This email is going to be a little long. I apologize in advance. I wanted to give you an update on Maine. It's not over yet, but here is what's happened thus far...
We BLEW THEM AWAY at the hearings in testimony on the science and with Mainers speaking out. We had absolutely top drawer scientists from around the country and world. However, it all in the end boiled down to the politics as opposed to the science. What a shocker.
Here is what we were up against in Maine...The CDC director of Maine, Dr. Dora Mills, is the sister of the Senator who sits on the HHS committee (where hearings were) and who also happens to be running for governor of Maine this year. The other sibling in this family is in a top position at the federal level of the CDC, and their take on cell phones is that of the FDA and FCC...NO PROBLEM, END OF STORY.
The vote of the committee was 8 to 6. 8 to kill the bill for warning label (their words), but to have Maine post on their CDC website links to info on this subject from the federal websites on ways the public can reduce RF exposure. The 6 votes (called the minority report) was to have CDC website links for Maine on ways the public can reduce RF exposure, request for research at the federal level and a request for CTIA to voluntarily get more info out to the public on cell phones and health effects and how to reduce exposure to RF. There will be a final vote for the full legislative body next week on everything. But the legislator, Andrea Boland is quick to point out in either case, both the majority report and the minority report means Maine will be the first state in the US to vote to inform the public on how to reduce RF exposure. Sadly, there will not be a brain cancer warning label on cell phones in Maine this year. Andrea wants to come back with the bill again next year and we will of course be working with her to help in any way we can. In the meantime, we are still working with other states who have expressed interest, as well as hearings on this at the federal level. It took Henry Waxman 10 years to pass the Clean Air Act. We don't expect it to take that long with this bill, but we also are not surprised that it did not pass this first time around. Had we had a SAR bill, things might be different. SAR of course sings the song of the industry fallacy that below 1.6 w/kg is protective of human health because after all, only heat from RF is what causes damage. But we are not playing that game, as we full well know that heat is not what causes the damage of tissue from cell phones and damage occurs at thousands of levels lower than SAR "safety" limits set for cell phones. There is currently a SAR bill in CA that will be going to vote this year. This bill is not nearly as threatening to industry as a brain cancer warning label, as it sings industry's song on SAR and we expect it to pass without a problem. One good thing that happened with this bill is it will be including headsets and after much lobbying, phone calls and an actual meeting with the legislator, he has added advice in the bill that children should not use cell phones.
I have enclosed some national news coverage if you'd like to see it, although I must warn you, it is my opinion that they bow to sponsorship pressure and slant the story in favor of industry by not reporting the actual outcome of the vote to change the bill to mandate informing the public on advisories on how to reduce RF exposure.
CBS today
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6290574n&tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.1
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/11/eveningnews/main6290355.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo ]
This one links to CNN news today even though it says Huffington post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/cnn-how-safe-is-your-cell_n_495062.html
We will have more news later on the final outcome of the vote next week.
I would like to thank all of you on this list who testified at the hearings, who donated generously to make the expert witness testimony possible at the hearings, and to everyone who wrote an email or called the legislators in Maine. Your efforts have not been for nothing. We have made a small stride here with Maine voting that the public be officially informed of how to protect themselves from RF exposure on the Maine CDC website. It seems like nothing, but it is the first action in the history of the US that any state has officially taken on this subject. We consider it a small victory, with a long ways to go on this issue. More and heavier decisions on this issue will transpire in the near future in the US and worldwide. Our only wish is that it happen now, before the body count and lawsuits of the future forces it to happen. I am confident we will prevail.
I will keep you apprised of the final outcome in Maine after the vote goes to the floor. Thank you again for your support on this. We needed it in Maine and will continue to in the future on this bill and others like it as we move towards transparency and protection of this upcoming major public health pandemic, should things just remain status quo.
If you would like to contact the producers of CBS and express your support for a warning label on cell phones, or your disappointment that they did not accurately report on what was decided in both the minority and majority report, which was to take some action, and that there was a small victory even if it was not a warning label, you can send the an email to
Betty Chin, bc2@cbsnews.com
and enter your comment at
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml?tag=ftr
Thank you for all that you do on this issue and others like it and thank you for caring.
Sincerely, Liz and everyone else who helped out...and there were MANY.
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=exposure
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=exposure
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=warning+label
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=warning+label
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=brain+cancer
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=brain+cancer
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=Maine
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=Dora+Mills
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=Boland
