Subject:  PAVE PAWS and Conclusive proof.....
Date:     Wed, 7 Oct 1998 055826 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------

Hi everybody:

"Conclusive proof" is the opiate that industry (government/military)    
is smoking while the public pays the price.....  My exposure to the
science community over the last six years or so has shown me that
"conclusive proof" is NOT a science concept at all....  Virtually 
NONE of the science we know, and are guided by in our societal lives,
is considered to be "conclusively proved."  (Neither is it a legal
concept, by the way....  It is a "P.R." concept!!!)

Work to inform your media people and your community leaders -- there is
NO reason that we should allow industry to breath so deeply of that
opiate AT THE PUBLIC'S EXPENSE......

Sorry I can't forward the "pics" in the following excellent item from
Cape Cod.....

Cheerio.....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................


PAVE PAWS is under fire
Cape group wants the facility shut due to health concerns

By JEFFREY BURT
STAFF WRITER

SAGAMORE - A group of Cape residents, concerned about what they
believe are the effects of microwave radiation on human health, yesterday
called for the PAVE PAWS radar on the Massachusetts Military Reservation
to be shut down and a moratorium on the building of telecommunication
towers on the Cape.

The group, called Cape Cod Citizens, said PAVE PAWS and the growing
number of telecommunication towers are laying a blanket of
electromagnetic radiation on a part of the country that already is
struggling to understand what is causing the reported high cancer rates.

Sandwich resident Sharon Judge said at a press conference yesterday
that there is a "preponderance of evidence" that exposure to microwaves
can lead to health problems in humans.

"Our community cannot afford one more drop in the bucket given our
high cancer rates," Judge said, standing at the Sagamore commuter lot,
with the PAVE PAWS facility visible across the canal.

Activists around the base for years have questioned whether the
20-year-old facility endangers human health. But while the concern is
there, conclusive evidence is not, according to some people interviewed
yesterday.

Mark Leccese, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health,
said studies in the 1980s by Boston University and his agency did not
find PAVE PAWS was a health threat.

Others also said studies, both private and federally funded, are
conflicting on whether microwave radiation is harmful to humans.

"It's a very big controversy," said Gay Wells, a planner with the
Cape Cod Commission, which is trying to collect information on the issue.

Leccese said the DPH is putting together a panel of scientists and
local residents to take another look at PAVE PAWS.

"There is no scientific consensus," he said. "Even though there is
no scientific consensus, some data does say there is a potential risk. ...
We want to do an assessment of that data."

Judge said DPH and other agencies have "dropped the ball" in looking
at PAVE PAWS. She also questioned why the Silent Spring Institute, hired
by the DPH to investigate the Cape's high incidence of breast cancer, is
no longer looking at the radar site as a possible cause.

Julia Brody, the institute's director, said yesterday that while the
study does not rule out PAVE PAWS, there are other factors more promising
to explain the high cancer rates, and there are no plans to look at the
radar tower in the study's second phase.

Also, Brody said, there are residential areas behind PAVE PAWS, out
of the path of the radiation, that also have high cancer rates.

PAVE PAWS is designed to detect sea-launched ballistic missiles and
also tracks satellites and other objects in space. Judge called it a
"Cold War relic" that costs $2.4 million a year.

Lt. Col. Robert Keyser, who runs the 6th Space Defense Squadron, which
operates PAVE PAWS, said the facility's mission is still vital, and will
be for another five to 10 years.

Celine Gandolfo spoke after Judge, pushing for a Capewide moratorium
on the siting of telecommunication towers until towns can develop bylaws.

Wells, of the Cape Cod Commission, said many towns are developing such
bylaws, using models developed by her agency.

_______________________________________

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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html