I met Gary Hayes, a Director of Midcounties Cooperative, last weekend. Other than potentially getting a donation to Solidfund, he has taken a particular interest in health hazards associated with mobile phone use, and I said I would introduce the topic to CoTech to see if there are others in the network with an interest in this issue, in which case I will introduce to Gary. He sent me a few of links for background:
I know very little of the issues, other than that this is no doubt a hotly contested space, given the massive commercial interests involved. With 5G coming down the tracks at a fair pace, and given that it looks like that will involve a whole lot more radiation with our streets and houses bathed in mm wave signals from many millions of lamp-post based access points, it seems likely that the issues are likely to be back in the news in the not too distant future.
I’m very interested in this topic but I’m not an expert and it has nothing to do with the work I do for Creative Coop. I have splashed out on 3 different types of handheld meters for measuring different types of EM fields and have gone as far as measuring fields in supermarkets, streets etc purely for my own interest, because I think there are unrecognized hazards for people working in strong fields and official guidelines are lagging a couple of decades behind best knowledge.
However for talking to someone on Gary’s level I presume he needs someone who can advise him with professional expertise? Or does he just want to see who in the co-op sphere has an interest in the issue?
I think just to open a conversation in the co-op sphere, to start off with. Gary is something of a polymath and has all sorts of interests, this being one of them. My guess is that it may be something he would propose Midcounties to get involved with as a member campaign, although of course they’ve just taken over the Phone Coop business that sells the Fairphone handset, and he’s not getting any interest from them so far!
I’ve asked Gary to introduce himself here, we’ll see. I’m meeting him on Sept 26th at 4pm somewhere in the Leicester Square neighbourhood.
I had the idea at one point to start a website where amateurs with meters could upload EMF readings for their local areas to start trying to map this stuff. I never went ahead with it but still think it would be a nice resource if it got any traction. I also have major concerns about 5G.
There are EU directives and UK guidelines for EMF exposure but (as far as I can make out) they are really only actively regulated in relation to people who work in the area (electrical engineers for example). But I have found supermarkets where the cashiers sit all day in fields of strength exceeding the guidelines.
There’s little enthusiasm on the part of government or business to look into it much, I presume because of potential cost implications and legal liability.
There’s also a theory that the controversial drive to cut down many trees in various big cities (such as Sheffield) is because 5G signal will be disrupted by wet leaves in its tracks.
Sorry I haven’t got any evidence for this, but I did note that Rod Stewart has been told to cut a big tree on his country estate because it’s disrupting a 999 mobile network.