5th installment of the Canadian SWEEP Initiative e-bulletin
This is the 5th installment of the Canadian SWEEP Initiative e-bulletin (Safe Wireless, Electric and Electromagnetic Policy).
This newsletter serves as a roundup of what has been occuring on the EMF/EMR awareness and advocacy front in Canada. Please send me Canadian links and stories. Thanks to a collaboration with GotEMF Canada we are now beginning to build a broad national news-sharing alliance.
This Week:
1. Thanks to GotEMF Canada for posting our previous SWEEP bulletins while we build our website:
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/group/sweep/
2. We received tremendous response for our call to contact Member of Parliament Scott Simms. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Consult the site above for more information about this initiative. I will forward Olle Johansson's very useful and informative response shortly.
3. As ever, Magda Havas of Trent has been very active with a number of groups over the past few weeks, and has also done some frontline work visiting electrosensitives in the Toronto area along with Martin Weatherall.
http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/erabanner/story/3041988p-3526681c.html
4. Magda, as well as Sue Fusco and Richard Johnston of STOP EMF met with representatives of the Ontario Ministry of Health. Their lists of requests will be posted shortly on our temporary site above.
5. STOP EMF have had some important successes over the past weeks, congratulations:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1126648215570&call_pageid=970599119419&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes
6. An Alberta school board has begun going through deliberations similar to those of the Vancouver school board on the issue of wireless communications:
http://www.pinchercreekecho.com/story.php?id=186475
7. If you are within driving distance, please come to the SWEEP event on October 15th (pdf attached). Below is the press release for the event.
Contacts: David Fancy – 905-682-8034 SWEEP Coordinator dfancy@brocku.ca
Karin Perry – 905-937-9235 Breast Cancer Research & Education Fund ecossentialhome@cogeco.ca
Electrical Pollution: No Place to Hide Saturday, October 15th, 2005
1 to 5 pm
Speaker: Dr. Magda Havas St. John's Anglican Church, 80 Main Street Port Dalhousie, (in St. Catharines) admission $15.00 (includes refreshments) co-sponsored by: Breast Cancer Research & Education Fund and SWEEP (Safe Wireless Electrical & Electromagnetic Policies) for tickets call: 905-687-3333 (BCREF)
We live in a world full of an increasing amount of electrical and wireless activity. Most Canadians come into contact with significant amounts of these types of emissions on a daily basis at home, school, and in the workplace.
What do we know about the long-term effects of electromagnetic emissions on human health? How does contact with increasing amounts of wireless and electrical activity affect the emergence of diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes, and MS? On the other hand, how can the safe harnessing of these technologies be used to increase human health?
St. Catharines Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund, in collaboration with the Canadian Safe Wireless, Electric and Electromagnetic Policy (SWEEP) Initiative would like to invite you to join a talk and information session presented by Dr. Magda Havas, on October 15th, from 1-5pm at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Port Dalhousie.
Dr. Havas is a researcher at Trent University in Peterborough whose internationally renowned work deals with the effects of electromagnetic emissions on human health. “Research shows higher electromagnetic fields are associated with a higher risk of childhood leukemia” says Havas, while “other studies report a slight increased in female breast cancer and a large increase in male breast cancer for occupational exposure; an increase in brain tumours above 10 milligauss (mG, the standard used to measure these fields); an increased incidence of miscarriages above 16 mG; and an increased incidence of Lou Gehrig’s disease [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].”
Significant health effects have also been documented with relation to radiofrequency or wireless emissions from devices such as home portable phones, cell phones, and other wireless devices.
A recent report from the Ontario Ministry of Labour acknowledges that:
“A number of health effects have been linked to exposure to time varying electric and magnetic fields, and electromagnetic radiation which are generally called ‘Non-thermal effects. These effects include cancer induction, cancer promotion, ALS, flu-like symptoms, etc. […] It is recognized by the ministry that certain workers may be more susceptible to a given workplace condition/exposure and the exposure standards may not be sufficiently protective for those individual workers.”
A number of individuals suffering from the effects of exposure to electromagnetic emissions at home and in the workplace will also be present on the afternoon of Oct 15th to discuss their experience.
Members of the newly formed SWEEP Initiative — an umbrella organization which is working at municipal, provincial and federal levels with dozens of Canadian organizations to educate citiziens and promote safe levels of emissions for all Canadians — will also be present to discuss the current developments on a national level of issues of electromagnetics and human health.
Dr Havas will be presenting summaries of up-to-date peer-reviewed research into the effects of radiofrequency and wireless exposure, as well as research into ‘ground current’. The phenomenon of ground current occurs when spent electricity makes it way back to generating stations through conductors such as sewer lines, phone cables, the effects of which can be deleterious to both human health and that of livestock.
The provincial, federal and international guidelines for safety with regard to these emissions are prone to change and evolution in response to scientific discovery, the opinion of various utilities/providers, and the level of concern amongst citizens and workers. In the United States, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has recently suggested that there is uncertainty whether current guidelines around long-term radio frequency exposure (from cell phone towers, wireless networks, etc) protect human health. In 2001, Dr Sheila Basrur suggested that the Toronto municipal guidelines for radiofrequency exposure should be 100 times lower than current limits.
This session will be of interest to homeowners, consumers, employers, workers, environmentalists, mainstream and complimentary health-care professionals, teachers, and the general public.
