Einstein School Dilemma
Iris Atzmon
Einstein School in Haifa was not opened on the first day of the school, after the pupils' parents had learnt of the high radiation level found by Dr. Ehud Neman (former Env. Ministry head of radiation dep.) in the school area. The source is the army FM antenna. The AM antenna at the same place, was closed several years ago, after the citizens' fight. There were cancer cases among soldiers who served in the area, and also among the residents. The FM antenna is one of 4 towers in the area, rich with cellular antennas.
The Env. Ministry didn't like the results of the Cities Union measurement. It was reported in Haaretz newspaper on the 1/9/2004, that the Env. Ministry and the Cities Union blamed one each other. The Env. Minister, Yehudit Naot, "instead of deciding, sent a non-obligatory letter to the Cities Union, with unclear sayings about the danger from radiation.
Israeli army's spokesman said in reaction to the issue, that the day before yesterday there was an additional measurement, in which there was not radiation above the standard." (Daivd Ratner to Haaretz 1.9.2004)
But what did the Minister write in the letter?
One of the parents tells, that in the letter, the Minister wrote that the Cities Union results were misleading [it found up to 400% more than the recommendation of the Env. Ministry which is 20 uW/cm2] and in any case it only refers partially to the Ministry recommendation, because the Ministry divides the radiation levels according to the population density and according to how much time the people spend outside the house, and more. And that of course that whoever checks radiation and is not from the Env. Ministry is puposely misleading and it is not clear why the Cities Union participated in that. Also in the Env. Ministry measurement there were exceedings, they also agree that lately the activity level of the site increased.
On the 1.9.2004, the parents sat together with the mayor until 1.00 at night, and decided that a monitoring station will be built, funded by the contaminator, and it will warn when high radiation will be found. The parents understand that it won't solve the problem, but they decided to open the year and continue to fight.
Is there any other Env. Ministry in the world that devides radiation level according to population density, and the time they spend outside their house "and more"?
So they must have a daily report from each resident, how much time he is going to be everyday outside his house to adjust the radiation level to that....
So how much radiation are the antennas going to emit when the pupils are in the classrooms and how much when they are out of the classrooms? Here's a tricky question for the Minister.
Update 13. October 2004:
The development is quite expected but with a twist at the end:
The citizens protested today the maire also came. He said, at first, that this massive antenna shouldn't be there even if the Env. ministry says the radiation level is ok, and this is what the Env. ministry says, and further claims that the army did some operations in order to reduce the radiation level so "everything is fine now".
Then, the TV presenter showed the big gap of the two measurements results that the Env. ministry "found", and the ministry did them in a time gap of only 5 days: for example, in the first measurement they "found" 16 uW/cm2 and 5 days afterwards 1 uW/cm2. So, then the TV presenter shows a very interesting sentence of the ministry's unpublished report [the ministry refused to publish the report] : they write that "the result is valid/ true only for the time and the place of the measurement". So that is I think important in the legal aspect, because they claim that it is enough to do measurements once a year near cellular antennas and present them on their website as "reliable". If they "find" this gap within 5 days, what is the public supposed to understand with regard to the once a year measurements that the Env. ministry protects? I think the ministry fell into its own trap now.
Einstein School in Haifa was not opened on the first day of the school, after the pupils' parents had learnt of the high radiation level found by Dr. Ehud Neman (former Env. Ministry head of radiation dep.) in the school area. The source is the army FM antenna. The AM antenna at the same place, was closed several years ago, after the citizens' fight. There were cancer cases among soldiers who served in the area, and also among the residents. The FM antenna is one of 4 towers in the area, rich with cellular antennas.
The Env. Ministry didn't like the results of the Cities Union measurement. It was reported in Haaretz newspaper on the 1/9/2004, that the Env. Ministry and the Cities Union blamed one each other. The Env. Minister, Yehudit Naot, "instead of deciding, sent a non-obligatory letter to the Cities Union, with unclear sayings about the danger from radiation.
Israeli army's spokesman said in reaction to the issue, that the day before yesterday there was an additional measurement, in which there was not radiation above the standard." (Daivd Ratner to Haaretz 1.9.2004)
But what did the Minister write in the letter?
One of the parents tells, that in the letter, the Minister wrote that the Cities Union results were misleading [it found up to 400% more than the recommendation of the Env. Ministry which is 20 uW/cm2] and in any case it only refers partially to the Ministry recommendation, because the Ministry divides the radiation levels according to the population density and according to how much time the people spend outside the house, and more. And that of course that whoever checks radiation and is not from the Env. Ministry is puposely misleading and it is not clear why the Cities Union participated in that. Also in the Env. Ministry measurement there were exceedings, they also agree that lately the activity level of the site increased.
On the 1.9.2004, the parents sat together with the mayor until 1.00 at night, and decided that a monitoring station will be built, funded by the contaminator, and it will warn when high radiation will be found. The parents understand that it won't solve the problem, but they decided to open the year and continue to fight.
Is there any other Env. Ministry in the world that devides radiation level according to population density, and the time they spend outside their house "and more"?
So they must have a daily report from each resident, how much time he is going to be everyday outside his house to adjust the radiation level to that....
So how much radiation are the antennas going to emit when the pupils are in the classrooms and how much when they are out of the classrooms? Here's a tricky question for the Minister.
Update 13. October 2004:
The development is quite expected but with a twist at the end:
The citizens protested today the maire also came. He said, at first, that this massive antenna shouldn't be there even if the Env. ministry says the radiation level is ok, and this is what the Env. ministry says, and further claims that the army did some operations in order to reduce the radiation level so "everything is fine now".
Then, the TV presenter showed the big gap of the two measurements results that the Env. ministry "found", and the ministry did them in a time gap of only 5 days: for example, in the first measurement they "found" 16 uW/cm2 and 5 days afterwards 1 uW/cm2. So, then the TV presenter shows a very interesting sentence of the ministry's unpublished report [the ministry refused to publish the report] : they write that "the result is valid/ true only for the time and the place of the measurement". So that is I think important in the legal aspect, because they claim that it is enough to do measurements once a year near cellular antennas and present them on their website as "reliable". If they "find" this gap within 5 days, what is the public supposed to understand with regard to the once a year measurements that the Env. ministry protects? I think the ministry fell into its own trap now.
Starmail - 2. Sep, 23:22
