5G/EMF/RF Mother’s Day 2021: Voices of Experience, Wisdom & Insight Part 2

By Patricia Burke

See Part 1 here.

Thea Fournier and Julie Riccardi: Healthy Humans Need Healthy Food, Healthy Homes, and Healthy Communities

At around the same time as Peggy and Diana were working in Wayland, nutritionist and mother Thea Fournier and mom floral designer Julie Riccardi and others learned that Metro PCS was coming to town, followed later by other carriers. On the North Shore, Thea and Julie established what may have been the first community-sourced website to raise awareness about EMF/RF exposure risks, working to keep towers away from schools, nursing homes, houses, and other sensitive environments. Like many environmental advocates, Thea was also involved in other wellness controversies, including opposing an incinerator spewing mercury into the air. Thea organized two community groups, the “ N. Andover Rights of Citizens” (NARC) and Community Against Radiation Exposure (CARE). She ran two successful fundraising campaigns to cover the legal fees to fight placing antennas in the town’s historic Steven’s Mill, in the middle of a residential area. Subsequently, a number of community churches were approached by several telecommunication companies, to install antennas in their church steeples. NARC reached out to educate the church members and community, succeeding in keeping the antennas at bay. Thea’s nutrition clients from other towns were also contacting her because towers and antennas were being foisted in churches, condos and proximal to schools in other communities. Then she began getting calls from across the country.

N. Andover citizens were successful in keeping the infrastructure at bay for years, until they weren’t. The interim minister and finance committee of the church, a short distance from Thea’s historic, Victorian home, dismissed the health concerns. Church members in many congregations have encountered closed-minded finance committees whose objectives are at odds with those wanting to protect the neighborhood and serve the community. Thea noted, “The money in the temple blinded them.” The church and its parishioners bought into the industry propaganda, ignored the precautionary principle, and turned their backs on the neighbors, allowing the antennas to be placed in the steeple. Additional carriers followed, installing more wireless infrastructure. Thea continues to work on the wireless issue in MA, advocating especially for a no-fee opt out for wireless utility meters. In 2014, she testified before the MA Dept. of Public Utilities about smart meters, seated next to tobacco scientist EMF scientist Peter Valberg. The MA DPU accepted and promoted the opinion of the tobacco scientist.

Tobacco Scientist for Smart Meters/Wireless Industry Peter Valberg of Gradient  testifying for the MA Dept of Public Utilities in 2014, the same week he testified for Philip Morris Cigarettes. L to R. Peter Valberg, Helen Walker, Thea Fournier, Dr. Lisa Nagy

Thea devoted years of her life to protecting her community, but ended up in the RF footprint of the antennas in the church steeple. In her EMF-free, professionally shielded office, she continues to see many clients who experience vast improvements in challenging health conditions when they clean up their EMF/RF environment.  She continues her advocacy in favor of protecting health and the environment in a number of areas, including GMOs, product labeling, health care choice, and EMF/RF.

Tobacco Science for Wireless

In 2014, in addition to speaking to the MA DPU, Peter Valberg also prevailed for Philip Light cigarettes, denying victims the right to take part in a class action lawsuit because they had not paid an extra surcharge for Light cigarettes.

His opinion on smart meter safety has formed the basis of justification for smart meter policy decisions across the U.S.

Nina Anderson: The Pilot vs. the Pilot Program

Speaking of tobacco scientists who work for the wireless industry, step-mother Nina Anderson was one of the first women to work as a corporate pilot, at one point flying for Phillip Morris cigarettes. Fast forward a few decades, and in 1995 she founded “The Scientific Alliance for Education.” Her organization focuses on educating the public and providing information that allows individuals to make educated decisions for a course of action. Located in the tri-state corner of the Berkshires, her organization serves MA, CT, and NY, with past educational/outreach efforts including indoor air pollution, GMOs, and lead paint. SafeHelpsYou is the arm of her organization addressing wireless health risks. Nina single-handedly lobbied her town to establish a smart meter moratorium when she became aware of the Worcester Ngrid pilot, which was foisted on the community without knowledge and consent of the residents. She was especially concerned that Philip Morris tobacco scientist Peter Valberg was the expert who testified before the Worcester Zoning Board to override citizen health concerns. She is actively involved on the 5G issue, working to assist Sheffield to update their telecom bylaws to reflect issues regarding small cells. Like many communities, current bylaws are inadequate for 5G and other telecom expansionist plans. Concerns recently raised in California include overloading poles, proximity to homes, property values, health,  fire risks, lack of insurance, the carbon footprint /energy consumption of wireless, ADA issues, lack of inspection and maintenance, and the fact that deployment does not address the digital divide. 5G does not facilitate voice data or internet connectivity – it only increases download speeds for video, it’s unreliable in bad weather, it’s not cyber secure, and it contributes to climate change because it requires electricity to many more antennas.

