Last fall, a group of parents and kids from Elk Meadow Elementary School stormed Bend City Hall for weeks, demanding the City stop Verizon Wireless from building a cell tower next to the school. Verizon built the tower anyway, and Bend City Council said cell tower infrastructure is under federal jurisdiction, so there’s not much it can do.
Now, a new group of Bend activists want to ban 5G cell towers altogether. They’ve written nearly 100 letters to the City Council, and this week, they plan to blanket the town with posters and fliers touting the what they say are the dangers of this new technology.
For Katrina Rose, 39, the anti-5G movement is her first foray into political activism. For years she helped manage Sol Alchemy, a yoga studio and gathering spot for people within the interlacing circles of Bend’s yoga community.
“I’m electro-sensitive, I’ve never held a cell phone to my ear,” she said. “I can’t go into some local businesses because of their proximity to cell phone towers. If I’m near a tower for a long time, I feel sick.”
Rose has wrapped her house in southeast Bend in magnetic hematite, which grounds the radiation and Wi-Fi frequencies coming from her neighbor’s house.
“In the past, people haven’t been super receptive [to learning about the potential danger of 5G], perhaps because they’re not hyper sensitive to it, but we’re in a new era [with the coronavirus] where people are super concerned about their health and safety,” Rose said as she handed out fliers and posters during an anti-5G promotional event in late May.
5G infrastructure has also gained attention lately in connection with a conspiracy theory that it causes the coronavirus. In the United Kingdom, dozens of mobile towers were burned in protest, according to The New York Times.
What is 5G?
5G is the next generation of mobile wireless communication and it will enable the connectivity required for self-driving cars and light-speed internet transmission. Unlike present-day cell towers, which are usually large and obvious, 5G infrastructure will require companies such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile to install hundreds, if not thousands, of small antennas low to the ground throughout residential neighborhoods and business districts in Bend.
5G emits smaller waves than 4G, and many more of them. These waves don’t travel as far, and thus require at least one mini tower per city block, or one tower for every two to eight houses, Rose said.
Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, cell phones and cell towers all emit electromagnetic fields, or EMFs. More than 2,000 scientific papers—published by biophysicists and physicians from Harvard Medical School to Johns Hopkins—document findings that EMFs are harmful and can cause cancer, immune suppression, infertility and a range of cognitive disorders.
Getting the message out
Rose is used to taking a leadership role: I met her at the Essential Light Institute, a nondescript room across from Safeway on SW Century Drive in Bend where she prepares to lead a group of musicians and singers through a weekly Kirtan (devotional chanting) group. Her hair is about a centimeter long with a braided pony tail dangling off to the side and a quick, bright smile.
Before the song group, she hands out posters and talks directly to people in the community who are interested in banning 5G from Bend. She’s as quick to rattle off scientific citations about the health dangers of 5G as she is to describe the semi-conspiratorial repercussions of a 5G-enabled surveillance state and the “corporate, anti-human agenda” of telecommunications monoliths like Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
Rose knows the political tides are not flowing in her favor and has crafted a list of many of the arguments these companies will use to plow over small anti-5G insurgencies popping up throughout the U.S.
For one, Americans want fast internet—a desire that’s become even more pronounced in the age of coronavirus. According to Verizon Wireless, 5G will ostensibly create millions of jobs over the next 15 years. T-Mobile promotes the idea that this next-level interconnectivity will allow for smart buildings and energy savings down the line.
But the anti-5G movement is gaining momentum throughout the world. City governments from New Hampshire to Hawaii have halted permits for 5G infrastructure until it is proven safe. Meanwhile, the Bend City Council and City Attorney Mary Winters have said the City is powerless to prevent these companies from building cell towers, because it’s the Federal Communications Commission’s jurisdiction. In response to the “Stop Cell Towers at Schools” group in the fall, the City Council did pass a resolution on December 4, 2019. It sent a letter that asked the FCC to research the health risks of 5G towers and to update its investigations on cell phone safety concerns, which the FCC last reported in 2001.
Mayor Sally Russell responded to the Source’s request for comment on May 29:
“Because the issue of whether to allow 5G facilities is an FCC (Federal) issue, as Mayor I have chosen not to focus any further on this issue, nor has a majority on the Bend City Council chosen to make this a priority or a goal,” she wrote.
