Raise awareness of environmental health issues in order to better protect our children and future generations.

31 May 2015

Beau Biden, U.S. Vice President's Son, Dies at 46 of Brain Cancer

Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Beau.
(Towards Better Health's choice of photo)
Beau Biden, vice president’s son, dies at 46 of brain cancer
by Paul Kane, The Washington Post,
30 May 2015

Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III, the son of Vice President Biden and former state attorney general of Delaware, died Saturday after battling brain cancer for several years.

Biden, 46, the oldest son of the vice president and the rising star of a family dynasty, had been admitted recently to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda as he fought the cancer, a battle that his father largely kept private in the last weeks as his son clung to his life.

“The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us — especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter,” Vice President Biden said in a statement that was released Saturday night.

Reflections on the Use of Wireless Technology

Reflections on the Use of Wireless Technology
by Meris Michaels, 7 April 2013, re-posted 31 May 2015

With cell phones and wireless technology, we are probably where our relationship with tobacco was 50 years ago.

Look at this brief history of the tobacco industry:

- 1964 - Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health links smoking and lung cancer and other diseases.  (Note that this is the first official announcement of a link between smoking and lung cancer in the United States.  In 1956, the British Medical Journal published the results of a British doctors study started in 1951 that gave irrefutable evidence that tobacco smoking increased the risk of lung cancer.)
- 1965 – first warning labels placed on cigarette packs
- 1971 – tobacco ads banned on TV
- 1986 – Surgeon General reports on dangers of secondhand smoke – ban of smoking in public places begins
- 1998 – an agreement forces the tobacco industry to acknowledge the harm it has done
- 2009 – through the Family Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authority to regulate manufacturing and sale of tobacco products.

But the tobacco industry does not give up. In 2008, it spent $10 billion on marketing cigarettes in the United States, targeting especially African Americans and low-income groups.

So, where are we with wireless technology? The U.S. health authorities have not yet recognized the link between cancer and other diseases and electromagnetic radiation EMR) emitted by wireless technology. Once again, we are not learning the lessons from the tobacco scourge in terms of high health costs and human suffering.

30 May 2015

Top Ten Facts about Wi-Fi in School

Children are more vulnerable to microwave radiation
than adults.
Top Ten Facts about Wi-Fi in School
Safe Tech for Schools Maryland, 29 May 2015

Every Parent Needs To Know the Facts
We might assume that Wi-Fi is safe ? Nope.
Regulations and codes may be met, but that doesn't mean it is "safe".
Not a single medical organization states that Wi-Fi is "safe".

Just because it is legal to put in a classroom, doesn't make it right.
Wi-Fi in the classroom could be a serious health hazard for students.

1. Worldwide Schools are Removing Wi-Fi.

Private schools in the United States are removing wireless networks due to health and safety issues.

France has banned constant Wi-Fi in elementary schools and over a dozen countries and have enacted policies to reduce wireless radiation in the classroom.

2. Children are More Vulnerable than Adults.

28 May 2015

All I Really Need to Know About EMF I Learned After My Wife Got Sick: A Brief History of Electrosmog

All I Really Need to Know About EMF I Learned After My Wife Got Sick
A Brief History of Electrosmog

by Jonathan Mirin, spiritofchange.org, 
26 May 2015

"Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." — Tobacco executive internal memo, 1969

"There really are people who feel pain, etc., related to EMF, etc., and rather than have them becoming hysterical, etc., I would quietly leave them alone." — Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey in an email to Pacific Gas & Electric's Brian Cherry seized by California authorities, 2010.

History was never my favorite subject. I preferred English, theatre, religion — subjects where the imagination seemed unrestricted by the weight of historical facts. Of course, I had heard the truism about not being able to understand the present without knowing the past. I appreciated the idea intellectually. But it wasn't until my wife Godeliève Richard, a Swiss dancer/choreographer and visual artist, became sick in the spring of 2010 and we came to understand, after three torturous years, that the root of her suffering was her sensitivity to RF (radio frequency) wireless radiation of the sort emitted by cell towers, cell phones, computers trying to pick up Wifi, Wifi enabled routers, cordless phones, tablets, our electric meter, etc., etc., etc., that I became an avid student of history.

27 May 2015

Apple Inc. Watch Causes Skin Rashes For Some

Because of the rashes coming from wearing Fitbits, 14 users have decided to file a joint lawsuit against Fitbit. (See "100s Report Rashes from Smartwatch, Lawsuits Filed".)  Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to investigate the rash reports.  Wearers of the Apple Watch are also complaining that the band of the smartwatch is causing skin rashes.

Apple Inc. Watch Causes Skin Rashes For Some (AAPL)
smarteranalyst.com, 5 May 2015

Complaints about the recently released Apple Inc.Watch are continuing to roll in. First some were complaining that the sensors don’t work properly on tattooed skin or with long sleeves. Now others are complaining that the band of the smartwatch has caused skin rashes.

Apple Watch band causing rashes

Ispazio, an Italian-language website, was the first to report complaints about the skin rashes. An Apple Watch owner sent in photos showing red splotches around their wrist where the band touches the skin. There’s a space where the face of the watch would be on the arm, indicating clearly that it’s the band which is causing the skin rash.

24 May 2015

India: Recent Studies Demonstrating the Relationship Between EMF Radiation and Health Problems

From the WHO EMF Project website - recent studies from India demonstrating the relationship between EMF Radiation and health problems for the attention of the government, presented by Dr. Sharma from the Indian Council of Medical Research.  Dr. Sharma is one of the 200 scientists who signed the EMF Scientist Appeal to the United Nations and WHO.  You may view here his recent presentation on radiofrequency radiations and human health to the WHO/IAC Meeting, 4-6 May 2015.

Short report on the national activities on EMF
Dr. R. S. Sharma, Sr. Deputy Director General & Scientist - G Indian Council of Medical Research Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029, India.

General research activities in India related to EMF health –

i. Shahin S, Mishra V, Singh SP, Chaturvedi CM. 2.45-GHz microwave irradiation adversely affects reproductive function in male mouse, Mus musculus by inducing oxidative and nitrosative stress. Free Radic Res. 2014; 48(5):511-25. 

05 May 2015

Canada: 7th Grade Student Conducts Experiment: Do Cell Phones Inhibit Growth?


Lucas Brenninkmeijer is a grade 7 student at Oakville Christian School who recently tied for first place in their Science Fair competition. In his project , Do Cell Phones Inhibit Growth?, Lucas conducted an experiment to determine what would happen to the growth of seeds if they were exposed to a cell phone. The experiment compared the growth of seeds on a tray with a cell phone in the middle and on a tray without a phone. The results of the experiment consistently showed that the seeds grown on the tray with the cell phone were shorter and less dense than the seeds grown on the tray with no phone. Lucas will be going to the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) in Hamilton in March to present his project.

Source: Terence Young
Member of Parliament, Oakville, Ontario, Canada