Healthy Communities Need Health Protective Ordinances

Nina explains:

The telecommunications industry is engaged in a massive deployment of microwave and millimeter-wave “small cell” antennas across the county to facilitate the next generation of wireless communications known as 5G. This new technology uses existing wireless infrastructure and new types of millimeter radiofrequency (RF) radiation to transmit large amounts of data, but requires significantly closer proximity to users, resulting in the dense deployment of antennas near residences, schools, and hospitals. Because of their short-range transmissions, 5G units may be spaced as close as one every five homes on existing telephone poles. These units can be as large as small refrigerators. 5G will use sub 6Ghz band and mmWave bands so 5G signals will not be able to penetrate buildings and wooded areas. Therefore, many trees may have to be cut down for reliable service. This is not acceptable for our rural landscape. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not conducted any long-term safety testing of new 5G wireless technologies, and has failed to update its human RF microwave radiation exposure guidelines since 1996, despite being advised to do so by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and hundreds of medical and scientific experts from around the world. The telecommunications industry leaders have publicly admitted that they have not conducted any safety tests to determine the possible adverse health and environmental effects from exposure to RF non-ionizing millimeter waves emitted by 5G-enabled small cell antennas.

Nina runs the blog No Mass Smart Meters.

2016: “These People Are Not Scientists”

In a 2016 article, the Center for Public Integrity revisited the issue of the endurance of corrupted tobacco science. Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, noted, “These people are not scientists. They are public- relations people who happen to have degrees in science. These are people who make their living producing results that their clients want. And that’s not science.”

David Heath reported, “Philip Morris Uses Chemical Industry Consultants To Perpetuate ‘Light Cigarette’ Myth.” “Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the tobacco giant maintains that ‘low-tar’ cigarettes are safer than regular ones. Philip Morris uses chemical industry consultants to perpetuate ‘light cigarette’ myth.”

In a landmark ruling nearly a decade ago, a federal judge ordered tobacco companies to stop lying. After listening to 84 witnesses and perusing tens of thousands of exhibits, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia took a year to write a 1,652-page opinion detailing the companies’ elaborate strategy to deny the harmful effects of smoking.

In short, [the companies] have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted,” Kessler wrote in United States of America v. Philip Morris USA.

Kessler noted that the Justice Department, in a racketeering lawsuit, had presented “overwhelming evidence” of a conspiracy to defraud the public. She ordered the companies to take a number of actions, including ceasing to claim there was such a thing as a low-tar cigarette that reduced the risk of disease. The evidence showed this simply was not true. Yet in about a dozen pending lawsuits, Philip Morris continues to do just that. It routinely argues that the nation’s top-selling cigarette, once known as Marlboro Lights and now called Marlboro Gold, reduces the risk of cancer.

Part 3 continues on May 11.

FIRES: Adding antennas to poles increases fire risks. Powering the complex 5G system inevitably builds heat in its base stations along the public right of way. “Inefficient conversion of RF to digital and continuous connectivity issues are causing thermal problems, threatening signal integrity and reliability.” Overloading poles can spark a fire like what happened in Malibu in 2007. “When Santa Ana winds swept through the canyon on Oct. 21, 2007, three utility poles next to Malibu Canyon Road toppled and ignited the fire. The blaze burned 3,836 acres and destroyed or damaged dozens of structures and vehicles. The poles were jointly owned by SoCal Edison, AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and NextG Networks of California.” We don’t need more heat in wildfire prone California. 5G Heats up base Stations https://semiengineering.com/5g-heats-up-base-stations/ and https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-xpm-2013-may-20-la-me-ln-edison-admits-errors-in-malibu-fire-settles-now-top-60-million-20130520-story.html

You can read the rest of this Mother’s Day series HERE and find Patricia Burke’s entire archive HERE.

Patricia Burke works with activists across the country and internationally calling for new biologically-based microwave radio frequency exposure limits.She is based in Massachusetts and can be reached at [email protected].