This is the 7th installment of the Canadian SWEEP Initiative e-bulletin (Safe Wireless, Electric and Electromagnetic Policy). SWEEP is assisted by the Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund: we couldn't do this without their foresight and generous support.

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.

TODAY: a report on our recent meeting in St Catharines, Ontario.

Last Saturday Magda Havas of Trent University presented to an interested group, some of whom had driven 6 hours to be present, on issues around electromagnetic fields, radio frequency radiation, dirty electricity, and ground current. A number of individuals living with electromagnetic injuries were present, as were representatives from STP-EMF from Markham, and also from a group looking at safety of wireless in schools around Kingston. Thanks for driving so far Sue, friend of Sue, and Janice!

A number of concrete plans came out of a meeting which followed the presentation:

1. Thanks to funding from a variety of sources (the breast Cancer Research and Education Fund, Dave Stetzer and Cammie Jackay's generous donation of $1000 worth of filters to our silent auction, and individual donations) we now have sufficient funds to begin our website. To date people from the SWEEP list have committed to writing short (1000-1500) articles for the website in the following areas: -Radio Frequency Radiation focussing on cell towers and wireless -Wireless and Computers in Schools -Rural and Agricultural Energy Issues -Ground Current -Electromagnetic Injury or EHS

We need writers for the following topics (even if you are not a scientist, please give it a go, we can get scientists to help back up and reference your texts): -Electromagnetic Pollution and the Medical Industry -Dirty Electricity -Alternative Healing Modalities for Electromagnetic Injury -EMF (I've asked two folks and hope they will say yes!) -Electromagnetic Pollution in the Home (Don Maisch has a great article on this: maybe he would let us use it and we could adapt it to the Canadian context?)

There are obviosuly many more topics: please let me know what you would like to contribute. Deadline mid-december -- we want to launch in January, although obviously we can always add material.

If you are an international observer, please send remarks as well, this is a global issue.

2. Anna Jonsson has submitted an excellent survey for EM Injured and EHS folks. Madga, myself, and most likely a medical researcher, will be circulating this survery (with some adaptations) as soon as it has gone through my university's ethics boards (necessary for research when you are colelcting data from people).

The material from this survery will be used as the basis for scientific papers as well as the basis of a book of testimonials on EM Injury and EHS similar to the 'Black on White' doc put out by the Swedes (see http://www.feb.se ). Anna has a Swedish background and has close connections with the EHS community in Sweden, and is the perfect person to help head up this project. We were approached by an environmental org on Saturday who may be able to help fund the publishing of this book. If we time the release properly, we could make real inroads with this. We would like to have this done within the next year.

We will need 100 completed surveys, so get ready to help circulating this. It shouldn't be hard, every day we hear of someone new living with this.

3. Magda plans on working with Dave Stetzer to set up training sessions for electricians that will certify them to test for various types of EM pollution and provide various solutions in corporate and household situations. We need some electricians to help organize this, please let me kwow if you are anyone you know may be interested. We would like to do this within the the next few months.

4. We have begun planning for a comprehensive map of all radio frequency towers, including cell towers, in Canada that you will be able to zoom in to from the comfort of your own home. This map will contain all available information about each tower and each frequency they emit. We have the individuals and sources necessary to do this, and will begin fundraising for the staffing of this project shortly.

More newsletters soon: there are many interesting posts sent in by the SWEEP list members that I will be sending out shortly.

Don't forget to check out our past newsletters at
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/group/sweep/

Thanks

DF

00:00, Oct 19 2005

By Mandy Little, The Mercury

CAMPAIGNERS are considering legal action again a mobile phone operator because its masts are just 6m from their homes.

Members of the Vanbrugh Park Residents' Association (VPERA) believe the Orange mobile phone station on top of a lift shaft at Westcombe Court, Blackheath, is flouting its operator's safety rules.

After 10 years, Orange is applying to Greenwich council to renew its lease for the base station, which includes six masts, three dishes and related electrical equipment Spokesman Jonathan Bond, from VPERA's "The future's green, not Orange campaign", said: "VPERA is in discussion with legal advisors.

