Here is this sham newly issued Irish Government Report undertaken by an "expert group" attached to the Irish Department of Communications [= telecommunications], Marine, and Natural Resources into health effects of cellphones cum masts. And now that this committee has safely (that means ensuring the continued financial good health of telecommunications here) decreed that there are absolutely no health risks from cellphones and masts, the Irish Government feels it is perfect timing for it to transfer responsibility on this issue to the Department of the Environment! The Irish Government's deceit is blatantly apparent and it has the gall to acknowledge that yes indeed, to the careful observer it does look like conflict of interest that its Government-appointed group into health effects of cellphones and masts actually was not independent of the Irish Department of Communications but that it--the Government-- is now in the aftermath of this report ensuring this tie is severed.
Indeed, this report appears such a blatant sham, an insult to the Irish electorate's intelligence, and so dangerous in what it medically recommends for EHS sufferers living in Ireland that the Irish Government may have shot itself in the foot when it comes to being re-elected in some weeks time.
How could this committee chaired by Noel O'Flynn (Cork) conclude that mobile phones are not a health hazard and that this is based on its study of "all the evidence accumulated so far" when the same Deputy Noel O'Flynn remarked, a few years ago, at the commencement of the study:
"While I understand there has been no conclusive scientific evidence to prove any long-term negative effect of mobile phone usage, some recent studies have suggested otherwise. I believe this information is strong enough to merit more research." A quick google search of Deputy Noel O'Flynn [
http://tinyurl.com/279w7b ]will also reveal interesting information on his forays overseas to promote Irish telecommunications interests!
Most dangerous in this report is the committee's recommendation that GPs "be provided with information about the appropriate treatment of symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity and be informed the symptoms are not due to exposure to electromagnetic fields." So, are they going to inform Irish GPs that EHS is a delusional state/psychosis and to shoo us off into the the arms of psychiatrists who in turn might conveniently lock us up and medicate us into compliant zombies? I. for one, am not in the least surprised that the Irish Government would stoop to doing this to its own EHS citizens. In its eyes, wealth is vastly more important than health. But it may very well has misjudged the intelligence of Irish people and they may show their contempt at the next election.
Best, Imelda, Cork
THE IRISH TIMES, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2007 [page 3, print edition]
"MOBILE PHONES NOT A HEALTH HAZARD, SAYS REPORT
[by] Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
No adverse short or long-term health effects have been shown to occur from exposure to the signals produced by mobile phones or phone masts, according to a report from a Government-appointed expert group. The report, published yesterday, says this conclusion is based on all the evidence accumulated so far. It also says there are no data available to suggest that use of mobile phones by children is a health hazard, but it says more research on this issue has been recommended by the World Health Organisation. "The only established adverse health effect associated with mobile phones is with traffic accidents," it added. The report, HEALTH EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS, says it is unlikely that extremely low-frequency magnetic fields, which would come from power lines and electrical appliances, cause leukaemia in children, but studies to date are insufficient to make a conclusive judgment. It has recommended that where possible, and as a precaution, new power lines should be sited away from heavily populated areas so as to keep exposures to people low. "The evidence for 50 Hz magnetic fields causing childhood leukaemia is too weak to require rerouting of existing lines and so these measures should only apply to new lines," it said. The report acknowledges there has been public concern about the siting of masts or base stations in different areas. it said the planning guidelines for siting base stations are seen as lacking transparency and lacking any input from the public. "Many local authorities have adopted their own planning guidelines for the approval of new base stations, with different requirements on their location. "It is strongly recommended that national guidelines be agreed on the planning and approval process for new antennas on existing masts and future base stations through a public consultative process," it said. The expert group has also recommended the Government should take a more proactive role in providing health advice in relation to electromagnetic fields and that the issue should be managed through a single agency. At present the responsibility is with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, and given that this department is also responsible for the promotion and development of mobile communications, there appears to be a conflict of interest, it says. The Government said yesterday it will become the responsibility of the Department of the Environment from May 1st. The group, which included Irish and international representatives, also recommended GPs be provided with information about the appropriate treatment for symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity and be informed the symptoms are not due to exposure to electromagnetic fields.
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Erratum: Deputy Noel O'Flynn did not chair Irish expert Group report
Con Colbert, IERVN (Irish Electromagnetic Radiation Victims Network), and Secretary of IDEA (Irish Doctors Environmental Association) has alerted me to a major error regards Deputy Noel o'Flynn, in my accompanying remarks to the newly released roport by the Irish Government-appointed expert group. Con notes:
"The Expert Committee was NOT chaired by Noel O Flynn. He chaired the Joint Committee on Communications. His Report stated that "members of the Committee were aware of individuals who were affected by Masts and Phones. . . .
