* Implantable chip - Double the EMF - Neil Cherry's website is up - Power-line rules needed - Parent lobby derails school (1/11/02)

Tramès per Klaus Rudolph (Citizens' Initiative Omega)


Implantable chip, on sale now

By Julia Scheeres
WIRED NEWS
Oct. 25, 2002 PDT

The maker of an implantable human ID chip has launched a national campaign to promote the device, offering $50 discounts to the first 100,000 people who register to get embedded with the microchip.

Applied Digital Solutions has coined the tagline "Get Chipped" to market its product, VeriChip. The rice-size device costs $200. Those implanted must also pay for the doctor's injection fee and a monthly $10 database maintenance charge, said ADS spokesman Matthew Cossolotto.

The VeriChip emits a 125-kilohertz radio frequency signal that transmits its unique ID number to a scanner; the number is used to access a computer database containing the client's file. Customers fill out a form detailing the information they want linked to their chip when they undergo the procedure, Cossolotto said.

Earlier this week, ADS announced that the FDA had ruled that the VeriChip was not a regulated device when used for "security, financial and personal identification/safety applications."

The agency's sudden approval of the microchip came despite an FDA investigator's concern about the potential health effects of the device in humans. (Microchips have been used to track animals for years.)

The company is marketing the device for a variety of security applications, including:

Controlling access to physical structures, such as government or private sector offices or nuclear power plants. Instead of swiping a smart card, employees could swipe the arm containing the chip. Reducing financial fraud. In this scenario, people could use their chip to withdraw money from ATMs;  their accounts could not be accessed unless they were physically present. Decreasing identity theft. People could use the chip as a password to access their computer at home, for example.

Cossolotto said ADS has gotten "hundreds" of inquiries from people interested in being implanted.

Meanwhile, privacy advocates are wondering about the specter of forced chippings. "(ID chips) are a form of electronic leashes, a form of digital control," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "What happens if an employer makes it a condition of employment for a person to be implanted with the chip? It could easily become a condition of release for parolees or a requirement for welfare." Rotenberg said EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Request to learn more details about the FDA's sudden approval of VeriChip.

The chip has also alarmed some Christians, who fear it is the biblical "Mark of the Beast";  dozens of websites allude to the Satanic implications of the technology.

The company has consistently tried to allay such fears since the chip debuted in December 2001. "It's a voluntary device that we think has enormous utility," Cossolotto said. "This is intended for good purposes." The company hasn't decided yet if it will sell or freely distribute the scanner needed to read the chip, which costs about $1,500.

ADS said seven health-care facilities, located in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Virginia, have signed up to distribute the chip, in addition to mobilizing a large bus the company has outfitted as a mobile "chipping station." Would-be customers can also register online.

NOTE  *  The company plans to release an implantable GPS ID chip by the end of the year.

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,55999,00.html

Informant for this messgage and the next one: Gotemf


GPS - Global Positioning - HOW ?

BIGGER MORE POWERFUL ANTENNA in the CHIP

Double the Power
Double the Electromagnetic Field
Double the Health Risks

--------

The website of Neil Cherry:  http://www.neilcherry.com is up now to answer many questions.

Regards, Neil

Dr Neil Cherry
Associate Professor of Environmental Health
Chair, Regional Planning Commitee, ECan
Cherry Environmental Health Ltd

Informant for this message and the next two: Joanne C. Mueller
Source: Roy Beavers


Power-line rules needed

The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, October 15, 2002

City council should require minimum safe distances between electrical power lines and new schools, homes and other developments.

Recent reports of preliminary findings from a major study by the California Public Utilities Commission suggest that electromagnetic fields, from power lines or other sources, cause increased risk of cancer. But the reports fail to state the strength of EMFs that are likely to cause an increase.

The effect is alarming but not useful.

Other research, however, has found adverse effects from low-level EMFs.

In September 2000, an international team of researchers published, in the British Journal of Cancer, a study of more than 13,000 children, including approximately 100 with prolonged exposure to EMFs greater than four milliGauss units. Their rate of childhood leukemia was double that of a control group with no such exposure.

In Edmonton, the Catholic School District, in planning its Archbishop Joseph MacNeil school near 23rd Avenue and Terwillegar Drive, originally chose a location 70 metres distant from a 240 kV power line. It expected the EMF to be less than one mG. But when Epcor measured the EMF there, its actual strength was 4.5 mG. 

