EMF Decision Time in California: Follow the Health Data or Follow the Money?

August 2004

I read this article in "Microwave News" - www.microwavenews.com and found it interesting. The consciencness on the effects of EMFs is slowly changing.

California will soon decide what’s next for EMFs.
As power line skirmishes continue to smolder across the country and around the world, California regulators may be the first to take stock of all the new health data that have been generated over the last decade.
In mid-August, the five members of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will choose between mitigating the EMF risks laid out by the state department of health or following the path of denial favored by electric utilities.
After eight years of work at a cost of more than $7 million, the leaders of the California EMF Program, run by the Department of Health Services (DHS), evaluated all the available studies and, in a ground-breaking report issued in June 2002, concluded that power line EMFs likely play a role in the development of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, ALS and miscarriages.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) counters that the report adds little more than speculation to the shaky science of EMFs. The utility is asking the CPUC to leave the dormant EMF issue alone.
Charlotte TerKeurst, the CPUC Administrative Law Judge who has been reviewing PG&E’s request to build a controversial new power line, the 27-mile 230 kV Jefferson-Martin line, isn’t following the industry game plan. She believes that the time is now ripe to take a fresh look at EMF health risks —in effect, rejecting the need for absolute certainty of harm before moving forward.
In a proposed decision on the Jefferson-Martin line, issued on June 8, TerKeurst writes:

“While there is no definitive proof at this point, we must proceed with the knowledge that EMF exposure may increase the risk of certain health effects” (p.89).

She goes on,

“[I]t is entirely appropriate and prudent for us to consider the EMF levels that would be created by the various possible routings and configurations of the project.”

TerKeurst has also prepared an order that would force the CPUC to “reconsider” its generic EMF policies for all power lines in the state.
Soon afterwards, the president of the CPUC, Michael Peevey offered his own, very different opinion. In an “alternate decision” dated June 22, he states that the real problem is the public’s perception —he really means the public’s misperception— of EMF health risks, not the risks themselves. Peevey rewrote TerKeurst’s key conclusion to read:

“While there is no definitive proof at this point, we must proceed with the knowledge that there is public concern that EMF exposure may increase the risk of certain health effects” (p.78).

His pro-industry outlook should surprise no one. Peevey was a senior executive at Southern California Edison (SCE) for 20 years, the last three (1990-93) as its president. SCE has a long record of aggressively trying to bury the EMF issue.
What is surprising is the role played by Pat Buffler, the former dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, who is serving as PG&E’s EMF expert witness. Buffler dismisses the health claims cited in the DHS EMF report.
Here, for instance, is what they say about the EMF–childhood leukemia risk in a filing with the CPUC on the Jefferson-Martin line:

“Dr. Buffler is not aware of any epidemiologic studies that show exposure to 60 Hz magnetic fields of ‘3-4 milligauss of more’ are causally associated with an increased risk of childhood leukemia or any malignancy in adults or children” (p.111).

This totally misleading statement turns on the word “causally” —the hired gun’s favorite get-out-of-jail-free card. We all know that epidemiology can never show causal links. Buffler, like others who are paid to support otherwise untenable positions, uses the impossible burden of proving causality to dismiss unwelcome associations.
As everyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the EMF health literature knows, the epidemiology on childhood leukemia was the basis for the unanimous decision by a panel assembled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to classify EMFs as a “possible human carcinogen” in 2001. The IARC decision was based on two independent, highly regarded meta-analyses that strongly support the EMF–leukemia link. As one otherwise skeptical member of the IARC committee, Maria Stuchly of Canada’s University of Victoria, told us at the time, “The epidemiological data are there and it is hard to dismiss them” (see MWN, J/A01).
Apparently, it gets a lot easier to dismiss the data when one’s palms are weighed down with silver.
One additional fact makes Buffler’s distortion even harder to condone. Buffler herself is a coauthor of two meta-analyses that found small but statistically significant associations between occupational EMF exposures and leukemia and brain tumors.
(That Buffler found a link between brain tumors and EMF exposure at work did not prevent her from testifying against a widow of a telephone lineman who, according to the compensation claim, died of a brain tumor (see MWN, M/A95 and M/A97). Here again, Buffler was defending the interests of PG&E.)
In the past, Buffler has declined to reveal how much she is paid for her EMF consulting work. But we do have a clue. In May 2002, Buffler filed a $9,750 claim in bankruptcy court against PG&E. While there is no explanation for what Buffler did for the money, it’s unlikely to be related to the Jefferson-Martin power line. PG&E sought permission for the line in September 2002, four months after Buffler demanded her money.
It’s not a stretch to assume that, over the years, Buffler has received a steady flow of sizable paychecks from PG&E.
The CPUC was slated to decide whether to reopen the generic EMF issue and whether to force more EMF mitigation along the Jefferson-Martin power line at its July 8 meeting. But at the last minute, activists, like Katie Carlin of the 280 Corridor Concerned Citizens group, lobbied hard for a delay because they did not believe they could muster a three-vote majority from the five CPUC commissioners.
The EMF issue may now be decided at the CPUC’s next meeting on August 19.
It’s not clear whether any of the five commissioners have read even the executive summary of the health department’s EMF report. Let’s hope they don’t rely on PG&E and Buffler to tell them the whole story.

Does Dowsing Work?

