Page 38 - Winter2014

THE 2012 BIOINITIATIVE REPORT OVERVIEW:
IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH FROM THE ROLLOUT OF “SMART” METERS
BY CINDY SAGE, CO-EDITOR

The BioInitiative Report 2012 updates the last five years (2007-2012) of science, public health, public policy and global
response to the growing health issue of chronic exposure to electromagnetic fields and radio frequency radiation in the
daily life of billions of people around the world. The Report has been prepared by 29 authors from ten countries, including
ten medical doctors, twenty-one PhDs, and three MsC, MA, or MPHs. Among the authors are three former presidents of
the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS), and five full members of BEMS. One distinguished author is the chair of the Rus-
sian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation. Another is a senior advisor to the European Environmental Agency.
The great strength of the BioInitiative Report (www.bioinitiative.org) is that it has been carried out independently of
governments, existing bodies and industry professional societies. Precisely because of this, the BioInitiative Report presents
a solid scientific and public health policy assessment that is evidence-based.
The global conversation on why public safety limits for electromagnetic and radio frequency fields remain thousands
of times higher than exposure levels that health studies consistently show to be associated with serious health impacts
has intensified since 2007. Roughly eighteen new studies have been published in the last five years reporting effects at
exposure levels ten to hundreds or thousands of times lower than allowed under safety limits in most countries. Yet no
government has instituted comprehensive reforms. Some actions have been taken that highlight partial solutions. The
Global Actions chapter presents milestone events that characterize the international “sea change” of opinion that has
taken place, and reports on precautionary advice and actions from around the world.
The world’s populations—from children to the general public to scientists and physicians—face an intensifying bar-
rage from corporate marketing propaganda that urges the insertion of the latest wireless devices into their everyday lives.
This occurs even while even an elementary understanding of the possible health consequences of using these devices is
beyond the ability of most people to grasp. Exposures are invisible and testing meters are expensive and technically difficult
to operate. The technology industry promotes new gadgets and generates massive advertising and lobbying campaigns
that silence debate, while the reliable, non-wireless versions are discontinued against public will. There is little labeling,
and little or no informed choice In fact, there is often not even the choice to stay with safer, wired solutions, as in the
case of the “smart grid” and “smart” wireless utility metering, an extreme example of a failed corporate-governmental
partnership strategy, ostensibly initiated for energy conservation.
A collision of the wireless technology rollout and the costs of choosing unwisely has begun and will grow. The ground-
work for this collision is being laid as a result of increased exposure, especially to radio frequency fields, in education,
housing, commerce, communications and entertainment, medical technologies and imaging, and in public and private
transportation by air, bus, train and motor vehicles. Special concerns are the care of the fetus and newborn, the care for
children with learning disabilities, and consideration of people under protection of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which includes people who have become sensitized and physiologically intolerant of chronic exposures. The 2012 report
now addresses these issues and presents an update of issues previously discussed in the BioInitiative Report 2007.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
The stakes are very high. Human beings are bioelectrical systems. Our hearts and brains are regulated by internal
bioelectrical signals. Environmental exposures to artificial EMRs can interact with fundamental biological processes in the
human body. In some cases, this may cause discomfort, sleep disruption, loss of wellbeing (impaired mental functioning
and impaired metabolism), or sometimes a dread disease like cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. It may interfere with fertility
or successful full-term pregnancy, or result in brain development changes that harm the child. It may be these exposures
play a role in causing long-term impairments to normal growth and development in children, jeopardizing their futures
as healthy, productive adults. We have good evidence that these exposures can damage our health, or that of children
of the future who will be born to parents now immersed in wireless exposures.
In the U.S., the deployment of wireless infrastructure (cell tower sites) to support cell phone use has accelerated
greatly in the last decades. The spread of cell towers in communities—often placed on preschool, church, daycare, and
school campuses—means that young children receive thousands of times higher RF exposures in home and school en-
vironments than existed even 20-25 years ago. CTIA estimates that in 1997 there were 36,650 cell sites in the U.S. This
number increased rapidly to 131,350 in June 2002, 210,350 in June 2007, and 265,561 in June 2012 (CTIA, 2012).
These wireless antennas for cellular phone voice and data transmission produce whole-body RFR exposures over
broad areas in communities—an involuntary and unavoidable sources of radio frequency radiation exposure. Further, the
nearly universal switch to cordless and cell phones from corded landline phones means close and repetitive exposures
to both EMF and RFR in the home. Other new RFR exposures come from Wi-Fi access points (hotspots) that radiate
34 Wise Traditions WINTER 2014 Wise Traditions

145881_text.indd 34 12/23/14 12:16 AM