Steve please read this?

I am a long-time Apple user. My first Apple computer was the Apple 512k that I used as a “portable” computer for several years. You opened the world of technology to so many people who could intuitively use a Mac with no need for instructions. I use it for my teaching (as a university professor) and my research (on electrosmog and electrosensitivity). For that I thank you. Your products, since those early computers, are marvellous but I have some serious concerns about the wireless components. I work with people who have become electrically sensitive and become ill when exposed to radio frequency radiation. The US government is unwilling to acknowledge how dangerous this technology is so it is up to industry leaders and innovators, like yourself and your company, to lead the way. Have your scientists been honest with you about the dangers of RF radiation or have they tried to shield you from this information? This is what the science is showing and it is likely to get a lot worse so please consider innovations that allow users to connect as safely as possible. The pulsed radio frequencies have been associated with various types of cancers including–but not limited to–gliomas (brain), acoustic neuromas (ear), uveal melanomas (eyes), and parotid (salivary gland) tumors that appear, often on the same side of the head exposed to a cell phone, after 10 years of moderate to heavy use. Kids are at a greater risk because they don’t have a developed immune system and their cells are dividing rapidly. Exposure to the radiation generated by cell phones and wireless computers are linked to deformed sperm that swim slowly and die quickly. This–in turn–is contributing to problems with declining fertility for couples wanting to get pregnant. Cell phone users complain of headaches, skin problems, brain fog, depression, anxiety, ringing in the ear. Those who live near cell phone antennas have similar complaints including difficulty sleeping, body pain, nausea, and dizziness. The risk of cancers, for those living near these antennas, is increasing. Radiation affects the immune system and can lead to secondary ailments. It places stress on the body as shown by heat shock protein research. It increases the permeability of the blood brain barrier allowing potentially toxic substances to enter the brain. I could go on but I think you get the point. By allowing apps on smart phones that enable people to measure their exposure to radiation, you will help raise their awareness and allow them to make more informed choices about when and how they use their smart phones, wireless computers, ipads, etc. We are not going to give up our smart phones, just like we are not going to give up our cars, but learning how to drive safely and having seat belts and other innovations that protect the occupant and those on the road are as vital for the car driver as they are for the billions of mobile phone users. The two most important aspects of a quality life are having loving friends and good health. With your many innovations you enable friends to keep in touch . . . now enable them to do so safely without sacrificing their health. Very sorry to hear about your recent resignation and your on-going health problems. May your health improve and may you take this message seriously and instruct the many brilliant staff working for Apple who can make a difference to do so . . . for the good of humanity. -magda

