SKEWED: Psychiatric Hegemony and the Manufacture of Mental Illness in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Gulf War Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Please find attached a few pages from SKEWED which contain information about Fumento. These pages should be put into context by reading the rest of the book and Brave New World of Zero Risk.
http://tinyurl.com/hyf8j
It is quite worrying when you see people fighting old battles over again, we have to learn from history and from what research and writing has been done previously about these individuals and groups, otherwise we waste so much time.
SKEWED is available from the http://www.zero-risk.org site, at I think £9 as is Brave New World of Zero Risk, for £4.
Please find time over the holidays to read these important well researched books by Martin J Walker and do not allow history to be repeated.
Best wishes
Eileen O'Connor
Dr. Magda Havas has sent the following letter, which she has just submitted to the editor of the National Post of Canada in response to a bombastic and astonishingly inaccurate article by Michael Fumento recently printed in the Post.
One almost wonders whether Fumento is actually this ignorant, or is under hire.
Fumento's article follows Magda's letter, below. I suggest that those of us who are able take the time to share some research infomation with Mr. Fumento and the editor of the Post as well. I sincerely hope they both receive enough factual feedback and concentrated censure to make their ears burn, and discourage them from publishing such lies in the future.
The National Post editor: Mr. Fumento: fumento@pobox.com
Before you write Mr. F, you might like to read the scathing piece he wrote about Sam Epstein: http://www.fumento.com/epames.html#
Regards, Shivani
Magda's letter:
I just read Michael Fumento's article "Don't worry, Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you" [Apr 7/06] and I'm disturbed that a reporter can be so ignorant about the facts, biased, and arrogant to boot.
In this article Fumento criticizes and mocks everyone who has an opinion contrary to his own. Is this the type of reporter the National Post wants writing for them?
It's clear to me that Fumento knows nothing about science and hasn't read the research in this field because if he did he would realize that the list of biological effects, identified by Cindy Sage, are all based on published scientific papers.
We are inundating our world with radio frequency radiation without knowing what the long-term consequences are likely to be. Each time we use a cell phone, a cordless phone or other wireless communication device we are sending and receiving radio frequency radiation. A large Swedish study that was just published reported an increased incidence of malignant brain tumors for mobile phone users when the cumulative use was more than 2000 hours and this study includes the cordless phone many of us have in our homes.
In a 1999 report Health Canada stated that biological effects occur below the federal guidelines of Safety Code 6, which is based on heating and does not protect against non-thermal effects, like the increased permeability of the blood brain barrier. Despite this document, Health Canada has not yet established guidelines for non-thermal effects.
Wi-Fi is yet another layer of RF energy to which more and more people will be exposed. People who have become sensitive to this form of radiation will become sick. In Sweden there are more than 250,000 sufferers of electrohypersensitivity (EHS). I wonder how many we have in Canada and how many we will have in Toronto after the Wi-Fi becomes operational.
Ignoring the truth or mocking those who state it won't make it go away.
Dr. Magda Havas, Associate Professor Environmental Studies Trent University, Peterborough, ON.
Don't worry, Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you
National Post Fri 07 Apr 2006
Page: A20 Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Michael Fumento
Remember when microwave ovens caused cancer? Maybe that's before your time; but what about when power lines and electric blankets caused cancer, and computer terminals caused miscarriages and birth defects?
Then, of course, cellphones caused brain tumours. And now, predictably enough, "WiFi" network signals that allow laptop computers to connect to the Internet wirelessly have also become suspect.
All of these scares have two things in common. First, they involve invisible electromagnetic frequency (EMF) transmissions, something many of us find to be spooky -- like invisible creatures in movies. Second, they're all bogus: The angst these scares have caused has been entirely baseless.
WiFi (short for "wireless fidelity") is used in many ways. It's ubiquitous in coffee shops and is used in homes like mine to remotely connect several computers. But whole municipalities, with Philadelphia the biggest and probably soon to be followed by San Francisco, have begun blanketing large areas with transmitters. Anybody there will be able to just boot up and check e-mail or surf the Net.
