Death and Profits: The Utility Protection Racket
By Michael Parenti
October 15, 2010 “Information Clearing House” — Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is a multi-billion-dollar privately owned, publicly regulated utility whose main function is to make enormous profits for its shareholders at great cost to ratepayers. I know this to be true; I’m one of the ratepayers.

Cartoon by Brian Narelle

Better than Bernard
The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) permits PG&E to charge rates that are 30 percent higher than the national average. PG&E’s shareholders enjoy a guaranteed 11.35 percent yearly return on equity. That’s slightly higher than the 11 percent that swindler Bernard Madoff pretended to offer his investment victims. After Madoff was exposed, his victims were chided for not having realized that no one pulls down an 11 percent return year after year on the stock market. But PG&E investors take in more than that every year. And unlike Madoff, the company’s earnings are for real, guaranteed at a fixed return devoid of risk.

PG&E enjoys a captive consumer market of fifteen million customers in northern and central California. The utility is a shining monument to state-supported monopoly capitalism. If costs rise, then so do customer rates (in order to guarantee the 11.35 percent return). PG&E carries a $17 million insurance premium and additional millions in insurance deductibles; these expenses too are picked up by its ratepayers.

If northern and central California’s gas and electric services were publicly owned (yes, socialism), there would be no 11.35 percent skim off the top going to rich investors, no fat salaries and bonuses and huge severance packages pocketed by top executives, no billions of dollars in private wealth to be traded on the stock market. Customer rates would probably be one-third to one-half lower than they are today. And gas pipelines would be in better repair.

Swiss take Wifi out of schools
Dr Magda Havas
drmagdahavas@gmail.com
October 21, 2010. While the rest of the world rushes onwards with the wireless revolution, Switzerland and the country’s largest telecom provider – SWISSCOM – have decided to light up the public school’s wired networks using fiber optics FOR FREE! But there is one catch – the schools must use LAN – local area networks. NO WiFi allowed. And this offer even includes pre-schoolers! Click here to read more about Swisscom’s offer.

We produced a short video that I hope will provide some insight as to why the Swiss government and Swisscom are so forward thinking in matters related to children’s health and education. After you watch the video – explore the links to the Swiss Office of Public Health website. No need to read between the lines, just pay attention to the bold text.

Video on Microwave Radiation Dangers in your Home:

For more information and live links click here.

Dr Magda Havas
drmagdahavas@gmail.com

Cell-Phone Safety: What the FCC Didn’t Test
By Michael Scherer / Washington [Time Magazine]
Skeptics of the safety of cellular phones have seized upon these warnings as evidence that the ubiquitous devices may be exposing Americans to far more radiation than regulators measure. “Nobody is watching,” says Devra Davis, the author of a new book called Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family. “Is the law broken if something is so complicated that nobody notices?”

State Consumer Agency BLASTS CPUC- Calls for “Public Proceeding” on ‘Smart’ Meters
by Josh Hart
The California Public Utilities Commission’s own Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) last week blasted the appointed members of the Commission for failing to adequately investigate potentially lethal problems with PG&E’s ‘Smart’ Meter program. Saying that ‘there is clearly a high level of public concern’ about the health impacts of ‘smart’ meters, the DRA forcefully asserts that ‘the Commission would be remiss in its duty to ensure “safe and reliable” service if it did not solicit further evidence and perform an analysis.” (on health problems associated with RF emissions, the ignition potential of meters in proximity to natural gas lines, and electronic interference associated with ‘smart’ meters.)

The Division of Ratepayer Advocates is technically a part of the CPUC, “tasked by statute with obtaining the lowest possible rate for service consistent with reliable and safe service levels. In fulfilling this goal, DRA also advocates for customer and environmental protections.”

Marin County: meter plan not smart
by Nels Johnson – Marin IJ
Marin County supervisors, asserting that proceeding with a “smart meter” project is a dumb idea before health issues are reviewed, dispatched another letter asking the state Public Utilities Commission to suspend the program.

Supervisors said the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. program should await results of a study by the California Council on Science and Technology on whether standards for the meters protect health. Officials noted Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, requested the study, due later this year.

The state panel should review whether locating multiple meters near bedrooms, or near other radio wave devices, comply with standards, supervisors said, adding that those with health concerns should be given “alternative metering options.”

WiFi in schools proven dangerous
SafeSchools
WiFi causes heart problems, headaches and other neurological disorders in children. Canadian Documentary exposes the truth. More info at https://www.magdahavas.com

You can’t see it but it’s everywhere. WiFi connects computers to the internet, no cords required. Now kids are using it in wireless classrooms across the country. But is it an invisible danger? Carolyn Jarvis investigates why some parents say WiFi in schools is making our kids sick.