Cell Phone Hazards: The End of an Era

The era when cell phones safety was taken for granted is as done as a hotdog on an unwatched backyard grill. The science confirming that pulsed digital microwave radiation from cell phones can be harmful has become stronger and clearer. In San Francisco where officials have passed a law giving people the basic right to know about cellphone risks, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) claims that people will become confused by referring to cell phones as two-way microwave radiating devices and insists that the more benign phrase be used to depict this radiation—radiofrequency energy. In their suit to block this new law, the CTIA claims that all phones are equally safe. The effort to spin the science on cell phones has a long industry. In 1994, long before cellphones were ubiquitous, University of Washington scientists Henry Lai and N. J. Singh showed that pulsed microwave radiation unraveled DNA in the brain of lab rats. The industry response to this inconvenient finding was straightforward. Some industry representatives sought to keep this research from seeing the light of day and asked the journal that had accepted their research paper to rescind publication. When this failed, Motorola adopted what it described as a “war-gamed” set of public relations initiatives against the results—mobilizing professional public relations experts to cast doubt on the work. In fact, many studies since then have found that cell phone radiation, whether from older or newer phones, significantly alters brain chemistry and blood flow, weakens the blood brain barrier, releases unusual proteins and causes a host of biological responses. Thus, in 2006, Finnish researchers produced evidence of altered brain energy after cell phone use and in 2002 researchers in Austria presented parallel evidence of other significant changes. Fast forward to 2011. Accusations of scientific fraud were widely publicized and leveled against a 12-laboratory European collaboration after it found further evidence that cell phone radiation induced biological damage. Yet proof that no fraud occurred has not received similar publicity. Exonerated by several internal university reviews, recently that work was further strengthened when yet another investigation found no evidence of fraud. Today, hypotheses linking pulsed microwave radiation from cell phones to various types of biological damage are moving from the rarified world of little known research to the foundation for landmark shifts in public perception and, ultimately, life-saving policies in Israel, France, Finland, and many other nations. In fact, the World Health Organization expert review of the topic in May 2011 advised that cellphone and other forms of wireless radiation should be regarded as a possible human carcinogen. Based on its own review of the matter, the President’s Cancer Panel in 2010, drawing on what it heard from experts in the field about growing rates of rare tumors that could be tied with cell phones, called for both serious research and precautionary actions on cell phones and other wireless devices. Yet the rest of the government has not received that memo. In advising that cellphones should be used cautiously with headsets and speakerphones and that children should limit use altogether, WHO experts are in accord with the authors of the Fifteen Reasons for Concern about Cell Phones and Brain Tumors (see www.radiationresearch.org) and recent reports from neurosurgeons in Australia Charles Teo and Vini Khurauna, in Britain, Kevin O’Neill and in the U.S., Santosh Kesari and Keith Black. Here’s what the FCC website says about Children and Cell phones as of February 1, 2011: “The scientific evidence does not show a danger to any users of cell phones from RF exposure, including children and teenagers.” It is time for a change.

Cell towers infect The USA with insomnia

Today, millions of Americans in cities awaken around 3 in the morning and then struggle to get back to sleep. As the number of devices (cell phones, iPods, GPS, Wi-Fi, smart meters, wireless broadband for laptop computers, etc.) that emit microwave radiation has increased in the past 10 years, so has the number of Americans who suffer from sleep interruptions. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the percent of people who are not satisfied with the quality of their sleep has increased from 15% of the population (43 million) in 2002 to 40% (120 million) in 2009. In addition, there has been a proportional increase in the number of people using prescription drugs for insomnia. Marching in step with both these numbers has been a steady and proportional increase in the number of cell phone towers and antennas and devices that use wireless technology based on high-frequency microwave radiation. Today we have over 100,000 cell phone relay towers in the US and 2 million antennas.The increasing level of electromagnetic pollution has caused the nation's health to spiral downward. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion; no one seems to be able to stop it. Too many people are in denial that any problem exists at all. Most public discussion has been limited to cell phones and how long it takes for them to give you a brain tumor, but the sleeping giant of all health problems from this technology is itself sleep interruptions. The number of adults developing high blood pressure due to sleep interruptions is increasing by about 500,000 every month. The percent of adults with hypertension is moving on a fast track from 1 in 3 to half the population. Like a volcano building up pressure leading to an eruption, tens of thousands of strokes and heart attacks will soon follow, if not already under way. I have written a book, Insomnia, Fatigue and Cell-Phone Towers, in an attempt to awaken the public to the perils of electromagnetic pollution from microwave radiation and provide a number of solutions. The following interview with Beverly from Las Vegas is excerpted from the book and shows the depth of the problem as well as the denial of the problem that grows worse by the hour.

Controversial but very likely true, even understated

Yesterday we remembered the terrible terrorist attacks that killed thousands of innocent people on Sept 11, 2001. It was easy to recognise the horror of the situation, explosions, fire, bodies and wreckage all shown live and repeated on television many times in the ten years since. A disaster with much worse consequences may now be taking place but in slow motion. Exposure to microwave radiation is likely to harm very many more people than 911, but it will not be nearly as visible, newsworthy and shocking. Cancer, various illnesses, shortened lives and slow painful deaths are likely to be the consequences of using wireless convenience devices such as cell phones, cordless telephones and Wi Fi. Who are the terrorists that are allowing this to happen? Why are Governments not taking this known threat seriously and protecting the public?

