"Our Children Are Not Lab Rats" A Parent's Letter Details 32 False Statements Made by MCPS

February 8, 2016 

Dear Montgomery County Board of Education Members,

I would like to bring to your attention the following- The MCPS Statement Concerning Deployment of Wireless Computing Technologies and Radiofrequency Monitoring Summary Report contains:

1. False Statements: This document details the over 32  false statements on the MCPS RF webpage and provides documentation to each erroneous statement. I personally made inquiries as to the factual nature of  MCPS statements from agencies such as the FCC, FDA, NCI and the American Cancer Society. These agencies all confirmed certain statements to be 100% inaccurate.

2.Outdated Statements: Why is MCPS using decade old scientific reviews as “proof”?  Each outdated document is cited. The MCPS community deserves best available science, not outdated reviews.

3.Wireless Funded Statements: MCPS copiously cites sources that are either directly fully funded by the wireless industry itself and/or by persons whose jobs involve consulting for the wireless industry or making money by designing products for the wireless industry. The funding source of such  statements should at least be noted if not removed.

4. Misleading Statements: Statements are made that validate the opinion of MCPS but are not a true representation of the body of science nor the organization MCPS  references.  MCPS seems to be cherry-picking in that MCPS puts forth“quotes” which are missing the rest of the statement the cited organization made.  Such selective information presentation is misleading to families and staff who should be given all information in a transparent fashion.

5.No Proof of Safety For Students and Staff: Multiple experts have written to MCPS detailing problems with the 14,000 dollar measurement report citing inadequate instrumentation, inprecise measurements and a lack of adequate documentation on exposure scenarios. There is a sufficient number of concerns that it seems this Measurement Report cannot be used to verify whether the radiation levels are safe for students and staff. The parents, teachers and staff of Montgomery County Schools deserve accurate responsible information on the radiation levels in MCPS schools.

For MCPS to put forth information such as is on their website as proof of safety is an egregious error. Comparing MCPS’s measurements to FCC standards is meaningless as FCC limits are known to be hundreds of thousands times too high to protect public health.

A total of 15 experts have written MCPS about the health risks of wireless school networks and their concerns with the radiofrequency webpage and measurement report. They all recommend the schools use safe technology. Why are these expert letters not posted? Why is their information not integrated into the webpage for the public?   Why isn’t MCPS responding to the concerns they are raising?

Dr. Martha Herbert’s Letter, Dr. Anthony Miller's Letter, Dr. Lennart Hardell’s Letter , Dr. Carpenters Letter, Dr.  Olle Johansson’s Letter, Dr. Devra Davis' Letter , Cris Rowan Letter,,Dr. Martin Pall’s letter, Katie Singer’s Letter,Cindy Sage and Trevor Marshal  Letter, Ellie Marks Letter , Arthur Firstenberg  Letter, Mikko Ahonen PhD, Lena Hedendahl MD and Tarmo Koppel MSc PhDs Letter, Cece Doucette’s Letter, Alisdair Philips Letter, Lloyd Morgan’s Letter

The MCPS site was already changed twice after we repeatedly wrote MCPS to remove the unfactual statements. Only two statements were removed. The MCPS Statement still contains an abundance of false and misleading statements- over 30 false statements in fact. Once all of these false, misleading, and wireless funded statements are removed,  MCPS would have little text left on the webpage.

MCPS did get one thing right. The webpage states “It is not ethical to test a substance by exposing people to it and seeing if they get cancer from it.” Right now MCPS students are the equivalent of guinea pigs and are being exposed to unprecedented levels of radiofrequency radiation without their knowledge or consent.  We adults were not exposed to such levels as children.

Appendix V in this letter contains information on the mice and rat studies underway at the National Institute of Health Science (NIEHS) National Toxicology Program (NTP) where rats are being exposed to low level (FCC compliant levels just like MCPS) radio-frequencies at very low levels for hours a day just like our children in schools.

Wouldn’t it be ethical to wait until the NTP research results are available before the school system is de-facto performing what is basically the same study but instead of rats it is on children and teachers and staff. The rats, the mice and MCPS children are being exposed to  what the National Toxicology Program calls “chronic exposure to modulated radiofrequency radiation”.

