5G BATTLE IN NEW ORLEANS: LESSONS & OPPOSITION TO DAMAGE
An Informed Opinion with Recommendations
by
Raphaelle O’Neil
(Edited by Stephen Langley)
(June 5, 2019)
NEW ORLEANS citizens recently petitioned their city council to stop or delay 5G rollout until they produce a single study proving 5G is safe technology. What followed was a dog & pony show.(1) Citizens were stonewalled and railroaded. Officials ignored the precautionary principle. They favored industry over public safety. The New Orleans, Louisianna (NOLA) City Council engaged in intellectual dishonesty. The city council and the FCC both failed to cite a single specific study proving 5G’s safety. Instead, officials stated their opinions only, claiming they were informed by a series of studies supplied by industry and various agencies.The chicanery employed to avoid complying with citizens’ demands were many. The bottom line was gross negligence in insuring public safety.
Studies in Risk Where There is Chronic Exposure
According to the “Bio-initiative Report 2012, A Rationale for Biologically-based Public Exposure Standards for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)” (2), ”There is more evidence than we need” to oppose what is obviously dangerous and deadly.
”In twenty-one technical chapters of this 2012 update, the contributing authors discuss the content and implications of about 1800 new studies. Overall, there is reinforced scientific evidence of risk where there is chronic exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic fields and to wireless technologies (radio frequency radiation including microwave radiation).
The report’s conclusion states: “There is more evidence in 2012 that such exposures damage DNA, interfere with DNA repair, evidence of toxicity to the human genome (genes), more worrisome effects on the nervous system (neurology) and more and better studies on the effects of mobile phone base stations (wireless antenna facilities or cell towers) that report lower RFR levels over time can result in adverse health impacts. There has been a big increase in the number of studies looking at the effects of cell phones (on the belt, or in the pocket of men radiating only on standby mode) and from wireless laptops on impacts to sperm quality and motility; and sperm death (fertility and reproduction). In other new studies of the fetus, infant and young child, and child-in-school – there are a dozen or more new studies of importance.”
Industry Officials’ Opinions are Inadequate
If the lives of millions depend on the opinions of those pouring over the scientific studies who ignore the thousands of peer-reviewed papers formed over decades unequivocally showing harm from EMF (including non-ionizing, non-thermal radiation) (3), then doesn’t the public have a right to see the specific studies? If there is any dispute as to safety and public health, shouldn’t the precautionary principle, i.e. erring on the side of caution, be given to human health & welfare, rather than bias favoring industry agendas & deadlines? Large scale frequency manipulation contravenes Life’s natural order with tremendous health implications. It should not be left to luck, wishful thinking or one power player’s opinions without FULL DISCLOSURE of the logic employed to reach said opinion and LIABILITY for it. This is where the focus of public pressure should be. To date, these specific studies are not presented to the public. The scant examples & studies cited by industry and government are part of a bigger game of smoke & mirrors, one in which the question of 5G safety is avoided, revealing blatant industry bias by playing with numbers that recalls Mark Twain’s observation:
“There are lies, damn lies, and STATISTICS!”
Public Pressure is a Key to Securing Health
Public pressure is key. More people must SHOW UP to put the ‘squeeze’ on their local city officials forcing this question to be answered or to delay 5G until the argument is unequivocally resolved.
We must force this question be answered at its roots until someone at the top takes responsibility and drafts federal policy prioritizing health implications of EMF exposure. Instead, the FCC has given itself permission to grant the wireless franchise industry free reign to sue any city that balks at 5G deployment?? UNDER WHAT AUTHORITY?? The claim of alleged “sustainability”?
Environmental Impacts & Sustainability Concerns
The sustainability argument is worthy of its own critiquing article, as the “climate change driven by CO2” narrative ignores the scientific fact that the most prominent greenhouse gas on earth is actually water vapor. Even NASA states clouds and water vapor are the most significant driver of climate (4), but we ignore the significance of this because we allegedly cannot affect or increase water evaporation levels anthropogenically. Yet, we are now going to proliferate microwaves across the globe that do affect dipole water molecules and call it “sustainable” (5)?? Never mind us unpacking that whole microwaves & weather (6 & 7) conversation, for now. Suffice it to say, there is no justification to the claim of blanketing the landscape with microwave radiation as sustainable to life on earth, nor can it help combat global warming. NO.