Upcoming Commonwealth Club Program
On Thursday, November 18th, my organization, www.ElectromangeticHealth.org, is co-organizing a forum on “The Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields” with the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, sponsored by it’s Health and Medicine and Environment and Natural Resources Member Led Forums. The event runs from 11:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and includes lunch. I hope you will be able to attend and that you will share this announcement widely with your colleagues.

I very much hope to see you. We have experts from 5 countries presenting on the biological effects from electromagnetic fields and it is certain to be a very interesting afternoon. To have excellence in care, we really must start considering the importance of this pervasive environmental disruptor of biological systems and I highly encourage you to come and hear presentations of the science from leading experts.
All the best,
Camilla Rees

Media Advisory

Contact: Emily Roberson
Media Relations, ElectromagneticHealth.org
Er79000@yahoo.com
or Camilla Rees
crgr@aol.com
303-440-0272
RSVPs to Commonwealth Club: 415-597-6705

Commonwealth Club of California To Host Program on
“The Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields” from Cell Phones, Wireless Technologies and Smart Meters
Thursday, November 18th, 11:15 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

October 22, 2010, San Francisco, CA. The Commonwealth Club will host a half-day program on “The Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields with leading international experts Thursday, November 18, 2010. Registration and complimentary light lunch start at 11:15 a.m.; program begins promptly at 12:00 p.m. Tickets $20 members, $32 non-members, $10 students (with ID). Register at Commonwealth Club 415-597-6705 or www.commonwealthclub.org

View Full Program Here

The landmark program at the nation’s premiere public affairs forum is being co-organized by ElectromagneticHealth.org, in association with Citizens for Health, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, Radiation Research Trust, the EMF Safety Alliance and the International EMF Alliance, and will be the largest public forum yet in the United States on the hazards of cell phones, wireless radiation and ‘Smart Meters’.

Is Smart Grid Really A Health Danger? Or are we talking much ado about very little?
The author Paul Mauldin is a former PG&E research director who predictably poopoos health, accuracy, security and privacy concerns about wireless smart grid components. But he does admit, “Of course, fiber optic cable can be used instead of wireless…” but dismisses it as “unacceptably expensive.” For whom? Trenching for cable creates jobs.
He ends with an ominous warning to the industry that should be taken as a great encouragement by activists: “We saw what organized [public] intervention did to nuclear power.“
All power to ‘organized intervention!” Would-be corporate tyrants like PG&E quake when what Henry Kissinger calls ‘the sleeping beast of public dissent’ awakens. [JH]

Scams Galore
By Louis Slesins
October 20… “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public,” H.L. Mencken, the American journalist, famously said years ago. And so it continues today, not only in the U.S. but most everywhere else. The continuing EMF controversy, stimulated by three new books —Sam Milham’s
Dirty Electricity, Devra Davis’s Disconnect and Ann Gittleman’s Zapped, — has fueled the demand for quick fixes. (None of these authors recommends them.) Just about every day, someone contacts us, pitching a new product or, on the consumer side, asking if they do any good.

The gizmos promising protection include bracelets, pendants and headbands. Two of the best-known gizmos are BioPro and Q-Link, which have been around for years. They are really no different from all the others. That’s to say, they don’t work. The most charitable way to describe them would be as placebos, or more appropriately, very expensive placebos.

No Cellphone Liability Suits: court
The recurring question of whether cell phones pose health hazards must be sorted out by the Federal Communications Commission and not through products liability suits in court because Congress has designed a regulatory scheme that gives the FCC exclusive power to regulate all aspects of the cell phone industry.

That’s the central holding in a decision handed down Friday by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Farina v. Nokia.

The ruling is a major victory for cell phone manufacturers and service providers, and holds that consumers cannot be allowed to sue over possible biological hazards allegedly caused by cell phone radio emissions because such suits would interfere with the FCC’s exclusive power to regulate the industry.

Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations
Vini G. Khurana, Lennart Hardell, Joris Everaert, Alicja Bortkiewicz, Michael Carlberg, Mikko Ahonen

Abstract
Human populations are increasingly exposed to microwave/radiofrequency (RF) emissions from wireless communication technology, including mobilephones and their base stations. By searching PubMed, we identified a total of 10 epidemiological studies that assessed for putative health effects of mobile phone base stations. Seven of these studies explored the association between base station proximity and neurobehavioral
effects and three investigated cancer. We found that eight of the 10 studies reported increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations. None of the studies reported exposure above accepted international guidelines, suggesting that current guidelines may be inadequate in protecting the health of human populations. We believe that comprehensive epidemiological studies of longterm mobile phone base station exposure are urgently required to more definitively understand its health impact. And finally: Check out the resources on RefuseSmartMeters.com

Cellphone Cancer Victims Speak Out
This press conference followed a program on cellphone health risks at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club. Cellphone cancer victims tell their personal stories and those of their lost loved ones.

In the photo on the left brain cancer survivor attorney Bret Bocook shows his own brain tumor caused by his heavy cellphone use.

Speakers include: Dr. Devra Davis – Epidemiologist, Founder – EnvironmentalHealthTrust.org; Bret Bocook – Attorney, cellphone cancer survivor – California; Cristin Prischman, cellphone cancer widow – Illinois; Craig Farver, father of cellphone cancer victim; Stuart Cobb, cellphone cancer survivor – Maine; Stuart Cobb. cellphone cancer survivor – Maine; Mindy Brown, widow of cancer victim Coach Dan Brown; Ellen Marks, wife of cellphone cancer survivor Alan Marks.

For more info: EnvironmentalHealthTrust.org; BioInitiative.org; EMFSafetyNetwork.org; MagdaHavas.com.

Dr. Devra Davis, renowned cancer researcher – author of Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family – gives a summary presentation of her findings at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. Dr. Davis tells how cell phones can damage users’ DNA, reduce their sperm count, cause Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and increase memory loss. She details precautionary tips. For more information: www.EnvironmentalHealthTrust.org

Cellphones & Your Health

Here, in three parts, is our coverage of the Congressional Hearing in Sept. 2009, co-chaired by Senators Arlan Spector and Tom Harkin in which Dr. Davis testified.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Author: Cell Phones Could Cause Damage Beyond Brain Cancer KTVU Ch. 2

SAN FRANCISCO — Cell phone use could cause substantial damage to the human body beyond brain cancer, an author who has written about cell phone safety said Wednesday.
Cell phones could damage users’ DNA, reduce their sperm count, and increase memory loss, said Devra Davis, who authored “Disconnect,” a book on cell phones and cancer.
“Cell phones can cause a number of serious diseases,” Davis said. She said phones could cause Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and hearing loss. She presented precautionary tips.

Dr. Devra Davis talks to the media
after her lecture at San Francisco’s
Commonwealth Club as cellphone-
caused brain cancer survivor,
attorney Bret Bocook waits his turn
to tell his story.

The Pentagon’s New Cyber Warriors
by Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON – Guarding water wells and granaries from enemy raids is as old as war itself. In the Middle Ages, vital resources were hoarded behind castle walls, protected by moats, drawbridges and knights with double-edged swords.
Today, U.S. national security planners are proposing that the 21st century’s critical infrastructure — power grids, communications, water utilities, financial networks — be similarly shielded from cyber marauders and other foes.

FCC changes cellphone safety tips
…The move comes amid a growing debate over cellphone safety and coincides with efforts in some jurisdictions – most notably San Francisco – to require wireless providers to more clearly state the radiation emissions of the phones they sell.

The revisions were made last week, without any formal announcement, to a consumer fact sheet posted on the FCC’s Web site. Consumer advocates criticized the agency for what they called a lack of transparency.

“A secretive change like the one that was just made raises questions of collusions with industry and does not help make the change credible,” wrote wireless industry consultant Michael Marcus in a blog on Public Knowledge, a public interest site.

An FCC representative declined to comment.
…
In its revised guidance, the FCC said that data on a phone’s radiation emissions is not a useful gauge of the risk posed by any device. The updated language omitted a previous suggestion that users buy phones with lower specific absorption rates, a measure of the rate of radio-frequency energy absorbed by the human body. The FCC now says that any phone approved by the FCC has passed its absorption tests and is safe.
…
The FCC’s new stance corresponds with the cellphone industry’s arguments against San Francisco’s ordinance and similar proposals elsewhere. The wireless trade group CTIA has said that phones with a specific absorption rate of 1.0 are not necessarily safer than devices with a rate of 1.6 – the national limit – and said that how a phone is used is a more meaningful gauge.

CTIA has filed a lawsuit against San Francisco seeking to block the ordinance, which would take effect in February, saying the measure would harm companies including Apple, AT&T, Verizon and Motorola. The group has sent executives to speak at hearings on other cellphone labeling proposals under consideration in Maine and California.

