Saturday, March 31, 2018

April Fools: Science Centers and Smart Meters and 5G “Small Cells” and Smokescreens Oh My!

By Patricia Burke


In the 1950s, during the Cold War, the United States established a “science center” at Camp Century, on the Greenland Ice Sheet.


However, the “science center” was not a research center; it was a storage site for an estimated 600 medium-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.


The ice at Camp Century hid tens of thousands of liters of diesel fuel, large amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and what is believed to be a small amount of low-level radioactive material, according to a recent study… which appears in the journal Global Environmental Politics. PCBs, in particular, are quite dangerous. They are believed to cause cancer and have been linked to a wide a range of other health hazards. [1]






The Greenland Ice Sheet is now melting. The chemicals leaking from those formerly hidden nuclear warheads at the “science center” now pose a threat to the marine ecosystem surrounding Greenland, Denmark, and Canada.


In another sordid chapter of U.S. history, doctoral student Lisa Martino-Taylor published a dissertation in 2011 concerning the Manhattan-Rochester Coalition’s aerosol tests conducted in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1950s and 1960s.[2] The United States was testing aerosol spraying of neighborhoods to determine whether or not it was possible to visually shield communities from Soviet warplanes using a non-hazardous simulant smokescreen.


Only, they weren’t. The U.S. government was testing the effects of weaponized radiation by spraying radioactive isotopes on predominantly poor black neighborhoods, ultimately to target Russian civilians.


Dr. Martino’s research reveals how a complex system of organization deviance was engineered through specific mechanisms. In examining how groups can “successfully, systematically and purposefully impede meaningful information flow to an external audience in order to manipulate public opinion,” she provides tools for evaluating dynamics where critical analysis is lacking both within and beyond an organization.


The enduring value of Dr. Martino-Taylor’s work is that it is not necessary to speculate on the nature and covert goals of clandestine activity. It is only necessary to recognize when the techniques are in play. Dr. Martino-Taylor explains how various strategies are “used to regulate information in an effort to obfuscate, downplay, or deny damaging organization information.”


It is apparent when a “smokescreen operation” is being implemented “whereby insiders and outsiders are deceived as to the potential dangers of harmful acts, and whereby full and open debate is strategically suppressed.” Leaders control the flow of information in order to advance their goals.


The narrative of smart cities and sustainability portrays data as the salvation to humanity’s environmental challenges.


We have already fallen in to the rabbit hole. The “purposeful layering of deception beneath a public narrative” is upon us.


We have an unacknowledged integrity problem with the “clean green energy, sustainability, smart grid, smart meter, data-as-king data to save the planet” narrative.



  • In Worcester, Massachusetts, the narrative for the National Grid smart meter pilot program was controlled and corrupted by industry interests enabled by university partners, environmental groups, politicians, and utility regulators.

  • As fitting for a smokescreen operation, safety claims for smart meters are based primarily on the opinion of tobacco scientist Peter Valberg. Valberg is also currently on retainer for We Energy, in order to defend the utility against neighbors impacted by coal dust in Racine, Wisconsin [3] alongside his ongoing work for Phillip Morris cigarettes.[4] Isn’t it time for reasonable people to question the rush to address fossil fuel damage with wireless technologies that have not been tested for health and environmental impacts, based on tobacco science?

  • The false narrative that smart meters were necessary to integrate more renewables into the grid appears to have functioned akin to using candy to bribe a child, as state after state has turned the tables on solar,[5] in many cases after smart meter deployment.

  • For 60 years, the tobacco industry suppressed evidence of harm. Now, supported by scientists like Peter Valberg, the wireless industry is suppressing evidence of harm using the same tactics. [6]

  • Communities have not been informed about the installation and/or activation of wireless infrastructure, including first generation AMR utility meters, antennas, hot spots, boosters, and surveillance apparatus.

  • Despite massive investment in smart grid infrastructure, states like Maine still experienced extensive power outages.[7] Research indicates that radiofrequency exposure affects trees and foliage.[8] Have we weakened the trees themselves, making overhead lines even more vulnerable? With the impending 5G rollout, how much tree cover will need to be removed?

  • The narrative that the meters will give consumers more control over their energy usage has masked pricing, privacy, security, health, cost, green-washing, accuracy, and environmental issues.

  • The industry narrative that consumers are requiring faster and more powerful networks for 5G has obscured the requirement for massive densification of invasive antennas that will now encroach into residential areas, affecting property values and health.


During the covert operation to experiment on predominantly black poor communities in St. Louis, Minneapolis was also targeted for the aerosol spraying, Dr. Martino wrote, “Problems occurred immediately in Minneapolis. Efforts to secure home in which to locate samplers was met with resistance,” and “Field personnel encountered a considerable number of refusals to cooperate with requests for permission to locate sampling equipment in homes… “The Army came to experience both open and clandestine public protest of the Minneapolis aerosol studies,” with reported lack of cooperation, vandalism of equipment, and theft. To encourage more cooperation, in St. Louis they concentrated the tests in a poorer section of town with increased police surveillance.