Another White Zone

Dozens of Americans who claim to have been made ill by wi-fi and mobile phones have flocked to the town of Green Bank, West Virginia More than five billion people use mobile phones worldwide and advances in wireless technology make it increasingly difficult to escape the influence of mobile devices. But while most Americans seem to embrace continuous connectivity, some believe it's making them physically ill. Diane Schou is unable to hold back the tears as she describes how she once lived in a shielded cage to protect her from the electromagnetic radiation caused by waves from wireless communication. "It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner," she says. "You become a technological leper because you can't be around people. "It's not that you would be contagious to them - it's what they're carrying that is harmful to you." Ms Schou is one of an estimated 5% of Americans who believe they suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), which they say is caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields typically created by cell phones, wi-fi and other electronic equipment. Hiding in a cage Symptoms range from acute headaches, skin burning, muscle twitching and chronic pain. Diane Schou says she was forced to live in a shielded cage in Iowa, prior to moving to West Virginia "My face turns red, I get a headache, my vision changes, and it hurts to think. Last time [I was exposed] I started getting chest pains - and to me that's becoming life threatening," Ms Schou says. To alleviate the pain, her husband built an insulated living space known as a Faraday Cage. He covered a wooden frame with two layers of wire mesh and a door that could be sealed shut to prevent radio waves from entering. Diane spent much of her time inside it, sleeping on a twin mattress on a plywood base. "At least I could see my husband on the outside, I could talk to him," she says. Diane believes her illness was triggered by emissions from a mobile phone mast. Her symptoms were so severe that she abandoned her family farm in the state of Iowa and moved to Green Bank, West Virginia - a tiny village of 143 residents in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains. Outlawed wireless technology Green Bank is part of the US Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless is banned across 13,000 sq miles (33,000 sq km) to prevent transmissions interfering with a number of radio telescopes in the area. The largest is owned by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and enables scientists to listen to low-level signals from different places in the universe. Others are operated by the US military and are a critical part of the government's spy network. As a result of the radio blackout, the Quiet Zone has become a haven for people like Diane, desperate to get away from wireless technology. The world's largest, fully steerable radio telescope is operated in the town of Green Bank "Living here allows me to be more of a normal person. I can be outdoors. I don't have to stay hidden in a Faraday Cage," she says. "I can see the sunrise, I can see the stars at night, and I can be in the rain. "Here in Green Bank allows me to be with people. People here do not carry cells phones so I can socialise. "I can go to church, I can attend some celebrations, I can be with people. I couldn't do that when I had to remain in the Faraday Cage." But EHS is not medically recognised in the US.

School throws out WiFi

A private school in Ontario has cut its wireless Internet network over concerns that the technology causes health issues in students. Pretty River Academy in Collingwood, Ont., a private school with 150 students attending kindergarten to Grade 12, is the first Ontario school to remove Wi-Fi from campus. The school's old Wi-Fi system was taken out over the summer and replaced with Ethernet connections ahead of the first day of the school year. In May the World Health Organization said radio frequency radiation from WiFi and cell phones posed a similar health threat to DDT, lead and car exhaust. Principal Roberta Murray-Hirst says the new hard-wired Internet system is actually faster than their previous system and gives teachers control over when students can go online. Murray-Hirst said they did not receive any complaints from students or parents about health concerns but decided to take the precaution anyway. "We like to be proactive and obviously safety is always a concern," she said. The debate over wireless Internet in Ontario schools grew heated last summer when a group of elementary school teachers attempted to have the technology banned from classrooms in the Niagara region. The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario voted in 2010 to keep wireless Internet. In August, the group voted to establish a committee for studying Wi-Fi in classrooms. A group called the Safe Schools Committee has also continued to push for a ban. They claim exposure to wireless Internet causes headaches, insomnia and rashes in students – afflictions that seem to subside on weekends and vacations, only to return when the kids go back to school. Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health said wireless Internet posed no threat to children at schools.

