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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0986.405 2018-2020 C^v U NT.A1£ OF '.1_1 W 1'1 From: Cecelia Doucette Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020 9:11 AM To: Council Testimony I Subject: Please Support 678-20: Lessons from the Mainland Dear Hawaii County Council Members, Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cece Doucette. I graduated from Waialua High and Intermediate School on Oahu, then moved to Boston for college where I eventually married the boy next door. We have stayed and raised our family here but I care deeply about what happens to Hawaii. You may wish to grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in for a few minutes to read the following, it's really important. Why I Care When our daughters were in school, we kept hearing about the 21st century classroom. Our school district did not have the budget to afford all the new technology we were being told they would need to succeed. So, some of us parents did fundraising to bring in wireless infrastructure, iPads, Chromebooks, smartboards, etc. 'Then an electrical engineer friend tipped me off there could be harm. That's where my journey began. I did a cursory search and found studies showing no harm. But I dug just a little deeper, and found literally, thousands of studies, peer-reviewed, published all over the world showing a myriad of serious biological effects. I have since helped my schools become the first in the nation to take precautionary measures, placed radiation detection meters on loan in public libraries, established an international non-profit to educate the public, and worked with legislators to bring public policy in line with current science (see below). The Science What the scientific studies taught me was astounding. The electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of radiofrequency microwave radiation (RF) pulsed from wireless infrastructure and our own devices is linked to child and adult cancers, DNA damage, infertility, autism, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer's and more in the long-term. It hits the central nervous system and immune system especially hard so children and fetuses, whose systems are still under development, are especially vulnerable. The elderly, whose systems are on the decline, are heavily impacted too, as is anyone whose body is already trying to cope with an existing health condition. In the short-term, many of us are experiencing symptoms of microwave sickness but would never know to connect them to the constant pulses of microwave radiation coming at us all day every day from multiple sources. Most of our doctors have yet to be trained on microwave sicknesses and are increasingly frustrated that they can't help their patients. Microwave sickness symptoms often include one or more of the following: sleep problems, headaches, nosebleeds, nausea, pain, skin abnormalities, ringing in the ears, cognitive impairment, learning disabilities, digital addiction, behavioral issues, anger, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and more. Comm. No MI• Ref. To: 1 Ref. Date JUL 2 2 2020 This constant barrage of microwave pulses never gives our bodies a break to do proper cell repair and regeneration. The impacts are cumulative, and so over time we see a general decline in our health and that of the planet's ecosystem too. This radiation affects every living cell and was never safety tested before coming to market. Please examine Dr. Martin Pall's paper which provides the science and mechanisms of harm, and refutes industry claims that there is no harm. It is a good summary to quickly come up to speed and includes the specific scientific studies showing each area of harm. The Physicians for Safe Technology website is also a good site to see the science by biological effect. The Industry As I did my due diligence, I kept thinking, "Surely, if this is as bad as the science indicates, someone must have our backs on this." Then Harvard published the report "Captured Agency: How the Federal Communications Commission is Dominated by the Industries it Presumably Regulates." In Captured Agency we learn the wireless industry is basically using the tobacco playbook. The World Health Organization even recognizes the tobacco playbook and the relentless tactics used to suppress credible science, design their own science to show no harm, lobby to put laws in place to protect their interests, commandeer the media, and run highly successful campaigns to keep the public buying their toxic products. Notice how when the industry speaks, they don't point to where the truth lies, in the actual scientific studies. They point to organizations, captured agencies which they control or whose words they twist to give the public and our public servants a false sense of security. When challenged with the scientific findings, they go into denial mode. The CTIA's Letter to Hawaii County's Planning Committee When the 5G ban was before the Hawaii County Planning Committee, Bethanne Cooley, from CTIA -- The Wireless Industry, submitted this letter and I suspect she is submitting something similar to you. Please know there is much more to the story with the authoritative quotes she includes: • "... there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations [cell towers/ and wireless networks cause adverse health effects. "— World Health Organizations Note: That is an out-of-date citation. The U.S. National Toxicology Program's $30M study has concluded "clear evidence" radiofrequency radiation causes cancerous tumors and DNA damage. "Clear evidence" is the highest public warning they can give. The industry tried to spin it that you need more than one study to prove an outcome. Then Italy's Ramazzini Institute completed another large study corroborating the U.S. findings. You can examine both yourself here. Further, the World Health Organization in 2011 classified RF as a Group 2B Possible Human Carcinogen. We should have invoked the Precautionary Principle then but again, heavy industry influence at all levels, even at the WHO, prevented science and common sense from prevailing. Since the evidence now shows it should be reclassified as Group 1: Carcinogenic to Humans, the WHO is reopening their investigation in 2020. • "Based on our ongoing evaluation of this issue, the totality of the available scientific evidence continues to not support adverse health effects in humans caused by exposures at or under the current radiofrequency energy exposure limits. "— The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)6 Note: The FDA, nearly 20 years ago, commissioned the U.S. National Toxicology Program cancer study. There is new FDA leadership today. Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who is now in charge of radiofrequency, should have taken the "clear evidence" of cancer and DNA damage finding and translated that into policy to protect the public. `4 2 Instead, he told the FCC to continue with business as usual. It turns out Dr. Shuren's wife is a partner in a law firm that represents the wireless industry so he has a very serious conflict of interest. • "... although many studies have examined the potential health effects c f non-ioni. ing radiation,from radar, microwave ovens, cell phones, and other sources, there is currently no consistent evidence that non-ionizing radiation increases cancer risk in humans. " National Cancer Institute 7 Note: There will never be "consistent" evidence because the industry funds its own studies designed to show no harm. Bear in mind that one study showing no harm does not cancel out another that shows harm, although the industry would like you to believe that. The studies that show harm, still show harm. And there are, literally, thousands of them. Cancer aside, it was the sperm studies that got me on my feet when I first started reading the scientific literature on reproduction. They have taken male human sperm and exposed it to a laptop with the antennas on, and it changed the DNA, slowed the motility of the sperm, and caused far fewer sperm to be viable -- in just four hours of exposure. There are other studies on women's reproductive outcomes too, including fertility issues and higher rates of miscarriage with exposure to wireless radiation. I have two daughters, and we had given them laptops when they went to high school. Each had bought their own cell phones too, and there was wireless infrastructure all around them at home, in school and in the community. I realized we had immersed our children and ourselves in unrelenting 24x7x365 toxic electrosmog and that's when I began working to fix this issue. Energy Consumption & Sustainability Did you know wireless technology consumes 10x the amount of energy than the better hard-wired solutions? A Greenpeace analyst indicated if the wireless industry were a country, it would be the fifth or sixth largest consumer of energy in the world. A word on sustainability: being in Hawaii, we know natural disasters happen like tsunamis. What happens to wireless infrastructure in a tsunami? Look at Hurricane Maria where the cell towers all went down and Puerto Rico was incommunicado for months. Look at the wildfires in California. Any telecommunications equipment above ground, like cell towers and small cells, are gone and the public is stranded. Fiber-optics, high speed cable and advanced copper underground are much more sustainable solutions. It was the industry that convinced our municipalities to let them get out of maintaining the reliable copper landlines. Here in Boston, when we lost power in blizzards, we still could call for emergency services on our copper landlines. But not anymore. We need electricity now for our phones, even our landlines, to work because they've bundled them into the wireless infrastructure. When the power goes out, once our batteries run out, we now have no way to even call for emergency services anymore. Legal Recourse The industry charged us all on our phone bills for years to build out the right solution: hard-wired fiber-optics or high speed cable/copper to the premises where we can pick up the signal and connect indoors via Ethernet cables and adapters to our devices. Then they failed to deliver the safe and sustainable solution, and instead took those funds and started spinning up wireless because it's cheaper to install and highly profitable. Thankfully, the IRREGULATORS vs. FCC lawsuit has freed up our states to recoup those funds so we can transition to safe hard-wired technology. 