Friday

Sprint T-mobile Wireless Companies pull school cell phone antennas



Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile have disconnected cell antennas at St. Mel School. Parishioners of a Queens church and parents of its parochial school pupils were jubilant last week after two cellular phone companies unplugged 23 antenna towers from the school's roof. The years-long tug of war between the community and the companies finally ended after Sprint Nextel removed its towers from Flushing's St. Mel School, which had signed a contract in 2000 to lease roof space. The company had shared the space at 154-24 26th Ave. with T-Mobile. T-Mobile also agreed to discontinue using its antenna towers after Sprint Nextel made the first move, said City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside). "They went out the same day [Dec. 27] and turned off the system," he said. "Within the past week they've begun to remove the equipment." The church and school had attempted to annul the contracts for nearly two years. "It's a major victory for all of us, and the parents are thrilled," Avella said. A Sprint Nextel official said the company agreed to move out on the school's request. "We made the decision in the best interest of serving our customers and the community," said spokesman Mark Elliott. "That was our sole reasoning for removing the equipment." T-Mobile did not return calls for comment, but a spokesman, Wayne Leuck, e-mailed a written statement saying only that "Parents at St. Mel's School and throughout the area deserve the peace of mind that comes with high quality wireless coverage." Church leaders began fighting the companies in March 2006 after parents raised concerns that children were being exposed to possibly harmful radio waves. In recent weeks, the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Queens as well, turned up the heat on the two companies to terminate the contracts, which originally had been a way to raise money for the church and school. "The situation runs akin to the asbestos issue - 30 years ago nobody thought asbestos was dangerous," Avella said. Public schools are prohibited from erecting antennas by federal law.

Thursday

Cellphone radiation may ruin a good night's sleep



http://www.Cellphonelies.com http://www.emfnews.org CTV.ca News Staff A small study in Sweden and the United States finds that using a cellphone just before bedtime interferes with sleep patterns. Scientists at the Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University and Wayne State University in Detroit studied 35 men and 36 women. Thirty-eight of the volunteers said they had symptoms that they attributed to cellphone use, such as trouble concentrating and sleep problems. The other 33 volunteers reported no "mobile-related symptoms". Half were exposed to 884 MHz wireless signals like that emitted by cellphones for three hours, while the others thought they were being exposed to it. The participants did not know which exposure they were receiving. Those who were actually exposed to the radiation took longer to get into deep sleep. They also spent less time in the deepest part of sleep. The participants took an average of about six minutes longer to reach the deep stage of sleep than when they had received the "sham" exposure. They also spent an average eight minutes less time in the deepest "stage 4" sleep. Reports of headaches were greater during radio wave exposure than during sham exposure in the subjects who had previously not reported mobile-related symptoms. However, in those who were symptomatic, there was no difference in the reporting of headache between the two exposures. Neither group was able to detect with accuracy whether they were being exposed to the true radio waves or to sham exposure. The study is published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS). It was funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, which called the results "inconclusive." One of the study's researchers, Dr. Bengt Arnetz, says it appears that cellphones affect the areas of the brain responsible for activating and co-ordinating the stress system. It's also possible that radio waves disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body's internal circadian rhythms. Sleep expert Dr. Jeffrey Lipsitz says he finds the study's results disturbing. "Aside from the sleep aspects, honestly, it's a little worrisome that you could measure any significant difference in people just because they've been exposed to radio waves that simulate cellphone use," he told Canada AM Monday. "So you kind of wonder what else might be going on to the brain as a result of extended cellphone use, and what does that mean for all of us?... It certainly cries out for more research." Lipsitz says the results of the study might have the greatest implications for teenages, who tend to use cellphones more in the evening and tend to talk for long periods of time. "So if they're using cellphones for long hours in the evening and then going to sleep and their sleep is disturbed -- and they're the ones who probably need more sleep than the rest of us anyways and not getting it -- this may have implications with regard to health and development and functioning in school and so on. So there are some serious implications to this." http://www.Cellphonelies.com http://www.emfnews.org

