Mother’s Day 2021 Voices of Experience

Nina Anderson: The Pilot vs. the Pilot Program

Speaking of tobacco scientists who work for the wireless industry, step-mother Nina Anderson was one of the first women to work as a corporate pilot, at one point flying for Phillip Morris cigarettes. Fast forward a few decades, and in 1995 she founded “The Scientific Alliance for Education.” Her organization focuses on educating the public and providing information that allows individuals to make educated decisions for a course of action. Located in the tri-state corner of the Berkshires, her organization serves MA, CT, and NY, with past educational/ outreach efforts including indoor air pollution, GMOs, and lead paint. SafeHelpsYou is the arm of her organization addressing wireless health risks. Nina single-handedly lobbied her town to establish a smart meter moratorium when she became aware of the Worcester Ngrid pilot, which was foisted on the community without knowledge and consent of the residents. She was especially concerned that Philip Morris tobacco scientist Peter Valberg was the expert who testified before the Worcester Zoning Board to override citizen health concerns. She is actively involved on the 5G issue, working to assist Sheffield to update their telecom bylaws to reflect issues regarding small cells. Like many communities, current bylaws are inadequate for 5G and other telecom expansionist plans. Concerns recently raised in California include overloading poles, proximity to homes, property values, health,  fire risks, lack of insurance, the carbon footprint /energy consumption of wireless, ADA issues, lack of inspection and maintenance, and the fact that deployment does not address the digital divide. 5G does not facilitate voice data or internet connectivity – it only increases download speeds for video, it’s unreliable in bad weather, it’s not cyber secure, and it contributes to climate change because it requires electricity to many more antennas. Nina explains:

The telecommunications industry is engaged in a massive deployment of microwave and millimeter-wave “small cell” antennas across the county to facilitate the next generation of wireless communications known as 5G. This new technology uses existing wireless infrastructure and new types of millimeter radiofrequency (RF) radiation to transmit large amounts of data, but requires significantly closer proximity to users, resulting in the dense deployment of antennas near residences, schools, and hospitals. Because of their short-range transmissions, 5G units may be spaced as close as one every five homes on existing telephone poles. These units can be as large as small refrigerators. 5G will use sub 6Ghz band and mmWave bands so 5G signals will not be able to penetrate buildings and wooded areas. Therefore, many trees may have to be cut down for reliable service. This is not acceptable for our rural landscape. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not conducted any long-term safety testing of new 5G wireless technologies and has failed to update its human RF microwave radiation exposure guidelines since 1996, despite being advised to do so by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and hundreds of medical and scientific experts from around the world. The telecommunications industry leaders have publicly admitted that they have not conducted any safety tests to determine the possible adverse health and environmental effects from exposure to RF non-ionizing millimeter waves emitted by 5G-enabled small cell antennas.

-Patricia Burke, StopSmartMetersMass