After community consultation, the school site was moved to 108 metresfrom the power line. Elsewhere, however, Edmonton schools have been built within 25 metres of 240 kV power lines. Homes have been built within 35 metres. Theoretically, such proximities could result in EMFs of eight mG and three mG, respectively, according to the International Radiation Protection Association. And, as the Epcor measurements showed, actual EMFs can exceed expectations.

Yet Edmonton does not regulate the permissible exposure to EMFs. Bob Caldwell, the city's manager of planning and policy services, believes the science is inconclusive. Dr. Gerry Predy, medical officer of health for the Capital Health Region, agrees, saying "the science has been somewhat uncertain," in relating EMFs to adverse effects. He thinks  school districts and homeowners should practice "prudent avoidance" of transmission lines if they can find other suitable sites.

However, "there is not enough evidence to suggest that any existing school should be moved," Predy says. Yes, the evidence of harmful effects is inconclusive and the cost of moving existing schools could be unaffordable. But the cost of regulating new construction could be slight, while the cost of not doing so might be unconscionable. Until we know more about the health effects, power lines should be separated from new developments by sufficient distance to cautiously ensure that occupants are protected from prolonged exposure to possibly dangerous EMFs.


Parent lobby derails school
Board agrees site too close to power lines: DEVELOPMENT DEBATE

Bill Mah, Civic Affairs Writer The Edmonton Journal
Saturday, October 26, 2002

In a surprise decision critics say could trigger widespread challenges to future construction projects, a group of city parents has halted construction of a school after arguing its proximity to high-voltage wires poses a health risk.

City politicians and school officials were assessing the implications Friday, a day after Lisa Amyotte and her neighbours successfully quashed a development permit for Archbishop Joseph MacNeil school, already under construction in the city's southwest.

While the parents hailed the development appeal board ruling as a victory for those seeking a safer school environment, Edmonton Catholic Schools board chairman Charlie Koester said the decision sets a far-reaching precedent.

The ruling could affect the development of every school, every business and the plans of every homeowner in Edmonton given a permit to build close to power lines. "The ramifications to this city are huge," said Koester. "If this decision came down and all of a sudden your house is within that zone they're talking about, and they're telling you it's
unsafe, wouldn't you go after the developers and after the city?"

The appeal was a last-ditch manoeuver, after a 10-month fight that included unsuccessfully lobbying city council twice to move the school being built 108 metres from overhead power lines.

The mothers who oppose the school agreed their victory could signal the start of more awareness about the issue of possible health effects of electric and magnetic radiation. "The members of the appeal board listened to the research and they made a judgment based on that," said parent Lisa Gelasco.

The subdivision and appeal board is a quasi-judicial panel that rules on disputes under zoning and subdivision bylaws. It won't release its legally binding written decision until Nov. 8, but board administrator Sheila McDonald confirmed the board upheld the appeal.

Gelasco, Amyotte, Nancy Manning and Patricia Tamman based their appeal on letters written by experts in electric and magnetic radiation. Edmonton Catholic Schools and its architect brought in their own expert, B.C. Cancer Agency epidemiologist Mary McBride, who told the panel she would send her own children to the school.

"I think it's a step for regulations and guidelines," said Gelasco, 28, who says for her the fight was fuelled by a brush with melanoma cancer last year. "I was really scared that this would be an increased risk for her."

The school for 400 students from kindergarten to Grade 9 was to open in September 2003. It was under construction at 23rd Avenue and Terwillegar Drive.

Amyotte cited an eight-year California study that reviewed existing research and was released Oct. 11. It concluded that electromagnetic fields produced by overhead power lines and household appliances create risks of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer and more miscarriages. Amyotte said the California study recommends electromagnetic field exposure at schools be similar to home exposure, between 0.7 milligauss and 1 milligauss -- the measure of the
intensity of a magnetic field. Tests taken at the MacNeil school site measured between two and 2.2 milliigauss, she said.

To be safe, the school should be built at least 400 metres from the power lines, the parents say.

But Koester insisted the site is safe. The board argued the school site is five times further away from power lines than many other schools, homes and businesses built in the city for the last quarter-century. Citing the same California study, Koester said the researchers merely recommend constructing buildings a distance of 150 feet from power lines. "The school site is over 350 feet from any power line," he added. Koester said the board is looking at launching a court appeal or asking city council to intervene. He noted the board was given the land by the city, which approved the plan to build a school on it.

Coun. Bryan Anderson said he and Coun. Karen Leibovici are meeting with city planning and development staff to see if they can compile enough research to develop guidelines on development near power lines.

bmah@thejournal.southam.ca


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