* Message/report from Iris Atzmon - Re: Two appeals by neighbor groups to Stop antennas by Sprint in a residential neighborhood in Berkeley, California (3/4/03)

 

As you all know, Dr. Mike Repacholi from the WHO is working rather hard
on his mission -"harmonization project" (how innocent does the word
"harmony" sound...isn't it?...wrong!...) - that all the countries will
adopt the standart which was determined when he was the chairman of the
ICNIRP. Israel is sure his wet dream come true, but it is a nightmare
for the israeli residents, if the law passes - Israel is the only
country in the world who adopts the ICNIRP standard as a law ! Oh boy
are we in big troubles. Instead of taking example from Austria or
Switzerland for example, Israel apparently prefers to go back to the
stone age.

If you think that this was as a headline, you are far than the truth-
It was written "by the way" in a big article about how the army in
Israel does not protect the soldiers who are hurt from radars. (I am
SURE it happens in other armies too, considering the lawsuit of 700+
german soldiers who were hurt by the radars).

Haaretz 31.3.2003
by Neta Zach


In spite of very high rates of soldiers who are exposed to
electromagnetic radiation and get cancer-Zahal (=israeli army) denies
the problem. Warning of the state comptroller are not useful, even that
it's about a little investment to deal with the risk.

Brain Cancer is a rare phenomenon, surly in a young age. The national
data in Israel is that 1 of 100,000 20 years old-24 years old found in
1997 that he/she had brain cancer. But it appears that there is one
group in the population where brain cancer in 21 years of age are not so
rare - among the radar workers in Zahal.

Of several hundreds radar antennas technicians who are occupied in the
army, at least 4 claimed to get brain cancer in the last 5 years. If
there are 800 radar technicians in the army, it is high rate relatively
to the population. 2 of them were still in the army when their disease
was found. Another was diagnosed only 2 years after, by accident, during
checks after a car accident. 2 of them had brain surgery one of them is
still treated. The fourth, technician in the control system of the air
force died when he was 29. It is not the end of the list.

Until 2001, in the report of the state comptroller, 134 cancer cases of
radar soldiers were documented. 53 served in the airforce, specially in
the control department, they are helped by the radars to direct the
pilots. Of a group of 25 soldiers who were occupied in directing
antennas in the connection force, 6 got cancer. Common complaints among
the soldiers are about cancer illness- leukemia and testicle cancer.

In another intelligence force, which contained 70 soldiers, 3 soldiers
and the woman-guide got cancer. One of the soldiers died when she was
23 years old. After a lawsuit that lasted for 5 years, the court
determined that "The death of the girl is recognized as death which was
caused within and during her army service".

Yet, Zahal did not change its position:
The radiation emitted by the radars is not dangerous. It is so not
dangerous, that there is no point to protect the soldiers against it.

"Radio waves cause movement of whole mulecules inside cells of the
body", explains Dr Menahem Margaliot, the head of radiation measurements in the
nuclear research center. [By the way, this man is documented in a video
movie saying to Zoran residents that also if they had been exposed to
500 V/m, nothing would have happened to them. I.A] "one result of this
movement is creating heat. This is the principle upon which the
microwave ovens work. Heat increase like that, hurts especially the sensitive
areas like the eyes or testicles, that is why high exposure can lead to
cataract and to temporary loss of reproductivity in men. Especially
embroys are sensitive to heat, and pregnant women exposure raises the
probability to birth defects and misscarriage".

Can electromagnetic radiation cause cancer? That is the question of the
state comptroller to Zahal. "Zahal" he writes, "did not make any effort
to find out how many patients we're talking about and in what units they
serve. But the mediccal army force stated anyway: "There are no
epidimiological proofs to the existence of radiation epidemic in
Zahal".

Colonel Dr. Shlomo Moshe, head of occupational health branch in
principle medical headquarters officer, also said to the state critisicm
committee of the Knesset, that electromagnetic radiation is not
carcinogenic, and "All the serious researchs in this area, and all the
world organizations,
have the same position".

But it seems that the position of serious researchs in this area is that
electromagnetic may cause cancer. Thousands of case researchs in the
world, showed the same thing that happens now in Zahal. One study was
about 40,000 soldiers who served in Korea war in the US naval unit in
the 50's. The soldiers who were exposed to high radiation died in double
rate from leukemia. Flight technicians who worked with radars had 3.5
times more death rate from leukemia.

According to a research on men who served in the american airforce
between the years 1970-1989, the more the soldiers were exposed to high
radiation levels, they had higher risk to get leukemia. According to a
research in the polish army, soldiers who were exposed to radiation in
high and also low levels, had double rate of cancer. They had double
risk for brain cancer and higher risk than that, for leukemia.

The damage does not happen only to soldiers- a huge study on 62,000
radio amateurs in the US found that 15 years after a license apply to
operate the transmitters, their brain cancer death rate was higher in
1.5 times than the rest of the population.

Dr. Lika Kneifets from the WHO, summerized results of 29 researchs about
brain cancer. She found that on average, workers exopsed to radiation
had higher cancer illness and death rate. "Another thing that attracts
attention", tells Dr. Heim Biran, a senior oncolog in the Kaplan
hospital, "In these cases of radar soldiers, was that they were young.
Cancer appearance is a function of age. It is more common in higher age.
If cancer shows under 40, and surely after 30- we have to look for a
genetic or environmental cause".

Dr. Eliahu Richter supports this position. "Cancer that appears after a
small number of years after the exopsure, is evidence that the radiation
is the cause".

By Biran, "another hint about the disease source is that excess of brain
cancer fits especially to the influence of the electromagnetic
radiation, because a possiible mechanism was offered to creating cancer,
by which the radiation hits the brain's natural protection layer, that
prevents toxins from entering into the brain".

After all these evidences, Dr Ronen Hareuveni, head of electromagnetic
radiation department of the center of nuclear research center, says that
the WHO determined that there is not enough evidence in this subject.

Not only in the world, but also in Israel the formal authorities, apart
from the army, are not convinced about the cancer danger issue. "There
are many question marks in the subject" says Dr. Kurt Lemesh, the
principle doctor in the work control in the work ministry.

Also the health ministry hesitates:"Most of the researchers are
convinced that RF creates heat only and apart from this influence no
damage is expected.

A small number of researchers think that there are enough proofs to
other radiation effects. Although this is not the majority notion, the
public health responsible authorities are considerate about it and take
it into account"

Not surprisingly, Zahal position becomes sharper in lawsuits cases of
soldiers who want to be resognized as army handicaps. In 18 cases files
in 2001, it turns out from the report of the state comptroller, that
all the medical expressions of opinions from the rehabilitiation
department deny the possibility that cancer is caused by RF radiation or
state that there is no link between the army service to the disease, while all the
experssions of opinions from the side of the soldiers determine that
there is a causal relationship between the disease and the RF exposure".

The expressions of opinion of the army were not influenced by the fact
that the court had already recognized the causal link about soldiers.
Most of the lawsuits for handicap recognition are rejected, because a
soldier has to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the cancer was
caused by his army service, and cancer is a disease which its cause
cannot be determined at any case and case.

"The only case when the proof is opposite - Zahal is demanded to prove
that the cancer was not caused by the radiation", tells lawyer Gidi
Frishtick, "is when the soldier not only got the cancer but also died
from it while serving in the army". Because the cancer is generally
found out after he is free from service, this situation is rare. Anyway,
it happened to 2 soldiers from the intelligence force who were exposed
to radiation and got cancer while they were serving in the regular army.
In these 2 cases Zahal couldn't prove that their death was not caused by
the radiation exopsure and their families were recognized as bereaved
families. "There is a cynical and absurd situation" says a lawyer who
deals with such lawsuit. "In order to be recognized as Zahal handicaps,
someone from their unit has to die".