This new Expert report contradicts the findings of Noel O Flynn's Report."
But my comments on the Irish Government's cynical strategy of getting this pro-telecommunications health report on masts and cellphones signed and sealed before transferring it and future responsibilites for health in this matter to the Department of the Environment stand.
Best, Imelda, Cork.
I am also sending you along for posting an update on that ultrasonic MOQUITO device for repelling teenagers that appeared in yesterday's THE SUNDAY TIMES.
From The Sunday Times, March 25, 2007
Buzz on the street puts yobs to flightMaurice Chittenden A SONIC device that gives out a piercing noise audible only to people in their teens and early twenties has been installed as a yob deterrent at nearly 3,000 locations across Britain.
The inventors of the £500 transmitter, called the Mosquito, claim it has helped stop gangs of youths gathering in locations such as cemeteries and parks or outside shops and schools.
Police forces, however, are divided on whether the device should be deployed. Some have turned it down because it may infringe the human rights of young people.
Once activated, the Mosquito sends out a pulse at 18 kilohertz that switches on and off four times a second for up to 20 minutes.
Teenagers can hear this frequency because of minute hairs in their inner ears that detect it. These “inner hairs” die by the time they reach 25. Children and babies cannot hear the device while most people over
25 do not notice sounds above 8 kilohertz.
Supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Spar have all employed the Mosquito to stop youths gathering outside stores. A Spar in Barry, south Wales, which was the first to use it, said crime outside the store had dropped by 83% since the device was installed.
Train companies including Arriva and Chiltern Railways also use it to scatter groups of youths loitering at stations.
Local authorities have positioned the device, which is housed in a 9in-wide black box, in cemeteries and parks to stop youngsters “hanging out” after they have closed for the night.
The Mosquito was invented two years ago “out of necessity” by Howard Stapleton, 40, a former British Aerospace engineer who runs a security business in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales.
Stapleton had the idea when his daughter Isabel, then 15, went to buy milk but returned empty-handed because she did not want to pass through a gang of boys hanging around outside the store.
He looked at ways of deterring young people from gathering. The shopkeeper told him police would move the youngsters on but they would soon come back. Other stores had tried playing classical music but it had not worked.
Then Stapleton remembered as a boy of 12 visiting a factory run by his father that made Ever Ready batteries. It used ultrasonic welding to make the batteries. The young Stapleton found the noise so appalling he had to run out but none of the adults appeared to notice.
He adapted the idea to make the Mosquito. “The real trick to it is pulsing this noise on and off and it just makes it really annoying after five to six minutes and the teenagers disappear,” said Stapleton.
Many police forces have deployed the device on problem areas. Staffordshire police said it was so successful youths had gone into a shop to ask the owner to turn it off.
In Gloucestershire, police are lending the device to shops with an option to buy if it proves successful. In Lancashire, police received 60 callouts to a row of shops in Lea two months before the device was installed. This fell to three calls in the two months after it was deployed.
Not all forces are so enthusiastic, partly because of concerns about the human rights of teenagers who are behaving innocently, as well as the gangs.
Simon Morris, Stapleton’s fellow director at Compound Security, said: “We are getting problems with chief constables who say they are scared it is going to infringe human rights. We know it doesn’t.
“And what about the human rights of people who suffer daily from gangs?”
West Midlands police are not deploying the device in Birmingham “because it is indiscriminate and we have to consider the effects on young people in the area”. Derbyshire police have bought four but opted not to deploy them until it is certain there are no health problems.
Peter Douglas Osborn, a Tory councillor in Birmingham, said: “It’s ludicrous. They don’t want to do anything to hurt the yobs’ delicate eardrums.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers said it was up to individual forces whether to use the device.
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MOBILE PHONES NOT A HEALTH HAZARD, SAYS REPORT
Dear Ms Kennedy,
Eithne Donnellan's article MOBILE PHONES NOT A HEALTH HAZARD, SAYS REPORT THE IRISH TIMES, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2007 [page 3, print edition] shows that she has not done her homework. With an article like this the Irish Times has truely reached the standard of Pravda.
Yours sincerely,
Dorothee Krien
P.S. Here is something she could have found if he had wanted to.:
http://www.starweave.com/masts/
Six Studies Showing Ill-Health Effects From Masts Document produced by Dr Grahame Blackwell 21st Feb 2005, updated 2/5/05
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=MOBILE+PHONES+NOT+A+HEALTH+HAZARD
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Noel+O%27Flynn
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=hypersensitivity