"We hope to instigate court action against Orange for negligence and against Greenwich council for its failure to consult with residents and to allow this disgraceful situation to continue for so long.

"Our priority is to obtain a court injunction to have the base station turned off to protect those residents within 6m of the mast."

Mr Bond claimed VPERA had a statement made by Orange's legal department ruling there must be a "safety zone" of at least 10m around such stations to comply with International Commission on NonIonising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines.

An Orange spokeswoman said: "The 10m zone refers to the signal, which is based on the antenna direction rather than the physical location of the equipment."

She added a survey in December 2004 revealed emissions from the site were well below the ICNIRP guidelines.

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

A council spokesman said the authority had commissioned the report on radio emissions following concerns and is satisfied the masts are within the agreed health and safety and legal requirements.

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0250greenwich/tm_objectid=16268479&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=see-you-in-court--mast-protesters-tell-orange-name_page.html

Mast all set for go ahead

19 October 2005
EDITORIAL - editorial@thecomet.net

A PHONE mast has been approved despite protests by concerned residents.

The mast will be erected in Blakeney Road, Stevenage, despite a petition signed by more than 300 people.

A resident, who did not want to be named, said: "We are all very disappointed. It has revealed a real problem with planning policy. Mobile phone companies can put up phone masts wherever they want. It doesn't go to committee.

"We are disgusted that our protests were disregarded."

Cllr Sharon Taylor, who backed the residents' campaign, said: "The objectors put on a very strong fight and I am disappointed for them. I just hope the mast isn't as bad as it sounds but I understand they are disappointed."

She said the campaign had highlighted concerns in the planning policy surrounding phone masts.

She said: "I do feel we need to be clear if we are asking people to comment on these plans that they know what issues they can object to."

The health issues the protesters were objecting to were not official planning grounds.

Cllr Taylor said: "It gets a bit technical. We need to have some information for objectors so they know what grounds they can object under and time isn't wasted in the future."

She also said she would meet with MP Barbara Follett to try and get the Government to issue new information about the health issues surrounding phone masts.

Martin Fitch of the council's planning and regeneration team said: "Having assessed this proposal against relevant council policy and Government advice and after careful consideration of the objections from local residents, we have decided that the siting of this telecommunications mast is acceptable in planning terms.

"Under the powers delegated to the head of planning and regeneration, prior approval for the development has been granted.

http://www.stevenageherald.co.uk/content/stevenageherald/news/story.aspx?brand=CMTOnline&category=newsstherald&tBrand=herts24&tCategory=newsshdnew&itemid=WEED19%20Oct%202005%2010%3A13%3A21%3A830

Oct 19 2005

By Pippa Woolnough

RESIDENTS are preparing to fight plans for a proposed mobile phone mast near a primary school.

T-Mobile has submitted plans to build a mast at the junction between Musgrave Avenue and Hurst Farm Road.

But it would be the second mast for the vicinity as Orange already has one in the area.

Hurst Farm Road resident Colin Everitt is particularly concerned as the development would be close to the local school, Meads Primary.

"One of my children attends the school, which means they will be in the vicinity of the pole 24 hours a day."

The father-of-two is worried about the possible health effects of having a mobile phone mast so close to his home and child's school.

"We have contacted the chairman of governors at Meads Primary and are also considering petitioning councillors regarding this development. I would encourage residents to write to the council expressing their objections."

The point was echoed by Clare Newman, from Mill Close, who also has a child at the school.

East Grinstead town clerk Chris Rolley said the fact that there is another phone mast in the vicinity "is clearly a factor to be taken into account".

He added: "We will reserve a formal response until formal application - but generally we oppose bay stations in residential areas."

East Grinstead Town Council will be meeting to discuss the plans on October 24, but the final decision lies with Mid Sussex District Council.

http://icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0600eastgrinstead/tm_objectid=16267693&method=full&siteid=50101&headline=fears-grow-over-mast-near-school-name_page.html

http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/article.php3?id_article=3122


Iris Atzmon.

