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Op-Ed: We have no reason to believe 5G is safe

Joel Moskowitz, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

The technology is coming, but contrary to what some people say, there could be health risks

The telecommunications industry and their experts have accused many scientists who have researched the effects of cell phone radiation of “fear mongering” over the advent of wireless technology’s 5G. Since much of our research is publicly-funded, we believe it is our ethical responsibility to inform the public about what the peer-reviewed scientific literature tells us about the health risks from wireless radiation.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced through a press release that the commission will soon reaffirm the radio frequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits that the FCC adopted in the late 1990s. These limits are based upon a behavioral change in rats exposed to microwave radiation and were designed to protect us from short-term heating risks due to RFR exposure.

Yet, since the FCC adopted these limits based largely on research from the 1980s, the preponderance of peer-reviewed research, more than 500 studies, have found harmful biologic or health effects from exposure to RFR at intensities too low to cause significant heating.

Citing this large body of research, more than 240 scientists who have published peer-reviewed research on the biologic and health effects of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal, which calls for stronger exposure limits. The appeal makes the following assertions:

“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.”

The scientists who signed this appeal arguably constitute the majority of experts on the effects of nonionizing radiation. They have published more than 2,000 papers and letters on EMF in professional journals.

Read more at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-have-no-reason-to-believe-5g-is-safe/

Posted on Categories Sonoma CoastTags , , Leave a comment on Small amount of Fukushima radiation detected in water off North Coast

Small amount of Fukushima radiation detected in water off North Coast

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

More information about ocean monitoring for Fukushima radiation can be found at http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/.

Trace amounts of radiation from the ruined Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan were found in water samples collected in the Pacific Ocean 100 miles due west of Eureka, a Massachusetts-based researcher reported.
The concentration of cesium-134, a radioactive isotope known to come from the earthquake-and-tsunami ravaged Fukushima plant, was just barely detectable by his equipment and far below a level that would pose a risk to human health or marine life, said Ken Buesseler, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute marine chemist who has been monitoring North American coastal waters since January.

“We knew it was out there,” Buesseler said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It’s good to be getting some numbers.”

Cesium in the sample collected in August offshore from Eureka was less than 2 becquerels per cubic meter, he said. The acceptable U.S. limit for cesium in drinking water is 7,400 becquerels.

“It wouldn’t stop me from swimming in it or from eating any local seafood,” Buesseler said.

Read more via Small amount of Fukushima radiation detected in water | The Press Democrat.

Posted on Categories Sonoma CoastTags Leave a comment on No Fukushima radiation found in West Coast kelp

No Fukushima radiation found in West Coast kelp

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

No radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors was detected in a high-tech analysis of kelp samples collected along the West Coast this spring, including two sites in Mendocino and Marin counties.

But scientists participating in the Kelp Watch 2014 program said the absence of the telltale isotope — Cesium-134 — was not surprising, and results reported this week will establish a “baseline” for radiation already present in coastal waters.

A radioactive plume stretching 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Japan is expected to reach North America sometime this year and follow-up collections of kelp samples in July and October are intended to measure it.

“It’s out there, but it’s very diluted and it hasn’t rubbed up against our shoreline yet,” said Steven Manley, a marine biologist at Cal State Long Beach and co-leader of Kelp Watch 2014.

via Researchers: No Fukushima radiation found in West Coast kelp | The Press Democrat.

Posted on Categories Sonoma CoastTags Leave a comment on No detectable radiation in seawater yet from Fukushima

No detectable radiation in seawater yet from Fukushima

UPDATE: January 28, 2014, CENTER FOR MARINE AND ENVIRONMENTAL RADIATION

The first results from seawater samples come from La Jolla and Point Reyes, Calif., and Grayland and Squium, Wash. Four samples from these three locations show no detectable Fukushima cesium. We know this because Fukushima released equal amounts of two isotopes of cesium: the shorter-lived cesium-134 isotope half-life of 2 years and the longer-lived cesium-137 half-life of 30 years. Cesium-137 was found at levels of 1.5 Bq per cubic meter Bq/m3, but this was already detectable prior to releases at Fukushima and came primarily from nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific during the 1950s and 1960s.

This so-called "negative" result has two immediate implications. First there should be no health concerns associated with swimming in the ocean as a result of Fukushima contaminants by themselves or as a result of any additional, low-level radioactive dose received from existing human and natural sources of radiation in the ocean existing levels of cesium-137 are hundreds of times less than the dose provided by naturally occurring potassium-40 in seawater.

Secondly, and just as important from a scientific perspective, the results provide a key baseline from the West Coast prior to the arrival of the Fukushima plume. Models of ocean currents and cesium transport predict that the plume will arrive along the northern sections of the North American Pacific Coast Alaska and northern British Columbia sometime in the spring of 2014 and will arrive along the Washington, Oregon, and California coastline over the coming one to two years. The timing and pattern of dispersal underscores the need for samples further to the north, and for additional samples to be collected every few months at sites up and down the coast.

For this reason, we are also pleased to report that funds are already in hand to continue sampling at both the La Jolla and Pt. Reyes locations thanks to the foresight and generous donations of the groups who volunteered to adopt these sites. We expect levels of cesium-134 to become detectable in coming months, but the behavior of coastal currents will likely produce complex results changing levels over time, arrival in some areas but not others that cannot be accurately predicted by models. That is why ongoing support for long-term monitoring is so critical, now and in the future.

via How Radioactive is Our Ocean?.