Spanish court recognises Electro-sensitivity

Hypersensitivity to the waves produced by mobile phones becomes a new cause of permanent disability. Spain, September 2011 .- This has been ruled by the Labour Court to declare Madrid 24 permanent incapacitation of a college professor who suffered from chronic fatigue and environmental and electromagnetic hypersensitivity. The ruling is unique in this regard and make a precedent for future conditions related to hypersensitivity to these waves. The verdict was issued on 23 May and gave the teachers 100% of his base salary, which amounted to 1640.80 euros. Team Assessment of the Social Security disability (EVI), recognized in clinical diagnosis: chronic fatigue syndrome, celiac disease, fibromyalgia syndrome and environmental electromagnetic hypersensitivity, yet they dismissed the patient's disability. The Labour Court in Madrid again puts into question the criteria for the granting of this degree by the provincial leadership of the national institute, and recognizes the rights of the applicant stating that presents enormous problems for the performance of their tasks " with appropriate level of professionalism and performance. " Legal Medical Group would like to echo this statement pioneer in the defense of those who are entitled to a permanent disability pension, and upholds the spirit of not giving any circumstances for lost, when there is sufficient medical and legal basis. Legal Medical Group is a pioneer in the defense of those who apply for disability, accident or illness, advising them from a technical point of view, medical and legal since 1978.

Motorola corruption

US regulators are investigating an Austrian lobbyist and US telecom maker Motorola over alleged bribes of up to 2.2 million euros (NZ$3.68m), Austrian weekly Profil revealed at the weekend. From April 2004 onwards, Motorola apparently transferred up to 2.2 million euros to three firms controlled by lobbyist Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, Profil said in a summary of a report to be published on Monday, local time. Mensdorff-Pouilly then used this money to make “illegal payments” to key political figures in Europe and the Middle East, it said. The US Securities and Exchange Commission had evidence that “people in office” were bribed with presents and holidays, and has now launched a probe against Mensdorff-Pouilly and Motorola, Profil added. The news magazine already reported last week on an alleged contract between the lobbyist and the US telecom company over a digital radio project by the Austrian government. Mensdorff-Pouilly allegedly helped secure the project for a consortium including Motorola and Telekom Austria, gaining up to 2.6 million euros in the process, according to Profil. Telekom Austria is itself facing a wave of corruption claims that emerged in recent weeks, and on Friday announced an external probe by international experts into the allegations. Mensdorff-Pouilly himself is no stranger to corruption claims. In January 2010, he was charged in Britain with bribing European officials to secure fighter jet contracts for defence giant BAE Systems. The charges were eventually dropped.

Mobile phone users have been advised by the Government for the first time to text or use hands free kits rather than make calls.
The Department of Health said this would reduce the user's exposure to reduce radiation emitted by the devices.
In the first update to the UK Mobile Phones and Health leaflet since 2005, health officials added that further research is needed into the long-term effects of using mobile phones.
It stated there had been no 'clear evidence of adverse health effects' from the use of mobiles or from phone masts.
However, it added: 'As people have only been using mobile phones for relatively few years, the HPA advises that more research be carried out, especially to investigate whether there might be longer term effects.'

The UK Chief Medical Officer restated previous advice that children under the age of 16 should only use mobile phones for 'essential purposes' and should 'keep calls short.'
This was described as a 'precautionary' move as teenagers' bodies and nervous systems are still developing.
The latest advice comes just weeks after a £15m Interphone study, that found radio waves from mobiles appear to boost activity in parts of the brain closest to the devices' antennas.
U.S researchers found a 50-minute phone call led to seven per cent localised increase in brain activity.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr Nora Volkow said: 'Although we cannot determine the clinical significance, our results give evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields from acute cellphone exposures.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1365237/Text-dont-Government-tells-mobile-users-time.html#ixzz1GIydKwPz