But that's where the problem lies, say some. No sooner had Toronto Hydro Telecom announced plans in March to convert Canada's largest city into a giant WiFi "hotspot" by the end of the year, than cries of doom arose. "Why should we all become guinea pigs?" a letter to the Toronto Star demanded.
David Fancy, head of the SWEEP Initiative (Safe Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Policies), agrees. "I have never seen any actual peer-reviewed science, epidemiological studies done with human subjects over an extensive period of time, that suggests this is actually safe," he told Toronto's Metro. That could be because Fancy is a dramatic arts professor, and thus may know lots about drama (and melodrama), but little about science and EMF. Those who understand it, conversely, will tell you otherwise.
"Health Canada has assessed the ability of radio frequency fields to cause DNA damage and affect gene expression in human-derived brain cell cultures in four studies since 2000," says spokesman Paul Duchesne. "No negative effect was seen." He adds: "From all the studies we've seen, including those of the World Health Organization, nothing negative has been scientifically proven."
Duchesne notes that WiFi transmitters are little more than radio towers, and in the same category as garage door openers, cordless phones, baby monitors.
It seems the prime fount of the Toronto fear may be another ersatz EMF expert, President Fred Gilbert of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. Previously, he was a zoology professor. That might come in handy in dealing with the occupants of rowdy fraternities, but isn't a good background for understanding radio frequencies.
Over the protests of his students, Gilbert has refused to allow campus-wide WiFi coverage, telling IT Business Canada, "While the jury's out on this one, I'm not going to put in place what is potential chronic exposure for our students."
So "chronic exposure" is inherently suspect -- as in chronic exposure to oxygen or to nutrition? Gilbert said his decision was based on a series of studies done for the California Department of Health Services and California Public Utilities Commission, examining EMF such as that generated by power lines or building wiring. But none of these studies found conclusive links to cancer, as Gilbert fears.
Rather, a key source of Gilbert's information, according to the publication Wi-Fi Planet, is Cindy Sage of Sage EMF Design in Santa Barbara, Calif. (She has praised his decision in a letter to the Globe and Mail.)
Not an unbiased source, Sage makes a living by detecting and then remediating "harmful" electromagnetic exposures. She has written and self-published a book, which encourages people into using her services. She was also a respondent to the San Francisco's request for comments on its proposed citywide WiFi network and (surprise!) advised against it.
Science be damned, Sage's Globe letter claimed radio frequency can cause "DNA breaks and chromosome aberrations, cell death including death of brain cells (neurons), increased free radical production, cell stress and premature aging, changes in brain function including memory loss, retarded learning, slower promotion in school and slower motor function and other performance impairment in children, headaches and fatigue, sleep disorders, neurodegenerative conditions, reduction in melatonin secretion and cancer."
Whew! It was probably only an oversight that she didn't include lycanthropy. In short, Gilbert is relying on someone who makes claims unsupported by evidence, and he lacks the ability to compare WiFi to its nearest neighbour, the radio. But then, so does Warren Bell, a board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
In an interview for a bizarre article in Toronto's NOW magazine, he said WiFi wouldn't be the first time industrialized society has embarked on something that works well in the lab but not so well in the real world. As a result, he said, "we've got ourselves in a number of different corners, something we have subsequently come to regret."
Not the real world? Hello? The first radio broadcast was exactly a century ago. Remember those big wooden boxes that used to pump out Benny Goodman and Guy Lombardo? Me neither; before my time. But that's what we're talking about. If Benny Goodman didn't hurt your parents, WiFi won't hurt you.
In fact, in 2003, Fredericton became the first Canadian city to blanket its downtown with WiFi, and nobody has yet turned into a zombie or had his head explode. But Fredericton offers its WiFi for free, which has a tendency to dampen dissent. The nation as a whole has over 1,400 WiFi hotspots, while the United States has about
48,000, yet no epidemic related to Cindy Sage's parade of horribles appears to have broken out.
Still, one Toronto writer made an interesting suggestion. "If the health officials [go along with the fears] they will have to order the switching off of all radios, mobile phones, garage doors, microwave transmitters, ground all aircraft and return Toronto to the Middle Ages."
Neat! A giant outdoor medieval museum just north of the U.S. border! But I'll bet those darned obstinate Canucks will refuse to go along.
