The hot new craze in Internet access is Wi-Fi and its soon-to- be big brother Wi-Max. Wi-Fi is a wireless connection that allows users to access the Internet without the computer being connected to a cable. And yes, it’s very convenient. Imagine walking from the sofa to the bedroom with your laptop and never loosing your connection. Imagine the freedom and flexibility afforded schools and office workers. No more ugly bothersome cables to tie you down. You’re free to roam the Internet with your fingers while roaming your home, school or office with your feet. Freedom to move and freedom to surf. Perfect for the individual who is on the go and up to date with the latest technology. You can even have free Internet access at your local coffee shop. Same for airports.

What a great idea. Or is it?

What exactly is Wi-Fi? Wi-Fi is a common term that stands for ‘wireless fidelity.’ It simply means that a computer can access the Internet without wires or cables. In other words, it allows one to have a wireless connection to the Internet. It’s like taking a cell phone base station and placing it in your home, schoolroom or office area. Wi-Fi is basically the same type of connection as used to operate a cell phone. It’s a product of convenience as it allows one to access the Internet with a desktop or laptop computer without the need for connecting cables. Moving from room to room with a laptop computer and no cables is a nice convenience although it certainly isn’t a necessity.

How does Wi-Fi work?
Wi-Fi is really very similar to your cell phone. Radio signals are transmitted from the computer or Bluetooth device to a wireless router, sometimes called a wireless access point (WAP) or wireless local area network (WLAN). The router then sends the signal to the Internet through a cable modem. So this router or wireless access point is really the device responsible for transmitting the harmful radio waves. Any number of computers or devices can be configured to connect to one wireless router to make Internet connections. The workable distance is about a range of 300 feet or more from the wireless access point while most distances for good connections are maintained at about 100 feet. And, of course there are many variables that can affect this connection. Laptop computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are the most common devices utilizing Wi-Fi technology.

Wi-Fi Emits Radio Frequencies
Wireless connections emit radio frequency signals, or radiation, just like cell phones, cell phone towers and other wireless devices. Wi-Fi usually transmits its signal at frequencies in the range of 2.4GHz to 5 GHz. Cordless phones often transmit in the 2.4GHz to 5 GHz range, too, and this often causes the cordless phone to interfere with a wireless internet connection to a nearby computer. The Wi-Fi frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones which operate in the 850 MHz to 1900 MHz range. This higher frequency allows more data to be carried. However, as we’ll see later, it is not the frequency of the signal that does the damage to our health. So the higher Wi-Fi frequency isn’t really the issue at all when it comes to health considerations.

Wi-Fi Hotspots Now In Schools
Wi-Fi has become popular in the home, office, the airport and coffee shops. Many cities are now installing “hot spots” where one can take a laptop computer and freely access the Internet over the provided network. This is what is known as a “hot spot.” It’s a place to make a wireless connection to the Internet. And they are springing up everywhere. Entire cities are becoming wireless allowing one to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the city. And due to the ease of convenience Wi-Fi connections in schools are now becoming quite popular, too. No longer are computers hard-wired to a connection in a classroom. Connections are now virtual and allow the user, student or teacher, the freedom to connect anywhere in the school without the burden of being restricted by cable connections.

Why Wireless Connections Are Harmful
There are two potentially harmful mechanisms in which Wi-Fi users, including school children, may be harmed. The first mechanism involves the exposure to radiation from the distance or proximity of the user to the computer monitor. This form of exposure originates from the electromagnetic field being given off by the monitor itself and has nothing to do with the wireless connection. Electromagnetic radiation is given off by the computer screen regardless of whether the connection is wired or wireless. Any and all computer screens produce electromagnetic radiation. These electromagnetic fields can be substantial in strength and can reach levels much higher than the 1 milligauss (1 mG) threshold level of exposure recommended by experts as being safe. Such a field can easily be measured with an inexpensive instrument called a gauss meter.

