letters to the editor
January 14, 2012 10:14PM
Updated: May 9, 2012 10:11AM
RF radiation causes
electrosensitivity
Robert worked in the IT industry, until he started to have dizziness, headaches, and numbness in his arms and legs. Robert went to a doctor; the doctor thought that Robert’s problem was anxiety and wrote a prescription. But the prescription didn’t really stop the symptoms, nor did it prevent Robert from losing his job.
Some months ago, Robert found some information online that said electrosensitivity could produce the kind of symptoms he was having. In his house, Robert’s workstation was placed about a foot away from a wireless router. Robert disconnected it. His symptoms began to clear up. After having been being unemployed a year and a half, Robert felt well enough to return to work, but unfortunately to a job in which he was again exposed to a lot of 900MHz RF radiation. He lasted nine days.
Robert found, by trial, error and good luck, that he is neurologically sensitive to RF radiation at 900MHz. When he alters his environment to exclude nearby sources of this radiation, his symptoms decline and disappear. When he reinserts himself into RF-dense environments, the symptoms return. Robert therefore keeps 900MHz emitters away from him.
Epidemiologically, diseases from long exposure to things like tobacco, asbestos and ultraviolet radiation didn’t show up right away; it took decades before large numbers of people started to get sick from these causes and for the medical community to figure out why. Cell phones have not seen widespread use for more than a couple of decades, and wireless routers for less time than that. The cumulative effects of chronic exposure to 900MHz RF radiation are just starting to appear. It has been estimated that between 3 percent and 15 percent of any population is electrosensitive. In Naperville’s population, that’s somewhere between 4500 and 22,500 people.
Naperville’s “smart” meters are, in essence, wireless routers broadcasting at 900MHz and 2.6GHz, at peak energies far greater than those of cell phones. They are not on 78 seconds a day (as the proponents claim); they are broadcasting almost all of the time, 24/7, and one can’t turn them off. Proponents of these “smart” meters say they don’t pose a health hazard. They don’t believe, and indeed to maintain their position they cannot admit, that Robert exists, and they dismiss anyone who believes the contrary as a tinfoil hat-wearing crank. But I have shaken Robert’s hand. He exists.
And because Robert really exists, the actions of the city of Naperville, instead of just being unwise, become indefensible. For the city proposes to tax Robert for his disability: $297 per year in elevated electricity bills, and a special $68 charge for installing a “quiet” meter which still records the same energy use as a function of time, but which requires a meter reader to come out and manually read it — just like they do now, for no charge at all.
Robert does have two other choices. He can submit, at the point of a gun, to the installation on the side of his house of a “loud” meter, and try to cope with the return of his debilitating symptoms; or he can decide, as one columnist points out, to do without city-furnished electricity at all. But a city government with any humanity would accommodate Robert’s disability, and wouldn’t charge him extra for it, either.
Jeff Perkins
Naperville
DuPage forest district
responds to its critics
On behalf of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, I am disappointed by the article “Reserve Judgment” that appeared in this publication on Dec. 21. The article quoted a few residents who are critical of the district’s “$245 million stockpile” intended to safeguard environmental conditions at several former landfill sites and to offset rising annual operational expenses.
These important reserve funds, which were not derived from excess tax revenue but rather license fees collected from the former landfill operators, have no financial implications to the county’s taxpayers and provide advanced levels of protection from the real environmental threats of closed landfills on forest preserve properties and also ensure funds for future operational expenses.
The Forest Preserve District is just as responsible when it comes to the wise use of our financial resources as we are with the conservation of our county’s natural resources. The potential benefit of spending the district’s financial reserves — the preference of a few outspoken individuals — would not outweigh the benefit of preserving those resources as savings for the future should it be needed.
There is wide agreement by this Board of Commissioners that we should act as temporary stewards charged with protecting our lands and financial assets for the future generations who will someday inherit it.
It is this forward thinking and conservative financial approach that has earned the District AAA credit ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Services. The AAA rating is the highest possible credit score given to governments, and the Forest Preserve District is one of only a few special service agencies to achieve this honorable distinction. Demonstrated strong financial management and a manageable debt burden are two attributes of AAA rated agencies.
As you know, many government agencies at the local and federal levels find themselves in trouble during this persistent recession because they do not have funding surpluses or have borrowed against their assets into the future.
Criticisms in the article also compared the expense of our operational expenses with those of the Lake County Forest Preserve District without basis. While it is true that we share similar missions, we are vastly different in geography, population and scope. Although more costly in some aspects, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County serves a larger population, operates more facilities and provides different services. We pride ourselves on being a model conservation agency and enjoy a very favorable national reputation among our cohorts.
D. “Dewey” Pierotti Jr.
President
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
