TOWERS of BABBLE, BAGS OF GOLD:
Cells, Lies and the "Wireless Revolution"

by James Heddle & Mary Beth Brangan

"I have no doubt in my mind that, at the present time, the greatest 
polluting element in the earth's environment... more serious even 
than global climate change and  chemical pollution... is the 
proliferation of electromagnetic fields." Robert O. Becker, M.D.

MICROWAVED YANKS
 From 1953 to 1976 the Russians irradiated the U.S. embassy in Moscow 
with a steady 24-hour-a-day bombardment of radio frequency radiation. 
The embassy staff members experienced loss of ability to think, to 
concentrate and to sleep.  The American ambassador came down with 
leukemia and had to be replaced.  Then the second ambassador came 
down with leukemia and also had to be replaced.  Staff blood samples 
sent back home for analysis showed DNA damage and a loss of ability 
to repair it.  Staff dysfunctions continued.

The Russians knew what they were doing.  They had reproduced  in the 
embassy staff the same symptoms they had previously identified under 
experimental conditions as "Radio Frequency Sickness Syndrome."  They 
had proven that radio frequency  radiation - RFR - can be used as a 
weapon against either a specific target group or against the general 
population. 

The irony is, this same technology is now being touted as an aid to 
public safety.

IONIZE THIS
The electromagnetic spectrum stretches from so-called "ionizing" 
forms of radiation like x-rays, gamma rays and other nuclear 
radiation, down through visible light to the so-called "non-ionizing" 
frequencies   now associated with TV, microwave communication 
technologies, cell phones, radar, AM & FM radio and electric power 
transmission lines.

Research on the biological and human health effects of non-ionizing 
frequencies began in the second world war with the introduction of 
radar.  Studies of military personnel showed evidence of affects on 
blood count, mutation, cell reproduction, the occurrence of cataracts 
in the eyes, headaches, fatigue and increase in the occurrence of 
some cancers.

But there was a war going on.  RFR exposure was seen as just another 
risk of war and few details of the research results reached the 
general public.  The "safety" standards developed for military 
personnel were based on the so-called "thermal" effects of RFR - the 
heating of living tissue in the same way a microwave oven cooks food. 
Current U.S. standards of "safe" RFR exposure for the general public 
are still based on this "thermal effects" level.

However recent research indicates  serious biological and human 
health effects at very low, "non-thermal" exposures.  The now 
documented bio-effects of low level RFR exposure include: 
infertility, memory loss, childhood leukemia, adult leukemia, lowered 
reaction time, DNA damage, immune system dysfunction, weakened 
blood-brain barrier and sleeplessness.

Furthermore, the work of researchers like Dr. Henry Lai, Dr. Ross 
Adey  and Dr. Jerry Phillips show that such effects as DNA strand 
breaks are produced not only by short-term exposure at high 
intensity, but also by long-term, chronic exposure to low intensities 
- like that increasingly experienced by growing numbers of people 
from cell phone towers and microwave communication facilities.

NATURAL BACKGROUND
For millions of years, life evolved on earth where the natural 
background  level of radio frequency  radiation has been very low. 
Then starting only a hundred  years ago, the explosion in wireless 
technologies like radio, TV radar and microwave has boosted our 
everyday RFR exposure levels by at least ten thousand times.

Our bodies - and each of the cells within them - are like antennas: 
exquisitely sensitive receivers AND transmitters of electro-magnetic 
radiation.  Now, they must function in a new electro-magnetic 
environment that already has ten thousand times more RFR than the one 
in which they - and we - evolved.  And today, a new wireless 
revolution is in progress, with the number of cell phones, 
communication satellites, microwave antennas and cell phone towers 
multiplying daily.  That means even more RFR exposure for all of us.


"WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE WE ARE."
In order to grasp the truly staggering implications of this 
burgeoning wireless industry "build-out" you have to understand what 
the "cell" in cell phone means.  Each cell phone tower emits its 
signal in "lobes" -  a circular "flower petal" pattern with a limited 
radius spreading 360 degrees around the tower.  This circle of 
radiation around the tower is called a "cell."  If you're in a cell, 
your phone gets good reception.  If you're not, it doesn't.

