Editor:
This is in response to Mr. Johannsson’s letter to the RMO from Nov. 29.
After I had recorded the concerning high radiofrequency (RF) signals at Lawrence Grassi Middle School, I phoned Telus (Mrs. Karen Dolan) and told her the results. She responded, quote: “This is impossible.”
A few days later she even told two worried parents that my measurements were done wrong. I then handed a printed copy of my findings to the principal of LGMS and posted a YouTube video (LGMS Canmore), which quickly had almost 200 views. Now, six months later, Mr. Johannsson claims that I declined to share my measurements with Telus. Fact is, Telus initially refused to talk or even listen to me and they never responded to my request for a meeting at the school. But at least, after all this time, they confirm now that my measurements are correct.
As expected, Telus finds cover under the high limits of Health Canada’s Safety Code 6. This regulation only looks at short-term (six minutes) exposure and thermal effects. Considering that students and staff at LGMS and CRPS are spending close to 2,000 hours per year in their school and offices, we should rather have a look at newer studies which research the effects of long-term, low level RF exposure and examine biological effects.
In such studies, independent scientists find alarming results and many of these bright people are pressing Health Canada to revise Safety Code 6.
Mr. Johannsson mentions that thousands of studies did not find health problems caused by exposure to RF signals. True if we look only at industry-funded studies, but 90 per cent of independently-financed research uncovers serious health problems.
Out of all this research, only about 10 peer-reviewed studies looked specifically at people living near cellphone towers. All of them were conducted in countries of the EU and Israel and every one of them found significant health effects in humans who lived within 300 metres of a cellphone tower for more than five years.
The health problems started with headaches, dizziness, sleep disorders and went all the way to cancer clusters in the vicinity of the towers. Quote from Dr. Grahame Blackwell, PhD (GB) after reviewing six of these studies: “Any statement from industry that there is no evidence of ill-health effects from (cellphone) masts is completely and blatantly untrue.”
Mr. Johannsson and I will not agree on this issue for a while. For now, let’s have a look at what the real professionals in risk assessment (insurance companies) have to say about it: No cellphone manufacturer or network provider can get liability insurance for health damages done through RF emissions by their product. That alone is scary enough for me.
I’d still be interested to meet with Telus representatives in front of LGMS to discuss the problem and possible solutions on a more professional level, instead of communicating through letters to the editor.
If Canmorites would like to find more information, check out Citizens for Safe Technology at ww.c4st.org or visit EMR Control on Facebook, they have great short clips which explain the problem in a non-technical language.
Andre Gigon,
Canmore