Omega in English: http://tinyurl.com/bn2tx


----- Original Message -----
From: tpartisan
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 2:03 PM
Subject: First sentence at SPAIN: "people has the RIGHT to have ZERO levels of emr/emf !!

READ THIS!!

http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/article.php3?id_article=3122

Omega in English: http://tinyurl.com/bn2tx

INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! A sentence of the high court (it has no-legal-discusion possible by any court) says:

The level of magnetics fields IN THE HOUSE of persons who have a electro-power-transformer near their houses.... HAVE TO BE "ZERO".

People of Murcia (east of spain) said they were ill by a transformer, they fought a lot, they STARTED the way.

A first sentence of the local-court said they were RIGHT, and then the electrical company send the judgement to the high court at Madrid (its called the suprem court)...and they judges said the same!!!!!

THE WAY IS OPEN NOW: we have the right to ask for ZERO-LEVELS of inmision (inmision = the levels normaly present in the atmosphere due to natural and artificial causes).

In order to facilitate access to information, we have put on-line a non-exhaustive special page al lowing rapid visualization of various international websites dealing with the mobile telecommunications’ subject:

Attention note and Links (you can transfer this page into your Favorites)

http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=adresses

--------

Pour faciliter l’accès à l’information nous avons mis en ligne une page spéciale non exhaustive de visualisation mémo technique rapide de sites internet du monde relatifs à la téléphonie mobile:

Avertissements et Liens (vous pouvez mettre cette page en Favoris)
http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=adresses

by David A. Lieb
Associated Press October 8, 2005

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12849605.htm

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Driving to work with your cell phone on, you notice the traffic beginning to slow down. Instantly and unbeknown to you, the government senses your delay and flashes a traffic congestion update over Web sites and electronic road signs.

Other motorists take heed, diverting to alternative routes or allowing more time for their trips.

Futuristic as it may seem, the scenario actually is pretty close to becoming reality.

In what would be the largest project of its kind, the Missouri Department of Transportation is negotiating with private contractors to monitor thousands of cell phones, using their movements to produce real-time traffic conditions on 5,500 miles of roads statewide.

Cell phone users won't even know anyone's watching them. But transportation and technology leaders assure there is no need to worry -- the data will remain anonymous, leaving no possibility of tracking specific people from their driveway to their destination.

"There is absolutely no privacy threat whatsoever," said Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

But privacy advocates are uneasy.

"Even though its anonymous, it's still ominous," said Daniel Solove, a privacy law professor at George Washington University and author of the book, "The Digital Person." "It troubles me, because it does show this movement toward using a technology to track people."

Cell phone monitoring already is being used by transportation officials in Baltimore, though not yet to relay traffic conditions to the public. Similar projects are getting under way in Norfolk, Va., and a stretch of Interstate
75 between Atlanta and Macon, Ga.

But the Missouri project is by far the most aggressive -- tracking wireless phones across a whole state, including in rural areas with lower traffic counts, and doing so for the explicit purpose of relaying the information to other travelers.

"This will be the biggest system in the world, assuming our contract ends up similar to what's in the request" from the department, said Richard Mudge, vice president of Delcan NET, the Ontario, Canada-based company that won the Missouri bid and is currently negotiating the contract details.

Governments have had the ability to measure traffic volumes and speeds for years. They can embed sensors in pavement, or mount scanners and cameras along the road. But those monitoring methods require the installation of equipment, which then must be maintained, and can take only a snapshot of traffic at that particular spot.

"The traffic community has been really excited for quite some time about the possibility of being able to use cell phones to track vehicles," said Valerie Briggs, program manager for transportation operations at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "Almost everyone has a cell phone, so you have a lot of potential data points, and you can track data almost anywhere on the whole (road) system."

Although some new cell phones come equipped with Global Positioning System capabilities that can pinpoint the exact location of phones, the tracking technology used for transportation agencies does not depend on that to work.

Instead, it takes the frequent signals that wireless phones send to towers and follows the movement of the phones from one tower to another. Then it overlays that movement with highway maps to determine what road the phones are on and how fast they are moving. Lumping dozens, hundreds or thousands of those signals together can measure traffic flow.

