[Pil-pc-oceania] Fwd: Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves [Dr Mae-Wan Ho]

Fri May 18 14:25:05 EST 2007

> ISIS Press Release 17/05/07
>
> Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves
> *******************************
>
>
> The Wi-Fi Revolution
> --------------------
>
> Wireless communication takes over in homes, offices, and
> public places, as evidence of microwave health hazards
> multiply for humans and species across the living world Dr.
> Mae-Wan Ho
>
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> To be or not to be wireless
> ---------------------------
>
> To be “wireless” has replaced “wired-up” for being connected
> and cool. Wi-fi is now in hotels, airport departure lounges,
> universities, schools, homes, and entire cities. You cannot
> get away from it. We shall all be submerged in a sea of
> microwaves, whether we choose to go wireless or not. Soon,
> all one can do is to lock oneself away in a shielded room,
> an electro-smog-proof yellow submarine. And for the
> estimated 1.5 – 3 percent of populations worldwide that are
> “electromagnetic hypersensitive” [1], that may well be the
> only option open. Unlike cigarette smoke, passive
> involuntary exposure to electromagnetic radiation cannot be
> avoided easily.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Box 1
>
> What is wi-fi?
>
> Wi-fi (Wireless-fidelity) was originally developed to be
> embedded in local area network (wLAN), and used for mobile
> computing devices such as laptops, but is now increasingly
> used for more services including the internet and connection
> to consumer electronics such as TV, DVD player and digital
> camera [2]. A user can connect to the internet via an
> enabled device, such as a personal computer, when in range
> of an ‘access point' (AP). A region covered by one or more
> APs is called a ‘hotspot'. Hotspots can range from a single
> room to many square miles of overlapping hotspots. Wi-fi can
> also be used to create a mesh network, and allow devices to
> connect directly with each other in peer-to-peer ( ad-hoc
> network) mode, as in consumer electronics and gaming
> applications.
>
> A typical wi-fi consists of one or more APs and one or more
> clients. An AP broadcasts its SSID (Service Set Identifier,
> or network name) in small (short-duration) packets, called
> beacons, every 100 ms. Wi-fi networks operate in the
> unlicensed 2.4 and 5 G Hz microwave bands, with an 11 Mbps
> (Megabytes per second) or 54 Mbps data transmission rate, or
> both (dual band), and clients can choose which service to
> use.
>
> Wi-fi has the advantage that it operates without cables, and
> is built into most modern laptops, and rapidly expanding
> into other devices as prices continue to drop. It operates
> on a global set of standards, so it can work in different
> countries. However, the operational limitations are not
> consistent around the world and power consumption is fairly
> high. Wi-fi is not secure, and worries about health risks of
> microwaves from mobile phones are growing (see main text).
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Wireless explosion out of control
> ---------------------------------
>
> There are now more than 250 000 public hotspots for wi-fi
> worldwide [2]. Wi-fi is available in millions of homes,
> corporations, and university campuses. According to one
> estimate, wi-fi use has increased 74 percent in Europe and
> 75 percent in the UK between the first and second half of
> 2006 [3]. Birmingham is to have Britain's first city wide
> wireless communication by early 2007, and Manchester is
> planning the largest European wi-fi zone covering 400 square
> miles. Norwich and Milton Keynes already have wi-fi, and
> Brighton is set to follow [4]. Most worrying of all, wi-fi
> has been installed in up to 80 percent of secondary schools
> in the UK and more than half of the primary schools [5] ,
> exposing the most vulnerable populations to microwave
> irradiation.
>
> The increasing popularity of wi-fi comes on the heels of the
> explosive growth in wireless mobile telephones, and amid
> heightened concerns over the health hazards of saturating
> levels of electromagnetic radiation [6] ( Cancer Risks from
> Microwaves Confirmed , SiS 34). Microwaves at current
> exposure levels are linked to brain damage, DNA damage,
> brain tumours, cancers, microwave sickness, impairment of
> cognitive functions, impairment of reproduction and
> fertility, affecting humans, rodents, birds, and bees (Box
> 2).
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Box 2
>
> Health hazards of microwave radiation
>
> Rats exposed to microwave radiation from mobile phones for
> two hours showed signs of brain damage due to leakage of the
> blood brain barrier that persisted 50 days later [7] (
> Mobile Phones & Brain Damage , SiS 24).
>
> DNA breaks and chromosomal abnormalities were found in
> animal and human cells exposed to low levels of microwaves
> [8] ( Confirmed: Mobile Phones Break DNA & Scramble Genomes
> , SiS 25)
>
> Risk of cancers – breast, prostate, bowel, skin (melanoma),
> lung and blood - trebled with microwave exposure in the
> Southern German town of Naila 5 to 10 years after the mobile
> phone transmitter was installed [6].
>
> Risk of cancers quadrupled in area exposed to microwave
> radiation in Netanya, an female cancers 10.5 fold compared
> with the general population in Israel [6].
>
> Risk of acoustic neuroma and glioma increased 2 to 3 fold on
> 10 years or more of mobile phone use [6].
>
> Mobile phone use correlates strongly with chronic illnesses
> [9]; Sweden has had a seven-fold increase in the long-term
> ill since 1981.
>
> Men who used mobile phones more than 4 hours a day had lower
> sperm count and poorer quality sperm compared to those who
> did not use mobile phones [10].
>
> A study in Greece showed that mice exposed to mobile phone
> microwaves at 1.68 m W/m 2 became completely sterile after
> five generations, while those exposed to 10.53 mW/m 2 became
> completely sterile after three generations [11]
>
> Reproduction and breeding success of sparrows and white
> storks are reduced near mobile phone transmitters, and
> exposure to microwaves in the laboratory caused high
> mortality rates in chick embryos [12] ( Mobile Phones and
> Vanishing Birds , SiS 34).
>
> Bees fail to return to their hives when cordless phone base-
> stations were installed, raising strong suspicion that
> microwave radiation may be responsible for the colony
> collapse disorder now devastating beekeepers and farmers in
> the United States and Europe [13] ( Mobile Phones and
> Vanishing Bees , SiS 34).
>
> Up to 3.5 percent of people suffer a range of symptoms
> including headache, nausea, lack of concentration,
> depression and allergy, known collectively as microwave
> sickness syndrome when in proximity of mobile phone
> transmitters (see Box 3).
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Sir William Stewart, Chair of the Health Protection Agency
> and former chief scientific adviser to the Government, has
> issued the most authoritative warning on mobile phones in
> successive reports and public statements to the press [7],
> which have been ignored by the government. He is becoming
> worried about the rapid spread of wi-fi, and is privately
> pressing for an official investigation into the risks. He is
> not alone among government scientists to be concerned. Dr.
> Ian Gibson, former Chair of the Commons Science and
> Technology Committee, called on the Department of Health to
> conduct an enquiry into potential health risks of wireless
> computer networks [14]. Gibson is an honorary Professor and
> former Dean of the School of Biological Sciences at the
> University of East Anglia.
>
>
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>
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