U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told USA Today that the wireless radiation from cellphones, cell towers and other wireless infrastructure is a “major health concern.”

Kennedy spoke with USA Today on Jan. 16, one day after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a new study into the health effects of cellphone radiation — a step that advocates say could reflect a major shift in federal policy.

The same day HHS launched the study, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under Kennedy’s direction scrubbed old webpages stating that cellphones aren’t dangerous.

Kennedy said he was “very concerned” about the negative health impacts of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), a term that encompasses both radiofrequency (RF) radiation and electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

According to Kennedy, there are “literally over 10,000 studies” on EMR documenting “ill effects, including cancer tumor growth.”

Miriam Eckenfels, director of Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) EMR & Wireless Program, said she was “excited” to hear Kennedy publicly address EMR’s health impacts.

“The time is right,” she said. “Although scientific evidence keeps piling up, the Federal Communications Commission is moving forward aggressively with its proposed rulemaking to strip local communities’ control over where cell towers are placed.”

Congress has proposed legislation that would do the same thing, Eckenfels said. “Many communities are faced with proposed cell towers where they least want them.”

Thousands of studies document harm from wireless radiation

Kennedy, who previously was accused of exaggerating, did not cite a source for his assertion that more than 10,000 studies show harmful effects from wireless radiation.

However, online compilations show there are at least thousands of peer-reviewed studies attesting to the harms from wireless radiation.

For instance, a recent compilation by Henry Lai, Ph.D., shows there have been over 2,500 peer-reviewed studies published since 1990 that found significant adverse effects from EMF exposure.

Lai, a professor emeritus of bioengineering at the University of Washington, has been studying and compiling research on EMR for over two decades. For years, Lai’s updated compilations appeared on the BioInitative website. Now they are housed on SaferEMR.com, run by Joel Moskowitz, Ph.D., a public health professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The EMF-Portal, run by the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, lists roughly 48,850 publications related to EMFs and summarizes around 7,000 of those studies.

Some are about the possible therapeutic uses of certain kinds of wireless radiation. For example, one paper discusses how electroconvulsive therapy can be used to treat depression.

But many show negative health effects, according to W. Scott McCollough, lead litigator for CHD’s EMR & Wireless cases.

“More than half report significant effects, although there are — as usual — differences of opinion on the quality of the research conclusions.”

The U.S. military has a long history of studying wireless radiation. In 1971, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute issued a report that reviewed 2,311 scientific studies that, together, linked EMFs to 132 different biological effects, symptoms and diseases.

By analyzing the Navy’s report, researchers Richard Lear and Camilla Rees showed that 23 of the top 36 fastest growing chronic illnesses were conditions identified in the report as being linked to EMFs, yet federal regulators did nothing to protect the public.  “I am delighted to see HHS will investigate the biological and health effects of wireless radiation,” Rees told The Defender.

Independent scientists: There’s ‘no assurance’ of wireless radiation’s safety

In USA Today’s report of its interview with Kennedy, the media outlet cited a 2024 systematic review commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO). The review, which analyzed 63 studies on cellphones and cancer, claimed to find no link between cellphone use and cancer.

The study was one of 12 WHO-backed systematic reviews on the possible health effects of RF radiation.

However, USA Today failed to mention that in October 2025, independent scientists with the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF) pushed back against the WHO reviews.

The scientists published a peer-reviewed report in which they argued that the WHO’s reviews provided “no assurance of safety.”

ICBE-EMF is a “consortium of scientists, doctors and related professionals” who study wireless radiation and recommend wireless radiation exposure guidelines “based on the best peer-reviewed scientific research publications.”

“The WHO-commissioned systematic reviews are simply inadequate to conclude that wireless radiation is safe,” ICBE-EMF Chairperson John Frank, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh and professor emeritus of public health at the University of Toronto, said in a press release.

It would “mislead the public” to present the WHO’s reviews as evidence that current wireless radiation exposure guidelines are safe, Frank said.

Most of the WHO reviews had “significant flaws” — including methodological problems and bias concerns — that undermined their conclusions about the safety of RF radiation, ICBE-EMF said.

The group said that, despite the flaws, one of the WHO reviews showed RF radiation exposure reduced men’s fertility, while another linked cellphone radiation exposure to two types of cancer in animals.

ICBE-EMF published a supplemental document alongside its report detailing examples of the WHO review authors’ ties to the wireless industry.

Will new HHS study lead to regulatory change?

It’s still unclear if Kennedy’s willingness to speak out about wireless radiation and the new HHS study on cellphone radiation risks will result in meaningful regulatory change.

“More research is not the answer,” wrote Theodora Scarato, director of the Wireless and EMF Program at Environmental Health Sciences, in a statement. “The existing scientific evidence and court rulings already require immediate policy action. Safety guidelines must be updated to reflect today’s continuous, real-world exposures, and enforceable safeguards must be put in place now to protect children.”

HHS could and should require cellphones to have labels that clearly disclose the amount of wireless radiation users are exposed to, she said.

Cellphones should have “prominent black box warnings” for especially vulnerable populations, including children, pregnant women, and people with medical implants or electronic medical devices such as a pacemaker.

McCollough agreed that regulatory change needs to happen. But he said the government’s new study could be a step in that direction. “We know wireless exposure leads to harm, but there are still knowledge gaps.”

The scientific and medical communities have, for a long time, outlined areas that need more research. For instance, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in a 2008 report, identified a slew of topics related to wireless radiation that need to be studied. The topics include how wireless radiation is affecting young children, fetuses and pregnant women.

