Wi-Fi, the Death of Us All

I think Mr. Morford lives in a place that has a higher level of tolerance for differences than most any other place in the U.S. I think this is reflected in his articles.

I think Mark does a great job at what he does. He experiences things from the common perspective and writes about it with more honesty than most people. He admits that we don't know everything as much as some people would like to pass off scientific data as absolute truth.

Sea Turtles, even bacteria use magnetic maping for migration.

NATURE - Magnetic Mapping
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/turtles/mapping.html

Indeed, "Kevin knows" what will happen if you talk on your cell phone.

Moford, a humorist?

Well I suppose it is amusing that you can call yourself a reporter without reporting anything. You can also call yourself a writer, if you can write 1000+ words without saying anything.

The chief facts we can glean from this bit of "reporting" is that Moford doesn't know anything about anything, is not interested in finding out, and seems to consider this a GOOD thing--or at least the only possible position for anyone who aspires to be cool and hip.

Probably proof of brain damage right there.

And your point is ????

To Chunga's Revenge:

I know my routine is old and tired, but in my little world, Democrats ARE the answer, because Republicans are the only other answer.

Somebody above mentioned tin-foil hat people. I've never had one of those hats, and don't plan to get one.

"...kicking, squealing gucci little piggy."

dgpdx,

We are fully aware that it is (an attempt at) humor. But it has such an arrogant, smrat-ass, mocking tone about it that I don't find it funny in the least. And no, I don't buy any of these theories that the RF energy from wy-fy is at all harmful. But, as a ham license holder who had to do RF energy exposure probelms as part of the exam, The large amount of time some people spend on cell phones, held close to the head, could definitely be a problem.

The author sounds like a paranoid product of the crumbling empire.

Article is fictitious horror - elaborating on the exagerated fears of people who trust their feelings more than facts & science.

Foil hats anyone?

This article strikes out. Why is it on Common Dreams? Funny? Conservatives are the ones who think science is funny. It reads like a rant by Dennis Miller.

The conservatives are supposed the humor-challenged bunch, not us liberals. All the hyperbole in this piece was intended to be funny, i.e, not to be taken seriously...

Joe Jackson, 1985:

Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Theres no cure, theres no answer
Everything gives you cancer

Don't touch that dial
Don't try to smile
Just take this pill
Its in your file

Don't work hard
Don't play hard
Don't plan for the graveyard
Remember -

Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Theres no cure, theres no answer
Everything gives you cancer

Don't work by night
Don't play by day
You'll feel all right
But you will pay

No caffeine
No protein
No booze or
Nicotine
Remember -

Don't play that piano...

If you go and look at the "Bioinitiative Report" that spawned this latest round of EMFear, you will find in its summary section this curious, boxed, highlighted statement:

"It appears it is the INFORMATION conveyed by electromagnetic radiation (rather than
heat) that causes biological changes - some of these biological changes may lead to loss of
wellbeing, disease and even death."

There are a lot of other aspects of the report which brand it as an example of pathological science, in the same category with the cold fusion holdouts.

But this one is particularly intriguiging. There does not seem to be any explanation in the main text of what it means. Does anyone here have any idea?

Does it mean that, for example, the stupid conversations people have on cell phones, or the crap they read on the internet, or the crap on TV and radio, is the actual cause of the "loss of wellbeing, disease and even death"?

Or do they mean that somehow structures in our bodies, other than our brains, are actually receiving and decoding radio signals, and following the instructions they contain to commit suicide? If so, could EM fields coded with other information perhaps actually be good for us? (I don't mean public TV.)

And, what kind of scientists would make such an apparently weird, mysterious, implausible suggestion in a boxed statement in the summary of their report and leave it unexplained?

Sorry, I'm distracted by more immediate worries, like having an operation and having to go back into the hospital because of the infections I got AT the hospital, and the six different antibiotics I had to take over a month's time to slay the list of microbes that were determined to get me and turn me into soup.

Cell phones? I think something else will kill you first.

Daniel David the Damn Democrat - Your routine is getting old and tired. Democrats are not the answer to everything, actually they are not the answer to anything. What they are are the flip side of the same bad coin. Bill Clinton was the best republican president this country ever had! He did more to push this country to the right, with his DLC corporate whoring, and his mealy mouthed centrist approach to gutting federal programs and setting up the destruction of our economy with NAFTA, than Regan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 combined!

As for the article at hand, I had a good chuckle from it myself, sitting at my laptop connected to my wireless router and talking on my cell phone.

If y'all are so scared of the evils of technology, GET OFF THE NET! Go start a garden and grow your self some organic spinach or something healthy.

I thought the column was pretty damn funny, and enjoyed it as such. Getting away from electromagnetic radiation today is about like getting away from air. It is there. So Morford pokes a little fun at it. Lighten up, folks. Nobody gets out of here alive anyway.

Concerned about cancer? Here are some things to do that will help allay your fears: Stop smoking (Google "Allen Carr Easyway"). Test your house for radon. Wear protective clothing and appropriate respirators when working with chemicals. Avoid catching viruses, especially papillomaviruses; sexually active women should consider the vaccine. If you have a melanoma, don't let it become lung cancer. If you have colon polyps, don't let them become liver cancer. Get that stuff treated.

Stop speeding, and don't use your cell phone while driving. Take a defensive driving class, and take the lessons to heart. Consider that guys in Fight Club never exceed the speed limit.

Worrying about EMF should be really low on your list, especially if you smoke or drink too much. Research is being done on disease related to low-level EMF exposure and it's really not showing to be a big deal, definitely not life threatening. If you're interested, go to http://www.pubmed.gov and search on EMF. Ignore the results about acute EMF exposure and focus on the studies about environmental exposure. The results don't show much happening in that regard. Certainly not, compared to what happens when you take Advil every day, etc. So, be smarter than this.

Mark Morford says we don't know anything. Obviously, we do, it just isn't very exciting, because it doesn't say we're going to die.

There were mice that survived and thrived in the area surrounding the Chernobyl disaster.

Yes, the cell phones and wi-fi may increase risk and cause cancer in many of us, but over generations nature will select
for those with genes that are least affected.

And that, folks, is life.

The true case of a teacher:
He had taught in the same school for approx 20 years. One day the school brought in wi-fi. Teacher began getting the most terrible headaches. The school decided (-just in case) to remove the wi-fi system: = The teacher's blinding headaches disappeared straight away.

Whilst I too didn't much care for Morford's general approach in this article, it is true that we are exposing ourselves to too many very un-natural radiations. It's well known that we humans (as well as other forms of life) have *very delicate* and very subtle EMF [electro-magnetic frequencies] humming around inside us.

As yet we don't know what the comparatively course / gross radiations given off by bits of tech-kit are doing to us, (-nor to other life forms!) but we could reasonably take an educated guess, and say they ain't doing us very much good!

There are loads of studies showing that some people are *very* susceptible to the radiations given off by cell phone masts. ~ Ditto over-head power lines. I know people who are immediately (adversely) affected after using a cell phone.

I have heard that alongside the radiations given off by the technology we know about, there are also many signals being blasted across the planet by less-well known sources, -such as secret military and governmental comms systems.
Then also things beamed down upon us from satellites as well?

We could learn to **respect** Nature and her life forms a lot more, in place of our present ubiquitous arrogance, -- methinks that would be a general guideline as to how best to live on Mother Earth without wrecking her, -and thus ourselves?

And ... looking at the bigger picture, we can see how Nature self-regulates: A given species, should they grow too numerous, will likely be naturally 'culled' by some natural event, -such as the outbreak of a disease which will decimate the population and bring things back into order again. ~ Rabbits and their debilitating myxomatosis disease spring to mind.

~~ Thinking along these lines: - it's said we as a race have 'bred like rabbits' and there are now too many humans on the planet... so with our widespread (and possibly very damaging technological apparatus), might we be accidently providing the means for a widespread 'culling' of our own species? - A sort of *technological-myxomatosis* in operation here?

If so, whilst we might not welcome that scenario coming about, it might just give Mother Nature the chance to recoup her forces and set right a lot of the damage we have caused...

~Just a thought; - if not a very cheery one!

Come on, everyone, lighten up. It was funny -- and intended to be. But, from personal experience (i.e., listening to unnumbered personal cell phone calls on the bus every night), it appears most the tech-junkies are already brain damaged.

I found Morford's raison d'etre (definitely not for educated critical thinkers seeking to support intelligent public dialogue and civic culture and activism -- he seeks to emotionally manipulate his readers, for what reason, I have no idea) at a Poynter interview: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=39527 -- It seems to be a variation on the 60's: "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" theme except with Grey Goose (??) vodka and Yeats instead of rock and roll.

"Sure I want to persuade, to make salient and radiant points. But that's just one level. As I said above, I want a hybrid. I hope to ignite readers, inspire them to take responsibility for their divine funky selves, celebrate their connection to the world. I very much hope to make them think, laugh, wince, smile, recoil, shrug, sigh, cry, shake their heads, lick their lovers, kick the walls of their cubicles, and immediately wish they could split to a hot tub in the woods with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, a naked S.O., and the collected Yeats. Preferably all in the same column."

I've been reading Morford for a couple of years online. He can be hysterically funny, and is always scathing towards the powers that be. This wasn't one of his better efforts, but jeez folks, as much as I admire earnestness, I hope I can still enjoy a little humor!

Morford's articles are hard to read. They dont have the normal paragraph structure. They tend to ramble a bit too.

"cause certain brain cancer, at least in some laboratory mice, which of course might simply mean that laboratory mice should never, ever microwave their wi-fi cell phones near a power line."

**well i am not sure what he meant but vivisection experiments do tend to be cons(ok so if you stick a candle under a mouse it will burn-and die--and since humans can burn too we can deduce that candles can be dangerous). Expose mice and other animals to something that they or humans would never experience in real life and then say: aha! see--this trivial freak experiment shows that bad things can happen--give us more funding so we can keep doing it.

B-payne,

Thanks, thats what satire is supposed to sound like.

In Pennsylvania, after the Philadelphia city government put in free wi-fy through much of the city - at a cost much lower than a private company could do it for, the corporate shills in Harrisburg responded with lightning speed - passing a bill that prohibited any public wy-fy installation unless it is done by a large telecom for profit. I'm not kidding.

Meanwhile, city councils, all over the state almost simultaneously swiftly passed, with an urgency never seen, new ordnances allowing motorized vehicles on sidewalks, "provided that the vehicle is a electronically stabilized with two wheels in a side by side arrangement, operated in a standing position using weight-shift". (i.e a Segway). Once again, I'm not kidding.

Who says legislators can't act swiftly? They sure can when their bill benefits a big corporation.

I found this background info on Morford at wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Morford

He doesn't do any real reporting or analysis. Instead, his writing meets all the checkpoints for propaganda, but for what I don't know. It appears to be some sort of apologist shilling for the status quo, and very out of place at CD. He definitely wants to undermine different points of critical public dialogue and activism. But I can't figure out the reason.

Similarly to PJD, I find his tone offensive and inmature. He tries too hard to be "hip," and comes off as a jerk instead.

from "Science News":

Kendall Morgan

A single 2-hour exposure to the microwaves emitted by some cell phones kills brain cells in rats, a group of Swedish researchers claims. If confirmed, the results would be the first to directly link cell-phone radiation to brain damage in any animal.

From "Science News":

Week of Feb. 22, 2003; Vol. 163, No. 8 , p. 115
Hold the Phone? Radiation from cell phones hurts rats' brains

Kendall Morgan

A single 2-hour exposure to the microwaves emitted by some cell phones kills brain cells in rats, a group of Swedish researchers claims. If confirmed, the results would be the first to directly link cell-phone radiation to brain damage in any animal.