I get asked all of the time by people who aren't sure if dowsing works. Below are some comments I've seen written by other dowser.

Contrary to what many people believe, there is nothing magical or evil about dowsing (which incidentally, is referred to in the Bible and depicted on Egyptian tombs and in ancient cave paintings in Europe). By concentrating and tapping into abilities hidden in the subconscious mind, most people can feel the pull of the rods toward water (or whatever is being sought) and this leads the way. Those who discover they can dowse stand on the threshold of new and challenging experiences.

Dowsing is an art, not a science.

It is the dowser, and not the tool, that does the work! The tool is simply a means to turning subconscious ability into visible action.

Dowsing is More Than Dowsing for Water…
Dowsing is not limited to water, search or location. There are many other aspects including dowsing for minerals, dowsing electromagnetic fields, noxious rays, geopathic zones, dowsing for lost objects and lost persons, dowsing for personal-related subjects, spiritual dowsing – the list goes on and on. The applications are endless. Map dowsing is another of the many applications.

What Makes Dowsing Work?
There have been many attempts to explain dowsing over the course of history. Various books have contained theories ad attempted explanations, but the fact is that the pages of science are incomplete on this matter, and we are dependent on judgment by result… We know the results, we sense the potential and we hope for understanding. 

Everyone is born with the capability. Some can obtain the dowsing reaction immediately, while others have to practice for a while before they can manifest what seems to be a birthright talent.

Can Dowsing Detect Dangerous Energies? 
Daily, we are bombarded by detrimental radiations from electromagnetic fields and naturally occurring geopathic zones. These environmental radiations were not present in past generations and are unprecedented in our electronic age. Numerous studies in Germany, England and Japan have linked diseases like leukemia and cancer to these harmful radiations. And a few years ago the EPA released a report linking EMF fields to leukemia and brain cancer in children.

The Invisible Disease: The Dangers of Environmental Illnesses Caused by Electromagnetics Fields and Chemical Emissions

The dangers of environmental illnesses caused by electromagnetic fields and chemical emissions. - The evidence that VDUs, mobile phones, electric lights and other modern appliances can make you ill.

In 1962 Rachel Carson in Silent Spring opened the world's eyes to the dangers of insecticides and weedkillers and other common products leaking dangerous chemicals into the food chain, In the intervening decades other dangers have been recognised after years of opposition from manufacturers, such as that both smoking and asbestos can be fatal.

Today we are facing a powerful new concern. It involves millions of people, particularly in the West, who are ill even though their doctors can't make a proper diagnosis. Environmental illnesses are known under a number of names, like Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME), Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Electro-Hypersensitivity, Sick Building Syndrome.

These illnesses have variously been linked to VDUs, mobile phones and masts, electric lights, TVs, and chemicals used in the manufacture of modern appliances.

This is the first book to make the connections between the range of illnesses and the range of appliances. The result of many years research, often under difficult conditions, it highlights what many scientists in different fields are warning-that we now have dangerous chemicals embedded in the manufacture of everyday appliances that we mistakenly consider safe. And they're not.

Gunni Nordstrom is an investigative journalist in Sweden, the world-wide centre of the mobile phone industry, where much of the research on Environmental Illness has been carried out. She has published several books on health problems related to computer screens, Sjuk av bildskarm Tiden 1989, 9155034845, Faltslaget Tiden 1995, 9155040837, Morklaggning Hjalmarson & Hogstedt 2000, 9189080416.

Sample Press Coverage on the increasing awareness of the dangers of electromagnetic fields: 25 April 03 - The Daily Telegraph: ‘residents of a hamlet near a mobile phone mast have recorded high levels of illness, including seven cases of cancer, raising fresh concerns over the safety of the transmitters.’ 13 September 03 - New Scientist The report recommended (by William Stewart) a “precautionary appraoch” towards the use of mobile phones, especially among children. 25 June 03 - Daily Mail - Dr Dariusz Leszczynski and his colleagues from the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority reported that low-level phone radiation can cause ‘stress’ reactions in cells isolated from human blood vessesls...19 June 02 - Evening Standard - Radiation from mobile phones causes changes to human cells which could pose risks to health, an authoritative two-year study has concluded.’ 03 New York Times - ‘To date, hundreds of former IBM workers have contracted cancers they claim are linked to the chemicals they used while working at the company, including blood and brain tumors, leukemia and many cases of breast cancer.’ - This is a small selection of recent news items on the subject.

Written by veteran Swedish journalist Gunni Nordström has been published by O Books in the U.K. and will soon be available in the U.S. Nordström has written a number of other books on health risks associated with computer work and EMFs, but this is the first to be translated into English. She pays special attention to electromagnetic and chemical hypersensitivity.   
 

Experts agree there is a link between magnetic fields and deadly disease.

Experts agree there is a link between magnetic fields and deadly disease.
The World health Organization which two years ago found no danger, now agrees magnetic fields are linked with cancer,and specifically warns about power lines. Canada's National Research Council found many links between magnetic fields and disease. The state of California Health Department is finishing a $7 million study concludes magnetic fields of an intensity found near transmission lines cause childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, spontaneous abortions, and Lou Gehrig's disease. Also may cause Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, childhood brain cancer, heart disease and suicide. A person just might be lead to believe ol redy kilowatt is not such a friendly helper to the human race the way he's presently handled.

http://www.strayvoltage.org/board/