SAFE WIRELESS INITIATIVE ALERT

Issued September 25, 2006

Washington, D.C. ---- A new qualitative risk assessment conducted by SWI staff, prompted in part by the recent confirmation of severe lung disorders among first responders and firefighters following the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, indicates an urgent need for preventive intervention steps to be taken among these groups. SWI is particularly concerned that firefighters – with jobs among the most hazardous in society – are in danger of suffering serious illness derivative of synergies among electro-magnetic radiation, toxic chemical exposures, biological disease agents, and debilitating post-traumatic stress.  The problem is further exacerbated by both the continually growing dependence of emergency responders on wireless communications and the tendency of current wireless infrastructure build-out to include firehouses and other emergency triage units.

                                                      ---- SWI

Science and Public Policy Institute

Safe Wireless Initiative

1101 Pennsylvania Ave. – 7^th Floor

Washington, D.C. 20004

www.safewireless.org

202-756-7744

Contributors:

Dr. George L. Carlo

Milt Bowling

Jill Ungar

September 25, 2006 

SWI Alert Synopsis

      Consistent with its mission to protect public health and safety, the Safe Wireless Initiative (SWI) issues public safety alerts from time to time as evidence of particular dangers evolves from emerging scientific data. (www.safewireless.org). The present SWI Alert pertains specifically to emergency first-responders and firefighters. The alert is the result of research conducted pursuant to a specific risk evaluation request from first responder representatives.

      As more is learned about the mechanisms attendant to electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) health effects, it becomes clear that EMR exposure is likely to exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities leading to significantly increased morbidity and mortality. This trend will be first evident in populations at high risk of disease from other exposures and conditions. Unless identified early as a contributing factor and controlled, the impact of EMR exposure might indeed be masked by symptoms expected from exposures already being sustained, and thus the accelerating contribution of EMR is likely to be overlooked until morbidity and mortality occurrences reach catastrophic proportions. 

      Prompted in part by the recent confirmation of severe lung disorders among first responders and firefighters following the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Safe Wireless Initiative is concerned that these occupational groups – particularly firefighters – with jobs among the most hazardous in society, are in danger of suffering serious illness derivative of synergies among EMR, toxic chemical exposures, biological disease agents, and debilitating post-traumatic stress. The problem is further exacerbated by both the continually growing dependence of emergency responders on wireless communications and the tendency of current wireless infrastructure build-out to include firehouses and other emergency triage units.

      As more knowledge is gleaned, preventive interventions continue to be identified that can prove useful in mitigating these dangerous synergistic impacts. Primary, secondary and tertiary preventive interventions are currently available as interim risk management steps, and should be made available to these emergency responders post-haste.  The range of these preventive steps includes public policy changes regarding wireless infrastructure build-out, mitigating technologies for environmental deployment and body worn protection. We call on those who distribute these interventions to take the lead in reaching out to these societal heroes and offering them this necessary layer of protection.

      For further consultation regarding this Alert, please contact the Safe Wireless Initiative.

(Contact: Jill Ungar: 202-756-7744; info@safewireless.org)

Attachment 1

Scientific Support

Qualitative Risk Assessment (QRA) Framework:

1. This work was done to provide a qualitative evaluation of the scientific bases for synergistic effects of electro-magnetic radiation (EMR), workplace chemical exposure, and pre-existing post-traumatic stress in firefighters.

2. The purpose of the QRA is to assess risk with an eye toward making practical and useable recommendations for risk management.

3. Likely cellular mechanisms for pathological conditions consistent with these exposures and conditions are part of the focus of this QRA.

4. The mechanisms explain why there is such a diversity of conditions associated with these exposures in the literature. 

5. Mechanism understanding is also required to understand which intervention tools will be most useful in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.

6. Because there are few studies directly addressing these conditions at the molecular level, parallel mechanisms where cellular insults are well understood were considered, including: new cell and molecular biology paradigms following from the human genome project, known addiction and dependence mechanisms at the cellular level, as well as cell membrane "memory" or genetic information alteration that is passed on to mitotic daughter cells and beyond.