The second mechanism of harm comes from the radiation or radio wave itself. The wireless signal, oscillating at 2.4 to 5 GHz, moves much too fast for the body to recognize. So this wave isn’t doing the damage. However, anytime any data or information is transmitted, say through our voice, through text messages or through the sending of information, the data is packaged and “piggy-backed” onto the first wave. This creates a second carrier wave and this wave is called the information- carrying radio wave, or ICRW. It is the information-carrying radio wave that is producing the harm. Here’s how this happens.

This second carrier wave, or ICRW, oscillates in a much lower Hertz (Hz) range that is easily recognized by the body. When the ICRW comes in contact with the body the body recognizes this wave and responds to it as if this carrier wave were some type of foreign invader. When this happens certain physiologic changes occur which are very significant. First, at the cellular level, the cell membrane becomes hard and inflexible. This occurs because the active transport channels shut down as the cell goes into a protection mode. This hardening effect of the cell membrane also causes the cell to lose its permeability, meaning needed nutrients can’t get inside the cell where they are needed. In other words, the cell doesn’t get nourished.

Conversely, since the cell membrane is hardened and less permeable, the toxins and free radicals that build up inside the cell, as a natural part of our daily metabolism, can’t get out. The buildup of toxins and free radicals inside the cell causes other problems. These toxic products damage the mitochondria in the cell. If you’ll remember from biology class the mitochondria are where energy for the body is produced. When this energy-producing process is damaged the cell begins to lose its ability to function.

In addition, cells lose their ability to communicate with one another. When one cell can’t communicate with another cell and messages don’t get sent or received the body can’t respond properly to any type of stress, injury, or invasion. Furthermore, the DNA inside the cell becomes damaged. Fragments of DNA break off and form something called micronuclei.

Micronuclei are precursors to cancer formation. And when enough energy is lost and when enough malnourishment occurs the cell eventually becomes dysfunctional and dies. When enough cells die the tissues are affected. When enough tissue is affected organs become damaged and don’t work properly. And the cascade of damaging events begin that can lead to a multitude of symptoms and failure of the body’s defense mechanisms to act appropriately.

The Wi-Fi Problem Think of Wi-Fi this way. It’s really nothing more than a small version of a cell phone tower placed in the classroom or office. Or, it could be similar to having a cordless phone in your home with multiple handsets throughout the house. The base station is the access point and all the peripheral phones connect with it wirelessly.

The radio frequency radiation being emitted is the same. The information-carrying radio wave is being transmitted continuously 24 hours a day. The connections from the computers and other wireless devices throughout the school, office or home to the wireless access points cause any user around them, (children, teacher, staff, etc.) to be continuously exposed. Everyone in the building is caught in the crossfire of the continual access to the wireless access points. Even non-users are exposed because of the blanketing effect of these wireless access points throughout the building. So no one escapes the exposure.

In understanding the danger of Wi-Fi we must remember that it is not the type of device, in this case a wireless access point or router that is important. Rather it is the type of radio frequency radio waves that are being produced by the device that are significant. Whether from a wireless router, a cell phone, a cell phone tower, or personal digital assistant (PDA), electromagnetic frequencies are produced by all these devices. We must look at the technology being used by these devices and not the device itself as the problem. This should be the primary concern as we evaluate their safety, particularly in the classroom.

Another important aspect of Wi-Fi exposure is that of modulation. Modulation refers to whether or not the signal frequency is constant or pulsed. The new digital cell phones operate on a pulsed frequency, as does all wireless technology. Studies have shown that these pulsed signals are a greater risk than analog, non-pulsed signals. 1

Certainly, by the addition of any type of wireless we are adding to the burden of electropollution we are all currently exposed to. Special consideration should be given to the additional exposure that Wi-Fi technology would bring to those in a classroom, including the instructors, teachers, staff and certainly students.

Children Are More Vulnerable
Concern about the increased vulnerability to electropollution by children has valid reasoning. Since the skull bones of the head don’t fully harden until about age 22 the skull bones of a child’s head are softer than that of an adult. A softer head bone translates to easier penetration through the skull and into the head by radio frequency radiation. Furthermore, the head of a child contains more water since the brain is not fully developed. It would make sense then that water will act as a conductor to electromagnetic radiation increasing the possibility of even further damage. And since a child’s brain and nervous system is still developing it only stands to reason that the potential damage would be greater since cells that are in a growing phase are more easily damaged.