Adi Agmon was 23 when she died from kidney cancer while serving in the
regulary army. Zahal recognized that her death was caused by her
service.
Her father, David Agmon says that this achievement of the familly in
front of the army used as a precedent for other cases in the same unit
(but not in other units because it's not necessary the same radiation
level). Agmon says that in the trial, which lasted for 5 years, there
was a trial of the security ministry to have a settlement.

Another way to check objectively if there is a tendency for cancer among
the workers is to make a research to check the cancer rate. That's also
what the state comptroller report determined. "We understood that there
are professional controvensions", Heim Leshem from the comptroller State
Ministry told to the critisicm committee. "We recommended to do a big
epidimiological study". The research was supposed to be finished in
October 2001.

In October 2001, when Zahal didn't start the checking, a government
decision was made: "Zahal will apply to the health ministry for making
an expression of authorized opinion". Although it takes years to
determine if the exopsure to radiation causes cancer, the investigation
took less than 10 months. It came to the same conclusions that Colonel
Dr Moshe and stated that "Until today there is not evidence for the
carcinogenic influence of EMR on the people that are exposed to it
during their work or other frameworks".

Knesset member Ofir Pines, then a critisicm committee member, made it
harder for the committee: "Why has Zahal to check itself?". Colonel
Dr. Moshe answered: "It is about exposed data, it will be exposed and
can be criticized". The Health Ministry and Zahal refused to expose the
data or enable an interview with one of the committee members. "I am
going to raise this subject beyond what the law requires, in the
critisicm committee, says Pines.

In the meeting of the critisicm committee Dr. Sigal Sadezki was present,
the manager of the cancer and radiation epidimiology unit of the
disease control center in the health ministry. She was surprised from
the conclusions and said "It can't be said that this is the Health
Ministry position". To Haaretz she said: "The link (between cancer and
EMR) is not proven, but also not refuted".

It is not clear how this committee made the research was supposed to,
because it says it hasn't the medical files of the plaintiffs at all:
Despite the fact that Zahal is committed to it by law, it doesn't give
the plaintiff soldiers their medical files.

"The problem", says an anonymus lawyer, "is that when requesting a file,
several pages arrive after a year. Either they don't have information or
they hide it".

Brigadier-General [second highest rank in Israeli army], Paul Bendact
claims that "the loss of medical files in Zahal is about 15-20% rate".

No Protection
As Zahal thinks that electromagnetic radiation does not cause cancer, it
doesn't do much in order to protect against it. First of all, there is
no formal standard which determines above which level electromagnetic
radiation is dangerous. There are recommendations, that the WHO
determined in 1998.

The Environment Quality Ministry stated it's process of making it a law
but it is still in discussion. The internet site of the Ministry
states"these recommendations are called sometimes "standards". Because
these are only recommendations, the Work Ministry does not see a reason
to make regular checking of the radiation levels that workers are
exposed to. "We don't have enough on what to base on" says Piter Magnus
the main work controler in the Health Ministry.

In Zahal, after radiation checks found exceeding values, it was decided
in 1999 that the army would do radiation levels checkings regulary by
soldiers who would be specialied in that. The principle medical
headquarters did not determine a certain way to authorize the mesearing
people, and the workers are not directed to the formal course in the
nuclear research center ("Sorek"). More serious than that, is the lack
of shielding equimpment. Soldiers are not given any shield against
radiation, despite the fact it's easy to get- it's about metal strips
like in the microwave oven. "Every metal net blocks radiation" says Dr.
Margaliot. A basic protection program can guide the soldiers.

The soldiers who got cancer in the connection unit told that they had
worked directly with the antennas while they had been operating. "The
simplest way to avoid the radar radiation is to get closer to it only
when it is turned off", says Margaliot. And if it's necessary to direct
the antenna while still working, it has to be remembered that the radar
radiation is very accurate and the soldiers can be warned not to be in
the radiation range of the ray.