Would you be willing to take a drug that had not been trialed before its release on the market? Would you take the drug if manufacturers assured you that it was ‘safe’ on the basis that it did not cause shocks, excessive heat or flashes of light in the eye? What if others who’d taken it developed problems ranging from headaches to life-threatening diseases? Finally, would you give it to your children to take? As ridiculous as this scenario may sound, the truth is that most people receive potentially harmful exposures like this every day – not necessarily from a drug – but from a risk of an entirely different sort. The risk is electromagnetic pollution – the invisible emissions from all things electric and electronic. It is emitted by power lines, household wiring, electrical appliances and equipment, computers, wireless networks, mobile and cordless phones, mobile phone base stations, TV and radio transmitters and so on. As engineers compete to develop an ever-diversifying range of radiating technologies to seduce a generation of addicts, and thereby ensure a lucrative return, there is an implicit assumption that these technologies are safe. They comply with international standards, we are told. But there the illusion of safety ends. Published by Scribe Publications
Sadly compliance with international standards is no more a guarantee of safety than being born rich is a guarantee of happiness. For such standards protect only against a very few effects of radiation, and short-term effects at that (such as shocks, heating and flashes of light in the retina). They fail entirely to protect against the long-term effects of radiation which, of course, is the sort of radiation that you and I are exposed to if we use a mobile or cordless phone every day, live near a high voltage power line, use a wireless internet computer, or live under the umbrella of a mobile phone base station, TV or radio or satellite transmitter. In short, we’re all exposed. Regulating to protect only against some of the effects of radiation is a bureaucratic nonsense. It’s like regulating a car’s airbags and not its brakes. It’s like regulating the colour of a pill and not its contents. It’s every bit as meaningless to public health protection. Particularly when long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation has been convincingly linked to problems such as leukemia, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumours, infertility, genetic damage and cancerous effects, headaches, depression, sleep problems, reduced libido, irritability and stress. Short-term protection is a short-sighted approach to public health protection. It may guarantee safety of the politicians as far as the next election. It may guarantee protection of a manufacturer as far as its next annual profit statement. But it does not guarantee the safety of the users of this technology, particularly those children who are powerless to make appropriate choices about technology and manage their exposure, who are more vulnerable to its emissions and who have a potential lifetime of exposure. History is replete with examples of innovations that seemed like a good idea at the time but which eventually caused innumerable problems – to users, to manufacturers and to the public purse. Tobacco, asbestos and lead are but a few. The risk is that electromagnetic pollution is a public health disaster unfolding before our eyes. By failing to implement appropriate standards; by ignoring signs of risk from science; by failing to ensure addictive technologies are safe before they’re released onto the market – our public health authorities have abrogated their responsibilities and chosen to play Russian roulette with our health. It’s a gamble that not everyone assumes willingly

Wireless advances could mean no more cell towers
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer Fri Feb 11, 11:52 pm ET
[photo removed]
NEW YORK – As cell phones have spread, so have large cell towers — those unsightly stalks of steel topped by transmitters and other electronics that sprouted across the country over the last decade.

Now the wireless industry is planning a future without them, or at least without many more of them. Instead, it's looking at much smaller antennas, some tiny enough to hold in a hand. These could be placed on lampposts, utility poles and buildings — virtually anywhere with electrical and network connections.

If the technology overcomes some hurdles, it could upend the wireless industry and offer seamless service, with fewer dead spots and faster data speeds.

Some big names in the wireless world are set to demonstrate "small cell" technologies at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show, which starts Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

"We see more and more towers that become bigger and bigger, with more and bigger antennas that come to obstruct our view and clutter our landscape and are simply ugly," said Wim Sweldens, president of the wireless division of Alcatel-Lucent, the French-U.S. maker of telecommunications equipment.

"What we have realized is that we, as one of the major mobile equipment vendors, are partially if not mostly to blame for this."

Alcatel-Lucent will be at the show to demonstrate its "lightRadio cube," a cellular antenna about the size and shape of a Rubik's cube, vastly smaller than the ironing-board-sized antennas that now decorate cell towers. The cube was developed at the famous Bell Labs in New Jersey, birthplace of many other inventions when it was AT&T's research center.