And finally, exposing children in the elementary schoolroom will add to both the amount of electromagnetic radiation exposure and the accumulated length of exposure over their lifetime that they will be exposed. No one can argue that the children of today’s generation will be exposed to far greater amounts of electromagnetic radiation and will be exposed to it for a much longer period of time than any generation before. We simply don’t know the consequences of this increased and cumulative exposure. And it’s an experiment that we shouldn’t place our children in. Why set up these networks without understanding any of the long-term consequences? Did we not learn a lesson from the tobacco and asbestos industries?

Stay tuned for Part 2…

It’s “Sunburn Season” – July and August are vacation months and the time for fun in the sun before returning to school or buckling down on the job. Some people get more sun in these months than the rest of the year.

Naturally, that leaves them susceptible to sunburns. But did you know that many medications increase your chances of getting sunburned?

This article by pharmacist, Suzy Cohen, explains which drugs can cause serious sun photosensitivity.

Many people find themselves in a catch 22 – they don’t want to get sunburned, but they know they are more susceptible. Even so, it’s not a good idea to avoid the sun entirely.

Getting sunlight is very important. We get our Vitamin D through sunlight, not food. Vitamin D is very important to the healthy functioning of out body from healthy bones, heart, mental health, colds and flu and much more. Avoiding the sun and/or using too much sunblock prevents Vitamin D from forming and contributes to deficiencies.

Vitamin D is created on the skin when it exposed to sunlight. This doesn’t happen through glass, only with direct exposure. Dr. Mercola recently wrote how surprized he was to discover that it takes 48 hours for the Vitamin D to be fully absorbed from the skin. He recommended only using soap under the arms and in the groin area. That may not be practical for most people, but it’s nice to know that skipping a shower now and then can contribute to your health!

Sunburn Remedies:

Quick remedies for sunburn include Aloe Vera, LavaDerm™ Cooling Mist, Lavender essential oil and MMS. Everybody’s skin reacts differently to sunburn and sunburn remedies. Here are a few to try – one of them is bound to do the trick for you:

Aloe Vera: If you have an aloe plant in the garden, break off a spear and gently rub the juice over your burn. Some varieties work better than others.

LavaDerm™ Cooling Mist: Specially formulated with lavender essential oil and aloe vera – two of nature’s most soothing, rejuvenating and healing substances. It soothes, protects and brings powerful relief to stressed and burned skin with its blend of gentle, skin- soothing ingredients.

Lavender Essential Oil Put a few drops of lavender essential oil on your sunburned skin for quick relief.

MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution) It’s surprising that this solution works so well on burns, but I get the most relief and the fastest healing from burns when I use MMS. It’s inexpensive and easy to use: http://tinyurl.com/bec2ya

Spread a few drops of MMS over the burned skin, wait 5 minutes and wash off (it’s very important to wash it off after 5 minutes). It will burn or sting a bit at first, but then subside.

Repeat a few hours later or the next day. If the burn is a bad one, apply the MMS again a third time, but this time, leave it on. It will make your skin smell a little odd, but not bad.

Hopefully, you won’t suffer a sunburn this season, but if you do, these tips can help your skin feel better faster and recover better from your sunburn.

Does this grilled chicken have additives?

Do you feel funny after eating processed and fast food?  Or even the grilled or roasted chicken you can get in a grocery store that says it doesn’t have the usual culprits like MSG?

I do…

I don’t eat junk food as a rule, and I stay as far away as I possibly can from fast food restaurants and grocery store grilled chicken.  However, on occassion, I do have to eat in restaurants.  Every time I do, I’ve noticed that I don’t feel well afterwards – especially from hotel restaurant dinners, no matter how expensive they might be.  

This is not to say that the food gives me food poisoning (although that has happened – but that’s much more “violent” and obvious).

