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    #555: Non-thermal bio-effects found in study of Lookout Mountain residents

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    #555: Non-thermal bio-effects found in study of Lookout Mountain residents

    From Martin Weatherall:

    PRESS RELEASE
    September 20, 2006

    For More Information Contact:
    Deb Carney, Attorney for CARE (Canyon Area residents for the Environment)
    deb@carneylaw.net
    303-526-0214
    or
    Laura Elliott, CARE Press Relations
    lauraelliott1@earthlink.net
    303-526-2842

    BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS FROM INCREASED BROADCAST RADIATION EXPOSURE CONFIRMED FOR LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN RESIDENTS

    Summary of National Institute of Health (NIH)/Colorado State University (CSU) Study of Lookout Mountain Residents

    Lookout Mountain Residents with increased amounts of broadcast radiation (RF) have statistically significant elevations of certain types of white blood cells that are immune system markers.

    The National Institute of Environmental Health commissioned Colorado State University to examine the effects of long-term exposure to radiation on hundreds of residents of Lookout Mountain. This study follows the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment”™s July 2004 findings that statistically significant elevated numbers of brain tumors exist in residents near the broadcast antennae towers atop Lookout Mountain.

    Professor Jim Burch, M.S., Ph.D., one of the authors of the CSU study observes:

    “This study does show biological changes in the Lookout Mountain residents”™ immune system markers that are associated with RF. Various immune markers increase with increasing RF exposure. For example, the T cells and lymphocytes go up in a statistically significant manner with increases in RF. The reason for this reaction within the human body for this biological response in unclear. People with certain types of leukemia have high immune markers.
    The fact that there are RF limits imposed by the federal government shows that broadcast radiation is harmful beyond certain amounts. Everyone knows too much is hazardous. The issue is whether there are effects below the broadcast radiation levels that heat the body. In other words, are there also nonthermal effects? The CSU study was never designed to determine the risk of RF (radiofrequency radiation); it was designed to see if the RF caused changes in the biomarkers. No one study can prove or disprove the safety of broadcast radiation. This study shows there are some biological effects. ”

    Currently, there are no FCC Standards designed for long-term radiation exposure. The present FCC radiation limits are designed to protect only against short-term adverse health effects caused by heating of the body, from sources such as microwaves. Federal health and safety agencies have not yet developed policies concerning possible risk from long-term, nonthermal exposures, such as experienced in the neighborhoods within five miles of the broadcast antennae towers
    This is the first official study to measure radiation amounts on Golden”™s Lookout Mountain, Colorado State University”™s Department of Environmental Health confirms that residents closest to the broadcast antennae towers experience high radiation levels: one in four Lookout Mountain residents experience radiation levels far in excess of the levels that the median population experiences. More specifically, those residents living in the same elevation levels as the towers have the highest radiation levels.
    As part of the CSU study, hundreds of residents were selected randomly and agreed to have their bodily functions measured and monitored for three consecutive days. This included wearing a “˜watch”™ and fanny-pack devices that measured sleep patterns, cardiovascular and other vital signs. Participants gave blood samples and collected all urine output during that time period.

    “Radio Frequency Non-Ionizing Radiation in a Community Exposed to Radio and Television Broadcasting”, addresses the amount of radiation in the area. That paper is published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences journal. The biological findings report has not yet been published but was obtained by a company pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request to the National Institute of Health and referred to by a representative of the Lake Cedar Group Broadcasters at a public meeting last Thursday.

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    For a complete copy of published CSU”™s paper, see http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/admin/newest.html, papers dated 9/17-9/24. For the biological data and additional background, please visit the Canyon Area Residents for the Environment website: www.c-a-r-e.org

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