- We need to see the studies. In fact, WE DEMAND IT & are NOT GOING AWAY until we get studies that factually square with empirical reality.
As an environmental activist studying climate engineering I’ve long been concerned about the use of microwaves (Doppler radar, et al.) on weather and global warming, but it was only recently that I realized the health effects of them were what was ailing me & my family’s health for years. Only after living next to a cell phone mast for 5 years did those health effects become undeniable. It is for these reasons and NOLA City Council recently granting unprecedented charters allowing the telecommunications industry to alter the landscape of our historic city, did I realize the full spectrum impact of unsustainable Wi-Fi technology. These charters put 200-300-year-old beautiful, oxygen-producing, shade oaks at risk of destruction should they interfere with signaling in any way- including those of our historic St. Charles Ave.’s streetcar line!
Cyber-Security or Citizen Surveillance?
Other 5G concerns besides health emerged: The 5G grid as “crowd management technology, etc.” (8); 5G as the groundwork for total surveillance via the “Internet of Things”; massive cyber security issues impacting our public & private institutions and services. Issue by issue and in total, 5G is completely irrational.
Nonetheless, NOLA city council unanimously approved its deployment.
How Officials Precluded Opposition
Citizens are reasonably concerned about the health impacts of 5G.
Myself and other concerned citizens pressed the City Council to cite the studies proving 5G & “smart” technology’s safety beyond all doubt.
Failing to produce a single study, the City Council agreed to adjourn a public meeting health panel to resolve the safety issue.
Wary that panels can be a sham if not administered honestly, we insisted on including our own health experts. So as to counter the biased industry narratives we had already challenged, which are contradicted in thousands of peer-reviewed studies and our own experiences with EMF, cell towers and wireless technology, we secured an all-star team of speakers to teleconference and video conference in. Each were denied platforms.
Among them, Dr. Martin Pall, author of 5G: Great risk for EU, U.S. and International Health! Compelling Evidence for Eight Distinct Types of Great Harm Caused by Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Exposures and the Mechanism that Causes Them, and Dr. David Carpenter, author of THE BIO-INITIATIVE REPORT(2). These two are leading medical EMF experts issuing appeals warning of inherent dangers of 5G. Both provided the science and counter-arguments to the industry narrative.
Also on board was Frank Clegg, former Microsoft CEO and founder of Canadians for Safe Technology (C4ST) (9). He represents industry needs, measured honestly in relation to public health.
Sterling Hill, MTHFRSupport.com founder (10), was also scheduled to present as an expert in DNA & metabolic processes. He had given testimony to EPA on glyphosate toxicity. Hill understands the mechanisms of EMF on biology both scientifically and personally as a victim of Electro-hypersensitivity.
However, their testimonies were not facilitated by City Hall. Eventually, they were denied opportunity to testify.
Obvious official malfeasance-‘done deal politics’–had already occurred. The industry “experts” had already been flown in and were settled into their hotels (all paid for by industry). Only they were given the public stage.
We requested our speakers give testimony via Skype. City Hall’s technical department said no problem. A meeting was set, and we informed our speakers. All confirmed their participation.
At that point, we were meeting privately with City Council in their offices. In those meetings, they seemed interested in hearing of the health concerns we brought. But they failed to respond responsibly. In hindsight, their responses were coyly patronizing and diversionary.
City Council rescheduled the health panel, and kept us out of the loop. They blew us off. They ignored our calls. They didn’t respond to questions. They never confirmed our experts would be given room at the health panel until the day before their final vote when we were told they cannot do a Skype set up, nor even a conference call.
As a final insult we were told that our expert speakers were welcome but relegated to two minutes during the public comment section of the meeting, just prior to the final vote!
We were wholly out maneuvered.
Undermining Legitimacy: More Obstruction of ‘Due Process’
Throughout, all meetings regarding “Smart” & “Sustainable” 5G rollout were posted at the last minute. They administered the hearings permitting as little public attendance as possible.
