Subject: (Kelley) S.F. Bay area program on cell phone safety.....
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 030252 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
......Libby Kelley, Henry Lai and others are interviewed in the following
program...... Some of the 'industry' statements statements about what
research is showing (re: cell phone effects) are simply "Bill Clinton
type" lies....... Evasive and 'selective' distortions.....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at:
EMF-L archives can be found at: (soon to be available)
...................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS.................
........DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST??????............
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 13:31:23 -0700
From: Libby Kelley
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: comments?
TV Coverage on the Bay Area on "Cell phone safety"
Aired on Monday, May 25, 1999, 10 PM news.
Transcript of Channel 2, KTVU, San Francisco Bay Area, Fox Communications
News Interview by John Fowler, Health and Science Editor
Among those interviewed: Dr. Henry Lai, Libby Kelley, Nancy Evans, Dr. George
Carlo, Steve Carlson, Dr. Peter Polson
ANNOUNCER: Is it safe to hold up to your ear a device that generates radio
signals? The cellular telephone?
Brand new research shows a link between cell phone use and a rare form of brain
cancer but the question in complex.
Health and Science Editor, John Fowler, investigated. He has our report:
FOWLER: They're everywhere. 70 million Americans use cellular phones.
Some for hours a day. And, hardly anyone seems concerned about it.
Scene: A Businessman in Downtown San Francisco, walking across the street with
a cell phone to his head
BUSINESSMAN: I've heard stories about cancer from cell phone use but I
haven't heard enough about it to get really too worried about it and it's
a real business necessity.
FOWLER (in Castro Valley, Contra Costa County:
A few people have reported dizziness or disorientation from using cell phones.
The phones send out microwave radio signals to cellular base stations. Their
antennas are sprouting up all over, such as hear this miniature golf course.
The base stations transmit more powerful signals. They are even along rural
roads. Look up on the poles. You probably never noticed the transmitters.
But this man, a former electronics lab worker, says near cell phone
transmissions seriously affect him (scene in Redwood City, South Bay of Fowler
and a man walking along a city street) .
MAN: This is good (airing this subject) because people are getting an idea of
what's happening. It is for real...
FOWLER: His doctor diagnosed him with something called electromagnetic
sensitivity.
MAN: I suddenly start having muscle spasms. Well, who's got their
cellular on?
FOWLER: The scientific research, most of it overseas, has delivered mixed
messages. The latest, revealed
Just this weekend, links just this cell phone use to a more than doubling of a
rare brain cancer. The cell phone industry itself notified federal health
officials.
DR. JOHN CARLO (Director of Wireless Technology Research): We're in
agreement that these findings themselves do not rise to the level of a
public health threat or a public health concern.
FOWLER: That's because there's no proof cell phone use caused the cancer
and, because it's so rare that even double the chance of getting it is
still very small. Federal health officials say it's still too early to
make any recommendations.
Most studies have found no health hazard. Radiofrequency radiation, or RFR, is
not powerful enough to break the bonds of molecules, like x-rays do. But
biological effects have shown up in humans and animals.
In the Bay Area, a cell phone safety group got started in upscale Tiburon. A
cellular company wanted to put a base station in the cupola of this church.
(Scene: Westminster Presbyterian Church). Church member, Libby Kelley,
wondered about safety.
KELLEY: "So, I started asking questions about it and the more I learned,
the more concerned I became." Kelley started the California Council on
Wireless technology Impacts.
Page 2
FOWLER: She collected more than 1500 published studies, held an informal
conference at the church and convinced the congregation to turn down the
antennas.
LIBBY KELLEY: It was worth $18,000 a year to this church and we sure could
have used the money. But it was more important to be a good neighbor and be
prudent and protect our health, just in case.
STEVE CARLSON (Cellular Carriers Association of California): There's study
after study and the accumulation of all these studies have shown that there are
no adverse health effects that have shown anything at all from the cell phones.
FOWLER: But the cell phone industry itself has paid for almost all the U.S.
Studies. WTR spent $25 million dollars in the last 6 years. Scientist Peter
Polson says he quit WTR concerned about the professionalism of its research
activities. But he remains a consultant for cellular companies and, despite
the latest news, has no concerns about cell phone safety.
PETER POLSON, Ph.D.: All the credible scientific evidence, which is fully
examined by standard setting committees, indicates there's no hazard
whatsoever from RFR from cell phones.
NANCY EVANS: That's industry science. Science that gets put through the
'spin cycle' or science that goes unreported.
FOWLER: Medical writer Nancy Evans points to the tobacco industry's
suppression of research it paid for and wonders if the cell phone industry is
doing the same thing.
EVANS: Because when they fund research they control the publication.
FOWLER: WTR is scheduled to release more cell phone research next month. But
University of Washington scientist Henry Lai's research may not be
included. He says the industry group has attempted to change his
conclusions and that millions of Americans are, in effect, test subjects,
in a great cell phone experiment.
HENRY LAI: Twenty years, and if we find out that people who use cell phones
have a higher cancer incidence that would be a very sad story.
LIBBY KELLEY: I think it's criminal. I really think that this industry
ought to stand back and let the questions be answered fully so we can
protect public health.
FOWLER: Critics charge the telecommunications industry with trying to push
through Congress a bill that would shield the industry from any liability
should the hazards of cell phone use become proven. The industry says it is
merely trying to provide consumers with what they want, consistent with the
available science.
###
Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Ad Hoc Associaiton of Parties concerned About the FCC's Radiofrequency
Radiation Health and Safety Rules
aka Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
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