Eric Schmidt: Google implant anyone?
Schmidt was talking to The Atlantic about the possibility of a Google implant – a chip under your skin that would track you and provide easy web access. That, Schmidt said, was probably over ‘the creepy line’.

However, he followed that by saying: “With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches. We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

Some might argue that that is over the line too but Google will only read your mind “with your permission”, so that’s a relief.

Sign the Petition for a California-wide smart meter moritorium. Details below.

Smart Meter security fears
Big Brother Watch has written a number of times about the forthcoming introduction of Smart Meters to British homes (see here and here for further information and our most in-depth articles). As you will see, we have always been wary of the remit of the technology and its implications for ever closer control of our personal energy use.

Smart_meter It is thus with much interest that we read a new report out last week – Smart Meter Security – published by clean technology analyst group Pike Research, which described smart meters as “one of the weakest links in the smart grid security chain”.

As eWeek Europe explains:

The technology at the heart of the government’s plans to roll out smart meters to every home and small business in the country are fundamentally insecure and will be successfully attacked by hackers, according to researchers.

“It would be naïve to think that smart meters will not be successfully attacked. They will be,” the report states. “In fact, smart meters represent a worst-case scenario in terms of security: the devices lack sufficient power to execute strong security software; they are placed in physically non- secure locations; and they are installed in volumes large enough that one or two may not be missed.”

According to Pike, the gap in smart meter and grid security won’t be solved using existing architectures and it will take until at least 2013 for solutions to be properly developed.

SMeters weak link in Smart Grid
Smart Meter Security Investment to Total $575 Million by 2015, but Meters Remain a Point of Vulnerability in the Smart Grid
August 3, 2010

Smart meter deployment continues to pick up speed in nearly all regions of the world; however, as with all information technologies introduced in the past 50 years, cyber security was at first overlooked in the rush to create a working device. Now, utilities, governments, systems integrators, device manufacturers, and nearly everyone else involved realize that smart meters and their surrounding networks can be attacked, and that cyber security measures are necessary to protect the meters and their environment. A new report from Pike Research forecasts that investment in smart meter security will total $575 million worldwide during the period from 2010 to 2015, representing an average of about $3.00 per meter during that period.

“Smart meters are one of the weakest links in the smart grid security chain,” says industry analyst Bob Lockhart. “Home area networks, commercial building networks, and utility networks all perform well in terms of keeping data encrypted within their domains. However, these domains terminate at the smart meter, and the only way for data to pass from one network to the other is for the smart meter to decrypt the data from one side and re-encrypt it on the other. Consequently, the data are, for a short while, unencrypted on the meter and could be successfully eavesdropped.”

SMeters Will Be Hacked, Warn Researchers
The actual meters are a weak point between home networks and smart grid infrastructure that will be exploited, experts warn
By Andrew Donoghue
The technology at the heart of the government’s plans to roll out smart meters to every home and small business in the country are fundamentally insecure and will be successfully attacked by hackers, according to researchers.

In a report published this week – Smart Meter Security – clean technology analyst group Pike Research states that governments and industry have rushed to develop smart meter technology but have not considered all the security issues around the technology.

“It would be naïve to think that smart meters will not be successfully attacked. They will be,” the report states. “In fact, smart meters represent a worst-case scenario in terms of security: the devices lack sufficient power to execute strong security software; they are placed in physically non- secure locations; and they are installed in volumes large enough that one or two may not be missed.”

Specifically, Pike believes that smart meters are an inherent weak point in the various networks which will ultimately form smart power grids, stated Pike industry analyst Bob Lockhart. “Smart meters are one of the weakest links in the smart grid security chain,” he said. “Home area networks, commercial building networks, and utility networks all perform well in terms of keeping data encrypted within their domains. However, these domains terminate at the smart meter, and the only way for data to pass from one network to the other is for the smart meter to decrypt the data from one side and re-encrypt it on the other. Consequently, the data are, for a short while, unencrypted on the meter and could be successfully eavesdropped.”

U.S. mounting first test of cyber-blitz response plan
By Jim Wolf
(Reuters) – The United States is launching its first test of a new plan for responding to an enemy cyber-blitz, including any attack aimed at vital services such as power, water and banks.
Thousands of cyber-security personnel from across the government and industry are to take part in the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Storm III, a three- to four-day drill starting Tuesday.
The goals are to boost preparedness; examine incident response and enhance information-sharing among federal, state, international and private-sector partners.
“At its core, the exercise is about resiliency — testing the nation’s ability to cope with the loss or damage to basic aspects of modern life,” said a release made available at DHS’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington.
The simulation tests the newly developed National Cyber Incident Response Plan, a coordinated framework ordered by President Barack Obama.
The plan is designed to be flexible and adaptable enough to mesh responders’ efforts across jurisdictional lines. Refinements may be made after the exercise, DHS officials said.
The test involves 11 states, 12 foreign countries 60 private companies.