“All of us at the City of Bend consider our residents’ health as a highest priority, Russell said. “This is why we have taken a good deal of time to research this issue to make sure our decision is a responsible one for our community members.”
But Rose wants the City to go further. She said it could pass a resolution that calls on the Oregon State Legislature to establish a commission to investigate the environmental and health risks of 5G.
“They have taken an oath to protect their citizens, the human beings they represent, and to take a stand against corruption,” Rose said.
“It’s about a certain kind of purity of our biofield… the quality of our thoughts, emotions, the food we put into us, the quality of the energy we radiate and take in, all of that effects consciousness,” she said. “We should have the right to choose to align with health if we want to. [The proliferation of] 5G takes that away from us.”
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 3, 2020.
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Sounds like the rantings of the Qanon wackos. There is NO science to support the allegations of these folks.
Seriously!?!? I grew up in Bend. I’m now in Redmond, trying to move further north due to ALL these left wing crazy people. Gooooooo back to where you came from PLEASE.
Mrs. Brauns…. Could you please link the “over 2,000” scientific sources stating that low level EMFs cause adverse health affects?
How about “higher bandwidth internet transmission” instead of “light-speed internet transmission”?
Better Call Saul
Instead of posting links to a small outlet like emfscientist, the author of the article should rely on more established organizations like the WHO.
Conclusions from scientific research
In the area of biological effects and medical applications of non-ionizing radiation approximately 25,000 articles have been published over the past 30 years. Despite the feeling of some people that more research needs to be done, scientific knowledge in this area is now more extensive than for most chemicals. Based on a recent in-depth review of the scientific literature, the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields. However, some gaps in knowledge about biological effects exist and need further research.
https://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html
I agree with Ms Rose. 5G is untested and that is a fact. In Europe, no WIFI is allowed near schools because they are aware of the dangers. It makes me sad that some people are willing to risk our health and our children’s development for faster internet and self driving cars.
Why are commenters bringing politics and rude comments into a public health and safety issue. It portrays you to be very ignorant. This is a very valid health concern if you do your research. There are 5G summits being held with leaders around the world discussing this very thing. I commend Ms. Rose for standing up for what she understands to be a public health and safety concern. At least someone in our community is concerned. Unfortunately the city of Bend will have financial gains to be had with that Verizon Cell tower and they are supposed to be representing and protecting our city and it’s residents and they are not listening.
Authentic science is inherently humble, concerned mostly with what we do not yet know—as opposed to reifying that which we claim is already obvious (e.g., it is obvious to anyone’s eyes that the sun revolves around the earth.)
Industry-driven science is riddled with fudged and suppressed data, and often a central purpose is to ease the way for projects and technologies that are not necessarily compatible with life and health (but stand to make piles of $$.)
It takes unchecked naïveté to refuse to acknowledge these aspects of “science” in a corporate-controlled society based on capitalism and profits.
Here is a short list of things “science” has assured us of since the 1950s:
1. Expectant mothers don’t need to suffer morning sickness. They can simply take the new wonder drug, Thalidomide.
2. All saturated fats are horrible for your health, but bodies need refined sugars.
3. Nuclear power is safe, cheap and clean.
4. Doctors prefer to smoke “mild” and filter-tip cigarettes.
5. DDT and other laboratory pesticides assure that we have a plentiful and safe food supply.
6. You need the right-fitting shoes for foot health, and the best way to get that is to use a live X-ray screen (flouroscope.) Your kids will thank you!
7. Every woman should start getting annual mammograms when they reach their thirties, and there is no concern about the radiation levels involved.
8. Plastic drinkware is great for hot liquids, and you can’t break it! No more silly glass baby bottles either.
9. Food science has brought miracles to our lives. Manufactured infant formulas are superior in many ways to mothers’ milk. Preservatives and colorings are all perfectly safe for us.
10. Complete eradication of offending microbes, insect pests, unwanted plant growth etc. are in our best interests, and easily done through the innovations of science. Better living through chemistry! “Ecology” is a whacko left-wing concept designed to curtail our scientific advancement.
Add your own to the list; it’s endless. Decently-done science is not infected by hubris. Most current “science,” however, is driven by vested funding.
I have no idea at this point about the ultimate safety or wisdom of rolling out ubiquitous EMF-generating systems like 5G. And neither should you. The data isn’t in, and what we do have has been gate-kept by vested interests.
