Learn the safest ways to use your cell phone. All wireless devices can exposd you to harmful, cancer causing radiation.

 

ALL wireless devices can expose you to harmful radiation. This includes your cell phone.

Learn the safest ways to use your cell phone.

 

American Academy of Pediatrics Cell Phone Tips 

 The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that families reduce cell phone radiation exposure.  

American Academy of Pediatrics cell phone safety tips for families:

• Use text messaging when possible, and use cell phones in speaker mode or with the use of hands-free kits.
• When talking on the cell phone, try holding it an inch or more away from your head.
• Make only short or essential calls on cell phones.
• Avoid carrying your phone against the body like in a pocket, sock, or bra. Cell phone manufacturers can’t guarantee that the amount of radiation you’re absorbing will be at a safe level.
• Do not talk on the phone or text while driving. This increases the risk of automobile crashes.
• Exercise caution when using a phone or texting while walking or performing other activities. “Distracted walking” injuries are also on the rise.
• If you plan to watch a movie on your device, download it first, then switch to airplane mode while you watch in order to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure.
• Keep an eye on your signal strength (i.e. how many bars you have). The weaker your cell signal, the harder your phone has to work and the more radiation it gives off. It’s better to wait until you have a stronger signal before using your device.
• Avoid making calls in cars, elevators, trains, and buses. The cell phone works harder to get a signal through metal, so the power level increases.
• Remember that cell phones are not toys or teething items.

Learn about the fine print warnings that come with all of your wireless devices

 

https://ehtrust.org/key-issues/cell-phoneswireless/fine-print-warnings/?fbclid=IwAR1I_qbpXFnqvZccyf1PwlDF9-97fFwXihpnSEZOgNpM85B35G0xLrZuxts

 All wireless devices from smartphones to wireless laptops to baby monitors come with FCC warnings that they are NOT safe to use if held directly on the body because the radio frequency emissions can exceed government limits. Very importantly, if you place a cell phone at body contact, you can exceed radiation limits up to 9 times US FCC limits according to reports of the French government after testing hundreds of cell phones.

  https://ehtrust.org/educational-materials-for-classrooms/#

      EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR CLASSROOMS

Students at every age level can learn about cell phone radiation and how they can reduce exposures. Here are educational resources and vetted science-based health curriculum you can use to educate your students today.

 

 

Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition Educational Modules on Cell Phones and Technology 

EHT was proud to collaborate with the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition on “Lets Talk Prevention” educational modules on cell phone radiation for high school, middle school, and elementary. Please take the time to download these easy to understand educational materials and consider using them in your classroom.  These resources include suggested student activities. 

• Go to MBCC Let’s Talk Prevention Classroom Modules 

New Jersey Educational Association Recommendations  

The New Jersey Educational Association (NJEA) article  “Minimize health risks from electronic devices” is a perfect way to share simple steps to reduce physical health effects from devices, including repetitive strain injuries, neck, shoulder and back pain, blurred vision and headaches, altered sleep patterns and next-day fatigue and also wireless  radiation exposure

• Read the NJEA article online, PDF of Recommendations

 

American Federation of Teachers 2019: Technology and Environmental Health: Increasing Awareness and Improving Safety for Teachers, Staff and Students

In 2019, Theodora Scarato presented at the AFT National Conference. Her powerpoint presentation is availible at AFT’s Share My Lesson

“Cellphones and digital devices and Wi-Fi increasingly are being integrated into schools, but are you aware of the scientific research that links wireless technology to health issues, including memory and sleep problems, headaches, and even cancer? Participants will review recent teachers union actions on this increasing occupational health risk and learn educational solutions for schools that enable internet access with lowered health risks.”

Presenter: Theodora Scarato, clinical social worker, Environmental Health Trust

• Share My Lesson: American Federation of Teachers Presentation on Technology Safety  (includes powerpoints, factsheets and more) 

Posters on How to Reduce Cell Phone Radiation

A school nurse asked us for posters she could put in her office. EHT has designed several colorful posters in various sizes. Please see a full list HERE. 

