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Angry Westhampton residents, who got four of the five library trustees to resign last year but who continue to be frustrated by the board, are hopeful that new trustee Mary Anne Yutes will break the logjam.
The board, ignoring demands that trustees be elected rather than appointed, named three new trustees Feb. 16—Yutes, Eric Mirell and Robert Santucci.
What gives the residents hope is that Yutes is said to be “a licensed insurance professional and principal in the Mohawk Valley Agency” who has “extensive fundraising experience with non-profit groups, especially the American Cancer Society.”
One of the issues residents want the board to take up is whether the Wi-Fi in the library poses a health risk to children and other users by exposing them to electro-magnetic radiation (EMR), a suspected carcinogen.
WHO Sees Class 2B Carcinogen
The World Health Organization, cited by the American Cancer Society as a credible source of information on cancer-causing factors, on Feb. 23 confirmed that Wi-Fi and cellphone radiation are Class 2B Carcinogens.
Responding to a request for clarification on the issue by Safe Tech for Maryland Schools was Veronique Terrasse, press officer, International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is one of the organizations cited by the ACS. The ACS notes that it “does not directly evaluate whether a certain substance or exposure causes cancer” but relies on other organization.
The residents would like the WH library to host the six-part program on EMR and health that ran at the Ashland, Mass., library from Oct. 8, 2015 to Feb. 11, 2016.
Cancer Risk from EMF Is Cited
A film on cellphone radiation Jan. 26 explored “the potential long-term health effects, including cancer and infertility, from cellphones.” A talk Oct. 27, 2015 by Dr. Erica Mallerly-Blythe deplored the “addiction” to wireless devices including laptops, cellphones, tablets and other microwave-emitting wireless devices.
As noted on this website Feb. 22, the French National Library, Paris, the nation’s biggest library, decided in 2008 that installing wireless data access throughout its four buildings would be a mistake because of “proven genotoxic effects of Wi-Fi.” It hard-wired hundreds of computer stations for patrons, noting that wired was not only safe but provided faster access to data.
Press coverage of the library’s decision quoted research by Amy Worthington, a reporter for the Idaho Observer, who has written extensively on the health hazards of wireless radiation.
“America must soon face its radiation cataclysm,” she has written. “Millions of workers occupy worksites on a daily basis where operating antenna arrays are camouflaged and where no RF safety program is carried out…American youth are now literally addicted to ‘texting,” watching TV, and accessing the internet on tiny wireless screens.
“A nation that requires compulsory mass irradiation to fuel its trivial entertainment needs is surely destined to have a sickly and short-lived population,” she said.
The WH board, responding to emails asking that it replicate the Ashland, Mass., program, responded by saying the topic would be take up at the next board meeting which is March 16.
Microwave Linked to Cancer
Worthington cites a report of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health that said workers exposed to high levels of RF/microwave radiation routinely have “astronomical” cancer rates.
She compares wireless communication radiation to health hazards provided in past years by DDT, thalidomide, dioxin, benzine, Agent Orange and asbestos.
“Historically, the truth about the public health menace of extreme toxins is never known until thousands sicken and die,” she says.
American Cancer Society Cites Others
Asked for its position on EMF and cancer, the American Cancer Society said that “in most cases it does not directly evaluate whether a certain substance or exposure causes cancer. Instead, the ACS looks to highly respected national and international organizations such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the US National Toxicology Program.”
Their mission is to evaluate environmental cancer risks based on evidence from laboratory and human research studies, said ACS.
The ACS website has a four-page discussion of “Power Lines, Electrical Devices and Extremely Low Frequency Radiation” and their effect on humans.
IARC, it notes, “considered the evidence for ELF magnetic and electric fields separately and found ‘limited evidence’ in umans for the carcinogenicity of extremely low frequency magnetic fields in relation to childhood leukemia, with ‘inadequate evidence’ in relation to all other cancers.”
It found “inadequate evidence” for the carcinogenicity of ELF electric fields in humans as well as for the carcinogenicity of ELF magnetic fields in experimental animals.”
Based on the assessment, IARC has classified ELF magnetic fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” It has also said that ELF electric fields are “not classifiable as to their carcinogenicity to humans.”
NIEHS, says ACS, “recommends that people concerned about their EMF and ELF radiation exposure should find out where their major EMF sources are and move away from them or limit time spent near them. Moving even an arm’s length away from a source will dramatically lower exposure, ACS says.
Lo Isidro, senior director at Real Chemistry with more than a decade of strategic communications and PA experience, has joined Narrative Strategies.
Nelson Fernandez, former North American chair of APCO Worldwide and managing director of Burson-Marsteller, has joined Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as director of communications and PA.
Lilit Bargar, who was most recently an EVP in the healthcare practice at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at GCI Health as EVP, corporate practice lead.
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