'Show Me the Wi-Fi Bodies' Policy Rapped by Davis

Governments, companies, scientists and others who want a “pile of bodies” before they limit Wi-Fi and other radiation remind Devra Davis of temporizing when smoking, asbestos and air pollution became health threats. Wi-Fi and EMR health advocates need better PR.

Davis

Davis, an epidemiologist and author of Disconnect, published “Show me the bodies: a monumental public policy failure,” April 18 on the Oxford University Press blog.

Waiting for deaths to pile up due to a health hazard “seems a cruel and outdated foundation for public policy,” she says. The article has links to 18 supporting documents and websites.

Lung disease in teenagers working with asbestos in the 19th century was ignored until there was evidence of an “epidemic toll,” she writes.

“The situation now posed by cellphones and wireless transmitting devices appears eerily reminiscent of what has transpired with tobacco, asbestos and air pollution,” she said.

Those who begin using cellphones as teens have four to eight times more risk of brain cancer as young adults, according to research. Quoted is a study in Sweden finding that “those who begin using either cordless or mobile phones regularly before age 20 have greater than a fourfold increased risk of ipsilateral glioma” (a type of brain cancer).

Telecom, Internet Providers Rapped

Davis wants not only apologies, which are “overdue,” but action from the major telecom companies and internet providers. She does not name any of them but three of the five biggest advertisers in the U.S. are AT&T, No. 2 at $3.3 billion, Comcast, No. 4 at $3B, and Verizon, No, 5 at $2.5B. Media mostly skip this story.

She doesn’t name companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, etc., but says “manufacturers” continue to market cellphones and other microwave-radiating devices to “infants, toddlers, and young teens without clear notice that such radiation increases the risks of brain cancers, reproductive harm and a host of other health problems.”

Warnings are “buried” in instructions that cellphones should not be kept in pockets or bras, said Davis, who told how 21-year-old Tiffany Frantz contracted breast cancer after keeping a cellphone in her bra.

Frantz described this in an interview by Dr Oz Dec. 15, 2013.

Another breast cancer victim cited was runner Donna Jaynes, mother of three, who kept her cell phone in her sports bra for six years. She developed multi-focal primary tumors, invasive carcinoma with ductal and lobular features.

Health Advocates Need Better PR

Wi-Fi and EMR Health Advocates, practically hysterical in their inability to budge governments, institutions or media on this subject, need to use more powerful communications and political tools.

They should study the techniques of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender movement, which has been successful in recent years in bringing about a sea change in public attitudes and law.

The effort has been multi-dimensional, targeting local, state and federal courts and legislators, and local and national media.

A host of popular entertainment figures has been recruited to spread the message that there is nothing wrong with love between members of the same sex and that individuals who identify with a gender other than their birth gender should not be discriminated against.

EMR Health Advocates Need Stars, Politicians

EMR health advocates have a lot of scientists and academicians on their side but virtually no political leaders or stars from the movies, music or stage.

Now, with a national election under way, is the time to win notice from some of the candidates. The only national-level candidate who expressed some interest in the subject is Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, who did so some years ago, but dropped the subject. Letters should be sent to candidates at their campaign h.q.

A PR figure who has the ear of Hillary Clinton is Michael Kempner, CEO of MWW Group, whose website displays a picture of him standing next to her. He is one of her leading fund-raisers.

We wouldn’t advise calling or emailing Kempner but regular mail to his office at One Meadowlands Plaza, East Rutherford, NJ 07073 could be effective. We often mail to CEOs and others unreachable by phone or email and have achieved results. Requests to look into this issue have been sent to the New York chapter of PR Society of America and Canadian PR Society with no results so far.

Since Wi-Fi and other forms of radiation have a greater impact on children, babies and fetuses, it can be argued that a candidate who backs removing Wi-Fi from schools and libraries, and emblazoning cellphone and computer packages with large red letters saying, “Warning, Health Hazard,” will win many female as well as male votes.

School Population: 75 million

The LGBT population, although a single digit percentage of the general population, has been able to change public opinion because of its sophisticated PR and political organization.

At risk from daily classroom bombardment by industrial-grade Wi-Fi routers is a much bigger audience—the 55 million students in grade and high school and the 20 million in college. Many children also use their cellphones in unsafe ways.

EMR health advocates need a good slogan, a good “sound bite” that will resonate with people the way the word “love” is used by the LGBT community. The words could be “child safety” or just “children.” A PR firm or ad agency could help. So far, we know of no such firm that is helping the EMR community.

New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser on April 22 said rock stars who are boycotting North Carolina because of its law saying the gender on a birth certificate determines whether a women’s or men’s bathroom can be used, are “hypocrites” because they continue to perform in countries that ban gay marriage such as Italy and most countries in the Middle East except Israel. Gay marriage is legal in only 15 of 197 countries.

Her solution is to allow those who have had operations to use the bathroom of the respective gender.

O’Dwyer Website Continues EMR Coverage

The O’Dwyer website, newsletter and magazine are continuing coverage of the EMR threat via a permanent “cyber conference” that will cover breaking news and provide links to scientific papers and other documents.

Not one word of the dangers of Wi-Fi, cellphones, etc., sullied the “Wi-Fi Now 2016” conference in Tysons Corner, Va., April 19-21 from which O’Dwyer reporters were banned.

Non-stop promotion of Wi-Fi was the order of the day. “Wi-Fi is the beast of burden of data, and is becoming more and more the definition of the internet itself,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. Also: “We do live in a world of Wi-Fi. It’s here, it’s now, and it’s not going anywhere.” One motive is that wireless is a lot cheaper than wiring just about everything. But wireless could prove far more expensive in the long run.

RCR Wireless News reported on the Wi-Fi conference.

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav with school chidren.

The campaign to win recognition of the hazards of radiation in the U.S. has received a boost with the arrival of Dafna Tachover, who was able to convince Mayor Yona Yahav of Haifa, third largest city in Israel, to shut down Wi-Fi in all the schools.

Tachover, who is sensitive to EMR, is living in upstate New York. She told the TV documentary “How We Are Killing Ourselves—Wireless Radiation,” which aired in Israel April 12, that “Electro-Sensitivity is an epidemic and not three per cent of the population but double digits.”

Wi-Fi in the schools was called “a disaster.” Her pleas were heard by Mayor Yahav who pulled the plug on Wi-Fi in schools pending a study.

The documentary, in Hebrew, is being translated into English for odwyerpr.com and will be posted later this week. Tachover gave a lengthy interview to New York magazine online March 29, 2015.