I just experience a certain malaise with bloating, heaviness, discomfort, mild headache, grogginess, excessive thirst, digestive disturbances and the sorts of things one would associate with an overload of chemicals or additives in the system.

I’ve spoken to several different hotel managements about it, and they adamantly assure me that their food has no additives.

Then I ran across a new study, “Study finds hidden phosphorous in fast food” that reports that researchers have just discovered that, “It has become an increasingly common practice by food manufacturers to include phosphate salts to processed foods.”  These additives can be extremely harmful for people with advanced kidney disease.

These additives are used to enhance flavor and shelf life — particularly in meats (even in meats you would not think need additives like chicken and steak), cheeses, baked goods, and beverages — and it is very hard for consumers to know whether or not these additives are present in products.

High blood levels of phosphorus can lead to heart disease, bone disease, and even death among patients with advanced kidney disease.  I don’t have advanced kidney disease, yet I do suffer from the phosphorus additives. And even without kidney disease, I FEEL THE ILL EFFECTS of the additives. It takes me a long time to get this stuff out of my system after the fact.

I realise that I’m more sensitive than others to food additives, chemicals and the like.  But that doesn’t mean that if you’re not sensitive it’s not affecting you – it is, you just don’t feel it.

So far, no one is saying the practice of adding phosphorus additives to food should stop.  At least the investigators are recommending mandating listing phosphorus content on food labels.  But the best advice is to avoid junk food and fast food restaurants altogether.

Sometimes travel can not be avoided.  The only solution I’ve found for myself is to try to only stay in hotels with refridgerators in the room and bring enough wholesome food to last through my stay – but that can’t always be done.

So I at least try to minimize restaurant meals and balance those meals with organic produce whenever I travel.  Then I flush my system well with lots of pure water and do some sort of cleanse when I get home.

A friend of mine was recently shocked when she smelled a fruity and distinctly artificial fragrance from her new bar of Ivory soap. I recognized the scent immediately. It’s a common scent found in many personal care products today. I can only describe it as “Cherry Puke.”

A quick look at the package turned up the phrase “just a little scent” and fragrance/parfum in the ingredients list. What happened to Ivory being “pure?”

This particular package of soap was packaged for sale in Canada. I don’t know if they are selling the same formula in the U.S., but I would guess they are – or something similar. Proctor and Gamble probably feels they can’t compete with all the other soaps on the market that are scented.

And the truth is, the olfactory glands of the average American are so plugged they can’t smell anything unless hit over the head with a “fragrance” sledge-hammer.

How many hits of the “fragrance” sledge-hammer will it take to knock them down?

How long will it take people to figure out that many of their illnesses, poor memory, alzheimers symptoms, etc…are caused by toxic artificial fragrances?

How long will it take them to stop buying this destructive puke?

Could be a long time. The more artificial fragrance they smell, the duller their brain gets and the less they can reason or figure things out.

Researchers are now discovering that public water supplies and waterways in India, where many pharmaceutical drugs are made, are being poisoned by the dumping of pharmaceutical chemicals.

Mike Adams, of NaturalNews reports:

Many of the pharmaceuticals consumed in the United States are made in India, where labor is cheap and environmental laws are lenient on powerful corporations. U.S. drug companies are exploiting this situation to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses of high-profit pharmaceuticals in India, where ingredients purchased for a few cents can be re-sold to U.S. health patients for hundreds of dollars (the markup on some drugs is literally over 500,000%).

…Big Pharma’s manufacturing facilities dump millions of doses of toxic pharmaceutical chemicals directly into India’s waterways.

Researchers were recently stunned to discover that 100 pounds of a powerful antibiotic called ciprofloxacin was being dumped into a local stream every day! That’s a quantity of antibiotics that could treat an entire city of 90,000 people every day.

All in all, the Associated Press reports that same waterway contained an astonishing 21 pharmaceutical chemicals – some reaching levels 150 times the highest levels of contamination found in U.S. waterways.

