Wireless Radiation Regulated by the FCC
Wireless radiation regulations are set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The agency determines the amount of wireless radiation that is safe for the public.
This in itself is odd, as the FCC is not a government organization that handles public health issues. The FCC is there to regulate communications.
The FCC’s own mission statement reads:
“The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.”
EPA Should Regulate Wireless Radiation
The regulation of radiation levels safe for public exposure should fall under the auspices of the EPA. Wireless radiation is a form of air pollution. The EPA is responsible for overseeing the health of our air and water.
The EPA’s mission statement is:
“The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.”
Current FCC Safe Limits Outdated
The FCC set their current radiofrequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits in 1996. These limits were meant to protect the public from any adverse effects of wireless radiation. They were based on the scientific evidence available at that time.
These limits were based on behavioral studies with lab animals conducted in the 1980s. Five monkeys and eight rats were exposed to wireless radiation for about an hour and their behavior was observed.
At that time, it was thought that any harm from wireless radiation was due only to extreme tissue heating. This is a doctrine that the scientific community originally held. It is the doctrine of thermal heating.
Only radiation strong enough to cause the tissues of the body to heat up was deemed dangerous. Like many scientific doctrines, it has been proven wrong.
So, the FCC’s 1996 limits were set low enough to avoid extreme tissue heating.
Since then, there have been hundreds of published studies showing biological changes in the body from levels of radiation too low to heat tissues.
These biological changes in the body can lead to cancer and other disease states. These studies led the World Health Organization to list wireless radiation as a possible carcinogen to humans in 2011.
Negative Health Effects From Current Levels
Cancer, DNA damage, sperm damage, oxidative stress, cardiomyopathy, neurological problems, brain tumors, miscarriages, blood-brain barrier leakage, heart arrhythmia, migraines, infertility and skin rashes have been linked to exposure to the current levels of wireless radiation that are deemed safe.
Outdated Radiation Levels Kept
The FCC has been given new scientific evidence showing that the current safe levels of wireless radiation are outdated. However, they continue to ignore this evidence and continue to keep the current levels.
FCC Taken To Federal Court
The Environmental Health Trust (EHT), a non-profit organization, took the FCC to court for having failed to update their radiation safe levels, despite being given new scientific evidence showing their current levels put the public at risk.
The Federal Court ruled that the FCC had failed to respond to “record evidence that exposure to RF radiation at levels below the Commission’s current limits may cause negative health effects unrelated to cancer.”
The FCC was also found by the Federal Court to have ignored organizations, scientists, and medical doctors who have been urging the FCC to update their outdated levels for public safety reasons.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the EHT in December of 2019. The ruling found that the “decision by the FCC to maintain its 1996 safety limits for human exposure to wireless radiation” was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Not to mention dangerous.
Sources:
EPA: Our Mission and What We Do
