I wanted to encourage everyone, when they get their e-newsletter tomorrow, to read my article on lamp posts… Not really because I want you to read the article – although that would be nice of course – but because I want to stir you up to do some protesting…
In essence I am highlighting the fact that wifi is becoming so pervasive that it will very soon be impossible to avoid unless you choose to live in the most remote and uninhabited parts of the country. But while this poses major problems for those who, like me, are electrosensitive it is also subjecting the whole population to extraordinarily high levels of electrosmog with absolutely no evidence that this may not, in ten or twenty years time, result in far greater health problems than were ever caused by smoking, asbestos or obesity.
Wifi enthusiasts will point out that the evidence that it will cause major health problems simply does not exist – but that was what they said about smoking and asbestos – until it did. It is also what they said about GM (genetic modification) and mobile phones. Yet the evidence is mounting fast to suggest that GM is not as benign as it might appear and even the recent, deeply flawed Interphone Study admitted that excess mobile phone usage over a ten year period could cause cancer.
(Anyone interested in the GM debate might want to look at a round-up of research by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, on the Dr Mercola site. Anyone who wants to discover for themselves what evidence of harm currently exists for excess use of man-made electromagnetic pulsed radiation should take a look at the Foods Matter ES section – and the many other sites ES-related sites which are linked from it.)
So what has happened to the precautionary principe here? Should we not be moving just a little slower and a little more carefully? Becoming interconnected is a wonderful thing – foodsmatter.com would not exist without the internet – and mobile telephony has brought untold benefits to the third world – whatever about enabling first world parents to keep in contact with their children! I am not for one moment suggesting that, even if it were possible which it is not, we should move backwards and abandon the airwaves as a means of communication. I am just suggesting that we take note of the warning signals and not entirely smother ourselves in radio waves before we understand what unintentional consequences this might have.
Which is why I want to encourage you all to protest…
Although concern about electrosmog is growing fast from the European Parliament to Fairfax town in California, the way to make to grow faster is to talk about it, complain about it, object to it, discuss it, harrass your MP, your MEP, your town councillor, the mayor of London – anyone who will listen! The power of the multinationals is massive but, when push comes to shove, if we won’t buy their products, they are ‘stuffed’… Remember what happened to the GM tomato paste – it died without issue because no one would buy it.
And before anyone says it – yes, I know that the big corp.s will not leave it there and will (and have in the case of GM) used all kinds other means to con us into buying the products they want to sell us and we do not want to buy. But, the ultimate power remains with the consumer – and the consumer should not forget that!!
So, please do read my article – not for the article’s sake, but for the links at the end to those to whom you can protest!!
However…. since I finished it…. I started to look into Boris’ promise to wifi-se London by 2012 – and found that 22 London boroughs are already signed up to this scheme… So more on that one to come.
And… I heard on the radio and subsequently read in the Daily Mail, that Starbucks (and L’Oreal) are adding to the pavement electrosmog by sending electronic vouchers to anyone passing their store who is on the GPS satellite system. The system has, apparently, created concerns about privacy (tracking people’s movements?) – but not about extra electrosmog.
If you wish to complain to Starbucks try this page : if you want to have a go at L’Oreal try +44 (0)20 8762 4000 or email them at comms@uk.loreal.com
It seems to me that there actually is quite a lot of evidence of the dodgy effects of electro-smog. Its presumably not for no reason that many schools have removed wifi systems from their classrooms and that parents get very exercised when a a mobile ‘phone company wants to erect a mast close to a school. Children are likely to be more sensitive to electro-smog than adults but that does not mean that the sensitivity suddenly disappears on the child’s 18th birthday.
What has not happened is research into ways of diminishing the effects of electro-smog.
It high time there was some!