Our children are not lab rats. Yet, just like the NTP rats, today’s schoolchildren will be “the statistics”. I imagine that a decade from now, researchers will count up the numbers of  young adults with cancer, neurological disease and infertility and look at the connection with lifetime wireless exposures.

It is unethical to knowingly post false information and not to act to protect children when such a serious matter is brought to your attention. You have a duty of care to every student and your job is to ensure their safety. Wireless is not safe and MCPS has yet to provide any documentation of safety.

Please remove the false and misleading information on the MCPS webpage.  I ask that MCPS take immediate action to minimize radio-frequency exposures in classrooms. Please hardwire the chromebooks and tablets, install safe technology communication networks and teach students and staff how to minimize exposures to cell phone and wireless radiation to protect their health and future.

Sincerely,

Theodora Scarato LCSW-C

APPENDIX 1: 32 False Statements Itemized with documentation

APPENDIX II: Outdated References

APPENDIX III Wireless Funded Research and Statements

APPENDIX IV: Misleading Statements including Details on Why the RF Measurement Report is Inadequate to Assess Student Safety

APPENDIX V: The National Toxicology (NTP) Study on Rodents and Radio-Frequency

Read The Full Letter Here

The PARCC Test Drives $Millions for Industrial WiFi Tech in Schools

Watch this video featuring MCPS and various county schools. 

The radiation meter you see measures only microwave radiation. 

Double Jeopardy!!! MCPS Classroom Radon Levels plus Wireless Technology = A Time Bomb

Many schools in Montgomery County have radon levels that exceed the EPA guidance levels and they have not performed the necessary remediation. Unremediated radon levels plus wireless radio-frequency levels in the classroom potentially creates an exponentially higher higher cancer risk for students. 

What is the radon level at my child's school?

Read Summaries of MCPS Radon Test Reports: (note these summaries do not list borderline readings.)
Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Other Facilities

Want to find your specific school and read the radon report?
Look up your school at these links: Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Other Facilities

Classrooms with Levels under the EPA Action Limit need to be remediated. 
The President's Cancer Panel Report "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now," notes that "the cancer risk attributable to residential radon exposure has been clearly demonstrated and must be better addressed."

The panel  encourages the EPA to consider lowering its current "action level"  of 4 pCi/L for radon exposure, given that new radon risk data have emerged since the existing action level was set. In 2009, the World Health Organization set a new recommended radon reference level of 2.7 pCi/L for residential structures.

"Radon-induced lung cancer is responsible for an estimated average of 21,000 deaths annually in the United States," Field said. "The President's Cancer Panel has thoughtfully reviewed the scientific evidence in regard to radon and many other environmental toxicants and has issued a call to action that should not be ignored." Read the press release on this here. 

The EPA states that no level of radon is safe. "However, EPA believes that any radon exposure carries some risk—no level of radon is safe. Even radon levels below 4 pCi/L pose some risk, and you can reduce your risk of lung cancer by lowering your radon level." "Radon levels less than 4 pCi/L still pose a risk, and in many cases may be reduced". Read it on page 2 here  atEPA: A_Citizens_Guide to_Radon.

MCPS Is NOT following EPA Protocol

According the the EPA

1. When doing the short term test the following conditions need to be taken: "If you are doing a short-term test lasting just 2 or 3 days, be sure to close your windows and outside doors at least 12 hours before beginning the test, too." Page 5 on EPA: A citizens Guide to Radon . However MCPS did not follow this protocol with their testing. For example:

• At Westland Middle School the retesting was done December 15 through 18- A TUESDAY through FRIDAY! There is no way windows and door could have been closed, therefore outside air came in potentially interfereing with the test.  
• At Fields Road Elementary  the testing was done January 11 through January the 14th- a Monday through Thursday. 

2. The EPA states clearly that you should have at least 12 hours of 'closed house conditions" (brief entries and exits) PRIOR to deploying the test devices. Read it here. The State of New Jersey states, "For tests that last less than four days, closed house conditions must be started at least 12 hours before you begin the test." 

In fact, several experts are clear that the short term test is not as accurate as a long term test. According to State of Virginia, "We recommend long-term testing whenever possible." Read it here. 

MCPS is not following it's own protocol. 

According to MCPS  in their Radon Update "In the event that radon is detected above 4.0 pCi/L, longer-term (30 day-period) testing is recommended to confirm levels. If long-term testing confirms levels above 4.0 pCi/L, steps will be taken to remediate the affected area(s)." MCPS radon tests showed several schools with levels above that limit but steps were never taken to follow up.  