It is, however, always in Our best interests to remain dubious about any proffered technology that could conceivably mess with our cellular health, our genetics, and our all-around biological functioning.
It would be helpful if you could provide some balance in your report. Both links in your report “More than 2,000 scientific papers—published by biophysicists and physicians from Harvard Medical School to Johns Hopkins” direct you to a website EMFScientist.org. I started clicking through the links for the “2,000 scientific papers” and found that many were articles from papers referring back to a handful of studies.
One common study referenced by many of the articles studied rats that were exposed to cell phone RF (a cell phone next to your head – which is significantly more RF than you will ever get from a cell tower). In the study, the male rats were “more likely” to get brain cancer. Strangely the female rats showed no increase in risk to get cancer – and the rats exposed to the RF lived longer than the rats that were not.
One common thing in many of the articles and papers is that they all qualify their results to say something like the study – suggests it’s possible, but not certain, that electromagnetic-field activity might be harmful.
We have been surrounded by RF for many years now. If there was going to be a huge spike in brain cancers we would have seen it by now.
Being crazy has nothing to do with left wing. That is like saying QAnon is left wing. Sometimes Crazy is just Crazy. As in this case.
Over a hundred years ago, the robber barrons were the railroad, steel, coal, and energy tycoons…today they are the same…just different industries; Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Alphabet, and others. Same mission; subvert rules to their own ends. As scripture states, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Will the Source Weekly be doing a follow-on article that seeks responses for the claims made? It would be interesting to hear why Verizon chose not to move the tower 90-feet (which was the issue brought before the City) away from where it was constructed near the school. It would be interesting to have the similarities and differences between 4G and 5G explained (both that these are marketing terms, as well as the underlying technologies utilized by these terms) so businesses, consumers and city leaders could interpret the change in risk to people’s health. It would be interesting to have the technology providers developing equipment and software, the government regulators that are testing and certifying equipment and software and the mobile network operators deploying the certified, tested equipment and software explain their plans for ensuring human exposure and medical data are assessed at regular intervals (perhaps using universities so as to remove concerns over commercial or gov’t bias?). I look forward to hearing what the Source Weekly plans are in support of keeping citizens informed.
Know what else produces EMF’s? Everything and anything that has an electrical current! Might as well create your own city away from civilization and create a society where everyone has a tinfoil hat.
Thank you all for your comments on this article. Some of you brought up the need for more balance in the story. We have contacted representatives for Verizon Wireless specifically for past articles and will continue to follow up with them until we hear back about 5G. We will also reach out to T-Mobile and AT&T. All three companies provide service in Central Oregon and will be a part of the plan to install this new infrastructure here.
Some of you also mentioned the desire for more research outside of http://EMFscientists.org. The scientists listed on that site have collectively published more than 2,000 reports, but not all of them are available on that site. That site has the intent of demonstrating those scientists stand behind the need for more EMF research. Most scientists who have signed the letter have other peer-reviewed journal articles which you can find using Google Scholar. Digging deeper into this research reveals it goes beyond rats. https://bioinitiative.org/
As with anything related to science and human health, the truth may lie somewhere on the spectrum. It is the duty of journalists to explore these topics and help to start a healthy public debate, and probe both corporations and scientists to defend or revise their positions based on peer-reviewed studies. Because the science of the topic is quite dense, I chose to focus more on the movement itself and reasons behind it, rather than the specific scientific action of how and why EMFs might be harmful.
A common demand that many cities and activist groups have made to these companies is to provide scientific evidence that EMFs do not cause harm to human health. The companies themselves are currently working on this. Paul Bacon, who heads the “Stop Cell Towers at Schools” group in Bend is working directly with a radio frequency exposure expert hired by Verizon to defend its proposal to place a cell tower near another school in Bend on Butler Market Road. Bacon has asked this representative to refute his collection of peer-reviewed studies demonstrating RFs are harmful. The Source will provide an update when Verizon responds.
