Switzerland: 5G antenna on hospital roof - risky progress?

5G antenna on hospital roof - risky progress?

Source: Zuger newspaper, posted by Verein Schutz vor Strahlung, 21 May 2025 - DeepL translation

In the middle of the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital premises, an adaptive 5G antenna was approved in Advent 2024 - despite massive performance peaks and direct radiation to sensitive neighboring buildings. While other cities are exercising restraint out of consideration for interference with medical devices and implants, Lucerne is taking a bolder approach. Particularly explosive: the radiation beams are aimed at the hospital's high-rise ward block, a school building and a property with three kindergartens.

The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) points out that physical complaints can occur and brain waves can change if the limit values are exceeded. Around ten percent of the population are affected by radiation - a phenomenon that is not classified as an illness, but which is a considerable burden for many of those affected. The WHO also warns of possible long-term consequences of excessive radiation, including an increased risk of cancer.

For the association, Verein Schutz vor Strahlung, it is clear that such decisions ignore the precautionary principle and establish facts without taking responsibility. Especially in a place with particularly vulnerable people, such an installation is not justifiable. As long as key risks have not been clarified, the association believes that public resistance remains an act of self-protection - and is more necessary than ever.
Source: Zuger newspaper

Cell phone radiation exposure may increase during travel

Cell phone radiation exposure may increase during travel
Environmental Health Sciences Staff
ehn.org, May 24, 2025

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

Travelers may face higher levels of cell phone radiofrequency (RF) radiation when using phones in moving vehicles such as trains, according to a new study published in Electrical Engineering. The study simulated the RF radiation levels in a child and an adult when using a cell phone inside a train, and found that the metal surroundings significantly increased their RF radiation exposure levels.



Travelers may face higher levels of cell phone radiofrequency (RF) radiation when using phones in moving vehicles such as trains, according to a new study published in Electrical Engineering. The study simulated the RF radiation levels in a child and an adult when using a cell phone inside a train, and found that the metal surroundings significantly increased their RF radiation exposure levels.

Switzerland: BERENIS Newsletter - Special Issue May 2025 - Millimeter Waves

BERENIS Newsletter - Special Issue May 2025 - Millimeter Waves - A special issue of the newsletter (May 2025) of the Swiss expert group on electromagnetic fields and non-ionising radiation (BERENIS) is now online, and ready for download at the website of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

Topic: Current knowledge on biological effects of millimeter waves (5.8 to 200 GHz) and assessment of possible health impacts

For English, click on Newsletter BERENIS – Special issue May 2025 (PDF, 133 kB, 21.05.2025)

https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/electrosmog/beratende-expertengruppe-nis-berenis/newsletter-of-the-swiss-expert-group-on-electromagnetic-fields-a.html

What Recent Headlines Mean When They Call 5G "Safe": Environmental Health Trust Responds

EHT Responds: What Recent Headlines Mean When They Call 5G “Safe”
Environmental Health Trust, May 22, 2025

On the same day that EHT shared news about a new World Health Organization-backed study finding evidence linking cell phone radiation to cancer, some popular science publications shared news about a different study, which is said to prove that there is no danger associated with 5G exposure. That study, published in PNAS Nexus, was written about by Popular Science, Cosmos, and others. As tempting as it is to accept good news like this at face value, especially as a headline in a reputable news source, the headlines unfortunately do not tell the whole story. EHT feels compelled to respond and clarify the findings of this recent study.

To start, the study in question is far more narrow than popular headlines imply. The scientists specifically performed their study on two types of skin cells, keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Other types of skin cells, melanocytes and immune cells, can also be impacted by radiation, and cancers originating from these cell types can result in more severe, potentially fatal disease. The incidence of melanoma and cutaneous T–cell lymphoma are both increasing, and research is needed to determine whether or not the increasing frequencies of radiation associated with 5G may be contributing to this increase.

United States: Telecom Industry Not Required to Accommodate People Sickened by Cell Tower Radiation, Courts Rule

Telecom Industry Not Required to Accommodate People Sickened by Cell Tower Radiation, Courts Rule
by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., childrenshealthdefense.org,  May 19, 2025

Wireless companies don’t have to make accommodations or changes to their practices or policies under the Americans with Disabilities Act when their towers make people nearby sick, even in their homes, a panel of judges ruled.

Wireless companies don’t have to make accommodations or changes to their practices under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — even when their towers make people sick in their homes, a federal appeals court ruled.

The ruling came as a blow to plaintiff Henry “Hank” Allen, who alleged the radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by a cell tower installed next to his home triggered more than 15 episodes of atrial fibrillation.

Allen told The Defender the ruling confirms the “deeply troubling reality” that there is “no legal remedy for Americans being injured by wireless infrastructure.”

Switzerland: Monitoring of cell phone radiation: “We'd rather suppress the risks than measure them”

“We'd rather suppress the risks than measure them”

by Pascal Sigg, infosperber.ch, 17 May 2025 - Deepl translation

No money for health: the National Council does not want to monitor device radiation. The Federal Council was also against it.