MCPS States in MCPS' Do Slightly Elevated Levels of Radon Present a Safety Hazard? that "EPA does not recommend that schools use a single short-term test as the basis for determining whether or not action needs to be taken to reduce radon levels. "

What Does the EPA states specifically about Schools and Radon? 

"If a room is found to have a level of 4 pCi/L or greater, this measurement result should be confirmed with another test. If the second test is also at or above 4 pCi/L, schools should take action to reduce the radon level to below 4 pCi/L. "

"For most school children and staff, the second largest contributor to their radon exposure is likely to be their school. As a result, EPA recommends that school buildings as well as homes be tested for radon."

Read it all here on the document Radon Measurements in Schools which is linked to on the MCPS Radon page. 

Replicated Research Shows Wireless Increases Cancer Risk and Can Promote Tumor Formation

Wireless plus a Carcinogen = BAD NEWS

Just like mixing drugs produces a synergistic effect, wireless plus a carcinogen can increase the health impact exponentially. Many people state, "the research is not replicated". That is FALSE. Please see the results of the research study looking at radio frequency exposure plus a known carcinogen.

Lerchl's Mice Study

Mice were exposed in the womb to a known cancer agent, ENU, and then exposed to radio-frequency. The results were that the doubly exposed mice had significantly higher rates of tumors of the liver and the lung, as well as of lymphoma in comparison to those with exposure to the cancer agent alone. This study was designed to repeat, with a larger number of animals, an experiment published in 2010 by Thomas Tillmann of the Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Hannover. When Tillmann first presented his results a couple of years earlier, he called them “remarkable” (see “3G Can Promote Tumors”).Now it's replicated!


“Numbers of tumors of the lungs and livers in exposed animals were significantly higher than in sham-exposed controls. In addition, lymphomas were also found to be significantly elevated by exposure. Many of the tumor-promoting effects in our study were seen at low to moderate exposure levels, well below exposure limits."

Lerchl et al., Tumor promotion by exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below exposure limits for humans, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Available online 6 March 2015.

"Four of six co-carcinogenesis studies showed increased cancer incidence after exposure to RF-EMF in combination with a known carcinogen;"

-From the World Health Organizations International Agency for the Research on Cancers conclusion on Radio-frequency Radiation as a Class 2 B carcinogen. At the time of this WHO/IARC statement, Lerchl's 2015 study had not even come out.

Wireless Can Cause Leakage of The Blood Brain Barrier
Watch this video of  Dr. Leif Salford, Neurosurgeon at Lund University Hospital, and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery. Since 1988 he has led a team of researchers that have exposed thousands of laboratory rats to microwave radiation from various sources. His results show that not only does radio-frequency damage the blood-brain barrier, but it does so at even when the exposure level is reduced a thousandfold. 

What other research details these effect?
Many studies look at co carcinogenic exposures, blood brain barrier permeability and how wirless has effects when combined with another agent. One landmark study showed a significant dose-response relationship between the number and duration of voice calls made on cell phones and ADHD risk among children exposed to lead in their environment.

“Given the potential impact of EMF, and the real-world importance of EMF as a co-promoter, there appears to be a major disconnect between the magnitude of the problem and the research available to understand and ameliorate the problem"
-Dr. Ronald N. Kostoff Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy in his published research on combining wireless with a carcinogen.

A Sampling of the Research

• Byun Y-H, Ha M, Kwon H-J, Hong Y-C, Leem J-H. (2013). Mobile Phone Use, Blood Lead Levels, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Symptoms in Children: A Longitudinal Study. PLoS ONE. 8(3)
• Kostoff and Lau., (2013) Combined biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields and other agents in the published literature, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 80, Issue 7, September 2013, Pages 1331–1349
• Security concerns during the Cold War may have led to the generation of misinformation on the physiological effects of microwave radiation from mobile phones. 
• Effects of Electromagnetic Fields FromWireless Communicationupon the Blood-Brain Barrier, A review of published research, Bioinitiative 2012

" I am appalled" Lloyd Morgan Writes Montgomery County Public Schools on Wi-Fi Networks.

