4/26/17 Mark Graham Testimony to the CA Senate the Governance and Finance Committee
Good morning, Senators. My name is Mark Graham and I represent Scientists for Wired Technology. In the Science marches across the country this past weekend one sign read, “At the start of every disaster movie is a scientist being ignored.”
SB649 is a disaster movie. It would bring cell phone tower antennas from where they are currently placed, 200 feet in the air and thousands of feet away from homes, to only 20 feet in the air and 20 feet from homes – 2nd story bedroom windows.
Please . . . don’t ignore . . . our best scientists. This will create a public health nightmare with a wide range of short term and long term health impacts.
Small cell radiation is pulsed, modulated radiofrequency microwave radiation. I will call it RFR for short.
In December, 2014, a California Medical Association resolution stated that peer-reviewed scientific evidence demonstrates adverse biological effects of RFR including immune system dysfunction, altered brain development, sleep and memory disturbances, sperm dysfunction, heart damage and brain tumors.
In May 2016, Dr. Ronald Melnick, the lead designer of the National Toxicology Program’s 16-year, $25 million study of the cancer causing properties of cell phone RFR, said that . . .
“The hypothesis that RFR causes health effects has now been proved . . . we saw increases of gliomas, brain cancers, and schwannomas of the heart … [pause] . . . The same cells that became cancerous in rats are the cells that have been reported to develop into tumors in [humans].”
The Committee should reject this bill because RFR is hazardous to human health. [pause] It penetrates the brain, the heart, and the reproductive organs, causing injury to all of them. It also causes early dementia for people in their 40’s and 50’s. This bill will create chronic health problems for millions of Californians every day.
Imagine if you cannot sleep in your home, you have a pounding migraine headache and ringing in your ears because of radiation from a small cell. You can’t function at work or at school the next day. The Committee should require the bill’s author to prove that, as they will be installed and operated, these small cells will not create a public health hazard. Californians need that assurance before you vote SB.649 through today.
DDT, Vioxx, and tobacco are all products that were claimed to be safe but were known by industry at that time to be hazardous.
The best reason a local government could have for saying NO to small cells is to protect the health and safety of its residents. This bill would violate Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution, which guarantees our inalienable right to pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
Last Friday, I hand delivered to each of you this list of over 100 scientific studies, including the NTP study and other studies from 2016: studies we entered into the public record on 7/15/15 and 4/4/17. This substantial scientific evidence in the public record was ignored by the SB.649 bill analysts.
Russia well understands the hazards of RFR and is not installing small cells or 5G. Instead, it is bringing a fiber optic to every home and business, like the city of San Francisco. We need to face the truth in order to avoid the disaster movie of small cells in residential neighborhoods.
SB649 is unconstitutional because it would violate Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution, which says, “All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.” The hazardous radiation allowed by SB.649 would harm California residents’ health and safety.
Federal RFR guidelines do not protect against health hazards. Please don’t ignore the scientists. Don’t create a public health disaster.