Subject: Australian Senate inquiry (Benson)..
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 055728 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
.......'EMF hazards' Political action is moving forward in Australia!!.
Thanks Sarah.....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website
...................People are more important than profits.................
DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST???
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 16:26:41 +1100
From: "Benson, Sarah (Sen L. Allison)"
To: "'rbeavers@llion.org'"
Subject: Australian Senate inquiry
Hi Roy
Our inquiry has been voted for in the senate. her is the press release.
Senator Lyn Allison
Australian Democrats
Spokesperson on Telecommunications
December 9, 1999 MEdia RELEASE 99/693
Democrats deliver Senate inquiry
on mobile phones
The Senate late yesterday agreed to a Senate inquiry into electro-magnetic
emissions (EME), particularly from mobile phones.
Democrats Telecommunications spokesperson, Senator Allison successfully
moved to refer the matter to the Senate Environment, Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts References Committee, which she chairs.
The inquiry will start in March 2000 and report in October that year.
Senator Lyn Allison said the inquiry will be a comprehensive review of:
* the latest research into public health risks of exposure to EME
* progress on the Federal Government's $4.5 million research fund.
* the role of government and industry in standard setting
Senator Allison said the inquiry is necessary because of the Federal
Government's ongoing failure to ensure that public health issues are
properly considered in standard setting for mobile phone emissions. The
Minister for Communications and the industry refuse to acknowledge what most
Australians know intuitively; that it is not just the heat from mobile
phones that is a potential health risk.
"The huge uptake of hands-free devices show that people want to limit the
risks to their health and many do so because they have already experienced
alarming symptoms from their phone use," Senator Allison said.
"Telstra's own research on mice showed a much higher rate of lymphoma in the
group exposed to mobile phone frequencies - a study which was ridiculed by
Minister Richard Alston at the time. Other studies show that human cells,
including DNA, are damaged by exposure to mobile phone EME."
She noted that the Government, through the Australian Communications
Authority, disbanded the Standards Committee earlier this year when it would
not agree to relax standards for mobile phone emissions and handed this
responsibility to ARPANSA.
"Under the new arrangement, the Senate needs to be assured that occupational
health and safety matters will be considered in standard setting. The CSIRO
has remained staunchly opposed to relaxing standards, arguing that the
research which already indicates a link between EME and cancer, suggests
that no further relaxation should occur."
"This will also be an opportunity for the Senate to scrutinise the
expenditure of the Commonwealth's $4.5 million fund for research into and
information on EME and to look at the latest research in Australia and
overseas," Senator Allison concluded.
Contacts: Justin O'Brien on 0411 473 697, Senator Lyn Allison 0407 691 512
Inquiry into electromagnetic emissions
That the following matters be referred to the Environment, Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts References Committee for inquiry (to
commence not before 31 March 2000) and report by 31 October 2000:
(a) an examination of the allocation of funding from the Commonwealth's $4.5
million fund for electro-magnetic radiation research and public information;
(b) a review of current Australian and International research into
electro-magnetic radiation and its effects as it applies to
telecommunications equipment, including but not limited to, mobile
telephones;
(c) an examination of the current Australian Interim Standard [AS/NZS 2772.1
(Int): 1998], as it applies to telecommunications;
(d) an examination of efforts to set an Australian Standard dealing with
electro-magnetic emissions;
(e) an examination of the merits of the transfer of the responsibility for
setting a new Australian standard for electro-magnetic emissions to the
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com