Documented Disease Risks in Firefighters and First Responders:

1. Firefighting and emergency response are considered to be among the most hazardous occupations in society.

2. Studies have linked post-traumatic stress among male firefighters with a range of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and neuromuscular conditions. The basis is the general somatic fatigue associated with dramatic stress and the consequent compromise of a host of physiological and metabolic processes necessary for healthful living.

3. Studies have linked these occupations with a host of chemical exposures, including: dioxins, furans, lead, cadmium, phthalate plasticizers, lead, benzene, glass powder, silica, hydrogen chloride and organo-metals.

4. Studies have linked these occupations with a host of biological exposure hazards, including: snake bites, mold, hepatitis C, HIV and other conditions associated with exposure to blood, as well as other infectious diseases.

5. Studies have linked these occupations to physical dangers such as heat stress and various other forms of physical trauma.

6. Among epidemiological studies, the Toronto mortality study of firefighters identified a statistically significant doubling of the risk of brain and other nervous system cancers and a near tripling of risk of non-specific malignancies.

7. Overall, these emergency response occupational groups suffer high disease risks in spite of the physical strength and health necessary to do those jobs and the significant “healthy worker effect” present among them. Thus, any compromise in body defenses or physiological processes will likely cause exacerbated risks.

Mechanistic Underpinning of Disease Risks from Electro-Magnetic Radiation Exposure:

1. The intensity of the insulting electromagnetic field does not appear to play a major role in the damage process.  Only when the intensity of the field is strong enough to cause heating of tissue is there direct damage, which only occurs when there is very high power pushing the field.  High intensity EMR is not common with wireless communication or ambient EMR.  Thus, field intensity only has a role in defining how much tissue is exposed.  The higher the intensity, the more tissue in range of exposure.  For electro-sensitive people, field intensity defines when the "allergic" responses begin but does not appear to be involved in the intensity of the responses.
2. Bare signals in the microwave/RF frequency range seem to oscillate far too rapidly for biological tissues to pick them up.  Thus, those waves remain "invisible" to biological systems for the most part.  However, when information is added and carried on those waves, it is necessary for the technology to include data packets so that the information can be deciphered - thus, voice or text messages from mobile phones, for example, can be discerned.  The information packeting forms a secondary information-carrying wave that oscillates in the hertz range "alongside" the transmission wave.  This is well in range for biological tissue recognition and the information carried by the radio waves -- voice, data etc. -- is what triggers the first level damage.
3. At the cellular level, recognition by the cell membrane of an EMR "invader" triggers a chain of biochemical reactions intended to help protect the cell.  We know that recognition at the cell membrane level is the trigger -- the first level responses have been called heat shock proteins, stress proteins or have been identifiable by biochemical processes including calcium efflux.  Those markers are associated with the same mechanism: the cellular response is to close the trans-membrane active transport pathways and in effect "harden" the cell as a means of protection. 

4. When this reduction in membrane permeability occurs, nutrients are not able to move into the cell and concentrate in the interstitial fluid.  By the same mechanism, waste products are not able to move out of the cell and free radicals build up inside the cell. 
5. Research now shows at least two pathway mechanisms for intracellular damage.  The first is the concentrating free radical interference with DNA repair.  One line of evidence for this is the formation of micronuclei – pieces of DNA that are incomplete, but function well enough to form membranes around themselves.  The second is that when free radical concentrations reach a critical level, mitochondria are attacked and cellular function ceases.  Thus, if this cell is doing the job of keeping the blood brain barrier closed, for example, it loses that function and leakage in the blood brain barrier occurs. 
6. Once the cell loses its ability to function, it moves into apoptosis or programmed cell death; another protective process.  However, once the cell membrane disintegrates in the apoptosis cycle, intracellular micronuclei flood the nutrient rich interstitial fluid – note that nutrients were shut out of the cell and concentrated in the interstitial fluid.  Bathed in nutrients, the micronuclei can clone and proliferate – the beginning stages of tumorigenesis. 
7. Further, when the cell membrane begins the process of protecting itself by closing down active transport, conductivity proteins on the cell membrane shut down as well.  Intercellular communication is greatly reduced and in some cases, ceases.  Thus, neighbor cells which are intended to work together as tissue, immune response carriers or in other important physiological roles are unable to “talk” to each other.  As intercellular communication is compromised, tissue and organ functions deteriorate. 
8. These three mechanistic pathways – intracellular interference with DNA repair leading to micronuclei formation; free radical induced cellular dysfunction; and compromised intercellular communication – provide mechanistic underpinning for the wide range of health effects that have been observed in electro sensitive people or those exposed to high levels of EMR.  These mechanisms therefore provide the biological plausibility for conditions ranging from tumors to sleep disorders to learning and cognition deficits or to neurological and immune dysfunction.

