U.S.

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STATED POSITIONS AND ACTIONS ON RADIATION FROM WIRELESS DEVICES

  • 1984: The FCC says it looks to the FDA to set health standards, and while the FDA is tasked with the oversight of radiological devices, the FDA acknowledges that they gave the cell phone a free pass onto the market in the early 80′s without any pre- market safety testing.
  • 1986: National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)recommends safety limits for radiofrequency/microwave (RF/MW) exposure levels that are five times more stringent than the industry-designed guidelines adopted by the FCC in 1992. (These ’92 guidelines, ANSI/IEEE C95.1, were revised from a 1966 military standard.
  • 1990: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)proposed regulating electromagnetic radiation as a Class B carcinogen.
  • 1993: EPA: “The FCC’s exposure standards are ‘seriously flawed.’”; FDA: “FCC rules do not address the issue of long-term, chronic exposure to RF fields.”; NIOSH: “The FCC’s standard is inadequate because it “is based on only one dominant mechanism—adverse health effects caused by body heating.”
  • 1999: After studies by the U.S. wireless industry in the early 90′s found DNA damage from exposure (the studies were cancelled after the data turned up damaging results), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) commissioned a study on radiofrequency radiation of the type emitted by wireless transmitters and devices in 1999, but didn’t start the study until 2010, and then announced no results would be available before 2014.
  • 1999: The Federal Interagency Working Group on Radiofrequency Radiation terms existing safety standards for pulsed radiofrequency radiation of the type emitted by wireless transmitters and devices “not protective of human health.”
  • 2002: Norbert Hankin of the EPA Radiation Protection Division stated, “Federal health and safety agencies have not yet developed policies concerning possible risk from long-term non-thermal exposures” to Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation {NIEMR}.
  • 2005: National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) in conjunction with the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (The U.S. Access Board) put out a report, Indoor Environmental Quality, that stipulates that for a building to be accessible, fiber optics should be used instead of Wi-Fi and if Wi-Fi is used, it should be contained by foil-backed drywall or other barrier.
  • 2007: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) produced a paper on research needs in the areas of radiofrequency radiation.  The 2008 report was titled “Identification of Research Needs Relating to Potential Biological or Adverse Health Effects of Wireless Communication Devices”
  • 2008: Congress holds hearings on cell phone safety
  • 2008: Dennis Kucinich sends memo to the FCC calling for a re-call of vote authorizing licensing of spectrum for white spaces http://www.emfacts.com/2009/02/1023-congressional-committee-questions-adequacy-of-rf-exposure-limits/
  • 2009: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urges Congress to focus on the potential connection between electromagnetic fields and “Bee Colony Collapse”.
  • 2009: Congress holds more hearings on cell phone safety
  • 2010: The Presidential Cancer Panel named wireless technologies as “potential causes of cancer that demand further research and precaution” and cited the need to protect children “who are far more susceptible to damage from environmental carcinogens”.
  • 2011: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that 50 minutes of cell phone use causes the brain to rapidly uptake glucose in an area linked with judgment and impulse control.
  • 2011: Two months after the NIH study is released, the FCC proposes dismantling some of the wired phone network to promote wireless broadband and distributed antenna systems (FCC 11-13).
  • 2000′s generally: The FCC says it looks to the FDA to set health standards, and while the FDA is tasked with the oversight of radiological devices, the FDA acknowledges that they gave the cell phone a free pass onto the market in the early 80′s without any pre- market safety testing.
  • 2013: FCC puts out a Request for Comment on wireless standards
  • 2014: Department of the Interior (DOI) sends a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) saying that standards are based on athermal effects and are 30 years out of date.

LEGISLATION, RECOMMENDATIONS & STUDIES FROM OTHER LEVELS OF US GOVERNMENT

  • 1987: Suffolk County passed legisation protecting County workers from excessive radiation from video display terminals (VDT’s). Shortly thereafter, VDT’s were yanked off the market and redesigned to emit much less radiation.
  • 1987: The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) and The Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY) released the final report of the New York Power Lines Project, which found that leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors were twice as likely to occur among children living in homes near high-current distribution lines and that the “basis for the hypothesis that magnetic fields cause cancer is now established.”
  • 1993: California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recommends cell towers not be sited near schools or hospitals.
  • 2002: The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) released a report on powerline EMF exposures that found that added risk of miscarriage, child leukemia, brain cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and greater incidence of suicide was associated with exposure to electric and magnetic fields such as those that radiate from power lines and electrical appliances.
  • 2009: Colorado and Connecticut declare “electro-hypersensitivity awareness months”
  • 2010: Portland, Oregon and Jackson, Wyoming declare “cell phone awareness months”.
  • 2010: San Francisco passed legislation requiring cell phone point-of-sale radiation disclosure. (legislation later scrapped after CTIA sues City of San Francisco).
  • 2011: The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) allow smart meter opt-outs for a fee.  Vermont permits a no-fee opt-out.
  • 2011: Orange County, NY passes a resolution calling on the federal and NY state government to  initiate epidemiological studies of populations exposed to microwave radiation-emitting transmitters.  Smart meters, cell towers and Wi-Fi are technologies of concern cited.
  • 2011: State of New Mexico House of Representatives orders Health Department to compile literature on Microwave Radiation and cites cell towers and cell phones as technologies of concern.