What the article fails to mention is all the city CAN do to slow the roll of 5G. They have every bit of legal information they need to proceed cautiously in the community’s benefit but they chose not to. I furnished the Source with a report I gave the City modeled after those used in many other communities in the US to make sure our public right away is protected and our interests as citizens are assured. Nothing but nothing has been done to follow the suggestions. Too bad. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
This article is LIT! 🔥 So funny how many folks still believe myths that have long been debunked such as cell phones, transmitters, and towers are 100% safe 🤣 and that dirty technology producing harmful electromagnetic frequencies is the only way to technologically advance. You people crack me up. The possibilities for technology that is safe, elegant, and in harmony with nature are actually abundant. They have been suppressed. I can just imagine you conspiracy nuts sitting with your tin foil hats chanting mantras like, my cell phone provider cares about me. They wouldn’t do something harmful to my health to make more 💵. Keep me asleep. 😴 The truth would be too scary. I pray to the divine spirit in the aluminum. 🙏🏻 Keep out the voices of intelligent, healthy, awake humans. Big corporations and big government are my surrogate parents who love me.💘 Central Oregon should be known for its fast internet speeds, not its nature and recreation opportunities. Screw nature! Give me virtual reality, baby!!! Someday I hope to upload my consciousness into some machine so I can be immortal!!! Give my ego eternity or give me death. These blue pills just keep me feeling so safe and intimate with the real world: whatever my screen tells me. Well my friend rocking back and forth with a tin foil hat, you can try to escape reality but the truth will catch up with you sooner or later. Dream on, friend. Dream on.
LOL so this is “journalism”? I hardly have a dog in the fight here, but how is a yoga teacher or Luarel Brauns even remotely qualified to make these claims? This is some flat Earth level of stupidity here.
Do large corporations have an incentive to push through technology that could be harmful to the public in order to make a buck in the short term? Absolutely!
Does the internet research of two uneducated buffoons amount to an indictment that 5G is evil? God, this country has become stupid.
THIS ARTICLE IS FALSE ABOUT MANY THINGS. FIRST OFF THESE HUGE 5G CONSTRUCTS OF BEING BUILT ON TOP OF RESIDENTIAL HOMES. SECONDLY THE RADIATION COMING OFF OF THESE TOWERS OR FIVE TIMES HIGHER THAN 4 G. THEY ARE VIDEOS WHERE THE RADIATION HAVE BEEN MEASURED AND IT HAS REACHED UP OVER A HUNDRED NEAR THE TOWERS. WE AS HUMANS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EXPOSED TO ANY LEVEL OVER 100. SURPRISINGLY NEAR ALL MOBILE DEVICES THAT WILL BE USING 5G CHECK THE COUNT HAS GONE UP OVER 500. SO STANDING THERE ANY DEVICE THAT IS LOCKED INTO 5G WILL FRY YOU. I HAVE VIDEOS OF THESE 5G CONSTRUCTS ON TOP OF RESIDENTIAL HOMES ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL IRONHEAD GEMSTARR. I ALSO HAVE VIDEOS WHERE I INTERVIEW THE INSTALLERS WHO ADMIT THAT THEY KNOW THAT THIS 5G TECH IS RADIATING PEOPLE. Subscribe to Ironhead gemstarr on YouTube.
While we’re at it, we need to look into this flat-earth stuff. Maybe Bob’s YouTube videos are right.
Just a hypothetical, but if i we’re allergic to cedar pollen, and the town i lived in decided vote and pass a bill to plant cedars all over town, i would move away to town with no cell towers, i mean cedars, instead of challenging everybody else’s freedoms because I have a physical, or “spiritual” anomaly. Be greater than yourself.
I very much appreciate this article and the effort to raise awareness, but I am surprised to see such hateful comments. Why would anyone object to actually wanting safety studies conducted BEFORE the technology is implemented? For those that do want to learn more you might consider watching the5GSummit.com online summit which runs from June 1 to June 9. There are 40+ speakers. In particular the work of Dr. Martin Pall will be highly informative. I also suggest reading the now declassified document “Biological Effects of Millimeter Radiowaves” which specifically addresses the harmful effects of 5G between the 37-60GHz range.
As I read through the comments I am dismayed to see so many dismissive comments, and so much name calling. This article is both intelligent and informative. I know science exists that strongly urges curbing the 5G rollout, or halting it. I am concerned about my kids and their exposure, not to mention the immunodeficient and mentally unstable. I am also concerned for the way this technology will impact us as it blankets every city, and the globe. There is not a place to “go to” as one comment indicated. That’s the purpose for raising the issue. This technology will be everywhere. As a caring mother and advocate, I don’t see any data that has me believing this is wise or beneficial to our community’s health and well being.