A Delcan NET demonstration Web site developed for Baltimore uses various shades of green, yellow and red to show block-by-block whether vehicles are moving at or below the speed limits. As rush hour started on a recent work day, observers could watch as green turned to yellow and then red on roads heading out of downtown.

The Baltimore project began this spring as a pilot program that monitors Cingular cell phone users over about 1,000 miles of road. A Delcan NET competitor, Atlanta-based AirSage Inc., has an agreement with Sprint to monitor phones for its projects in Georgia and Virginia.

"What we're hoping and assuming is that we're going to be able to continue collecting the information over time and eventually deploy it statewide," said Mike Zezeski, director of real-time traffic operations for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Rahn hopes to make a similar Web site available to Missouri motorists, and to post estimated travel times on electronic road signs. The Missouri and Maryland plans also assume the contractor will market more detailed information to the private sector -- automakers that offer onboard navigation systems, cell phone companies, shipping businesses or media that broadcast rush-hour traffic reports.

The private sector marketing helps drive down the states' cost. Missouri expects to spend less than $3 million a year on the service, Rahn said, although the exact price won't be known until the contract is final. Maryland is spending just $1.5 million, although the entire Baltimore project costs more than $5 million, Zezeski said.

Although there apparently are no plans to do so, the Electronic Privacy Information Center suggests that someone should notify cell phone owners that their phones are being monitored for traffic data. Privacy experts also worry that the traffic monitoring could later evolve into other uses -- perhaps to catch speeders or fugitives.

"It's a mission creep issue that would be of most concern to consumers," said Lillie Coney, associate director of Washington, D.C.-based electronic privacy center. "They may start out saying we want to know if there's a traffic problem and then take that information and start using it for different purposes."

Adds Solove, the privacy professor: "I look in the future and I see, `Wow, this is just another one in the class of ways that people can be tracked.'"


ON THE NET

AASHTO: http://www.aashto.org
Missouri: http://www.modot.mo.gov
Maryland: http://www.mdot.state.md.us


Informant: NHNE

Opposed: Spring Park residents protest against the mast

Spring Park residents are protesting against a mobile phone mast to be built on a Grade II listed church.

According to the secretary of Spring Park Residents' Association (SPRA), Marzia Nicodemi-Ehikioya, the group has received more than 600 letters against the application to place a mast on the bell tower of All Saints' Church in Bridle Road.

Resident Brintha Patel said she was concerned the mast represented a possible health risk for those living in the area.

She said: "I'm concerned about the health issues, we don't know enough about the possible effects, that's the problem."

Omega we know enough about the effects. See under:
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

A spokesman for QS4, the company behind the application, said residents' concerns would be taken into account, but the application was fully compliant with guidelines.

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

11:58am today

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.642109.0.phone_mast_targets_church.php

The state of Missouri has begun a program to track individual movements on highways through cell phones.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will spend $3 million annually on a program to monitor the movements of individuals on highways via their cell phones -- without their knowledge or consent.

Delcan NET, a Canadian company, developed the system which triangulates the location of each driver by monitoring the signal sent from the cell phone as it is handed off from one cell tower to the next. Each phone is uniquely identified and the information is compared with a highway map to record on what road each motorist is traveling at any given time. The system also records the speed of each vehicle, opening up another potential ticketing technology.

Missouri rejected the simpler solution used by other states of embedding sensors in the pavement that record how many vehicles pass over a stretch of pavement without uniquely identifying them. Missouri wanted a program that required less equipment.

"The traffic community has been really excited for quite some time about the possibility of being able to use cell phones to track vehicles," Valerie Briggs, program manager for transportation operations at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials told the Associated Press. "Almost everyone has a cell phone, so you have a lot of potential data points, and you can track data almost anywhere on the whole (road) system."

A pilot program in Baltimore only tracks Cingular cell phones on 1,000 miles of road. AirSage Inc. has contracted with Sprint to spy on motorists in Norfolk, Virginia and Atlanta and Macon, Georgia.

Source: States seeking to track cell phones for traffic conditions
(Associated Press, 10/8/2005)


Informant: ireland