Note, the levels found in U.S. water were ALREADY quite alarming. Plus, it was found that the public water supplies are contaminated with pharmaceutical chemicals in virtually ALL U.S. cities tested.

Besides poisoning the ecosystem and food supply, these toxins eventually either land in the drinking water supply, or poison the drinking water to the degree that it is undrinkable.

As a society and world population, we need to open our eyes to the disturbing realization that the pharmaceutical industry is a global corporate polluter quietly dumping toxic chemicals into the world’s waterways.

And we thought manufacturers were the worst polluters.

How can we allow this? And what can we do about it?

In a raid last week, Port Organic Products Ltd. of Bakersfield, a major producer of fertilizer for California’s organic farmers, was searched. It is estimated they produced up to half of the liquid fertilizer used on California’s organic farms recently.

“Kern County records dating back to 2005 show Port Organic has stocked thousands of gallons of aqua ammonia, a common source of synthetic nitrogen.”

“The company’s fertilizers were ostensibly made from ground-up fish carcasses. But documents obtained by The Bee show that California Department of Food and Agriculture officials suspected the company of using synthetic nitrogen back in October 2007.”

“Port Organic is the latest in a series of fertilizer makers to be accused of passing off chemical fertilizers as organic.”

Why do they do it? It’s cheaper… and they’ve been able to get away with it for quite a while. “…synthetic nitrogen is as much as 20 times cheaper than approved nutrient sources such as ground-up fish and chicken feathers.” And it’s very difficult to detect with standard laboratory analyses.

Think this problem is limited to California? Doubtful. If it’s happening in California, it’s happening in other states. Not only that, but some of the spiked organic fertilizer is sold to other states. And food grown in California ends up on grocery shelves throughout the country.

The government has been allowing the industry to police itself – a practice that must have been taken from the “allowing the fox to guard the henhouse” model!

A Senate hearing will be held on Feb. 3 to look into the Department of Food and Agriculture’s slow responses. Maybe in a few years, they’ll come up with a solution… but then again, maybe not.

In the meantime, grow as much as you can yourself or find organic farmers at local farmer’s markets and visit their farms to see how they run their farms (I’ve done that a few times).

We have local llama and ostrich farms that practically give away as much poop farmers or home gardeners can shovel into a truck. Chicken manure is also great if the chickens are free range and eat naturally. Horse and cow manure has to sit a season before use or it will burn your plants.

Generally speaking, chicken and ostrich manure, bat guana or llama or rabbit poop is prefered to horse or cow manure.

Read full Sacramento Bee article: “Federal raid heightens concerns about fake organic fertilizer”

In the article entitled, “Organic Farms Unknowingly Used A Synthetic Fertilizer” by Jim Downing, the Sacramento Bee reports:“For up to seven years, California Liquid Fertilizer sold what seemed to be an organic farmer’s dream, brewed from fish and chicken feathers.

The company’s fertilizer was effective, inexpensive and approved by organic regulators. By 2006, it held as much as a third of the market in California.

But a state investigation caught the Salinas-area company spiking its product with ammonium sulfate, a synthetic fertilizer banned from organic farms.”

That meant that much of California’s 2006 harvest of what was supposed to be organic fruits, nuts and vegetables wasn’t organic at all.  The fertilizer went to some of the biggest farms, including Earthbound Farm.
 
Although the Sacramento Bee notified the California Department of Food and Agriculture as early as June 2004 of their findings, the company wasn’t ordered to remove it’s counterfeit product from the organic market until January of 2007.

Hmm, it doesn’t seem like the California Department of Food and Agriculture is terribly interested in organic food violations….

Read full article: 
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1501772.html

How many other organic farms are using synthetic fertilizer that’s falsely labeled organic?  How much has landed on your table?

The difference in this study is that the researchers included ALL screen time as well as general sedentary time.  They included text messaging, reading, homework and even sedentary hobbies in their results.  Most previous studies only included playing computer games and watching TV.

They found that a child’s level of aerobic fitness is strongly associated with their level of ’small screen time’ and overall sedentary behavior.