In order to provide "total coverage" for cell phone users, antenna 
towers must be positioned throughout the landscape so that their 
"cells" essentially overlap - like a tabletop covered with plates.  
Cellular One's slogan - "wherever you go, there we are"  - takes on 
ominous overtones when you realize that no community - rich or poor, 
ghetto or gated - will be free of cell towers, which are now going up 
in California almost as fast as old growth redwoods are coming down.

Add to this the knowledge that more than 2000 communications 
satellites are raining down a constant shower of radiation on our 
heads round the clock.  Plus military projects like ELF, HAARP and 
PAVE-PAWS - designed to control weather patterns, send longwaves 
through the earth to nuclear-armed submarines at sea, and even 
influence the physical, emotional and mental states of entire target 
populations - and you begin to get a sobering picture of the huge and 
escalating amount of electromagnetic pollution with which we are 
deluging ourselves, our children and the entire biosphere.

Do we know for sure what the effects have been, are, or will be?  We 
do not.  But, despite ongoing, mostly successful efforts by industry, 
government and military to confuse, distort, spin and suppress 
emerging research data, scientific studies from brave, independent, 
honest investigators like Drs. Robert Becker, Lai, Adey and Phillips 
continue to raise red flags of danger.  New Zealand researcher Dr. 
Neal Cherry's recent world survey of  recent research studies 
documents far more than enough evidence to convince any reasonable, 
responsible person that a "precautionary approach" is indicated. 
More than enough evidence to support an international call for 
halting the lemming-like rush over the cliff of the "wireless 
revolution" until we know for sure what we're doing to ourselves - 
not to mention all the planet's lifeforms.

PUBLIC HEALTH or CORPORATE PROFIT? Is it "The Economy, Stupid?"  Or 
the Stupid Economy?
Investment in the telecommunications industry has increased from $20 
billion in 1996 to $475 billion in 2000 - an increase of 2,200%.  Big 
money.  Money that can buy politicians and legislation favorable to 
industry - like the industry-crafted Federal Telecommunications Act 
of 1996, which actually attempts to forbid local regulation of cell 
tower placement on the basis of human health or environmental 
concerns!

Big money that allows the industry giants like Motorola to spin the 
scientific research to confuse or misinform the public and to 
discredit, defund and ruin the careers of scientists whose research 
shows "negative effects."  Big money that enables the industry to 
come into local communities bearing gifts to support legitimate 
community needs - like new fire engines, schools and health clinics.

Big influences that can deliberately misinform and confuse good, 
beloved people into making unfortunate decisions with nothing but the 
highest intentions for the welfare of their community at heart.

Our experiences in researching and producing our new independent 
investigative documentary, PUBLIC EXPOSURE: DNA, Democracy and the 
'Wireless Revolution' makes us very troubled about the plan to add 
new antennas to the existing ones already on the two towers at our 
local firehouse. Right next to the village playground.  Right over 
the site for a projected local health clinic! 

It makes us dubious of the Marin Emergency Radio Authority's plan to 
site 17 new transmission towers at locations around Marin county - 
which already has the highest rates of breast and prostate cancer in 
the country - all in the name of "public safety!"  It makes us cringe 
when ill-informed, but influential opinion-makers dismiss the growing 
fact-based popular resistance to the wireless buildout as, "public 
hysteria." 

And - given the facts documented Henry Lai that RFR like that from 
cell towers causes DNA damage, and  by O. Ghandi, et al, that the 
radiation from a cell phone penetrates further into a child's small, 
growing head even more than into our own adult brains - it makes us 
alarmed at the fact that gullible, uninformed people are buying 
cellphones worldwide at the rate of 25 thousand a day and succumbing 
to PR campaigns like the one that shows a picture of a crib and bears 
the legend:  "No Member of the Family Should Be Without One..."

Award-winning Bay Area documentary producers James Heddle and Mary 
Beth Brangan are co-founders of E.O.N, the Ecological Options 
Network.  www.eon3.net  (415) 868-1900  eon3@earthlink.net   For More 
Information, Contact : The Council on Wireless Technology Impacts: 
www.energyfields.org