--------
Don't worry Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you?
http://omega-news.livejournal.com/213369.html
http://tinyurl.com/hyf8j
It is quite worrying when you see people fighting old battles over again, we have to learn from history and from what research and writing has been done previously about these individuals and groups, otherwise we waste so much time.
SKEWED is available from the http://www.zero-risk.org site, at I think £9 as is Brave New World of Zero Risk, for £4.
Please find time over the holidays to read these important well researched books by Martin J Walker and do not allow history to be repeated.
Best wishes
Eileen O'Connor
Dr. Magda Havas has sent the following letter, which she has just submitted to the editor of the National Post of Canada in response to a bombastic and astonishingly inaccurate article by Michael Fumento recently printed in the Post.
One almost wonders whether Fumento is actually this ignorant, or is under hire.
Fumento's article follows Magda's letter, below. I suggest that those of us who are able take the time to share some research infomation with Mr. Fumento and the editor of the Post as well. I sincerely hope they both receive enough factual feedback and concentrated censure to make their ears burn, and discourage them from publishing such lies in the future.
The National Post editor: Mr. Fumento: fumento@pobox.com
Before you write Mr. F, you might like to read the scathing piece he wrote about Sam Epstein: http://www.fumento.com/epames.html#
Regards, Shivani
Magda's letter:
I just read Michael Fumento's article "Don't worry, Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you" [Apr 7/06] and I'm disturbed that a reporter can be so ignorant about the facts, biased, and arrogant to boot.
In this article Fumento criticizes and mocks everyone who has an opinion contrary to his own. Is this the type of reporter the National Post wants writing for them?
It's clear to me that Fumento knows nothing about science and hasn't read the research in this field because if he did he would realize that the list of biological effects, identified by Cindy Sage, are all based on published scientific papers.
We are inundating our world with radio frequency radiation without knowing what the long-term consequences are likely to be. Each time we use a cell phone, a cordless phone or other wireless communication device we are sending and receiving radio frequency radiation. A large Swedish study that was just published reported an increased incidence of malignant brain tumors for mobile phone users when the cumulative use was more than 2000 hours and this study includes the cordless phone many of us have in our homes.
In a 1999 report Health Canada stated that biological effects occur below the federal guidelines of Safety Code 6, which is based on heating and does not protect against non-thermal effects, like the increased permeability of the blood brain barrier. Despite this document, Health Canada has not yet established guidelines for non-thermal effects.
Wi-Fi is yet another layer of RF energy to which more and more people will be exposed. People who have become sensitive to this form of radiation will become sick. In Sweden there are more than 250,000 sufferers of electrohypersensitivity (EHS). I wonder how many we have in Canada and how many we will have in Toronto after the Wi-Fi becomes operational.
Ignoring the truth or mocking those who state it won't make it go away.
Dr. Magda Havas, Associate Professor Environmental Studies Trent University, Peterborough, ON.
Don't worry, Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you
National Post Fri 07 Apr 2006
Page: A20 Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Michael Fumento
Remember when microwave ovens caused cancer? Maybe that's before your time; but what about when power lines and electric blankets caused cancer, and computer terminals caused miscarriages and birth defects?
Then, of course, cellphones caused brain tumours. And now, predictably enough, "WiFi" network signals that allow laptop computers to connect to the Internet wirelessly have also become suspect.
All of these scares have two things in common. First, they involve invisible electromagnetic frequency (EMF) transmissions, something many of us find to be spooky -- like invisible creatures in movies. Second, they're all bogus: The angst these scares have caused has been entirely baseless.
WiFi (short for "wireless fidelity") is used in many ways. It's ubiquitous in coffee shops and is used in homes like mine to remotely connect several computers. But whole municipalities, with Philadelphia the biggest and probably soon to be followed by San Francisco, have begun blanketing large areas with transmitters. Anybody there will be able to just boot up and check e-mail or surf the Net.
But that's where the problem lies, say some. No sooner had Toronto Hydro Telecom announced plans in March to convert Canada's largest city into a giant WiFi "hotspot" by the end of the year, than cries of doom arose. "Why should we all become guinea pigs?" a letter to the Toronto Star demanded.
