Recorded on: March 13, 2015
Air Date: March 16th, 2015
Some ongoing concerns among community members center on cell tower locations, mobile telephones, digital “smart meters,” wi-fi in homes, schools, and even some new autos. Emissions from the devices range along the microwave electromagnetic spectrum bands between radio waves and infrared light. The issue is whether increased exposure to those devices have an impact on people’s health.
Mainstream science has neither proposed a causative mechanism nor demonstrated correlations between microwaves at common levels and health symptoms. Yet some people describe a hypersensitivity to microwaves. Two questions to be debated: Are objections to the placement of devices are a triumph of emotion over science? In the absence of sufficient evidence, should policy be based on an abundance of caution?
Eugene physician Paul Dart earned his MD at Mayo Medical School (Rochester, MN) in 1984. His full-time practice in Eugene offers allergy and environmental medicine. He has spoken to EWEB and legislative committees on the hazards to humans of increased microwave exposure.
Professor Davison Soper taught physics at the University of Oregon from 1977 to 2013. The Register-Guard recently published his op-ed citing a lack of scientific evidence for health concerns.
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