They certainly kept us confused and scrambling to keep up with council actions.
It was sheer providence that we were able to be present in October 2018 to initially object to the rollout. At that time, we first began looking for 5G issues on the city hall “menu” and we simply got lucky as it was included.
But even then, and before and after engaging with the city council, they included or deleted it on meeting agendas at the last possible minute. They skillfully avoided legal invalidation of a public meeting. Subsequently, this pattern-and-practice of stonewalling, railroading, and obfuscation continued throughout the proceedings, and until the final vote session.
The Sham ‘Health Panel’
What passed as a “health” panel was both a joke and an insult to intellectual honesty.
The “panel” was a lone paid “expert witness” lacking any health qualifications. It was Christopher Davis, Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland who previously testified on behalf of the FCC.
Davis lacked any medical expertise. He:
1) Ignored proven non-thermal effects of non-ionizing radiation, (11) He ignorantly ignored the fact that one does not need to “feel” radiation to suffer its effects.
2) Failed to address WIFI’s current proliferation and the public’s full cumulative exposure levels over time from all radiation sources.
3) Cited placebo tests as hard evidence that EMF was safe by implying that those who feel symptoms are suffering from an idiopathic disorder, while ignoring studies that have proven NON idiopathic perception of EMF is real (12),
4) FAILED to prove 5G is safe or address the true risks sited by thousands of peer-reviewed studies conducted over decades by individual scientists and military alike.
Despite promising a panel discussion on health before voting on the rollout of proven hazardous 5G technology across the city, NO health experts were brought in, nor allowed a seat or voice on the panel.
Rather, partiality was given to salaried industry reps to present non-medical industry business narrative. Officials relegated all health-concerned opposition to two minute public comments (rather than the usual three as stated on the speaker request cards). We were cut down and shorted at every turn.
After nearly six months of delays and diversions by the City Council and staff to our requests to see the studies proving 5G health safety they unanimously voted in favor of the new wireless charter.
When I pressed Jason Williams, City Council Chair of the Smart & Sustainable Committee, how he could ignore all of the studies we submitted and pass in favor of the rollout, especially after I had later debunked his logic in a detailed letter with links to further studies (13 & 14) – he simply stated that he reviewed all of the material that I and others had sent in. He equated what I sent him to the material sent in from the FCC, ACS, NIH, FDA, NCI, ICNIRP, siding his opinion with those studies.
When I again reiterated my original running request of which specific studies he based his opinions on, he evasively restated that his OPINION was formed on ALL of the studies covered by those organizations; that 5G and EMF is safe to proliferate across our city.
Vague Disingenuous Cop-out!
But the question stands and the onus remains on City Council to present to the public the specific studies on which they are basing their opinion. The health and quality of life of New Orleans citizens, or any locale, should not rest on unaccountable opinion.
Our 5G-related Ailments and Symptoms
I personally experienced the effects of wireless tech after I added in-home Wi-Fi which compounded microwave radiation from a cell tower 2 blocks away.
I experienced chronic fatigue, my heart laboring to merely move about our home. My, then three-year-old, son complained daily of being tired at 10 a.m. a time of day he should have been at his peak of energy.
I also suffered from brain fog, extreme confusion and reduced mental RAM (so to speak). I felt BLAH all the time. I struggled to stay asleep waking nightly in sweats. All of this left me irritable.
I consulted a physician by having my heart checked. EKG was normal as were my cholesterol levels. Yet I felt terrible, commenting to friends- is this what getting older is supposed to feel like? – like DYING?? All of this at 42 years of age, active and physically fit.
Our health symptoms were real and not idiopathic as we experienced them before learning of studies demonstrating these same negative health effects result from EMF radiation.
Of course, the causes were not detectable by either my or my son’s doctors.
Despite tests, our multiple complaints were not abated by supplements we were put on to “optimize” our health (Vitamin D, etc.).
Only by moving away from the tower and hard-wiring our new home internet was our health restored. However, to this day my son & I remain prone to simultaneously experiencing sudden onset symptoms of EMF exposure, such as headaches on each of us that start at the same time, affecting the same part of our brains.