“HHS is well aware of what must be done regarding the science,” McCollough said. “But the change has to start with the FCC and it needs to start now.”

According to McCollough:

“The FCC must acknowledge that its current RF exposure guidelines are not biologically based and commit to establishing sound, science-based maximum exposure levels.

“It also needs to finally recognize that there are many people that have already been sickened, and even died, from exposure-related conditions and give them some means to avoid the kind of involuntary exposure that arises from cell towers and other sources in public spaces.”

Mona Nilsson, co-founder and director of the Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation — who has studied the telecom industry’s influence on EMR research — told The Defender she hopes the HHS study will prioritize “the well-being and protection of children and the general public” more than the wireless industry.

Lennart Hardell, M.D., Ph.D., agreed. “Industry-affiliated people, including researchers, have for a long time undermined and ignored scientific evidence on health hazards from RF radiation.”

Blair Levin, policy analyst at New Street Research and former FCC chief of staff, said it was unlikely that efforts by HHS would translate into federal policy changes, Broadband Breakfast reported.

Levin wrote in a statement, “Given the scientific evidence to date, if HHS attempts to force the wireless industry to adopt costly changes to their current operations, we do not see it as likely that the courts will uphold such HHS regulation.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics has not updated its advice on cellphone radiation in nearly a decade — and a link on the group’s parenting advice webpage lists AT&T as one of its corporate sponsors.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-tells-usa-today-wireless-radiation-major-health-concern/

By Brian Shilhavy

This is how we defeat the Technocrats – don’t use their products! It really is that simple…

From Al.com (https://www.al.com/business/2026/01/amazon-shuts-down-payment-method.html):

You know those little screens at Whole Foods checkouts where you can pay by just scanning your palm, like tech from science fiction or a spy movie?

The service is called Amazon One. And it’s going away.

According to tech news site GeekWire, Amazon, the online retail juggernaut that owns Whole Foods Market, will remove Amazon One palm readers from all Whole Foods locations by June 3, per a support page at amazonone.aws.com.

“In response to limited customer adoption, we’re discontinuing Amazon One, our authentication service for facility access and payment,” an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire.

“All customer data associated with Amazon One will be securely deleted after the service ends.”

Amazon One palm readers debuted in 2020. According to Grocery Dive, they were first introduced at a couple Seattle locations of Amazon Go, before rolling out to hundreds of Whole Foods locations, and eventually other Amazon properties including Panera Bread chain restaurants

Amazon One palm readers have also been used in sports stadiums and arenas, including those hosting some NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL teams.

In September 2021, concert promoter AEG announced plans to use Amazon One tech at iconic Colorado venue Reds Rocks Amphitheatre for ticketless entry.

But those plans were later scrapped, after protests from hundreds of musicians, including Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Spearheaded by advocacy group Fight for the Future, the anti-Amazon One ticketless entry campaign claimed, “the spread of biometric surveillance tools like palm scans and facial recognition [transforms venues] into hotspots for ICE raids, false arrests, police harassment, and stolen identities.”

[…]

Via https://t.me/healthimpact/3004

Episode 3 – Arabian Nights Caliph: Harun al-Rashid

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Earmon devotes this lecture to the life of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid caliph depicted in the legendary Arabian Nights (1001 Nights).

Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph, was born in 766 AD near Tehran. His mother was a former slave from Yemen and his father Mohammad al-Madi, the third caliph of the Abbasid caliphate. Al-Rashid’s great uncle al-Safāh (from Bactria in Afghanistan) led the revolt against the Umayyad caliphate in 747 (see The Emergence of Islamic Culture) and served as the first Abbasid caliph. Al-Safāh was succeeded by al-Rashid’s grandfather al-Mansour, who was succeeded by al-Madi, who was succeeded by al-Rashid’s brother al-Hadi. At age 21, al-Rashid became caliph after al-Hadi died under mysterious circumstances.

Under al-Rashid’s reign, Baghdad had a population between 800,000 and 1 million, the largest city outside China. Despite the caliphate’s growing territorial control and wealth, al-Rashid was very concerned it lagged culturally behind Persia, China and Byzantium. He especially admired Persian culture and surrounded himself with Persian advisors.

He also established Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, home to a major translation, movement employing scholars fluent in Greek, Persian, Chinese Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, Assyrian and Syriac to translate classical literature. Al-Rashid engaged other scholars to engage in research in astronomy, astrology, medicine, physics,  mathematics and metallurgy, as well as  Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian to translate religious texts. The researchers developed methods to accurately measure the earth’s circumference, as well as track the calendar dates and time.

The Umayyad dynasty had imported paper making technology from China, and the House of Wisdom produced all manner of algebra, geometry and trigonometry texts, star tables and almanacs (to predict eclipses).

Baghdad’s private sector (wealthy merchants and military leaders) also hired scholars to engage in translation and research.

Al-Rashid experienced numerous revolts during his 23 year reign. In 798 AD the Idrisid dynasty in Morocco broke away from the Abbasid caliphate and in 799 AD the Ahglabid dynasty in Tunisia also achieved independence.

In 798 Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor sent a diplomatic mission to Baghdad seeking leverage against the Byzantine empire and the Umayyads (in exile in Spain). In 801 and 803 Harun al-Rashid sent delegations to Charlemagne in Aachen (now part of Germany) with numerous lavish gifts, including an elephant and water-powered clock (it would be nearly 500 years before Europeans developed mechanical clocks). A formal alliance between the two never came to pass.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/575699