Dear Montgomery County Board of Education,

I have read the online report “MCPS Statement Concerning Deployment of Wireless Computing Technologies.” I am appalled that a public agency would rely on and relay a document containing numerous misrepresentations including outright falsehoods. 

Permit me to detail a few brief examples of serious errors.  Should the Board request, Environmental Health Trust would be glad to provide more detailed review.

First, let me give you a short background on my qualifications.   I am an electronics engineer with 38 years of high tech corporate experience to the Vice-Presidential level. For the past twenty years, I have been engaged in the field of bioelectromagnetics (the science of the interaction of biology with electromagnetic radiation).  A list of my recent peer-reviewed publications is attached..

The World Health Organization (WHO) via its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared in May 2011 that RFR from cell phones and other wireless transmitting devices are a Group 2B (possible) Human Carcinogen (among other 287 Group 2B carcinogens are: DDT, Diesel fuel, gasoline, and phenobarbital).  MCPS falsely asserts that the WHO/IARC classified only cell phone radiation as a possible carcinogen and did not include other sources of wireless radiation.

The MCPS website cited above discusses the installation of Wi-Fi throughout the school district. This would create much higher exposures to RFR in every classroom, from wireless transmitting devices (WTDs) used by the students to access the Internet via Wi-Fi routers.  The reason the WTDs are the primary source of exposure is because RFR decreases very rapidly with distance from the source.  In a typical classroom, almost all of the RFR exposure for a given student comes from the student’s own WTD and from other students’ WTDs nearby (from her/his left and right, front and back).

Children’s risk from exposure to any carcinogen is greater than adults’. Younger children, who are smaller and growing rapidly face greater risks.

MCPS presents answers 10 hypothetical questions, many of which are incorrect or misleading.

Here  I include a couple of the most egregious MCPS claims:

1. MCPS’ answer to their question 9 incorrectly claims, “Using the Group 2B classification of the entire spectrum of radiofrequencies as an indication that Wi-Fi is harmful when the classification came about due to extremely heavy cell phone use and not Wi-Fi does not accurately represent the intention of the classification.”

First, Dr. Robert Baan who led the IARC investigation by 30 experts from 14 countries, said that the intention of the study was “to assess the carcinogenicity of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF).” In regard to children Baan stated, “When used by children, the average RF energy deposition is two times higher in the brain and up to ten times higher in the bone marrow of the skull, compared with mobile phone use by adults.” [Lancet-Oncology (July 2011)]

Second, the “extremely heavy cell phone use” that resulted in the Group 2B Human Carcinogen determination was at most about 27 minutes per day.  The students’ exposure to Wi-Fi from their devices takes place over the entire school day, 5 days a week six or more hours a day.

2.   The MCPS answer to question 5 erroneously states, “The FCC, the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) all have conducted reviews as recently as 2013 and found that there is no basis to establish a different safety threshold.”

None of these organizations have conducted any such safety reviews.

The Board of Education has an obligation to protect health and safety, and to provide the safest possible learning environment, so must take all reasonable measures to keep exposures to a minimum, and to inform staff, parents and students of the risks. There are also serious financial risks if the Board proceeds to install wireless devices It should be noted that insurance companies will not cover health damages from any wireless devices., as staff and students will be experiencing exposures to an agent for which they cannot obtain insurance protection.  

Finally, multiple human epidemiological studies from a number of major industrial countries report statistically significant risks for brain, eye, hearing nerve, salivary gland, and leukemia cancers from exposure to RFR. Additionally, there are cell, animal and human studies showing deleterious effects on sperm including but not limited to sperm DNA fragmentation.  Our website ehtrust.org provides an overview of scientific findings.  The website showthefineprint.org provides information on distances that devices should be respected, noting that tablets are tested at 20 cm (8 inches) from an adult male body phantom.

The health and financial risks are completely unnecessary, because wired cable connections can provide computer access without exposing schools to radiation.  I very much look forward to working with you to provide a more balanced and accurate accounting of effects of wireless radiation, and alternative technologies, so that MCPS can make informed decisions as they proceed.

I invite you to read some my published research.

L. Lloyd Morgan

Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Health Trust

I'll fly to Washington, DC at my own expense.

Download the Letter by Lloyd Morgan here. 
He has his published research listed in this letter. 

VIDEO: Lloyd Morgan, B.S. at the Commonwealth Club's Expert Forum on Cell Phones & Wireless Risks to Children,6/22/15