Dear Sacramento Mayor: The FCC Does not Have Safety Limits!

Here is a letter regarding a cell tower situation in Sacramento where the 5G Small Cell Rollout has resulted in children becoming ill.

Dear Hon. Mayor Steinberg, City Manager Chan, and Hon. Members of the Sacramento City Council:

I’m writing to you today with deep concerns about the 5G experiment the City of Sacramento has undertaken under the reassurances from UC Davis’s Jerrold Bushberg, PhD that 5G is safe. Dr. Bushberg is frequently quoted as saying one would have to hug the antenna to exceed the FCC safety limits.

First of all, the FCC does not have safety limits. They have permissible levels of radiation, and those levels of radiation are set extremely high. The FCC made a determination in the 1990s they were only going to regulate the thermal range of RF radiation. Therefore the FCC is only protecting us from three things: 1) burns; 2) shocks; 3) heatstroke. Everything below the heating threshold is not taken into consideration. To imply that families are safe in Sacramento as long as the radiation does not exceed what is allowed by the FCC a false statement. It is in the non-thermal range – below the levels of heating – that we find links to cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, neurodegenerative diseases, behavioral changes, headaches, immune suppression, cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression.

Dr. Bushberg further states that in spite of decades of science there are no known adverse health effects from RF radiation. When Dr. Bushberg makes this statement, he should always follow up with the qualifier that he is referring only to shocks, burns, and heatstroke when he references “adverse health effects”. There is so much at stake here that it is beyond disingenuousness for Dr. Bushberg to fail to clarify this. It is, in my opinion, purposefully deceptive and thus knowingly dishonest.

In the height of irony, the FCC sets what has colloquially been referred to as a safety standard, yet the FCC is not a health and safety agency. In fact, right now the FCC does not have a single employee dealing with human health and RF radiation. I know this because I called in early August as I was preparing my testimony before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. I called the FCC to speak with the one individual, Ed Mantiply, who for years has held the lone health position at the FCC. I found out that Mr. Mantiply retired in late 2018, and to date, his position has not been filled. I was informed there were no immediate plans to fill that vacancy.

So when Dr. Bushberg tells you the FCC considers 5G to be safe, please understand the FCC has no one dealing with human health at the Agency. In fact, I called all three relevant agencies as I was preparing my testimony in August – the FCC, the EPA, and the FDA. None of those agencies has a single safety study suggesting or even implying that 5G is safe.

Under questioning from Sen. Blumenthal before a Senate subcommittee, representatives from several telecommunications companies admitted they had not done any human health studies on 5G.

As the 5G infrastructure is being rolled out across the country and tested in cities like Sacramento, there is no one to rely on at the FCC when it comes to health. This forces cities like yours rely on experts like Dr. Bushberg for reassurance of safety. I know you have a critical deadline in mid-November for revisiting your 5G Ordinance. When you do so I want you to understand that the expert you have relied upon, Dr. Jerrold Bushberg, has come to cities like Sacramento in the past with previous generations of wireless and has offered false reassurances of safety. I know these reassurances have been proven false because I have been a party to revealing the truth about RF radiation among California firefighters, and thus about misleading statements by Dr. Bushberg.

Twenty years ago Dr. Bushberg went to another California city and reassured the local fire board comprised of a number of leaders within the city that the Nextel cellular tower proposed for the fire stations in town would be perfectly safe for the firefighters who worked and slept in the stations. This was 2G technology, and the year was 1998. The fire service was the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Department.

From the day the towers were activated the first symptoms were felt in this fire department. As the weeks and months went on, no firefighter was free of symptoms. Some of the symptoms were profound. One medic with 20 years of experience forgot what he was doing in the midst of CPR on a cardiac victim.

The men sometimes got lost when they went on 911 calls in the middle of the night. This was the town the men had grown up in. The rode their bikes up and down the streets when they were boys. Yet they literally got lost while responding to emergencies.

One night the alarm sounded. The men got out of bed and into their gear, slid down the fire pole, got in the cab of the truck and sat there. Four grown men sat there staring into the night as the alarm blasted in the garage where the fire trucks sat. Finally, the captain turned to the engineer with the keys in his hands and said, “Hey, I think we’re supposed to be doing something.”

These were bright, committed, firefighters who had never made a mistake until Nextel placed a cell tower in front of the two fire stations in town, and they did so with reassurances from Dr. Bushberg that they would not be harmed by the RF radiation being emitted from the towers.

In 2004, Dr. Gunnar Heuser and I conducted a SPECT brain scan study of a sampling of the firefighters at Carpinteria-Summerland. We found brain damage in all six men tested. We also found delayed reaction time, lack of impulse control, and cognitive impairment. All of these men had passed rigorous physical and cognitive exams before being hired. Please see my attached 2013 FCC filing on the study.

