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found chromosome defects in astounding numbers. At the higher power
density there were five times as many as in the controls, and even at the
lower intensity the number continued to increase (to 150 percent of the
normal value) for two weeks after the beams were turned off.
A 1979 study directed by Przemyslaw Czerski of the National Re-
search Institute of Mother and Child, in Warsaw, documented increased
numbers of damaged chromosomes in the sperm of mice exposed one
hour a day for two weeks to microwave intensities ranging from 100
microwatts up to the American safety standard of 10,000 microwatts.
An even more discomfiting set of data came from a mid-1970s Russian
experiment in which female mice were subjected to small power densi-
ties, 10 to 50 microwatts. Throughout this range there was a decrease in
the number and size of litters and an increase in developmental problems
among the newborn animals. The rate of stillbirths jumped from 1.1
percent at the lowest intensity to 7 percent at the highest.
Alas, human beings are the main experimental animals in this line of
research. Those who contend microwaves pose no danger often quote a
survey of twenty thousand Korean War veterans completed in 1980 by
C. D. Robinette and others for the NAS-National Research Council's
Medical Follow-up Agency. Comparing VA medical records of radar
technicians and others heavily exposed to microwaves with the records of
controls, this group found no increase in the death rate. This finding
can't be relied on, however. Most of the controls were radar operators,
who are exposed to some radiation from radar beams as well as from
their consoles. Thus the presumption that they absorbed negligible
amounts of EMR just doesn't hold water. In the last few years more
reliable epidemiological studies have appeared, showing increased rates
of cancer and birth defects among people exposed to higher-than-average
levels of electromagnetic energy.
Since microwave broadcasts for television and telephone relays must
be in a line of sight to the receivers, there are only a few suitable high
locations for the transmitters near each city. Of necessity there's an
above-normal concentration of ELF fields and microwave spilloff in that
area, possibly leading to a destructive synergism as outlined above.
Moreover, since TV is aimed at an audience and phone relay beams at
the next station, corridors are set up within which people get more than
their share of microwaves.
Sentinel Heights, seven miles from downtown Syracuse, is one such
transmitter hill. Slightly more than a thousand people live there. From
1974 to 1977 I learned of seven cases of cancel in that area. They were
divided into two clusters, in two microwave corridors separated by a