Letter to the Editor - The Lakeville Journal – 4-4-19

True dangers of fiber broadband

We write to augment B. Blake Levitt’s column (“Fiber broadband, seen as a complex Trojan horse,” March 21 issue) regarding potential human/wildlife effects from fiber broadband.

As medical practitioners, we see patients affected by technology, typically radiofrequency radiation (RF) used in wireless wifi, domestic cordless and cell phones, cell towers and others. Patients experience headaches, cardiac arrhythmias, sleeplessness, rashes, muscle weakness, reduced fertility, agitation, emotional lability, concentration and memory problems (“brainfog”). Children are particularly vulnerable. There are no easy roads back after sensitization. A Google search for the BioInitiative Report reveals much research not factored into FCC exposure standards, nor even known by most health practitioners.

Towns formalizing fiber into new plans of conservation and development (POCD’s) invite a massive new infrastructure bringing small cell antennas mounted on utility poles right outside people’s doors. That language can also weaken town standing to challenge such networks. Big telecoms prefer their own systems. We may get duplicate commercial networks via AT&T and Verizon mounting their own fiber/small cells, creating overlapping exposures. Residents will pay for fiber infrastructure and telecom competition will leave towns with stranded municipal fiber assets. 

In Cornwall, mini-small cell transmitters have recently been attached to Optimum’s cable-TV lines for U.S. Sprint along Route 4, through town and Coltsfoot Valley. RF now transmits 24/7 close to houses whether one is signed up for service or not. (See small white boxes strung directly on coaxial cable and panel antennas on utility poles.) Small cells are being fought all over the country. Some California and Oregon communities outlawed them, due in part to a recent National Toxicology report on low-intensity RF showing DNA damage and significant increases in cancers, including glioblastomas in the brain and schwannomas in the heart of  male rats. European Research backed these findings. 

Strict fiber optic lines to-the-home barely exist now, having largely been demoted to “backhaul” mobile connectivity for “smart” 4G/5G iPhones. COG’s and Northwest ConneCT’s plan includes a strong mobile wireless component. Still, the best highspeed connectivity remains a 100 percent wired network with no mobile exterior wireless component — something we now have with cable TV service. (Indoor wireless wifi routers, a personal choice, can be turned off when not in use — better yet are Ethernet connections inside.) 

Wired systems are faster, safer, more secure, and without ambient RF exposures. Estimates show at least 70 to 75 percent of commercial cable-TV was completed throughout Litchfield County. Anyone lacking high-speed connectivity needs attention. Towns could demand our state reps pass legislation requiring that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority insist cable providers leave no home unwired as contracted years ago.

We appreciate that P&Z’s cannot arbitrate medically complex subjects but that never excuses a P&Z from understanding important issues needed to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents. Potentially unsafe infrastructure should not be deferred to partially informed outside advisors. All towns should take care in new POCD’s to protect town rights. Best just leave fiber language out.

Meg McMorrow, MS

Bradford Harding, MD

Cornwall

Yogi Berra, John McCain’s funeral and President Trump’s reaction

Yogi Berra said,  “If you don’t go to people’s funerals, they won’t go to yours.”

Our Dear Leader President, Beloved of Kim and Vladie the Impaler and the Crown Prince MSB (Master of Saw Bones), Beloved by Jared and Ivanka, You, J and Iv, of the Most Secret Security Clearance Without Any Qualifications, you most illiterate over-privileged, Jared getting into Harvard with no qualifications but his jailhouse papa’s illicit cash.

Welcome to the orange jumpsuits.

And Our Dear Leader President,  the only people who will go to your funeral will be the Absolute Toadys, starting with Lindsey Graham, Sycophant Graham who desecrates his “Best Friend’s” grave over and over.  Do you know the phrase “Do You Have No Shame?”  Guess not.

Senator John McCain’s daughter said it best, I am paraphrasing:  No one will ever love you as we loved our father.

Lonnie Carter

Falls Village