UPCOMING SWEEP BULLETINS:
-Johansson on electrosensitivity
-How can we help Lorna Wilson? -Full Stop EMF update
This newsletter serves as a roundup of what has been occuring on the EMF/EMR awareness and advocacy front in Canada. Please send me Canadian links and stories. Thanks to a collaboration with GotEMF Canada we are now beginning to build a broad national news-sharing alliance.
This Week:
1. Thanks to GotEMF Canada for posting our previous SWEEP bulletins while we build our website:
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/group/sweep/
2. We received tremendous response for our call to contact Member of Parliament Scott Simms. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Consult the site above for more information about this initiative. I will forward Olle Johansson's very useful and informative response shortly.
3. As ever, Magda Havas of Trent has been very active with a number of groups over the past few weeks, and has also done some frontline work visiting electrosensitives in the Toronto area along with Martin Weatherall.
http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/erabanner/story/3041988p-3526681c.html
4. Magda, as well as Sue Fusco and Richard Johnston of STOP EMF met with representatives of the Ontario Ministry of Health. Their lists of requests will be posted shortly on our temporary site above.
5. STOP EMF have had some important successes over the past weeks, congratulations:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1126648215570&call_pageid=970599119419&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes
6. An Alberta school board has begun going through deliberations similar to those of the Vancouver school board on the issue of wireless communications:
http://www.pinchercreekecho.com/story.php?id=186475
7. If you are within driving distance, please come to the SWEEP event on October 15th (pdf attached). Below is the press release for the event.
Contacts: David Fancy – 905-682-8034 SWEEP Coordinator dfancy@brocku.ca
Karin Perry – 905-937-9235 Breast Cancer Research & Education Fund ecossentialhome@cogeco.ca
Electrical Pollution: No Place to Hide Saturday, October 15th, 2005
1 to 5 pm
Speaker: Dr. Magda Havas St. John's Anglican Church, 80 Main Street Port Dalhousie, (in St. Catharines) admission $15.00 (includes refreshments) co-sponsored by: Breast Cancer Research & Education Fund and SWEEP (Safe Wireless Electrical & Electromagnetic Policies) for tickets call: 905-687-3333 (BCREF)
We live in a world full of an increasing amount of electrical and wireless activity. Most Canadians come into contact with significant amounts of these types of emissions on a daily basis at home, school, and in the workplace.
What do we know about the long-term effects of electromagnetic emissions on human health? How does contact with increasing amounts of wireless and electrical activity affect the emergence of diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes, and MS? On the other hand, how can the safe harnessing of these technologies be used to increase human health?
St. Catharines Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund, in collaboration with the Canadian Safe Wireless, Electric and Electromagnetic Policy (SWEEP) Initiative would like to invite you to join a talk and information session presented by Dr. Magda Havas, on October 15th, from 1-5pm at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Port Dalhousie.
Dr. Havas is a researcher at Trent University in Peterborough whose internationally renowned work deals with the effects of electromagnetic emissions on human health. “Research shows higher electromagnetic fields are associated with a higher risk of childhood leukemia” says Havas, while “other studies report a slight increased in female breast cancer and a large increase in male breast cancer for occupational exposure; an increase in brain tumours above 10 milligauss (mG, the standard used to measure these fields); an increased incidence of miscarriages above 16 mG; and an increased incidence of Lou Gehrig’s disease [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].”
Significant health effects have also been documented with relation to radiofrequency or wireless emissions from devices such as home portable phones, cell phones, and other wireless devices.
A recent report from the Ontario Ministry of Labour acknowledges that:
“A number of health effects have been linked to exposure to time varying electric and magnetic fields, and electromagnetic radiation which are generally called ‘Non-thermal effects. These effects include cancer induction, cancer promotion, ALS, flu-like symptoms, etc. […] It is recognized by the ministry that certain workers may be more susceptible to a given workplace condition/exposure and the exposure standards may not be sufficiently protective for those individual workers.”
A number of individuals suffering from the effects of exposure to electromagnetic emissions at home and in the workplace will also be present on the afternoon of Oct 15th to discuss their experience.
Members of the newly formed SWEEP Initiative — an umbrella organization which is working at municipal, provincial and federal levels with dozens of Canadian organizations to educate citiziens and promote safe levels of emissions for all Canadians — will also be present to discuss the current developments on a national level of issues of electromagnetics and human health.
Dr Havas will be presenting summaries of up-to-date peer-reviewed research into the effects of radiofrequency and wireless exposure, as well as research into ‘ground current’. The phenomenon of ground current occurs when spent electricity makes it way back to generating stations through conductors such as sewer lines, phone cables, the effects of which can be deleterious to both human health and that of livestock.
The provincial, federal and international guidelines for safety with regard to these emissions are prone to change and evolution in response to scientific discovery, the opinion of various utilities/providers, and the level of concern amongst citizens and workers. In the United States, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has recently suggested that there is uncertainty whether current guidelines around long-term radio frequency exposure (from cell phone towers, wireless networks, etc) protect human health. In 2001, Dr Sheila Basrur suggested that the Toronto municipal guidelines for radiofrequency exposure should be 100 times lower than current limits.
This session will be of interest to homeowners, consumers, employers, workers, environmentalists, mainstream and complimentary health-care professionals, teachers, and the general public.
UPCOMING SWEEP BULLETINS:
-Johansson on electrosensitivity
-How can we help Lorna Wilson? -Full Stop EMF update
Starmail - 3. Okt, 17:25