Interestingly, girl’s fitness was more likely to drop with sedentary behavior vs older boys, who were less affected.

The researchers recommend that children swap excess ’sitting time’ for ’active time’ and limit their total time in front of a screen to less than two hours a day in order to maintain fitness levels.   Even better would be establishing “No screen days” when no computer screens or TVs can be watched (perhaps on school days).

In 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued guidelines which suggested a two hour limit of sedentary behavior for children.  The AAP were based on expert opinion. These recent findings mark the first physiological evidence supporting the AAP guidelines.

Additional Reasons For Limiting TV And Computer Time

In the Winter 2008 issue of Natural Health and Vegetarian Life, naturopath Linda Maher lists seven additional reasons for restricting children’s television viewing time:

• Television inhibits visual development
• Television retards brain development
• Television retards the development of muscles
• Television encourages the overproduction of alpha brain waves (passive state)
• Television has been linked with childhood obesity
• Along with computers and videos, television encourages difficulty in adjusting to the routine and structure of school life and the learning process
• Television can cause difficulties in interpersonal relationships, both within and outside the family.

Surprisingly, research says it happens.

While flipping through some medical literature, Bryan Hubbard from the newsletter, “What Doctors Don’t Tell You,” discovered an astonishing statistic – that 22 per cent of all breast cancer goes away by itself.

This flies against conventional beliefs which claim cancer to be a death sentence if left to its own devices.

Intrigued, Bryan continued looking and discovered that many of the serious cancers that claim hundreds of lives every year actually go away on their own a fair percentage of the time.

What could account for this? Was there a common denominator between the people whose cancer went away?

Turns out there was. It’s one of the most basic healing mechanisms in our body – fever.

At some point during the course of their illness, the cancer patients suffered a serious infection. This raised their body temperature for a prolonged period of time. After the illness had run its course, their body temperature returned to normal. Surprisingly, the cancer was also gone – it had literally been burned away.

Could one of the reasons cancer rates are rising be because people are so quick to take antibiotics when they get the slightest infection and rise in fever? And anti-inflammatories for any discomfort?

In the old days, doctors understood the value of body heat and the role of fever. It was to burn off toxins and restore balance – to return the body to health.

Nowadays, we are told fever is dangerous and we need to take something strong to fight it. But are we really getting healthy in the long term?

A while back I came across a new study that showed fever was not dangerous if there was adequate hydration. The only threat was dehydration. It urged people to be sure to drink plenty of fluids during a fever or to support the fever with IV fluids if liquids can’t be swallowed.

While there are times when strong medications are life-saving, they have been so overused in Western medicine that too many people are denying their body’s natural defenses to disease.

Natural defenses are like muscles – they need to be used to remain useful. We all know we need to exercise to keep our body fit and healthy. Unused muscles atrophy. When fever is constantly suppressed, could our body’s ability to burn off toxins also atrophy?

If so, it may be that when doctors feverishly write prescriptions for antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, the only thing that stays healthy are the pharmaceutical industry’s finances.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink our bodies natural defenses and how they apply to breast cancer.

     Smelled any skunks in your            neighborhood lately?

Last night, just before I was about to go to bed, the faint odor of skunk wafted past my nose. It didn’t really register for a few minutes, because I thought my windows were all closed. But as the odor increased, I wondered if I had forgotten to shut a window.

Sure enough, the bedroom window was open just a crack. “Could that really be a skunk or am I just imagining it,” I thought. So I opened the window half way to get a better whiff.

And better whiff I certainly got! A horrid stench blasted my face and smelled up the entire room!

And I have to sleep in this! What am I going to do?

Too tired to get the diffuser, I pulled out my little bottle of Thieves spray and gave the room two squirts. Wow, the skunk smell was all gone! Just 2 squirts is all it took to totally clear the air. Thieves Spray is normally used on surfaces such as doorknobs, kitchen and bathroom counters for dust, mold, and undesirable microorganisms. But turns out, it also works exceptionally well spritzed in the air for natural skunk odor removal.