HANG UP? Radiation emitted by cell phones kills brain cells in rats.

No such evidence exists for people. But with cell-phone use skyrocketing, some scientists recommend precautionary measures—for example, avoiding excessive gabbing on the phones.

Digital cell phones send out compressed information through microwave pulses of electromagnetic radiation. In the United States, standard phones emit 50 such pulses per second, while so-called GSM phones—which operate under the international standard called Global System for Mobile Communications—emit 217. Those pulses scatter low-level microwave radiation across the brain. To date, convincing evidence linking the phones to serious health problems, such as cancer, is lacking, says Leif G. Salford of Lund University Hospital in Sweden.

Even so, he and his colleagues are still looking for such connections. About 10 years ago, they showed that cell-phone radiation causes the protective barrier in rats' brains to leak, permitting blood proteins that are normally kept away from brain tissue to contact neurons.

Now, Salford's team reports in a forthcoming Environmental Health Perspectives that this breach of the so-called blood-brain barrier is accompanied by the death of brain cells.

Adolescent rats were exposed for 2 hours to GSM phones at one of three power levels: 0.01, 0.1, or 1 watt (W). Rats in a control group were not exposed. Cell phones typically operate at a peak output power of 0.6 W.

Examination of the animals' brain tissue 50 days later revealed that up to 2 percent of the brain cells of rats that had received cell-phone radiation exposures of 0.1 watt or greater were dead or dying. The hippocampus, cortex, and brain stem suffered the most damage. The other groups showed no significant brain-cell death.

Salford cautions that the results may not apply to real-world cell-phone use. On the other hand, he notes, "there might be negative consequences in the long run."

Previous studies have shown a variety of biological effects of cell phone-type radiation, but no convincing evidence of health damage (SN: 6/29/02, p. 404: http://sciencenews.org/20020629/fob3.asp; 5/20/00, p.326: Available to subscribers at http://sciencenews.org/20000520/fob5.asp; 2/12/00, p. 100: http://www.sciencenews.org/20000212/fob1.asp).

Henry C. Lai of the University of Washington in Seattle finds Salford's new results "quite intriguing." He says, "The energy absorbed by the rats was really low compared to what a person gets when using a cell phone." Particularly if the effects add up over time, Lai says, regular use of cell phones could be problematic.

And it's not just the phones. In the modern, wireless office, people are increasingly exposed to a "sea of microwaves," says neuroscientist W. Ross Adey of Loma Linda University in California. "You have to ask, How much can people handle before it becomes a significant problem?" he says.

For the record, Salford himself does use a cell phone. To limit his exposure, however, he cuts calls short and distances himself from the phone with a hands-free headset.

****************
If you have a comment on this article that you would like considered for publication in Science News, please send it to editors@sciencenews.org.

To subscribe to Science News (print), go to https://www.kable.com/pub/scnw/
subServices.asp.

Mr. Morford is a satirist, he plays devils advocate to just about any issue at hand, and seems to be politically left of center. It's supposed to be humor that gets you thinking. Think Mark Twain. although that is a huge compliment to Mr. Morford as he is nowhere near as talented or insightful. But really, getting upset with him is pointless and a waste of time, loosen up folks it's humor!

My husband and I are in the control group for the cell-phone experiment. If y'all can hold a little piece of radioactive stuff next to your brain for 30 years or so and nothing bad happens, we're gonna get us one.

If y'all get tumors and die, the control group will pick up the pieces.

Not sure how to sign up for the control group in the wi-fi experiment. I guess that's sorta like the asbestos, PVC, and dioxin experiments, huh?

Bethers, the Y2K reference drives me nuts too. "We spent billions of dollars to prevent this disaster, and then nothing happened!" Duh, that's why we spent all that money and manpower.

I guess some people don't get that planning and hard work pays off. Too bad they seem to be running our country.

bethers: Very good point. Thanks for mentioning that.

This Squad ain't afraid of no ghost

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/09/12/this-squad-aint-afraid-of-no...

