4/28/03 - On April 11, 2003, Senators Leahy and Jeffords wrote a second letter to the FCC inquiring about the Application for Review of The EMR Network's Petition for Inquiry about the current radiofrequency radiation human exposure guidelines. As noted in the Senators' letter, the Application for Review was filed fifteen months ago. The Senators' letter was presented personally to FCC Commissioner Copps at a public forum on media ownership held at St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vermont on April 14, 2003.

For more background on the Petition, go to the 10/1/01posting.

8/9/02 - In a letter of January 31, 2002, The EMR Network sought responses from the member agencies of the federal Radiofrequency Interagency Work Group (RFIAWG) to the December 11, 2001, Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) staff-level dismissal of The Network's Petition for Inquiry into the FCC's rules on the Environmental Effects of RF Radiation. The letter asked for each agency's position on the adequacy of the current FCC RF exposure guidelines. See above link for all related documents.

2/1/02 - On December 11, 2001, Bruce A. Franca, Acting Bureau Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, dismissed, without legally sufficient reasons, a Petition for Inquiry of the EMR Network concerning whether to revise the U.S. radio frequency radiation ("RFR") human exposure rules. On January 10, 2002, the EMR Network filed an appeal asserting that on review, the full Commission should reverse the action and open the inquiry. Here is the full text of that appeal as it was filed.

Here is the December 11, 2001, letter in which Acting Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering & Technology Bruce A. Franca dismissed the September 25, 2001, Petition for Inquiry filed by the EMR Network.

Exhibit A (Word .doc format) - Letter of June 17, 1999,. from the U.S. federal Radiofrequency Interagency Work Group to Richard Tell, Chairman of IEEE's SCC28 Subcommittee 4 Risk Assessment Work Group, outlining RF guidelines issues. (Exhibit A in .pdf format *some of the formatting does not follow the original formatting.)

Working Group Member List for Exhibit A above.

Exhibit B - Letter of February 11, 2001, from Dr. Henry C. Lai, Ph.D., Research Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington to the Committee on Natural Resources, Vermont House of Representatives.

Exhibit C - FY 1990-2000 EPA Budget Summary.

Exhibit D - Chart prepared by Alasdair Philips, Technical Director, Powerwatch, June200, "Comparing Standards for general public RF exposure levels."

The EMR Network participated in interviews as a part of the Government Accounting Office’s investigation of mobile phone health issues.  We were contacted as one of the non-industry, non-government organizations with an interest in mobile phone safety.  We offer this reaction to GAO–01-545 TELECOMMUNICATIONS:  Research and Regulatory Efforts on Mobile Phone Health Issues. PDF Format

Guest Positions
4/12/03 - "Report from Russia - Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health" By Vladimir N. Binhi February 2003

This letter and report on RF activities in Russia are written by Dr. Vladimir N. Binhi, theoretical physicist and head of the Radiobiology Laboratory at the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Dr. Binhi is a member of the Russian National Committee on Protection from Non-Ionizing Radiation and author of Magnetobiology: Underlying Physical Problems (Academic Press, 2002).

On March 3rd, 2003, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new guidelines for evaluating cancer risks to children, on the grounds that children may be 10 times more vulnerable than adults to cancer risks from exposure to a wide range of chemicals. This is the first time the EPA has officially taken into account the differences between adults and children when assessing cancer risks from chemical exposure. The EPA views the question of chemical exposure as so significant that it has written a separate guidance paper on the risks of cancer to children, concerned that exposure to mutagenic chemicals may be significantly more dangerous to the young. (1)

At first, this may seem irrelevant to children's use of cell phones until it is realized that there is also a large body of scientific evidence, some of which is examined in this paper, that indicates children may be far more vulnerable to health effects from exposure to mobile phone microwave radiation than adults, as well.

Dr. Ross Adey, electromagnetics bioeffects researcher for several decades, has written a response to an invitation from the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council PAVE PAWS Committee to participate at their forthcoming meeting at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on possible PAVE PAWS radar bioeffects. This letter discusses the long history of U.S. military involvement with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in the setting of radiofrequency radiation human exposure standards in the U.S.

Cell Phones and the Brain by John D. MacArthur © 2000
John D. MacArthur is a freelance writer specializing in neuroscience. In 2001 The Franklin Institute Science Museum commissioned him to research and write a comprehensive online section about the human brain . This cell phone article was published in the July 2002 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients.

This document is the English translation of testimony presented on March 6, 2002, to the French Parliamentary Office for Evaluation of Scientific and Technology Alternatives by Professor Roger Santini, researcher at the French National Institute of Applied Sciences. He testified at the request of Senators Jean-Louis Lorrain and Daniel Raoul. The presentation is entitled, "Arguments in Favor of Applying the Precautionary Principle to Counter the Effects of Mobile Phone Base Stations."

See also Professor Santini's study entitled, "Symptoms experienced by people living in the vicinity of cellular phone base stations: Influence of distance and sex," published as a letter to the editor in La Presse Medicale, September 10, 2001. A longer description of this study is in pre-publication for the journal Pathologie Biologie.

Dr. Gerard Hyland's short paper, "How Exposure to Base-station Radiation can Adversely Affect Humans." It explains the science of the bioeffects that can arise from radiation levels found around base station installations. It's a good piece to give people who are just starting to ask questions about possible radiofrequency radiation (RF) health effects.

Memorandum submitted by Dr. G. J. Hyland, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK and International Institute of Biophysics, Neuss-Holzheim, was entered in the Minutes of Evidence of the UK House of Commons Select Committee Third Report, addressing specifically the adverse health effects of radiofrequency emissions.

In 2000, the European Parliament's Directorate General for Research, Division Industry, Research, Energy, Environment and Scientific and Technological Options Assessment (STOA) sought Dr. Gerard Hyland's input on the possible adverse health effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. STOA is somewhat analogous to the U.S. Congress's GAO. In a May 17, 2001, letter, Mr. Graham Chambers, editor of the STOA report, describes STOA's role and its selection of Dr. Hyland to author this report as follows:

Dr. Hyland's Final Study for STOA entitled, "The Physiological and Environmental Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation," was released in March, 2001.

Robert C. Kane, Ph.D., was a Senior Research Scientist and Engineer at Motorola and a Member of Motorola's Technical Staff for more than two decades. Read his explanation of exposure to bystanders from a cell phone user's handset: "On Second-Hand RF Radiation."