Expert worries about exposure

Parents and community members ought to consider the concerns being raised by some parents about a proposed cellular antenna site at Lindero Canyon Middle School, A.E. Wright and other Las Virgenes Unified School District school sites. Superintendent Zimring and the LVUSD board have scheduled an informational meeting to discuss this proposal at 6 p.m. Tues., July 14.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion introduced by supervisors Antonovich, Yaroslavsky and Ridley-Thomas on June 2 calling on the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration to repeal Section 704 of the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 that preempts local control over health and other concerns when placing antennas. And in Europe this past April the European Parliament overwhelming passed an extensive EMF (electromagnetic field) resolution advising against the placement of antennas near schools.

In May, the Los Angeles City Board of Education, which has banned cell antennas on school properties since 2000, passed a new resolution, recommending "the prudent avoidance of equipment which generates nonionizing radiation," and, calling upon the California Environmental Protection Agency to "perform the appropriate research and experimentation to determine the effects of nonionizing radiation on the health of not only adults but children, who are the most vulnerable, and establish a safe level of exposure."

I have worked on this issue for over 13 years, both in the United States and internationally. The controversy under way at LVUSD is a microcosm of one taking place worldwide, and it's not limited to schools. Increasingly, neurological symptoms are being reported in scientific studies on communities where wireless transmitters are located, including poor concentration, memory loss, depression, headaches, sleep problems, as well as cancers and other diseases. It is for this reason that the BioInitiative Report, a report by 16 independent scientists worldwide, called in 2007 for new biologically based electromagnetic field exposure standards. The Venice Resolution, signed by over 56 scientists and physicians throughout the world, supports more protective EMF standards and takes "exception to the claim of the wireless communication industry that there is no credible scientific evidence to conclude there (is) a risk" from electromagnetic fields.

If they are concerned, shouldn't you be?

Elizabeth Kelley