See, tin foil hat people aren't so crazy after all.

Damn, what a bunch whiners! Why was this insulting? I don't get it. A little humor about how god damn reliant we are on these technologies can't hurt. Furthermore, it is indeed true that we - perhaps Americans more than any other culture - get worked up into tizzies about all kinds of possible health dangers, but we don't shit when it comes to our health, what we eat, where we buy our food, etc. I'm speaking of the larger society of course. I'm quite sure that the members of the choir here are far more conscious. (are we?)

Anyway, I think he takes some very clever shots at some of the people a lot of us justifiably hate the most. And, finally, he also points out more than once that we don't know shit about this yet, not really, but he doesn't then say we should do nothing about it. He is merely, in what I would say is a genuinely sarcastic manner, putting it in perspective. For example, Great Brittan could legislate a health warning about microwaves and wi-fi, but it took them until a few months ago to start pulling out of a war that is killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people?

I say good work to this guy.

Hmmmmm
a lot of people here may be called Ostriches.

Marc Morford is a latter day poet of the intellos preaching his version of the gospel through the new univers called the Internet. He is a magician of prose and a master of sarcasm. At the same time he is immensely gifted with an intelligence penetrating matter far deeper that neutrons and with eyes seeing through individuals better than sharpest of the X-rays. Proof of his superior intelect : as a journalist he calls george bush a jackass. He sure should know something.

WI-FI and LI-LI

Pete Sessions, a Congressman from Texas tried valiantly to stop this problem in 2005 with a proposed bill H.R. 2726, "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act".

The bill would have prohibited the provision of Wi-Fi by any state or local government, forcing its provision instead by existing La-Li (land line) companies which in turn must consist of Pri-Vi (private enterprise), which of course could develop and provide Wi-Fi as desired.

Coming from an established, entrenched telecom prior to revolving through the congressional door, Pete was also well versed in Li-Li (lie lie). So when he went after public Wi-Fi, he didn't tell folks that that he was really trying to stop deadly Hi-Fri (high fry) electronic signals from invading and destroying towns and cities.

Instead, he cleverly masked the problem as one of government "subsidizing" competition against private companies. In other words, when democratic communities vote to tax themselves for provision of certain services like water, sewer, roads and Wi-Fi for less cost than offered by private enterprise, they are Co-Mi (communist munis).

Like today's Ter-Ri (terrorist), everyone knew what a Co-Mi was, so it shook them up for a while as Big Tele and Big Cable conducted counter-insurgency raids on town and city councils everywhere to kill public Wi-Fi infested with Hi-Fri.

But deep down, from various undisclosed locations, Pete and his buddies were actually trying to stop Hi-Fri, not Mu-Ci. And suprise suprise, it turns out that private Wi-Fi doesn't contain the deadly Hi-Fri that exist in public Wi-Fi. The man who appeared to be a facist was instead doing his job to "protect 'Merica". What a legacy.

Today, public Wi-Fi with deadly Hi-Fri is everywhere, but don't blame Pete Sessions. He tried then and he's still trying to save us. Next on his secret protectorate agenda is Ne-Ni (net neutrality) which has about twice the amount of Hi-Fri as ordinary public Wi-Fi, but Pete would never use information like that to exploit fear.

Instead, the new campaign against net neutrality is entitled "Keep Your Hands Off the Internet", with the exception of "Blocking Web Access and Provision, Imposing Web Hosting Fees, Blocking Content, Controlling Speed by Content, Manipulating Content, Segmenting Markets and Forcing Five Speed Pricing after Cutting the Copper Phone Line with ALL CONDITIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT WILL."

A little nit to pick here...

"Or is it more like, say, the big silly Y2K scare, all hype and panic and total imminent meltdown of the entire known universe, except that it wasn't?"

The big silly Y2K scare didn't happen because millions of hours were spent determining and fixing the problems *before* they happened, so they wouldn't happen, thereby making the calendar roll-over a non-event.

As to EMF dangers? They might be like un-addressed Y2K. Who knows?