Concealed Rollout of 5G Technology
All of this while 5G infrastructure was clandestinely going up across the city. We were told that 5G was only in the planning stages. Yet, mysterious wireless masts very different from the existent 4G cell towers had popped up in our neighborhood during the previous couple of years. These, we were told by the workers installing them, are 5G.
AND our own EMF exposure meters registered radiation from them!
So, not only did they mow us over in political process, but they straight up lied to us.
Media Coverage Denied
So far, our attempts to educate the local press have fallen on deaf ears. Letters to the editor of local media outlets were NEVER published.
Only Jeff Crouere of Ringside Politics with a Punch! on WLAE TV; and Monica Clark on WHIV radio, were brave enough to follow our efforts with fair and honest coverage.
But where were the majority of local news journalists?
The overall media silence thwarted community awareness reducing potential numbers of concerned citizens demanding the precautionary principle. Social media yielded a few passionate warriors, but many more were needed to insure public demands be prioritized as they did in Danville, CA where citizens were able to to defeat Verizon’s 5G rollover of their community.
Public Health Damages Now Compounding
Now that the New Orleans City Council has green lighted widespread 5G deployment, individual health complaints have begun to mount. Symptoms include sleeplessness, headaches, general malaise and more. Only a few victims are astute enough to link the sources of their symptoms to specific sources of EMF radiation, e.g., towers outside their windows, Wi-Fi in their homes and places of work and community commons.
As we work educating our largely unknowing community of the dangers that we face, so that they, too, can link ill health symptoms to causes, we have and will continue to hold City Council and the upstream agencies they relied on LIABLE for their “opinion”, pressing them all for the SPECIFIC studies that CONCLUSIVELY allowed favoring industry over humanity and public health.
During my phone conversation with an FCC representative, I asked the same question: WHICH SPECIFIC STUDIES can the Commission cite unequivocally substantiating safety and validating the agency’s choice to cast aside decades of studies proving the contrary?
The FCC representative answered vaguely saying: “We base this on countless studies we have poured over to come to the conclusion that it is safe”.
To which I replied, “Well, if your opinion is going to ignore thousands of studies that prove what my son and I know for ourselves already – that wireless cellular technology is NOT safe for human and biological exposure, especially at the rate of planned proliferation – then we need to see the studies which have helped you form this ‘opinion.’ This isn’t a risk we are willing to allow you to take with our lives and without liability.”
To which they replied, “feel free to go up on our website and make a request there to see it”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, 5G cannot be allowed to stand on unchallenged science and without liability for unjustified opinions that violate our inalienable rights and constitutional guarantee of self-determination.
We are not to be forced to live in a dangerous and inescapable irradiated field of unnatural microwave frequencies.
Presently we may have lost the local 5G battle, but the lessons learned will not be wasted. The Holy War of sanity for humanity rages on.
There is NO intellectually honest and scientifically sound justification for time bound 5G rollout, either locally or federally.
Everything 5G is touted to do can be done more securely, better and more safely with fiber optics & hard-wiring.
It is my humble non-violent opinion that forcing the agencies that industry and politicians are hiding behind to produce scientific justification, that is, The Safety Studies, is the KEY.
Also, future battles over liability need to be initiated, as well as continuing efforts to inform people of the harm that has been allowed. Local citizens must convince and support their local leaders in advancing lawsuits against industry and federal agencies to insure citizens’ safety. This was done by the citizens of Danville, CA against Verizon (15).
ONLY STRONG, OVERWHELMING public outrage can hope to yoke our governments back to their stated responsibility to protect public health and welfare.
We must keep fighting at the local, state and national level. Show up at every city council meeting where 5G is being ramrodded.
-End-
References
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuTdG8TFDEo&t=2882s
3) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749118310157
4) https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/135641main_clouds_trifold21.pdf
5) http://globalmicrowave.org/
6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDFA5K77KW4&list=PLr498QUb59nVfEp7mG1qlSI5ZGPWSSCCO&index=2&t=1535s
8)
https://cityofno.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=42&clip_id=3173&meta_id=431922
11) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749118310157
12) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21793784
13) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X15003988
EMF Madness 