By: Clare Donegan
NORTH ANDOVER: Town Meeting voters are considering a $4M expenditure involving 16 municipal buildings, including 8 schools. If the contract is awarded to AMERESCO the $40k study will be “free.”
Forty percent is allocated for “new energy management systems” that communicate using wireless microwave radiation. Why install expensive infrastructure, which increases security risk and was recently classified by the WHO as a Class 2B carcinogen? Why not use hard-wire already in place?
Microwave limits for wireless technologies in most European countries are already lower (some by a hundred times) than U.S. limits.
The Council of Europe, recently passed a precautionary principle resolution for electromagnetic fields (EMF) and wireless technologies. It urges nations to impose restrictions on mobile phones and school Wi-Fi. Education campaigns aimed specifically toward teachers, parents and children highlight the risks of “early, ill-considered and prolonged use of devices emitting microwaves.”
Steven Sinatra of Doctors for Safer Schools notes students exposed to wireless technologies experience headaches, lightheadedness, and heart palpitations. If a N. Andover child develops these symptoms due to exposure to pulsed radiation in school, chances are health care professionals will treat the symptoms and not recognize the root cause.
Martha Herbert, MGH Pediatric Neurologist: “Powerful industrial entities have a vested interest in leading the public to believe that EMF/RFR, which we cannot see, taste or touch, is harmless, but this is not true. Please do the right and precautionary thing for our children.”
Despite pleas from many highly respected medical and engineering professionals, wireless roll-outs are accelerating. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is poised to deploy the billion-dollar “Smart Grid.” The imminent installation of wireless transmitters on every home, business, and school produces a new form of inescapable pulsed radiation linked to serious health issues.
United States policy regarding human health is inadequate and does not reflect recent science. N. Andover residents would be prudent to demand an ironclad health guarantee. Also, residents may want to investigate the location, frequency, and power density of all microwave transmitters and antennas already located in the town. A BRAG report grades RF exposure levels for each school.
Hopefully, N. Andover residents will do their homework and vote to limit the scope of their aptly named “Green” – as in hemorrhaging of tax dollars – initiatives to weatherization and fiscally responsible, safe, sensible strategies.
For example, underpublicized research points to the folly of compact fluorescent bulbs. Does the new energy management system immediately preclude circulation of mercury-laden air when one of thousands of CFLs breaks? Does the budget provide for Haz-mat clean-up and health care costs?
Rather than spending $4M to “save” $40k, and gambling student and staff health on new and unproven experimental technologies associated with mounting health and environmental issues, vote “No” on Article 19. Extra credit for researching smart meter fires, smart meter security, smart meter health issues, and smart grid costs. For more information, please call 888-272-6510 or visit HaltMAsmartMeters.org