Wednesday

Wireless Technology Brain Tumor Patient

The truth of cell phones and wireless technology has been buried by the industry, the health officials and governments. http://www.CellphoneLies.com Watch as this man uses special device to measure dangers of cell phones and office equipment. A cellular phone is basically a radio that sends signals on waves to a base station. The carrier signal generates two types of radiation fields: a near-field plume and a far-field plume. Living organisms, too, generate electromagnetic fields at the cellular, tissue, organ, and organism level; this is called the biofield. Both the near-field and far-field plumes from cell phones and in the environment can wreak havoc with the human biofield, and when the biofield is compromised in any way, says Dr. Carlo, so is metabolism and physiology. "The near field plume is the one we're most concerned with. This plume that's generated within five or six inches of the center of a cell phone's antenna is determined by the amount of power necessary to carry the signal to the base station," he explains. "The more power there is, the farther the plume radiates the dangerous information-carrying radio waves." A carrier wave oscillates at 1900 megahertz (MHz) in most phones, which is mostly invisible to our biological tissue and doesn't do damage. The information-carrying secondary wave necessary to interpret voice or data is the problem, says Dr. Carlo. That wave cycles in a hertz (Hz) range familiar to the body. Your heart, for example, beats at two cycles per second, or two Hz. Our bodies recognize the information-carrying wave as an "invader," setting in place protective biochemical reactions that alter physiology and cause biological problems that include intracellular free-radical buildup, leakage in the blood-brain barrier, genetic damage, disruption of intercellular communication, and an increase in the risk of tumors. The health dangers of recognizing the signal, therefore, aren't from direct damage, but rather are due to the biochemical responses in the cell. Here's what happens: Cellular energy is now used for protection rather than metabolism. Cell membranes harden, keeping nutrients out and waste products in. Waste accumulating inside the cells creates a higher concentration of free radicals, leading to both disruption of DNA repair (micronuclei) and cellular dysfunction. Unwanted cell death occurs, releasing the micronuclei from the disrupted DNA repair into the fluid between cells (interstitial fluid), where they are free to replicate and proliferate. This, says Dr. Carlo, is the most likely mechanism that contributes to cancer. With the background levels of information-carrying radio waves dramatically increasing because of the widespread use of cell phones,Wi-Fi, and other wireless communication, the effects from the near and far-fields are very similar. Overall, says Dr. Carlo, almost all of the acute and chronic symptoms seen in electrosensitive patients can be explained in some part by disrupted intercellular communication. These symptoms of electrosensitivity include inability to sleep, general malaise, and headaches. Could this explain the increase in recent years of conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and anxiety disorder? "One thing all these conditions have in common is a disruption, to varying degrees, of intercellular communication. When we were growing up, TV antennas were on top of our houses and such waves were up in the sky. Cell phones and Wi-Fi have brought those things down to the street, integrated them into the environment, and that's absolutely new. The recognition mechanism, where protein vibration sensors on the cell membrane pick up a signal and interpret it as an invader, only works because the body recognizes something it's never seen before." As to increases in brain tumors tied to cell phone use, it's too early to tell due to a lack of hard data, says Dr. Carlo. "We're never going to see that in time to have it matter. Here in the US, we're six years behind in getting the brain tumor database completed, and currently the best data are from 1999. By the time you see any data showing an increase, the ticking time bomb is set." Epidemic curve projections, however, indicate that in 2006, we can expect to see 40,000 to 50,000 cases of brain and eye cancer. This is based on published peer-reviewed studies that allow calculation of risk and construction of epidemic curves. By 2010, says Dr. Carlo, expect that number to be between 400,000 and 500,000 new cases worldwide. "This means we're on the beginning curve of an epidemic, with epidemic defined as a change in the occurrence of a disease that is so dramatic in its increase that it portends serious public health consequences," says Dr. Carlo. "This is what's not being told to the public. One of the things that I suggest to people who use a cell phone is to use an air tube headset. If you use a wired headset, the current moving through the wire of the headset attracts ambient informational carrying radio waves and thereby increases your exposure."

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