Local residents discuss health risks with advanced WiFi

Written By JULIA LLOYD

Residents in Caledon are voicing their concerns regarding the lack of research done on the new 5G technology expected to hit the market in 2020. 

Caledon residents, Christina Zampiero and Veronica Gallacher, have been trying to get safety standards implemented for 5G technologies and spread awareness about health risks related to WiFi and EMF radiation. 

The concern for Zampiero and Gallacher is in regards to the lack of information on 4G, let alone 5G wireless Internet. 

“Part of 5G is the spectrum that is beyond 4G. There is also a part of 5G that gets into the millimetre waves and it goes up to 20 gigahertz range,” explained Frank Clegg, the previous president of Microsoft Canada and now CEO of Canadians For Safe Technology (CFST). 

Zampiero delegated to the Region of Peel council in June where she brought up her concerns of 5G, including statements made by Health Canada that the emissions meet the standards in the guidelines, however, Health Canada's Safety Code Six has not been updated in over 40 years. 

Before getting into the science. 4G is what Canadians are currently using. 1G gave us cellphones, 2G have us texting 3G got us online and 4G is what delivers the speed. 

Zampiero states that the present wireless tech use EMF between four and six gigahertz. The new 5G is expected to use triple that about of gigahertz. 

A 10-year study performed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) was supposed to show no link between cellphone radiation and cancer, but instead revealed that there is a link. 

“There's that tremendous national toxicology program study in the U.S. 25 million dollars over 10 years, thousands of rats and mice and they saw clear evidence of association between those cell phone signals,” explained Clegg. “We're seeing solidity in male rats, we're also seeing some indications of an impact on reproductive organs in females. So we have all those things lined up. The other thing about 5G that's concerning is, as I said it can handle a lot more information, so that's the good news. But the bad news, because it's inhaling a lot more information, that frequency, you need to get a lot closer to the source. In other words, instead of having that cell tower that could be a km, 2 km's away from you.”

In the study, Clegg said that after four generations of female rats being exposed to EMF radiation, they were completely sterile. He has also seen designs that show small cell towers in every 3 or 4 houses. 

In 2018, a Mississauga mother said her son Alex, 17 a student at St. Paul's Secondary School suffered from electro-hypersensitivity. His symptoms include, headaches, congestion, heart palpitations, nausea and anxiety. 

In 2016, a B.C. teacher was diagnosed with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, but faced massive roadblocks by the government for sharing her illness to the media. She wrote a letter to inform the school about the dangerous of wireless technology and the B.C. Teacher's Federation refused to publish her letter

Global News reported back in 2013, evidence of young boy, 6, who showed signs of hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields. The article reports that it was only four days after turning off all wireless tech., his symptoms disappeared. 

In May, Environmental Health Clinic at Women's College Hospital hosted a symposium and it consisted of presentations and interactive group discussion regarding the impact of wireless technology on health. 

On July 22, 2019 the Advisors to the International EMF Scientist Appeal, representing 248 scientists for 42 nationals have resubmitted “The Appeal” to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). 

The executive Director Inger Anderson requested UNEP reassess the potential biological impact of next generation 4G 5G-telecommunication technologies to plants, animals and humans. In the letter to UNEP, Dr. Havas, Professor Emeritus, Trent University's School of the Environment, Canada, detailed serious effects on plants, insects and wildlife from electromagnetic fields that are well documented in the scientific literature. 

The major concerns with EMF radiation are the increase risk of cancer, the effect on sperm and the damage it could have to serological and hormonal systems. 

In Oregon, Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson suggested an evidence-based draft detailing problem and solution for wireless tech. As of August 9, 2019 the Oregon Legislature passed SB283 — which requires the Oregon health authority to review effects of exposure to microwave radiation in schools and to develop recommendations for practices and alternatives that eliminate student exposure, no later that September 16, 2020. 

One of the authors of the bill, David Morrison, accumulated evidence of health risks of electromagnetic fields for over 10 years. In March, he displayed four boxes of thousand of independent studies that conclude WI=FI radiation poses a threat

In Israel, the government uses 5G technologies for crowd control because it agitates the skin. 

“When they use it for crowd control they're using that millimeter wave spectrum, in other words, the non 4G, 5G kind, but they also add more power to it. Nobody's sitting here saying that thing that's going to come from a small cell tower will actually be as bad as the stuff in crowd control, but it has the power to be,” explained Clegg.  

Israel was the first to create the 5G technologies, however, the country itself only use 3G and have prohibited WIFI in pre-schools and kindergartens. 

“If the country who created the 5G won't even use it due to the health risks, that is saying something,” stated Veronica Gallacher. 

Gallacher has watched has three antennas are being attached to a cell tower in a plaza in Southfield Village where there is a childcare centre and playground in close distant to the tower. 

“I am completely alarmed with this. Through my research I have discovered that children's brains absorb substantially more radiation than an adult,” said Gallacher. 

Gallacher discussed her concerns with the town in regards to the cell tower and whether there was policy in place for safety concerns. Gallacher was told that because the tower was a small structure it fell under the “fast-track” stream where public input wasn't needed and they only had to follow instruction on pure aesthetics and not safety. 

“It's funny that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, all those Silicon Volley creators of these technologies marketing at our children, have there kids going to schools with no WI-FI technology at all,” joked Gallacher. 

Gallacher would like to see the town remove the fast-track system, implement safety policy and provide awareness on the dangerous of EMF radiation for children. 

“In some cases the only difference between poison and a cure is the actual dosage.” Clegg stated. “Does that mean, that higher dosages, 24 hours a day 7 days week, can cause more harm? Yes.”