Subject:  (Kelley) Wired Digital online article on Tiburon Forum (fwd)
Date:     Tue, 13 Apr 1999 153413 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------


.......Some interesting discussion here about "future research"
funding.....  Perhaps I should mention that I have indicated to BEMS 
my interest (eligibility?) to appear on the panel at the June BEMS meeting
in Long Beach, California, on that subject......  I have received no
reply???

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org................
...It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness... 
.................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS...............

.........DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST?????.........

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 11:49:15 -0700
From: Libby Kelley 
To: davidficht@w-link.net
Cc: rbeavers@llion.org, 
Subject: Wired Digital online article on Tiburon Forum

    WIRED DIGITAL Online  

    A Call for Public Cell Studies
    by Chris Oakes 

    3:00 a.m.  13.Apr.99.PDT
 
    TIBURON, California -- It's time to stop squabbling about the possible
    health risks of wireless communication and to start
    doing credible public research, health advocates say. 

    "We are stuck in a rut," said Gordon Miller, one of the speakers at a
     weekend forum on the effects of microwave
     radiation on humans. "Fifteen years ago, we were saying the research
     is inconclusive, we need more research....
     We're still saying that." 

     Pockets of researchers worldwide have been examining the health
     effects of "nonionizing radiation," the kind generated
     by signals from cell phones and wireless transmitters. But, so far, no
     publicly funded studies have produced definitive results. 

     "Research, and their regulation, are heavily influenced by 'mission
     agencies,'" said Miller, who is chairman of the
     California EMF Stakeholders' Group. "So long as that continues, people
     are going to doubt the research, they're going to
     doubt the regulations, and this controversy will go on indefinitely." 

      As the market for cell phones has grown in the United States,
      wireless providers have targeted schools and churches as
      sites for wireless antennae. Annual payments to churches --
      attractive for their high steeples -- can reach  
      US$100,000 per year. 

      Saturday's forum was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church
      (Tiburon, Marin County, California), where plans had been 
      made to allow the installation of a wireless transmitter in its
      steeple. Church member Libby Kelley approached church 
      leaders suggesting research to demonstrate the potential health
      effects.  Her questions prompted the church to reverse its 
      decision, and an activist was born. 

      Kelley sits on the steering committee of the California Council on
      Wireless Technology Impacts, which sponsored
      the forum. She is also trying to pressure the Federal Communications
      Commission into researching the public health 
      effects of wireless phones and transmitters. 

      Miller said that after years of alarming findings and counterfindings
      by the wireless industry, it's time for research
      that will enable government bodies to address wireless issues at the
      national level. 

      Publicly funded research and oversight are key, according to Miller,
      "so the researchers and their agencies can
      understand where the money is coming from." 

      Last week, England's Minister for Public Health ordered an inquiry
      into health effects of mobile phones. The move
      followed a report in Britain's New Scientist, which detailed the
      wide-ranging effects that cell-phone signals have on
      living tissue. 

      At Saturday's forum, researchers from the United States and New
      Zealand summarized current findings regarding the
      neurological effects of wireless communications, which have prompted
      worldwide initiatives supporting more research. 

      Neil Cherry, a biophysicist who is a member of New Zealand's
      parliament, said studies showed that nonionizing radiation
      causes everything from cancer in lab rats to neurological changes in
      humans. 

      Ideally, for Cherry, telephone users would rely on land-line
      communications alone. 

      "We [humans] are very good conductors [of cellular transmissions], so
      most of the cell-phone signal goes through us, and
      very little actually goes to the cell site," Cherry said. "That's why
      we should design cell phones not to radiate into us, but to
      radiate toward the cell site." 

      Forum moderator Linda Evans said it's regrettable that, unlike
      Europe, the United States has no system for informing
      consumers about the risks inherent in cell-phone use. 

      "The European Parliament has said we need to carry a warning label
      [of health risks on cell phones] because it's part of
      the process of informed consent," Evans said. "If you don't know the
      risks, that's not informed consent." 

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Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html