It is important to note we found brain damage at the 2G level. You are now talking about 5G which utilizes the millimeterwave that is known to heat tissue. The industry has long reassured policymakers with each previous generation there is nothing to worry about with respect to cancer because nonthermal radiation, which is what 2G, 3G, 4G is, does not heat tissue. The experts are not offering that reassurance with 5G. Why? In fact 5G does heat tissue, and it is the heating factor that can disrupt DNA, a very worrisome factor in the etiology of cancer.

I watched Dr. Bushberg’s testimony before the Sacramento City Council with his reassurances of safety which he has no business giving. Dr. Bushberg spoke with the same level of reassurance when he advised leaders in the cities of Carpinteria and Summerland that the Nextel cell towers at the fire stations would not cause any harm. I repeat, we found brain damage utilizing SPECT brain scan technology in all six firefighters tested following a five-year exposure to towers Dr. Bushberg had deemed safe.

The FCC “safety standards” should not be used as a shield by telecom. The FCC’s permissible levels of radiation are not protective. To that end, I would like to point out that the firefighters who sustained brain damage in Carpinteria-Summerland were exposed to a tower that was emitting 1/1000^th of what the FCC allows.

Testing by Eric Windheim of Windheim EMF Solutions in Sacramento of a small cell outside a family’s home in the 5G test zone in Sacramento shows radiation levels as high as 460,000 microwatts per m2 which would be nearly 50 times higher than the level of 2G the firefighters were exposed to in Carpinteria-Summerland. The average was about 55,000 microwatts per m2, or 5.5 µW per cm2, which would put the average level of radiation at more than five times the levels of radiation the firefighters in Carpinteria-Summerland were exposed to. I cannot express how deeply concerned I am about the exposure your residents are receiving to the existing 5G or “5G-ready” small cells.

For unimpeachable answers to questions about 5G, I am offering the filing before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in August 2019 by Beatrice Golomb, M.D., PhD. Dr. Golomb is a professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Director of the Golomb Research Group. Here are some of the highlights of Dr. Golomb’s letter to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors dated August 6, 2019 as well as a letter from two years prior addressing SB 649 which was California’s version of the 5G mandate, vetoed by Gov. Brown in October 2017. The second letter by Dr. Golomb is dated August 22, 2017.

From Dr. Golomb:

•   With 5G, people will suffer greatly, and needlessly.

•   Mechanisms by which health effects are exerted have shown to include oxidative stress, damage to mitochondria (the energy producing parts of cells), damage to cell membranes, an impaired “blood brain barrier” (the blood brain barrier defends the brain against introduction of foreign substances and toxins), constriction of blood vessels and impaired blood flow to the brain, autoimmune reactions.

• Affected individuals not only experience distressful symptoms like headaches, ringing in ears, chest pain from impaired blood flow, heart rhythm abnormalities, and inability to sleep; more significant health problems may include seizures, heart failure, hearing loss, severe cognitive damage. The mechanisms involved are those also involved in development and progression of neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.

• Those who are adversely affected by 5G are in desperate need of protection by our elected officials. They need the creation of safe spaces and housing, and roadways to allow travel, and protection of local rights to make decisions.

•   Our focus needs to be wired and well-shielded technology, not more wireless.
•   The unrestricted rollout of 5G technology will predictably indirectly injure and disable a new group of people.
•   There is robust literature showing that electromagnetic radiation (EMR), including nonionizing frequencies of RF radiation, at levels below those that cause thermal effects (heating) do cause physiological effects, injury, and cell death not only in humans but animals and plants.

Dr. Golomb offers more than 360 scientific references within the two letters she submitted as San Diego County was considering its 5G ordinance in August 2019. Dr. Golomb’s letters & scientific abstract references can be found here: Golomb letter to San Diego BOS 8.7.19  

I would urge that the City of Sacramento revisit your 5G ordinance and the experiment that has been conducted based upon false reassurances by Dr. Bushberg and offer as much protection to your residents as you are legally allowed to do.

Please scroll down to see some recent City Urgency Wireless Facilities Ordinances and also Emergency 5G Ordinances at-a-Glance.   Https://mdsafetech.org/cell-tower-and-city-ordinances/This link, and those contained within it, offer a wealth of information. Residential areas can and should be in the least preferred tier with respect to your ordinance.

Thank you for taking my letter and its contents into consideration as you revisit the final 5G ordinance for Sacramento.

Respectfully,

/s/ Susan Foster

SUSAN FOSTER

U.S. Adviser, Radiation Research Trust (UK)

Honorary Firefighter, San Diego Fire Department

Medical Writer

Rancho Santa Fe CA