1) Young children in South Australia will not have cell phones in schools which, while not the reason given, will reduce the EMR to which they are being exposed. Now if only their computers would be wired…
(click on photos to enlarge)
SA government bans mobile phone use at state’s primary schools
“One Aussie state is rolling out a blanket ban on mobile phones in primary schools, with tough restrictions to hit high school students.
Mobile phones will be banned in primary schools across South Australia next year, under a new statewide policy.
High schools will be able to choose their own mobile phone policy, so long as it supports learning.
Education Minister John Gardner said the draft policy, which will be rolled out in government schools in 2021, would help students better “focus on their learning.””
https://tinyurl.com/AUbansphones
2) As we begin a new year, it’s standard to make resolutions for the future. Stop 5G International has done that with ideas for a future we all hope will come to fruition.
A Technology Future We Can Live With
“We, the people, should decide what we want, not Big Tech. Without measured and mindful guidance from the collective will of us all, Big Tech will continue to corral us down a fast track into extinction. But with us at the helm, we can create a future we can live with. A future where… ”
https://stop5ginternational.org/a-technology-future-we-can-live-with/
https://stop5ginternational.org/a-technology-future-we-can-live-with/
3) I am sharing below in Letters an email from Mark Graham, Elk Grove, California, who has been fighting cell towers, reminding me of those in Qualicum Beach, with great tenacity. Mark shares the approach his town, Elk Grove, has taken, implementing “the front door rule”, and how it has been or is being considered by Malibu. where cell towers have been proliferating. There may be some ideas here and on his group’s website, www.KeepCellAntennasAway.org that might be useful here. Of course, as with ISED, the FCC might object to a municipality actually attempting to protect its citizens.
Letters:
December 10 2020
Here is an update on my advocacy (my Crusade, as I call it) in Malibu, California from last night.
You know how long I have been fighting this Crusade against cell antennas and how much time and effort I put into it. Tonight, along with a group of residents in Malibu, California we had a big victory.
Back in September I got in touch with the 2 leaders of the grassroots campaign in Malibu, which is near Los Angeles, who were working to get their city to make changes in the municipal code to regulate cell antennas. And a woman from somewhere in SoCal and a woman in Colorado, formerly in SoCal, who were helping them. Apparently the telecom companies (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) had put up dozens of new cell antennas and they were proliferating in the City. The City did not have anything in its municipal code to regulate them (which makes me wonder how and why they were issuing permits, but that is another story). We had a big 3 hour conference call in September and collaborated on ideas. I wrote to the Malibu City Council a couple of times about this issue and shared what I had learned from my Crusade.
Tonight during the meeting, which was by video conference as so many city council meetings are now, I got to tell the Council my public comments. The timing was perfect because I finished with my City Council meeting and my public comments there at about 7:32 and switched right over to Malibu and they called my name next. I told them of our experience here in Elk Grove and that the best thing our city did was to put into the code something I call the front yard rule. That says that the City will not permit a cell antenna immediately adjacent to or across the street from the front yard of a residential dwelling. The residents here asked the City to “keep cell antennas away from our Elk Grove homes”. We didn’t ask for the front yard rule per se but we are happy about it.
I was the next to last person with public comments. During the City Council’s discussion Council Member Karen Farrer brought up 2 issues I had raised and one of them was the front yard rule. She liked the idea and asked staff (which is a term used to refer to the key city people working on an issue, and it includes the attorney(s)) if they could put that into the ordinance that staff had presented for the Council to vote on tonight.
The Mayor also spoke up and said he liked the idea. Many callers had asked the Council to create a minimum distance of 1,500′ from an antenna to a home or school and the Council had discussed that before Karen Farrer spoke up. The problem with that is that there may not be any places in the City that are at least that far away from a home. The Mayor said that people really do not want to have a cell antenna right in front of their home.
By the way, the background is that there has been a fairly large and active grassroots campaign in Malibu for months, long before I got involved. And I wish we could bring their entire City Council to Elk Grove because they actually want to do what is right for the City and right for the residents. And they listen to the residents and consider the residents’ ideas! What a concept! There has been a City Attorney there from the law firm Best, Best and Krieger named Christi Hogin. She is funny and very lively and creative. I was so impressed with her at the September meeting that I also watched and commented on.
Anyway with all of that background: the grassroots campaign, the interested and willing Council and Christi Hogin, and another, experienced BBK attorney named Gail Karish who was in the meeting tonight, the situation was just right for the Council to approve some kind of measure that would protect residents from cell antenna radiation. What they did was pass an urgency ordinance, effective immediately, and the Council directed staff to continue working with the community group on a permanent ordinance, meaning permanent changes (nothing in politics is ever permanent but you know) to their municipal code on cell antenna permits. Into the urgency ordinance they added the front yard rule, as worded by Gail Karish during a brief discussion with the Council. Actually they stated it in terms of a front door or window, that the cell antenna should not be visible from there (I think).
It’s a win! That rule will keep cell antennas away from the majority of homes in Malibu. How many? I don’t know, but I would be surprised if it isn’t at least 90% of them.
We accomplished through the front yard rule what could not have been accomplished by a 1,500′ setback or any other measure that could be construed as regulation “on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions” of the cell antennas. That is the partial preemption in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Council also directed the staff to continue working with the residents group on a more complete and thorough cell antenna permitting ordinance. The City is also going to hold a community workshop for that purpose on December 16 at 6:00.
A victory. I will make a video about this, consisting of excerpts from that City Council meeting video.
Best wishes,
Mark Graham (name provided with permission)
“Keep Cell Antennas Away From Our Elk Grove Homes (www.KeepCellAntennasAway.org) is a grassroots campaign, started in February of 2018, that seeks to limit the number of new cell antennas and their proximity to homes and schools.”
Sent from my hard wired computer
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin