Recommendations to the GAO

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This is going to be long...I apologize in advance.

It's been a while since I sent an email out and that is because I am in post prod. on a film on this entire issue.   These emails are sent one group at at time as opposed to me just pushing a button, so it is a bit time consuming and I am under the gun to finish the film up. 

So much has transpired on this issue since I last sent an email out many months ago, that we would both be here for hours were I to try and encapsulate.  None the less, here are a few cliff notes.  I will put the worst first...

Rob Stuart, responsible for bringing The Children's Wireless Protection Act to Pennsylvania this year has died.  Rob was a fierce fighter for public health and gun control.  He was a smart, energetic and all around great person.  He helped us with our websites and connected me personally with Rep. Vanessa Brown to help bring the bill to his state.  It is a real loss to this movement.  Our deepest condolences go out to his family this holiday season. 

The bill is still alive and may have a hearing in 2012, although there is no filling Rob's boots in Pennsylvania.  He will be missed sorely by us and all who knew him.  He was a bright light and it is a real loss to this world not to have him with us...But he is with us in spirit.

Onto happier news...

A few months back, our group was consulted with on a letter written by some of the Congressional offices we met with in DC last year, including Congressmen Ed Markey and Henry Waxman.  This letter was then sent to the Federal GAO (Government Accountability Office) which I have attached for your review. 

It is now time for the GAO's response and we have been asked by their office to help come up with recommendations for Congress and the FCC/FDA regarding cell phone exposure.  With the onslaught of smart meters, the tide is changing faster than usual on the issue of RF (radio frequency) radiation and health effects and we have momentum to break some ground in Washington.  The total focus of our recommendations to the GAO was on NON THERMAL effects, not limited to cell phones or SAR, but to ALL RF (radio frequency) radiation emitting devices and infrastructure.  We have attached our recommendations to the GAO for your review. 

Two other consumer advocacy groups on the issue of cell phone exposure were also consulted with.  They are EWG (Environmental Working Group) and EHT (Environmental Health Trust).

EWG is responsible for the recent San Francisco ground breaking law that would require retailers to hand out slips of paper about cell phone radiation exposure.  Although not a warning label, this is a giant step in the right direction.  EWG also wrote the SAR paper which was then used by State Sen. Mark Leno Rep. of San Francisco to bring at the state level, to require SAR labeling on cell phones.  Thanks in part to our campaign against SAR labeling as misleading (it does NOT protect human health) and to the efforts of our group membership, bringing meaningful cell phone warning label bills in other states such as Maine, Oregon and now Pennsylvania, requiring brain cancer labeling or info on non thermal effects, the misleading SAR language has been dropped from the bill in CA bill, but still needs work to be fully informative and protective.

EHT has also put the focus on SAR and how much radiation the phones emit plus the fact that SAR is not taking into account children's and women's head size.  While of course this is true, the big elephant in the room is the issue of NON THERMAL EFFECTS which can be considered to be in a different category altogether than heat and current SAR standards and relates to frequency, pulse modulation and very low power density, none of which are currently incorporated in the SAR safety standards and all of which effect human health with illnesses such as cancer, reproductive problems, neurological illnesses, endocrine disruption, immune disorders and other serious illness.  For a comprehensive and easy to read overview on non thermal effects, please see our paper...

http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/uploads/Non_Thermal_Paper_10-10_AAA.pdf

Both these consumer advocacy groups have a lot to offer in terms of helping us in our fight for human and environmental health on the issue of EMF (electro magnetic fields).  Let's ask them to get on the same page with us and switch the focus from SAR as it currently is measured, to something more meaningful in terms of protecting human health.  Let's ask them to put the focus on NON THERMAL EFFECTS in their recommendations to the GAO.  The GAO will hear the story of SAR from the industry groups they will be consulting with.  They don't need to hear it again from consumer advocacy groups.  It's time we STOP singing the song of SAR as it is currently measured and START singing the song of NON THERMAL EFFECTS.  If non thermal effects are addressed at the Federal level with cell phones, it will automatically leak into other serious issues of involuntary RF EMF exposure from cell towers, smart meters, WIFI and other RF products and infrastructure.  If we address only the old and outdated SAR, we will be here years from now, still fighting to get recognition for NON THERMAL EFFECTS.  We have momentum from the backlash of the smart meter roll out and we need to use it and now is the time!  The last time the GAO addressed this issue was 10 years ago.  We may not get this opportunity again for another 10 years.

