A few weeks ago I sent out an email recommending that we all try to work together in a type of "coalition". My original thought was to have one for North America, but I have been getting emails from our European friends/colleagues and many want to sign up as well.

For that reason, I thought I would open up the questionnaire to anyone, worldwide, who would like to complete it.

It just takes a few minutes to complete and here is the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VtmY5cRXPoKFbaDFk67Aew_3d_3d

Once we know who is interested, what they want to achieve, what they offer in terms of skills, interests etc. to promote the issue of their choice I will circulate the results to those who participated. Those who gave permission and want to be involved either actively or passively (just receiving updates) will go on a distribution list.

What I hope this collaboration will achieve is that it will help with sharing information (which is already happening via various groups like Che EMF and others). The way I see this collaboration differing from che emf and others is that I would like to set up "working groups"--groups of people who will work together for a common goal that they self-select. The purpose of the questionnaire is to identify those common goals and to get the right people together. All I would ask from the various working groups is that they keep the rest of us informed about their progress.

I would like to invite those who have scientific expertise; medical/health expertise; policy expertise; legal expertise; media expertise; technical expertise (about radio frequency, electricity, ground current, antennas, power lines, etc.); monitoring expertise; funding expertise; computer expertise, etc. This grouping is meant to be all inclusive rather than divisive and includes teachers, parents, people with EHS as well as those without, etc. etc. etc.

I would also like to invite those who want to actively participate in "doing" something useful to raise awareness, to help those who have EHS, to change policy, to educate the medical profession and the legal profession about this issue, to clean up schools, hospitals, homes, workplace, etc; to provide services such as monitoring and remediation. You may already be doing something in this area and just sharing what you are doing may help others with similar goals.

The purpose of this coalition is primarily to facilitate the work that many of you are already doing. This issue is not going to go away soon (if ever) and it requires a determined effort to make change that will benefit us all. It is not meant to replace any other group but rather to bring groups together.

I will close the questionnaire by the 1st of September and our work together will begin. Please pass this to others who may be interested in joining.

Thanks,

-magda

____________________________________________________

Dr. Magda Havas, B.Sc., Ph.D.

Environmental and Resource Studies Program, Trent University

Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, CANADA

email: mhavas@trentu.ca

phone: 705-748-1011 x7882

fax: 705-748-1569

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Dear Sharon, and all
Please watch this video regarding the Tsawwassen power lines. Everyday people are being threatened, physically assaulted, videotaped, helicopter monitored etc, on your and my tax dollars. Video is at the steps of the BC Supreme Court. Have You submitted your petition? I've heard rumors and I am trying to verify the information that the WHO came out with a new standard: 2mG!!! The people of Tsawwassen will be exposed to 15-149 mG non stop + potentially fatal electric shock hazard according to the official documentation on the project. It would cost $16 to $32 million to protect an entire Vancouver suburb, the profits on the massive transmission project tapping into the lucrative US power market according to calculations will be as much as $400Billion. The BC government is not willing to spend "some pennies" to protect us.
Please watch this heart breaking 4 minute long video footage.
Thank You!
Sylvia from Tsawwassen, BC
http://saveourrivers.tv/supreme_court_conference.html

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Dial back cellphone use, city officials tell parents

July 12, 2008

Comments on this story (23)

Tyler Hamilton

Robert Cribb

Toronto Public Health is asking parents to think twice before giving their children cellphones.

In what is believed to be the first policy of its kind in Canada, the agency is advising children and teens to limit the time they spend on cellphones until more is known about potential health effects.

The report from the city's medical officer of health recommends "children, especially pre-adolescent children, use land lines whenever possible, keeping the use of cellphones for essential purposes only, limiting the length of cellphone calls and using headsets or hands-free options, whenever possible."

Citing a dearth of research on cellphone use among children and the rising popularity of the devices, the health agency said the possibility that children and teens need greater protection from cellphone radio frequencies couldn't be ruled out.

"While scientists were pretty dismissive of any risk years ago, with the accumulation of studies, it appears people who have been using their phones for a long period of time are at greater risk of certain kinds of brain tumours. There is a pattern emerging," said Loren Vanderlinden, a Toronto Public Health supervisor and the report's author.

"We think it's responsible to limit children's exposure," said Vanderlinden, a mother of two boys, aged 9 and 5, neither of whom carries a cellphone. "Generally, calls should be limited to five or 10 minutes."

Children have smaller heads and thinner skulls than adults. Some studies, using computer image modelling, show signals radiate farther into children's heads than adults. And because children today begin using cellphones at an earlier age than any other generation, exposure will be far greater over their lifetimes.

In Canada, 61 per cent of 12- to 19-year-olds have a cellphone, according to recent data from Solutions Research Group. There are no Canadian statistics on users under 12.

[...]

Elisabeth Cardis, the Canadian scientist who headed up the Interphone project, told French newspaper Le Monde last month that some studies suggesting possible effects of cellphone radiation warrants precaution with children, "though I would not go as far as banning mobile phones."

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Here is the CBC report on the Toronto Medical Officer of Health's report on cell phones and children.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/12/cellphones-kids.html

But here is a response from a reader - (from the CBC web page)

'The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, which represents Canada's cell phone industry, also said there is no need for anyone, including children, to change their cell phone habits.'

Sounds convincing until you look at who runs the CWTA.
List of staff:
Chair
Almis Ledas, Bell Mobility
Vice Chairs
Ken Engelhart, Rogers Communications Inc.
Mark Henderson, Ericsson Canada Inc.
Michael Hennessy, TELUS
Treasurer
Jerry Sedmak, Omega Communications Ltd.
Secretary
Greg Best, Nortel Networks
Past Chair
Garry Fitzgerald, Madison Telecommunications Holding Inc./
Paging Network of Canada Inc.
Directors
Diane Avery, SaskTel
Robert Bruce, Rogers Wireless Inc.
Mike Hortie, Motorola Canada Limited
Stan Kurtas, MTS Allstream Inc.
T. Bradford Lowe, Nokia Products Limited
Wade Oosternan, Bell Mobility
Patrick Spence, Research in Motion
John Watson, TELUS
Trade Member Representative
Jerry Easom, Syniverse Technologies

So we've got Bell, Rogers, Teuls, MTS, Sasktel, RIM, Nokia, Nortel... this list goes on. When would the head honchos of Canada's corporate cellular industry ever tell consumers to stop using their phones due to health risks? Never. They'd tell you to use them more. Seems sort of like how cigarettes were healthy back in the 1930s.

Informant: Martin Weatherall

[ http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Elisabeth+Cardis
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Magda+Havas
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Tsawwassen ]