Dr. Biran adds "It is important to do also what is done in cases of X
ray- to give the workers rest time, when the body corrects itself."
The soldiers who were hurt used to work with no break and say they were
not told about the possibility that the radiation causes cancer and were
not told to avoid exposure.

"According to the patients I checked, says Richter, "they did not use
any sort of shield and did not know about the dangers". "Instead of making a
survey, to invest in that the soldiers will know about the dangers, it's
better to invest in monitoring equipment that will warn when the
exposure limit is above the determined level of magnetic field"
[speaking is the responsible to ignoring from Zoran and Porat disaster,
who used exactly the same monitoring equipment to deny the high
radiation levels, he made some kind of average mixing the radiation
levels when the transmitters were working, with the levels when the
transmitters when NOT working.
Is that the reason he doesn't want to invest in giving some knowledge to
these poor soldiers?! I.A] said Dr Stilian Galberg, the head of
radiation department in the Environment Quality Ministry, to the
critisicm committee.

"Today it's possible to pervent radiation completely" says Eliezer
Goldberg. "Will they stop using radars after the survey? of course not.
Then they will have to deal with the problem. That's why I am asking,
why not deal with the problem when there is doubt. Why not take the
strictest measures to shield in order to prevent doubt. If there is
doubt, there is no doubt".

Zahal spokesman reaction:
Zahal position is that there is no scientific basis to claim that
there's a link between radiation exposure and cancer. The medical unit
adopted the WHO position and the INCIRP position, which the Environment
Quality Ministry also adopted. By which, the only proven dangers are
thermic.

After dozens of year of deep research in the subject, there was not
found any scientific basis for the existance of other health effects from RF.
The exposure limits in Zahal are determined by the strict standard of
the ICNIRP that are adopted by the WHO.

The Environment Quality Ministry also adopts the standard which is in
the process of becoming a law in Israel. Zahal has been committed to the
exposure standard for 15 years (since the day it was published).
The standard is very strict, takes high safey measures and is accepted
by Europe and most of western countries.

The accepted way for protection against radiation is standing in strict
standards by radiation mesearments and by safety guidlines. This way is
implemented in Zahal by the guidance of the principle medical officer.
Personal protection means are not effective against non-ionizing
protection [give me a break ! And they expect the soldiers to serve them
loyaly...I.A].

The standard for the workers population is safe, because it takes into
account 10 times fold from the threshold of the health effects. From
that it is concluded that this population is protected against radiation
according to the standard. [That's exactly the problem, they are
protected just according to the standard, but not according to reality I.A].

Message from Iris Atzmon


Re: Two appeals by neighbor groups to Stop antennas by Sprint in a
residential neighborhood in Berkeley, California

Dear Fellows:

We have some good news for you. The City Council of Berkeley had a
meeting last night. Among other things, they had our case on their
agenda. The Council was to decide as what to do with our appeals. They
had three options: 1) to dismiss our appeals (we lose); 2) to give us a
Public Hearing; 3) to send our appeals back to the Zoning Board (not a
cool option).

Last night, lots of people showed up to the Berkeley City Hall to
support our appeals. We were so worry because the Planning Department
had recommended the dismissal of our appeals. That is, we could lose the
case without having a chance to present our case in a Public Hearing.
So, our goal was to ask the City Council to give us a Public Hearing.

Our supporters (25) were holding signs on which it was written "Public
Hearing." We also had a huge sign (wall to wall) on which it was written
"Public Hearing."

The City Council considered our case 10 minutes after they started their
meeting and unanimously voted yes to give us a Public Hearing. So, the
final battle is set for June 17th , 2003, when we will fully present our
case and evidence.

A little victory for now. We are at work to make preparations for our
the Public Hearing. We will not let Sprint or other companies come and
pollute our neighborhood.

We would like to express our gratitude to all of you. Many of you sent
us, as well as our Mayor and City Council members e-mails. In the file
of our case, there are many e-mails from all over the globe.

Radi


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