I know the interviewee, Rose, to be an educated and passionate scientific mind who is so much more than a “yoga teacher.” Rose is both discerning and dedicated in her exploration of available research to understand the human energy system, and a brilliant practitioner.
When such disregard for another human being is expressed, as in the commentary above, I find myself questioning agenda. This is not a question of crazy or uneducated, for Rose is neither of those. In fact, this is an appeal to counter the under-education of the masses in order to support the future health of our community-and all living beings.This kind of rhetoric has fueled a hate driven homogenous society for far too long. Just look at what is happening in communities all around us because hate and misunderstanding have been given too many free passes to openly judge, belittle and harm those who are diverse in perspective, lifestyle and race.
Many concerned citizens have expressed their frustration that the City continues to rebuff any and all efforts to open an authentic dialogue. More than 100 letters were sent, and a few citizens even received a message saying that their emails were blocked when attempting to share their voices. Community members are feeling underserved by their elected political representatives, so voices are being raised! This is as it should be.
Laurel, I look forward to your follow up pieces. Your voice is strong and clear as a journalist. Thank you for this piece.
In revisiting my above comment, I realize that I mis-spoke. Although I am concerned about the mentally unstable in relationship to 5G, who are prone to depression, anxiety and who tend toward a state of flooding and overwhelm in their systems, it is more accurate to say that I am broadly concerned about the neurologically impaired/vulnerable. The body and all of its systems are wondrous in their operations.
We run electromagnetic currents through our bodies and this is part of the way we communicate between our systems, regulate our well-being, and maintain optimal health. Some community members are less resilient and more vulnerable to sweeping changes and broad spectrum exposure: developing young brains and nervous systems, those who have any form of mental health challenge, those who struggle to self-regulate in a world inundated with information and technology, those who have debilitating neurological disorders, and the elderly whose brains and nervous systems are often already in a state of decline by the time they start showing symptoms. So many of our modern conveniences have been enjoyed without asking crucial questions about their impact. I am equally as responsible for enjoying modern conveniences without pausing to ask what the long term impact will be. I’ve been equally as happy to move into the modernized world and enjoy quick communication and global interconnectedness.
The many conveniences we know during current times have come at sweeping costs to humanity and other life. Sometimes these costs reveal themselves in the erosion of our natural environments, sometimes the cost is the value of human connection in favor of convenience and higher productivity, and sometimes the costs are the furthering of compromising health and vitality in favor of some other modern amenity.
I find it incredibly sensible to be asking the questions that open deeper dialogue. I do not endorse having my home, environment and community saturated in levels of frequency that interrupt bio-energy fields, which are part of all forms of life. I do not consent to raising these levels of frequencies to levels that are higher just because we “all already carry cell phones and are regularly exposing ourselves to harmful EMFs, so why not more?” I do believe that we eventually reach a threshold for how much we are able to challenge the human energy system (because we are made up of energy, as is all life and matter) without taking a pause to realize the inherent dangers in remaining passive and uneducated about what we are being exposed to-willingly or unwillingly.
This is what I hear Rose speaking to. I hear an invitation to begin tuning into this dialogue with curiosity.
I cherish my community and environment. I cherish my health and well-being. I cherish my children, who are resilient and sensitive creatures. In a world with so much challenge on so many levels I feel called to ask what I value and what I’m willing to barter away ( including my voice, health and empowerment) to shape the reality I live in. This is what I hear Rose inviting each of us to explore: What is the reality you choose to live in? What do you value? How do you use your voice in the world around you? What world are you creating? And so many more questions.
What you’re “choosing” to “report” on is a bundle of lies, untruths, out of context “facts,” and straight up misinformation. You don’t get to cherry-pick ideas and try to push something as fact based on the opinions of a “movement.” You (and people like you) are the only ones poisoning the minds of people on this subject. There is NO proof that 5g is harmful, there is NO proof or evidence that it can cause ANY kind of health defect or problem. Get it together, find something REAL to focus on, and stop trying to ruin the future for the rest of us.
I guess I wonder why we need 5G. So hackers and frauds can dupe even more people.? The internet is the biggest swamp and everyone walking around with their heads constantly stuck in their phones are missing the big picture.