In Alcatel-Lucent's vision, these little cubes could soon begin replacing conventional cell towers. Single cubes or clusters of them could be placed indoors or out and be easily hidden from view. All they need is electrical power and an optical fiber connecting them to the phone company's network.

The cube, Sweldens said, can make the notion of a conventional cell tower "go away." Alcatel-Lucent will start trials of the cube with carriers in September. The company hopes to make it commercially available next year.

For cell phone companies, the benefits of dividing their networks into smaller "cells," each one served by something like the cube antenna, go far beyond esthetics. Smaller cells mean vastly higher capacity for calls and data traffic.

Instead of having all phones within a mile or two connect to the same cell tower, the traffic could be divided between several smaller cells, so there's less competition for the cell tower's attention.

"If it is what they claim, lightRadio could be a highly disruptive force within the wireless industry," said Dan Hays, who focuses on telecommunications at consulting firm PRTM.

Rasmus Hellberg, director of technical marketing at wireless technology developer Qualcomm Inc., said smaller cells can boost a network's capacity tenfold, far more than can be achieved by other upgrades to wireless technology that are also in the works.

That's sure to draw the interest of phone companies. They've already been deploying older generations of small-cell technology in areas where a lot of people gather, like airports, train stations and sports stadiums, but these are expensive and complicated to install.

In New York City, AT&T Inc. has started creating a network of outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots, starting in Times Square and now spreading through the midtown tourist and shopping districts. Its network has been hammered by an onslaught of data-hungry iPhone users, and this is one way of moving that traffic off the cellular network.

Smaller cells could do the same job, but for all phones, not just Wi-Fi enabled ones like the iPhone. They could also carry calls as well as data.

San Diego-based Qualcomm will be at the Barcelona show with a live demonstration of how "heterogeneous networks" — ones that mix big and small cells, can work. A key issue is minimizing radio interference between the two types of cells. Another hurdle is connecting the smaller cells to the bigger network through optical fiber or other high-capacity connections.

"That's an impediment that we're seeing many operators struggling with right now as data volumes have increased," Hays said.

LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that's the largest maker of wireless network equipment in the world, is also introducing a more compact antenna at the show, one it calls "the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network."

Small cellular base stations have already penetrated hundreds of thousands of U.S. homes. Phone companies like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. have for several years been selling "femtocells," which are about the size of a Wi-Fi router and connect to the phone company's network through a home broadband connection.

The cells project radio signals that cover a room or two, providing five bars of coverage where there might otherwise be none.

British femtocell maker Ubiquisys Ltd. will be in Barcelona to demonstrate the smallest cell yet. It's the size of a thumb and plugs into a computer's USB drive. According to Ubiquisys, the idea is that overseas travellers will plug it into their Internet-connected laptops to make calls as if they were on their home network, but there are potential problems with interference if used that way.

According to Rupert Baines, marketing head of Picochip Ltd., a more realistic application for a tiny plug-in cell is to make it work with cable boxes or Internet routers, to convert them into femtocells.

A key part of the "small cell" idea is to take femtocells outside the home, into larger buildings and even outdoors.

Picochip, a British company that's the dominant maker of chips for femtocells, will be in Barcelona to talk about its chips for "public-access" femtocells, designed to serve up to 64 phone calls at a time, with a range of more than a mile. They could be used not just to ease wireless congestion in urban areas, but to fill in dead spots on the map, Baines said.

For instance, a single femtocell could provide wireless service to a remote village, as long as there's some way to connect it to the wider network, perhaps via satellite.

Analyst Francis Sideco of research firm iSuppli pointed out a surprising consumer benefit of smaller cells: better battery life in phones.

When a lot of phones talk to the same tower, they all have to "shout" to make themselves heard, using more energy. With a smaller cell, phones can lower their "voices," much like group of people moving from a noisy ballroom to a smaller, quieter room.

"Ultimately, what you end up with is a cleaner signal, with less power," Sideco said.