 TUNING OUT NON-IONIZING RADIATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH/SAFETY HAZARDS

               Growing evidence that long wave non-ionizing radiation used in
          electromagnetic devices, microwave products, and TV/radio systems is
          harmful to the public's health, hazardous to effective public safety
          systems, and threatening to military security went largely unreported
          by America's media in 1987.  Also underreported were the related
          issues of the Environmental Protection Agency's shut-down of its
          funded programs to study non-ionizing radiation in light of a 1989
          deadline to establish safety standards for public exposure to radio
          frequencies, and, the lawsuit brought against the Reagan
          administration by a coalition of plaintiffs who charge that the
          administration has violated the National Enviromental Policy act by
          not adequately protecting the public and environment from the "Hazard
          of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance" (HERO).
               Studies that suggest links between electromagetic fields (such as
          those produced by overhead power lines, broadcast towers, military
          hardware, hairdryers, microwave ovens, computers, TV and two-way
          radios, and radar), and cellular mutation, cancer, and childhood
          leukemia have received little attention. University of North Carolina
          epidemiologist David Savitz confirmed earlier reports about the
          apparent public health hazard.  Savitz emphasized the need for further
          research and more federal funding to determine the extent of this
          potential health risk.  Fifteen of 17 occupational studies have
          established links between exposure to low frequency electromagnetic
          fields and cancer.  Despite this mounting evidence, the EPA shut down
          its program to study non-ionizing radiation which is supposed to set
          acceptable levels of exposure for humans and the environment by 1989.
          Meanwhile, total federal funding to study the health effects of low
          frequency fields has dropped from $10 million to just $2.5 million.
               A coalition of Pentagon watchdog organizations and individuals
          has brought suit against the government charging Reagan administration
          officials with willful negligence in protecting the public from the
          HERO effect. Though the Navy and Army have been aware, for some 33
          years, of the hazard that electromagnetism poses to weapon systems,
          the Pentagon has acknowledged very little about the hazards that
          accidental explosions caused by various electromagnetic sources pose
          to public and environmental safety.  The plaintiffs cite five specific
          HERO related accidents, including the 1967 explosion on board the USS
          Forrestal which claimed 134 lives, along with a possible 25 other HERO
          related accidents that have occurred over the past 25 k;years.
               Finally, in a continuing conflict related to the issue of
          electromagnetic radiation and its effects on public safety and health,
          radar specialist veterans have been filing health claims, related to
          their exposrue to low frequency radiation, against the Veterans
          Administration.  All claims to date have been rejected.
               With such a newsworthy issue as the effects of electromagnetic
          radiation on public health and safety so clearly being played out
          during 1987, the news media, for the most part, failed to tune in.

               SOURCES:  KQED-TV 9, "EXPRESS," 12/9/87, "Radiation Risk?," by
          David Helvarg; RECON, Vol. 10, #4, January 1988, "HERO: Deadly Game of
          Roulette," by Patricia Axelrod, pp 1,2,8.