Moratorium on Wireless Smartmeters in the State of California
* Target: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.
* Sponsored by: No On Smart Meters Campaign

“Smart” meters do not save energy. The Smart Grid is part of the long-range plans the energy industry has to save itself money and be able to charge you more. This is the Big Picture. It may be an inevitability if our future depends on the growth of technology. What is NOT inevitable or required is the use of WIRELESS tech.

Too many suppressed or ignored studies plus the large and rapidly increasing number of reports of resultant health problems mandate that the onslaught of wireless tech development be halted at once until safety becomes a priority and can be guaranteed.

The “smart” meter program creates a pervasive electromagnetic field, and there are no studies yet published on the smartmeter that indicate that the levels of EMF emitted — collectively in a community — are safe. The “safety” standards the meters comply with are irrelevant to the situation, and were not designed to protect the public from health problems under the circumstances in which the meters are being used. Because the Smart Meter system is a mesh network, it is impossible to predict individual levels of exposure with any consistency or certainty. The un-safeness of the “safety” standards for the continuously transmitting “smart” meters is apparent from the reports of health problems, ranging from headaches to poor sleep to heart palpitations, that can begin after their installation.

The stated objectives of the Smart Grid Program can be accomplished without transmitting meters — but better yet would be a switch to “WiseGrid” solutions based on regionally appropriate mixes of renewable energy sources, guided by efficiency and conservation, which can be realized without the looming health, environmental, privacy and security hazards posed by wireless, hackable, invasive metering systems. This is a smarter path — better for humans and other living things, better for the planet and better for democracy.

Remember: Smartmeters Are Real Trouble! https://aqua-penguin-606771.hostingersite.com/ https://stopsmartmeters.org/ https://smartmeters.transbay.net https://www.electricalpollution.com/ https://emfsafetynetwork.org less”Smart” meters do not save energy. The Smart Grid is part of the long-range plans the energy industry has to save itself money and be able to charge you more. This is the Big Picture. It may be an inevitability if our future depends on the growth of technology. What is NOT inevitable or required is the use of WIRELESS tech.

Too many suppressed or ignored studies plus the large and rapidly increasing number of reports of resultant health problems mandate that the onslaught of wireless tech development be halted at once until safety becomes a priority and can be guaranteed.
…
PG&E and SoCal Edison have already begun to deploy wireless Smart Meters despite the fact that San Francisco’s City Attorney and multiple cities, counties, and towns have formally petitioned for an immediate moratorium until adequate investigation of the faulty and inaccurate meters is completed. These devices add an even stronger layer of microwave (RF) radiation to our homes and environments. Their peak power pulses repeat at least every one to two minutes as they gather and relay energy data from house to house throughout the day and night. In light of the growing number of people with electromagnetic sensitivity and the fact that children, the elderly, and those with chronic illness will be most adversely affected, and in light of the lack of FCC safety standards for chronic long term exposure to microwave (RF) radiation and in light of the call for use of the precautionary principle for wireless technology from global scientists, environmental agencies, advocacy groups and doctors,

we the undersigned request that you:
1. Place an immediate moratorium on all new wireless installations to allow time for a thorough independent and transparent scientific review.
2. Thoroughly investigate the PG&E Smart Meter proposal and potential health risks of these devices by holding public hearings.
3. Require PG&E to submit a characterization study of the smart meter system.
4. Allow customers to “opt out” of the program
Thousands of signatures have already been turned in on similar petitions to the CPUC and to government officials of Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Alameda, and San Francisco Counties.
We request your immediate consideration on this urgent matter, Thank you.
Sign the Petition Here

More Information Sought on Cell Phone Industry Influence on FCC
In an article in the current edition of OMB Watch’s Watcher, we discuss serious concerns about the extent of the wireless communications industry’s influence over regulators. Following San Francisco’s move to inform the public about potentially dangerous exposures to cell phone radiation, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – the agency in charge of regulating cell phone radiation levels – changed its website. The FCC deleted a suggestion to consumers to seek phones with lower radiation levels (known as SAR values), and added a lot of industry-speak downplaying the legitimate concerns raised by public interest groups. Now the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is demanding to know why the FCC made the changes and what role the wireless trade association might have played.