David Fancy, head of the SWEEP Initiative (Safe Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Policies), agrees. "I have never seen any actual peer-reviewed science, epidemiological studies done with human subjects over an extensive period of time, that suggests this is actually safe," he told Toronto's Metro. That could be because Fancy is a dramatic arts professor, and thus may know lots about drama (and melodrama), but little about science and EMF. Those who understand it, conversely, will tell you otherwise.
"Health Canada has assessed the ability of radio frequency fields to cause DNA damage and affect gene expression in human-derived brain cell cultures in four studies since 2000," says spokesman Paul Duchesne. "No negative effect was seen." He adds: "From all the studies we've seen, including those of the World Health Organization, nothing negative has been scientifically proven."
Duchesne notes that WiFi transmitters are little more than radio towers, and in the same category as garage door openers, cordless phones, baby monitors.
It seems the prime fount of the Toronto fear may be another ersatz EMF expert, President Fred Gilbert of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. Previously, he was a zoology professor. That might come in handy in dealing with the occupants of rowdy fraternities, but isn't a good background for understanding radio frequencies.
Over the protests of his students, Gilbert has refused to allow campus-wide WiFi coverage, telling IT Business Canada, "While the jury's out on this one, I'm not going to put in place what is potential chronic exposure for our students."
So "chronic exposure" is inherently suspect -- as in chronic exposure to oxygen or to nutrition? Gilbert said his decision was based on a series of studies done for the California Department of Health Services and California Public Utilities Commission, examining EMF such as that generated by power lines or building wiring. But none of these studies found conclusive links to cancer, as Gilbert fears.
Rather, a key source of Gilbert's information, according to the publication Wi-Fi Planet, is Cindy Sage of Sage EMF Design in Santa Barbara, Calif. (She has praised his decision in a letter to the Globe and Mail.)
Not an unbiased source, Sage makes a living by detecting and then remediating "harmful" electromagnetic exposures. She has written and self-published a book, which encourages people into using her services. She was also a respondent to the San Francisco's request for comments on its proposed citywide WiFi network and (surprise!) advised against it.
Science be damned, Sage's Globe letter claimed radio frequency can cause "DNA breaks and chromosome aberrations, cell death including death of brain cells (neurons), increased free radical production, cell stress and premature aging, changes in brain function including memory loss, retarded learning, slower promotion in school and slower motor function and other performance impairment in children, headaches and fatigue, sleep disorders, neurodegenerative conditions, reduction in melatonin secretion and cancer."
Whew! It was probably only an oversight that she didn't include lycanthropy. In short, Gilbert is relying on someone who makes claims unsupported by evidence, and he lacks the ability to compare WiFi to its nearest neighbour, the radio. But then, so does Warren Bell, a board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
In an interview for a bizarre article in Toronto's NOW magazine, he said WiFi wouldn't be the first time industrialized society has embarked on something that works well in the lab but not so well in the real world. As a result, he said, "we've got ourselves in a number of different corners, something we have subsequently come to regret."
Not the real world? Hello? The first radio broadcast was exactly a century ago. Remember those big wooden boxes that used to pump out Benny Goodman and Guy Lombardo? Me neither; before my time. But that's what we're talking about. If Benny Goodman didn't hurt your parents, WiFi won't hurt you.
In fact, in 2003, Fredericton became the first Canadian city to blanket its downtown with WiFi, and nobody has yet turned into a zombie or had his head explode. But Fredericton offers its WiFi for free, which has a tendency to dampen dissent. The nation as a whole has over 1,400 WiFi hotspots, while the United States has about
48,000, yet no epidemic related to Cindy Sage's parade of horribles appears to have broken out.
Still, one Toronto writer made an interesting suggestion. "If the health officials [go along with the fears] they will have to order the switching off of all radios, mobile phones, garage doors, microwave transmitters, ground all aircraft and return Toronto to the Middle Ages."
Neat! A giant outdoor medieval museum just north of the U.S. border! But I'll bet those darned obstinate Canucks will refuse to go along.
--------
Don't worry Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you?
http://omega-news.livejournal.com/213369.html
rudkla - 12. Apr, 15:31