Time and again, cell phones that exceed the radiation limits come onto the market in this country. This only becomes known because - in addition to the manufacturers - a French authority monitors the devices (Infosperber reported).

(Photo): Called in vain for control of smartphones: National Councillor Marionna Schlatter. Parliamentary services

Switzerland has been resisting effective control of the devices for years (Infosperber reported). And it will continue to do nothing. This became clear last week after the National Council clearly rejected a proposal by Marionna Schlatter. The Green politician called for independent market surveillance of devices in Switzerland.

United States: Missouri congressman seeks help from RFK Jr on cancer cases at Kansas-City area school

Excellent article from The Kansas City Star on an intervention by Ellie Marks, founder of the California Brain Rumor Association, relating to mobile phone antennas and a cancer cluster. Mrs. Marks recently joined the Board of the Phonegate Alert Association.  We thank her for her intervention.

Missouri congressman seeks help from RFK Jr on cancer cases at KC-area school
By Laura Bauer, kansascity.com, updated May 15, 2025

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to help investigate cancer cases at a Liberty elementary school where, in recent years, multiple teachers have faced cancer diagnoses.

(Photo): Warren Hills Elementary School in Liberty. A cellular antenna stands very close to the school building. Monty Davis madavis@kcstar.com

In a letter this week to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Graves said that parents, teachers and staff at Warren Hills Elementary are looking for answers after at least six teachers have been diagnosed with cancer in recent years. The Republican congressman who represents northern Missouri, including Liberty, asked for Kennedy’s help in “uncovering the root causes” of the “concerning” number of cases. 

“That’s an unbelievable and unimaginable amount of tragedy for an elementary school with fewer than 650 students and 40 teachers to experience over such a short time,” Graves wrote. “The teachers, parents and staff at Warren Hills Elementary School need some answers as to why so many of their friends, colleagues and loved ones are being diagnosed with cancer. 

New York State: Smartphones Are Finally Getting Expelled

Smartphones Are Finally Getting Expelled

By John Herrman, a tech columnist at Intelligencer, nymag.com, 8 May 2025

Starting at the beginning of the 2025–26 school year, New York public and charter schools will be implementing plans for “bell-to-bell” smartphone bans, which prohibit the “unsanctioned use of smartphones and other internet-enabled personal devices on school grounds in K-12 schools for the entire school day.” If you’re a New York student and the plan’s various small exceptions don’t apply to you, your phone will be going in the bag (or the box, or the cubby, or the office).

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images

New York is far from the first state to implement smartphone restrictions in schools, but it’s the largest to go so far, and its ban marks a tipping point: Whatever you think of the broad, bipartisan, passionate, but also sort of disorganized and confused campaign to ban smartphones from classrooms, it’s winning. More than half of American states have something on the books, while more than a dozen have policies that resemble outright bans, many of which will go into effect next year. France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Brazil all have national bans of some sort, and countless other countries are close behind.

Continue reading:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/smartphones-are-finally-getting-expelled-from-class.html

Switzerland: Electrohypersensitivity - a repressed condition

Electrohypersensitivity - a repressed condition
by Pascal Sigg, Die Wochenzeitung, 11 May 2025 - DeepL translation

Kathrin Luginbühl is one of many people in Switzerland who have been suffering for years from symptoms that they attribute to electromagnetic radiation - in particular to mobile telephony and WLAN. Although her symptoms are serious - palpitations, stabbing headaches, massive sleep deprivation - her suffering is not officially recognized as an illness. Scientific research has so far refused to provide a clear classification, although there has been evidence of biological effects far below the applicable limits for decades.

Hadlikon was a place of retreat for Luginbühl, a “radiation refuge”, as the article in the weekly newspaper calls it - a rare place with comparatively low mobile phone exposure. But with the construction of a new mobile phone antenna, she also lost this last refuge. She had already had to give up her home four times before because of newly erected antennas. The courts dismissed her appeals on the grounds that the radiation exposure was below the precautionary limits. The fact that Luginbühl falls seriously ill below these levels is ignored.

Phonegate: Schlatter motion rejected in Switzerland

Phonegate: Schlatter motion rejected in Switzerland
By : Phonegate Team • 10 May 2025

On May 7, 2025, the Swiss National Council rejected the motion by the Deputy Marionna Schlatter calling for genuine market surveillance to monitor compliance with legal radiation limits for cell phones and protect users’ health. This decision comes at a time when the Deputy has publicly denounced the Phonegate scandal, specifically citing our NGO’s revelations on the total lack of control of actual smartphone emissions in Switzerland.

Details of the vote in the National Council

In the National Council vote on Marionna Schlatter’s motion, 62 Deputies voted in favor of the text, while 130 voted against and 8 were absent or did not vote. This decision, which is difficult to justify in view of the lack of existing controls, seems above all to protect industrial interests to the detriment of public health.