3 The FCC was asked to revisit their RF exposure limits and completely ignored the scientific evidence submitted showing harm. The Environmental Health Trust and Children's Health Defense are now suing the FCC for dereliction of duty and negligence. There is a way for Hawaii County to join an amicus brief on this lawsuit at no cost and I'd be happy to send you information if you are interested. This is a groundbreaking lawsuit, and a groundbreaking opportunity for our communities to fight back. Legislative Action Massachusetts leads the nation this session with 20 bills addressing man-made radiation, and even with the pandemic and racial justice priorities, our legislators have seen fit to report several of these bills out of committee favorably. We move like molasses in Massachusetts though and are, perhaps unwittingly, deep in bed with industry so we are not sure if our bills will progress further this session. New Hampshire and Oregon, however, are operating like we thought our democracy should. Once citizens informed Oregon Senator Anderson of the wireless radiation issue, she took action. She is a retired public health nurse who quickly understood the science and risks, and passed an emergency law to require the Oregon I lealth Authority to investigate the non-industry funded science. They were due to report out by January, but that may be postponed until April while their resources are diverted to address the pandemic. Their final report is to include recommendations for safe technology in schools to protect especially our children. In New Hampshire, a citizen who became very ill from wireless radiation exposures spoke with her State Representative about this issue. Rep. Patrick Abrami is an engineer and had only been taught you have to have heat from a wireless antenna before you can have harm. But he listened, and then he investigated. When he read the science showing extreme harm at non-thermal levels of RF exposure, he had a major WOW moment. Then he wrote a bill which he asked me to review. Next, he drove down from NH to MA and we spent the afternoon at my kitchen table helping him to connect the dots further. Then he beefed up his bill with very pointed questions that demand answers, including why the insurance industry has long recognized RF as a leading risk and put exclusions in their policies. They don't cover damages, and that leaves our towns liable. He also calls out the FCC for ignoring the science and allowing radiation limits that are 100 times higher than in other countries The retired President of Microsoft Canada, Frank Clegg, is a whistleblower on the wireless issue, see his 8-minute PSA on 5G here. I introduced him to Rep. Abrami, and Mr. Clegg flew in to testify, along with leading scientist Dr. Paul Heroux from McGill University. I came up from MA to testify too along with several well-informed NH residents. We got that bill passed by the Senate, the House and the Governor in just seven months, and last fall NH formed a Commission to investigate the health and environmental impact of EMFs. So, for the first time in U.S. history, this issue is being truly addressed with open dialogue as expert scientists, doctors, engineers and industry representatives testify before the Commission. The CTIA has a seat on the Commission so all stakeholders are present, and it is filled by Bethanne Cooley, the same woman who has sent a letter(s) to Hawaii County. So she knows full well there are very serious health risks. Dr. Paul Heroux is also on the Commission, along with bill co-sponsor Senator Tom Sherman who is a medical doctor who is seeing the fallout in his practice. There are members from academia, public health, environmental health, business, and the attorney general's office too. New Hampshire is still on track to report out the Commission's findings by November 1, 2020. You can follow their progress via meeting minutes and other posted documents here. Recommendation for Hawaii I hope you will take very seriously the opportunity you now have to ban 5G. When you get overwhelmed by all of the mixed messages you will hear, remember to redirect your focus to the non-industry funded science. That is the only 4 true source of facts, and the science is very clear that wireless is a toxin, regardless of what the industry tries to convince us of otherwise through the media or legal pressure. The Good News The good news is there are many solutions available right now to help us transition to safe, fast, reliable technology: • For Our Towns: The policy book Reinventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks provides a roadmap for our municipalities to understand the issues and begin plans for better technology. The award- winning film Generation Zapped is an excellent 74-minute documentary that beautifully illustrates the issue and solutions. We have shown it at the Massachusetts State House, the National Institutes of Health, many community libraries, and it was selected as part of the United Nations Film Festival. It would be a great way to quickly educate your team and community to start a meaningful conversation. 