Pathological Bases for Synergistic Effects:

1. At the primary level, the myriad exposures sustained by firefighters and other first responders in the course of their work, in and of themselves accelerate the cell membrane recognition of "danger" and trigger cell membrane induced protective biochemical reactions.  Thus, those chemical, biological and physical exposures will act either additively or synergistically with EMR exposure.  This will result in an acceleration of the disease processes put into motion by those exposures.
2. Of equal concern is the likelihood that EMR exposures sustained by firefighters and first responders systematically accrue a diminishing in physiological efficiency, including compromising the ability of those workers bodies to adequately compensate for their myriad of other workplace exposures.

^{Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Preventive Interventions:}

1. Primary, secondary and tertiary preventive interventions are currently available for EMR exposures that can supplement the preventive steps already in place to protect firefighters and emergency responders. Interventions with strong scientific documentation regarding their efficacy should be made available to these high-risk occupational groups post-haste.

2. The range of these preventive steps includes public policy changes regarding wireless infrastructure build-out, mitigating technologies for environmental deployment and body worn protection.

3. Policy Changes. It is clear that infrastructure build-out that trespasses on first responders and firefighters should be stopped. This, however, is a difficult proposition since the trend in communities is for more wireless services, not less. In this regard, community leaders and courageous politicians are needed to heed the call to protect these local heroes.

4. Environmental Deployment Technologies – for firehouses and other locations. In this category, interventions range from active noise-field generators to a host of filters and other interventions. We call on companies who distribute these interventions to make them available at cost to the first responder groups.

5. Body Worn Protection. There are a number of primary and secondary interventions that can be adapted to personal protection. We call on companies who distribute these interventions to make them available at cost to the first responder groups.

6. Active and passive surveillance among firefighters and other emergency responders for early signs of electrosensitivity and related morbidity is indicated.

^{Attachment 2}

^{Letter of request from Susan Dana Foster}

^{On Behalf of Firefighters 
Susan Dana Foster}

^{_____________________________________________________________________________________________}

^{15957 Avenida Calma}

^{Rancho Santa Fe, California 92091}

^{(858) 756-3532}

sfambrose@cox.net

September 14, 2006

Dr. George L. Carlo 
Safe Wireless Initiative

Science and Public Policy Institute 
1101 Pennsylvania Ave. NW -- 7th Floor 
Washington, D.C. 20004

Dear George:

As you know, I have been working on behalf of the firefighters’ since December of 2001. The firefighters of Summerland/Carpinteria have gone above and beyond the call of duty. If it were not for their willingness to go through SPECT scan testing with Dr. Gunnar Heuser, we would not have had the evidence to get Resolution 15 passed at the 2004 IAFF convention. We have the spirit of a moratorium in place (as you know nothing can trump the Telecommunications Act of 1996), but the IAFF position is intended to influence fire stations and fire houses throughout United States and Canada to avoid adding cell towers until further information on the risks is available through the Resolution 15 study.

You and I have discussed the obstacles to completing such a study. At this point I feel we need to move ahead because the funding for the study is simply non-existent.

I would be grateful if the Safe Wireless Initiative could look into this problem. Specifically, risk assessment and risk management information on the combined effects of chemical exposure and RF radiation would be most relevant. Dr. Heuser and I have discussed the potentiation effects of EMFs on individuals already exposed to chemicals and firefighters fall into that category. I seem to recall you published a paper on the effects of chemical exposure on firefighters. This work would be a public service and would add another layer of protection for firefighters and first-responders everywhere.

I will be very grateful for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,

Susan

Susan Dana Foster

cc:  The Firefighters of Summerland/Carpinteria

      Lt. Joe Foster, Vancouver Fire Dept.

      Milt Bowling