I thought it was funny. I mean, really every day on the news it's a new scare. You can't keep up with them all. In fact damn near every thing we eat or touch causes cancer.

So it hard not to be a fatalist when it comes to life. The whole world is setup like a giant mouse trap.

~Future~

I'm a scratched-record type guy, of course, stuck on singing the same phrase over and over, so here it is:

If we have Democrats in control of the Administration and Congress, the chances are far better that research grants will be awarded to study the dangers (if any) of wi-fi, cell phones and other signals moving in the environment. It's a sure bet Republicans will spend the money, if allowed, on how to get more signals, not on studying whether the ones we have now are safe.

While I'm not prone to worrying abt wi-fi-ing my brain in to dust, I also don't quite see the point of something as poorly written and dull as this getting onto Common Dreams? I assume this ended up here because no one else anywhere in the world had written anything more amusing abt something? Or, maybe I need to ask; who do I have to sleep with around here to get something stupid I write here on Common Dreams? I think someone's listening to way too much Prairie Home Companion.

Morford writes for the Sf Chronicle ... a 'rag' in every sense that manages to throw in a few 'articles' in-between piles and piles of Macy's coupons. The chron's audience is mainly suburban and white but they have the lions share of advertising revenue and 'readership' ! Most of the homeless guys in SF use it as asswipe literally ... which is pretty much where it belongs anyway !

Who is this Morford guy? And why is CD printing his columns with such frequency?

He sure comes across as an arrogant smart ass. Does he always write in this insulting, supposed-to-be-satire-but-really-mocking-manner? Such insulting flippancy the typical tool of the noecon.

He should just take tips from his corporate neoliberal colleague Tom Friedman from the other coast and at least write to us straight.

Sometimes I wonder, if with all of our gadgets and gizmos, we aren't any better off than the cavepeople. :)

cyon,

Here is a link to the Bio Initiative Report that reaches a somewhat different conclusion. I do think the science is inconclusive on both sides and hope that a reasonable objective approach to evaluate a growing body of evidence that cell towers in particular may pose risks is adopted.

http://www.bioinitiative.org/report/index.htm

In addition, the International Association of FireFighters have strong concerns on this issue and here is a link to there position as well. They have called for a ban on towers on their buildings and further study of the issue.

http://www.iaff.org/hs/Facts/CellTowerFinal.asp

Both sites have links to other studies too!

Dolkar -- the end is a wry comment and, Cyon, the author makes sense according to what I have read and heard. Richard Greene on AirAmerica.com's CLOUT has dealt with this issue, particularly with regard to cell phones -- but also so has environmentalist Bobby Kennedy Jr.

The deaths of some of the honey bee population may have been caused or influenced by such microwaves. Further serious investigation is merited.

While this wi-fi and EM signal issue may not hold too much water, personally, i am positive that this and other issues like the use of house hold chemical cleaners etc. have a definitive long term effect. It is just very hard to prove or disprove the long term (30+ years) effect.

Maybe when my generation is old, we will know the long and short of this wi-fi issue ...

Far more likely to die of exposure to workplace toxins and environmental degradation due to capitalist greed.

God, I was so on board for this whole ride, til it got to the end and shrugged. It's an okay way to go if you can afford all the toys and the lattes. What about the rest of life on earth? We're entertaining ourselves through this collective death wish, but those who can't are just dying inglorious without their shot of internet porn to soften the experience. No. There's work to do, people. How about considering that manufactured radioactive death is not an inevitability? And maybe there's something better.

This article is utter garbage and nothing more than irresponsible fear mongering. Not a shred of evidence is offered for the supposedly ghastly effects of EMFs on our bodies, which, we are told, are "invariably disrupting our precious bodily vibes and penetrating our cell structures and molesting our brain waves and sending us cartwheeling toward early cancer and death and decay."

For a less hysterical view, see the following:

http://skepdic.com/emf.html

i am sure mark moford will find his dose of wi-fi and veggies at whole foods