5GCrisis.com has a terrific tool kit with a sample municipal ordinance you may wish to consider adopting in the short-term. • For the Public: The non-profit Wireless Education has already built quick affordable on-line training to bring the public up to speed. The Schools & Families Course and the Corporate Course only take about a half-hour on-line to complete. Each distills the science, risks, what other countries are already doing to protect their public, and medically recommended best practices for safer technology use. A handy tip sheet with device- specific reminders is provided at the end. Folks could do this on their lunch hour today and have a good understanding of the issue and how to protect their families. I helped to build the courses and would be honored to grant you access to review the content. Please just let me know. • For Public Health: I helped the Massachusetts Department of Public Health write EMF fact sheets which can be updated and adapted for Hawaii. We created a general one, and one for schools. We were told the public would be informed in three months. That was four years ago, and likely due to conflicts of interest with industry, they have yet to be released. • For Health Care Professionals: We convened the first major U.S. medical continuing education EMF Conference in November in California. We brought together leading experts from around the world to teach doctors, nurses, first responders and others to recognize, diagnose, treat and prevent microwave illnesses. The next conference will be in January and ifs been moved on-line so now all health care professionals have the opportunity to be professionally trained. • For Academia: Dr. Heroux and others already have curriculum built to train engineers, physicists, technologists and others on the non-thermal effects so they can begin designing technology that is biologically safe. Swisscomm, for example, has long held a patent for eco-mode wi-fl, which keeps everything in sleep mode and no RF signals are emitted unless called upon for a connection. Here in the U.S. right now, our technology beacons wireless signals at billions of cycles per second all the time non-stop whether anyone's using a device or not. Our engineers have simply not been tasked with creating safe technology. Ifs not rocket science, it can be done if we give the industry the nudge to produce it. • For Legislators: Please ask your legislators to take emergency action to adopt the NH bill to put public and environmental health over corporate interests. NH is doing the hard work right now so others will quickly be able to follow in their footsteps. In Closing Time and again, I hear from people with whom I've spent an hour sharing information, that they decided to turn off all of the antennas in their wireless devices at night and turn off their router too. They're grateful they can still use their clocks, alarms, camera and any downloaded books, music, etc., in airplane mode. 5 They come back and say they had the best sleep they've had in years, finally sleeping all the way through the night again! Children's behavior issues often go way down too when their bodies can properly rest and repair during sleep if there are no microwaves pulsing at them all night long. Headaches, nosebleeds, anxiety, depression, fatigue, brain fog, pain frequently begin to resolve too though some have to sleep in another room if there are utility "smart" meters pulsing at them near their beds. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught us that meaningful change happens through three channels: the public wakes up and speaks up, the courts hold the guilty accountable, and public policy is brought current. I Ionorable Council Members, you are addressing the wireless radiation issue at a terrific point in time, as critical mass is now happening in all three areas. The proverbial wheels are coming off the bus for the wireless industry and they know it. I hope you will do everything in your power to stave off any further wireless buildout in Hawaii County. Might the industry challenge you? Yes, and other municipalities recognize there is legal risk too. It's all part of the process. But what's the alternative? Radiate our ohanas with a small cell at the curb outside our homes and smart meters pulsing 24x7? Allow 5G for the Internet of Things (IoT) which will put an RF antenna in just about every product you purchase so the industry can harvest our usage data to sell to others? Burlington, Massachusetts pulled together a town-wide committee with members from all of their boards, and crafted a small cell policy that had Verizon withdrawing their small cell applications. There are ways around this and I can put you in touch with the municipal leaders in Burlington. Other municipalities have been contacting them too. For today, banning 5G is a good place to start, as Easton, Connecticut just did. Then another good step is to provide education to the public right now via Generation Zapped screenings and Wireless Education courses so they can take control of their existing radiation emissions while you develop long-term plans for safe, sustainable community-level technology infrastructure. You are the customer and if you ask for it, the industry will deliver safe, responsible hard-wired solutions. Thank you for your time and consideration. I know the wireless radiation issue comes out of left field for many and it's a lot to absorb so please don't hesitate to reach out if I can provide additional information, help conduct training sessions, and/or introduce you to leading scientific or medical experts in this field. We would all be eager to help with any questions you may have. Mahalo nui loa, Cecelia (Cece) Doucette, MTPW, BA "Technology Safety Educator 508-881-3878 Eastern Standard Time Director, Massachusetts for Safe Technology Founder, Understanding EMFs Education Services Director, Wireless Education IliBR_ Conference @ NIH Expert Forum on Wi-fi in Schools Municipal Presentation on 5G & EMFs Additional YouTube EMF Talks (}ej_lerafion Zapped Award-Winning Film I:MF Conference for Health Practitioners 6