFi to investigate the feasibility of using wired terminals and for those libraries with WiFi to consider replacing them with wired service. Ignoring these issues of interference with medical devices and potential health effects will not make the problems go away.

As Aldous Huxley said, “Facts don’t cease to exist just because they are ignored.”

Click here for a pdf without live links.