The outcomes in St. Louis and in Minneapolis were different because everyday ordinary citizens were paying attention.


Years after St. Louis was sprayed, the college students who were hired to work part-time to disperse the aerosols testified that they had no idea of the nature of the work they were involved in. Politicians and civic leaders may not have realized that they were lying to the community; scientists at Merck formulating the spray for maximum inhalation by unsuspecting sleeping victims were another story.


Citizens across the country and internationally have reported being harmed by the installation of wireless smart meters, towers, antennas, and other wireless infrastructure. Yet, leading environmental groups, industry, and politicians have continued to push the narrative: Fear of climate change and damage from fossil fuels necessitates the rollout of more wireless infrastructure, and it is so urgent that we can’t bother to pre-market test, monitor, or address health and environmental impacts. “We need wireless sensors – to measure particulate air pollution!” as we obliterate the planet’s electromagnetic field with microwaves.


As the public becomes aware of issues regarding access to Facebook data, deeper questions need to be raised about the government’s role in privacy invasion and data mining. An even darker possibility is the extent to which the country becomes vulnerable to not only bribery but also blackmail by those in possession of every detail of every aspect of our lives.


We don’t need to wait another 50 years for an ice sheet to melt to be able to perceive the danger here.


Opposing Peter Valberg’s liar-for-hire radio frequency/tobacco/air pollution/chemical safety testimony is the work of Dr. Lennart Hardell, a professor of oncology who served on WHO IARC (World Health Organization Int’l Agency Research for Cancer) when it classified microwave RF radiation as a Group 2B possible carcinogen in 2011. He was one of the first scientists to speak out on the carcinogenicity of Agent Orange in 1985 when its manufacturer Monsanto claimed it was safe.[9] His review of the NTP cellphone cancer study was conducted with Prof. Carlberg from the Department of Oncology at University Hospital in Örebro.[10]


Opposing those politicians in the pockets of utilities are individuals like Senator Patrick Colbeck of Michigan, who has had the courage and integrity to speak about the health hazards of 5G.[11]


Residents of Wayland, Massachusetts will vote at their April annual town meeting about whether or not to finance the installation of wireless water meters. They have been told that the meters “only transmit 0.5 seconds a day,” and in a frequency band of 300-3000 MHz that includes television, cellphones, Wi-Fi, garage door opener, AMI meters, cordless phones, police and fire radio, and EZ pass transponders, implying that Wi-Fi, cordless phones and cellphones are safe. [12] There is value to having an alert or alarm system if water is leaking. It only needs to transmit if there is a problem. It is not necessary for the town to transmit, gather, analyze, and store information about water use every hour in every home via microwave radiation.


Wayland will not only be voting for or against water meters. Citizens will be voting for or against the choice for the town to apply the precautionary principle, to prevent human experimentation without knowledge and consent with a Group 2B possible human carcinogen, and to prevent crimes against humanity and the environment. It’s also a vote recognizing that surcharging medically vulnerable residents for an opt-out that does not protect them from the network itself is both insufficient and unethical.


It’s time for everyone to chose sides. Tag, you’re it.


Notes:


[1] https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/24/climate-change-just-revealed-us-military-secret-thought-buried-forever/

[2] https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/13170The Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, research on the health effects of radioactive materials, and tests on vulnerable populations without consent in St. Louis, 1945—1970 by Martino-Taylor, Lisa, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – COLUMBIA, 2011, 838 pages; 3515886

[3] https://www.racinecountyeye.com/we-energies-considers-more-air-monitoring-after-coal-dust-found/

[4] https://www.truthinadvertising.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Phillips-v.-Philip-Morris-order-denying-class-cert-.pdf

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/climate/rooftop-solar-panels-tax-credits-utility-companies-lobbying.html

[6] https://www.thenation.com/article/how-big-wireless-made-us-think-that-cell-phones-are-safe-a-special-investigation/;


World’s Largest Animal Study on Cell Tower Radiation Confirms Cancer Link

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3706604


[7] http://mainepublic.org/post/october-windstorm-took-down-cmp-s-200-million-smart-meter-network#stream/0

[8] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306435017_Radiofrequency_radiation_injures_trees_around_mobile_phone_base_stations

[9] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/dec/08/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth

[10] https://www.environmentandcancer.com/comments-on-the-ntp-reports-hardell-et-al/

[11] Senator Colbeck (video) cites health as reason to slow ‘small cell’ rush –

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDDQqDVsbk&feature=youtu.be and STATE OF MICHIGAN



99th Legislature REGULAR SESSION OF 2018

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(sclorcmtsxgfb2bl044thsrx))/documents/2017-2018/Journal/Senate/pdf/2018-SJ-03-15-029.pdf


[12] https://www.wayland.ma.us/sites/waylandma/files/events/meter_forum_presentation_3-20-18.pdf


Patricia Burke works with activists across the country and internationally calling for new biologically-based microwave radio frequency exposure limits. She is based in Massachusetts and can be reached at stopsmartmetersMASS@gmail.com.


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