Here is a link to EWG and EHT address.  Please paste the below letter into the links and send it to them, or write your own letter.  But please put the pressure on!!  If they hear from many of us, they might change their stance and address the elephant in the room.  NON THERMAL EFFECTS.

gener...@ewg.org

Dear Ken Cook,

Thank you for all of your work on cell phones, SAR and the recent win in the ground breaking bill to require leaflets to help protect people from RF exposure, to accompany cell phones in SF.  We write you today asking that when giving your recommendation to the GAO, you switch the focus from SAR to the issue of NON THERMAL effects.  We realize SAR is important in terms of heating tissue, but the bigger issue that has been ignored is the issue of NON THERMAL effects.  To read a comprehensive report on  non thermal effects you can go to...

http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/uploads/Non_Thermal_Paper_10-10_AAA.pdf

Thank you for your strong consideration of our request.  We appreciate the work you do and wish for it to have as much meaningful impact as possible in terms of protecting human health.  We desperately need the issue of NON THERMAL EFFECTS to be the focus of the GAO report.

Sincerely,

in...@ehtrust.org

Dear Devra Davis,

Thank you for all your work on cell phones.  The issue of cell phones exceeding current SAR safety standards is a big one as is the issue of head size when measuring SAR exposure from cell phones.  However, current SAR safety standards, no matter how low the SAR is on the phone or how large the head is that is absorbing the radiation, still does not protect human health.  It is time to put the focus on NON THERMAL EFFECTS and move the focus away from the unprotective SAR safety standards.  Please put the focus in NON THERMAL effects when recommending new safety standards to the GAO.  For a comprehensive paper on non thermal effects you can go to...

http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/uploads/Non_Thermal_Paper_10-10_AAA.pdf

Thank you for your strong consideration of our request.  We appreciate the work you do and wish for it to have as much meaningful impact as possible in terms of protecting human health.  We desperately need the issue of NON THERMAL EFFECTS to be the focus of the GAO report.

Sincerely,

On another EMF front, we have been actively lobbying the CA state legislature to include a NO COST OPT OUT TO ANALOG METERS for smart meters.  This battle is enormous, but if it happens here, it will spread throughout the rest of the US and perhaps world.  People in Northern CA have taken very serious actions such as returning en masse their smart meters to PG@E, there have been news reports all over the US, we have appeared on the news talking about the direct effects the smart meters have had on us and I have openly stated on these shows that I can no longer sleep in my apartment and have had to sleep in my car due to the RF meter on my apartment...But still our legislators have not stepped in to protect us and the PUC are clearly in bed with the utility companies, insisting we pay money to keep these carcinogenic products out of our homes.  This is nothing short of extortion.

Here is a petition we wrote which Moveon.org sponsors.  It will help to sign this even if you have signed petitions on this issue in the passed.  If enough people sign it, they have pledged to send it out to their entire email list of 5,000,000 people!  Let's make this happen!!!  If you don't yet have a smart meter,  it is only a matter of time before you will.  Help us stop this assault on human health.

http://signon.org/sign/no-cost-analog-meters?source=c.em.mt&r_by=1831191

And finally, we are a non profit and subsist only upon donations.  If you can make a donation to help us with our operating costs, it would be greatly appreciated.  All contributions are tax deductible.  Our IRS letter is on the home page of our website, left hand column, bottom of page.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=D6LMDKKBG2LX8

Thank you for caring.  Have a wonderful holiday season and let's push to make huge strides in 2012 on raising awareness, changing laws and protecting people from RF exposure!! 

Sincerely, Liz et al