>
>
> Tsk, tsk.
....
Let's just cool down this. Eco-terrorists ? screwed up in the head ? let's
hear everybody's opinions and we'll have a nice talk.
--
Unfortunately, here in the United States we have two types of people -
we have the Quakers - people who believe that all technology is bad -
they live in communities, make their own clothes, use oil lamps, travel
in horse-drawn carriages, and don't own anything electronic, not even
a phone. Their technology is 200 years behind ours, and thats how they
want it. In the US we have the freedom that allows them to do this.
Many people in the US hold the quakers in high respect because they
practice what they preach.
But the Quakers do not impose their opinions on others. They live alone
in their lifestyle. They accept that other people in this world have
cordless phones, and they don't choose to intermix with them. They
ride their horse drawn carriages on roads that are shared with cars.
But they don't try to ban cars from the roads they ride horses on.
They buy food in towns where people buy soda-pop. But they don't try
to change the buying habits of others. That same FREEDOM that allows
them their lifestyle allows us to have ours.
Then there are people we call "eco-nazis" or other names - they have
some of the similar beliefs, but feel that EVERYONE should share them.
They try to create laws in our country to prohibit others from enjoying
modern conveniences. If they believe so strong - they should become
quakers and live the lifestyle without modern technology. When someone
trys to take FREEDOM away from a US Citizen, they face a very difficult
and uphill battle, because FREEDOM was what founded the United States.
In San Francisco - a group of people who bought homes nearby a major
transmission tower (several megawatts of RF - multiple TV channels,
hundreds of meters tall, visable from > 35 kilometers away) object to
any additional television channels because they believe it is a health
hazard. We must add channels to migrate to digital television. In
fact, we must double channels. A minority of the homeowners attempted
to prevent this. They became branded Eco-Nazis (and other names)
#1 - the tower was there when they bought the house. Nobody forced
them to buy that house. They could have bought elsewhere if
they believed it was a real problem. It's like buying a house
at the end of a runway at an airport, then complaining about the
planes making too much noise and wanting the airport to move.
#2 - Their objections held up implementation of high definition television
to millions of subscribers in the 3rd most populated area of the US,
3rd behind Los Angeles and New York.
#3 - Their objections cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in
studies which proved absolutely nothing.
#4 - The new progress was finally made, despite their best efforts to
prevent it. Special antennas with complex and inferior designs
had to be constructed. The cutover to digital will cost more
than it should and the "eco nazis" will not win anything they
didn't already have. But they did irritate several million
television viewers. Hence the anger towards misinformed,
technologically uneducated people who prefer to cause problems
instead of "go with the flow".
Many of these people are fakes and frauds - claiming they have headaches
when around RF, and then using their cell phone when nobody is watching but
private investigators who capture them on videotape, which is shown in
court to disprove their claim.
My feeling is that if these people REALLY can not take RF without getting a
headache, then there are neurologists who can help them, psychologists
who can help them, and if that doesn't work, then there are quaker
communities where they can live out their life away from electricity,
synthetic fibers, perfume, and other modern items blamed for health
problems by their groups. Some people have gone this route and are
quite happy now - they do not suffer as they used to. People with
sensitivity (extreme) to chemicals and odors have had to do this here
because so many people wear perfume that they can not escape it. They
have a documented medical condition that is not well known. The "RF"
headache is not documented because there is no proof of it. While I
would respect an office worker near me who has "chemical sensitivity"
and asked that I not use cologne, I would not respect a similar person
asking me to turn off my cellular phone, because we lack documentation
that this is a problem.
There is no conclusive study that proves we are hurting them. A 1/10 watt
access point transmitting 5% of the time is certainly not hurting them.
The people living under the multi-megawatt tower in San Francisco do not
have a PROVEN higher incidence of cancer or other problems, yet they've lived
there for decades of exposure 12+ hours a day with no statistical anomalies.
You are right - every person's body is different and unique, but while
we can show people who have sensitivity to odors and chemicals, and even
sunlight, for example, we have yet to be able to place a person inside
a faraday cage, turn on an RF transmitter and show any health effects.
Ironically, some of these people have been checked out by MRI machines
with 40,000W transmitters without getting a headache - but their 0.1W
cordless phone causes them. The difference is they haven't been told
that the MRI system uses a very powerful RF transmitter to spin the
atoms of the body and a sensitive receiver to read the decay back.
Somehow I think if they had been told about MRI in advance, they would have
gotten just awful splitting headaches about 400,000 times worse than their
phones give them.
In the US - I don't want these people taking my Freedom to transmit and
receive away from me. They try to create laws against antennas, radios,
phones, etc. The reason they don't succeed is because we believe in
individual freedoms. This is why they seek media attention and present
frauds and fakes to support their false claims. They believe the more
media exposure, the more likely they will get their way. But it doesn't
work that way. Not in the US. Just be careful that they don't win in
other countries.
Everett
--
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