 

Screen an Inspiring Movie

We highly recommend these two films for students, as shown on PBS  “Short Guide to Cell Phone Safety” and “The Dangers of Radiofrequency Radiation” 

EHT has curated two lists for teachers and families with films on:

• Environmental Health
• Cell Phones and Wireless

California Department of Public Health Cell Phone Guidance

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recommendations to reduce cell phone radiation exposure explain why and how to reduce cell phone radiation. The United Educators of San Francisco passed a resolution for safer technology calling for the CDPH recommendations to be shared with all students and staff in the San Francisco Public School District. 

Download the California Department of Public Health Cell Phone Cell Phone Advisory 

 

American Academy of Pediatrics Cell Phone Tips 

 The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that families reduce cell phone radiation exposure.  

American Academy of Pediatrics cell phone safety tips for families:

• Use text messaging when possible, and use cell phones in speaker mode or with the use of hands-free kits.
• When talking on the cell phone, try holding it an inch or more away from your head.
• Make only short or essential calls on cell phones.
• Avoid carrying your phone against the body like in a pocket, sock, or bra. Cell phone manufacturers can’t guarantee that the amount of radiation you’re absorbing will be at a safe level.
• Do not talk on the phone or text while driving. This increases the risk of automobile crashes.
• Exercise caution when using a phone or texting while walking or performing other activities. “Distracted walking” injuries are also on the rise.
• If you plan to watch a movie on your device, download it first, then switch to airplane mode while you watch in order to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure.
• Keep an eye on your signal strength (i.e. how many bars you have). The weaker your cell signal, the harder your phone has to work and the more radiation it gives off. It’s better to wait until you have a stronger signal before using your device.
• Avoid making calls in cars, elevators, trains, and buses. The cell phone works harder to get a signal through metal, so the power level increases.
• Remember that cell phones are not toys or teething items.

 

Launch A Student Art And Technology Contest 

EHT has sponsored several student arts and video contests to spread awareness on cell phones and safe technology. Please see some of the winning music videos fro Jackson Wyoming below. If you would like to start this in your school, please contact us at info@ehtrust.org. 

 

THE COLLABORATIVE FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE SCHOOLS LOW EMF CRITERIA:

• Install a wired local area network (LAN) for Internet access throughout the school.
• Provide wired network connections for desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, and tablets.
• Desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, and tablets operated on a desk, not laps.
• All wireless transmitters shall be disabled on all Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
• Install easily accessible hard-wired phones for teacher and student use.
• Prohibit the use of standard DECT cordless phones operating at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz
• Prohibit the use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices in instructional areas/classrooms.
• Measure magnetic field levels to comply with 1 mG in new construction and 2 mG in existing.

• READ THE COLLABORATIVE FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE SCHOOLS LOW EMF CRITERIA 

MARYLAND STATE CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND PROTECTION ADVISORY COUNCIL

• Reduce wireless in classrooms as much as possible with wired Internet connections. 
• Install a wired network when remodeling or for new construction.
• Turn Wi-Fi OFF when not in use
• Upload first then switch tablets to airplane mode to play games or watch videos. 

“The Maryland State Department of Education should recommend that local school systems consider using wired devices“

“WiFi can be turned off” and instead “a wired local area network (LAN) can provide a reliable and secure form of networking…without any microwave electromagnetic field exposure.”

What are teachers and school staff doing? 

Numerous teachers’ unions are calling for reducing RFR exposures in schools to as few sources and as low emission levels as possible. 

• The United Educators of San Francisco passed a resolution to inform students and staff about why and how to reduce cell phone radiation. 
• The New York State United Teachers union passed a resolution regarding safer technology and released a set of  “Best Practices.” 
• The New Jersey Education Association published “Minimize health risks from electronic devices”recommending the use of cords/cables/wires (rather than wireless) to connect devices and use of corded phones. 
• The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation Limestone District has called for a moratorium on Wi-Fi. 
• The Canadian Teachers’ Federation and Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association recommend avoiding and reducing RFR. 

Ready to learn more?

See the actions taken by parent-teacher organizations here and by teacher unions here. 

 

Dr Christina Parks testimony for Michigan HB4471 on 8 19 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DOOZpGA_VI

Dr Christina Parks testimony for 

Michigan HB4471 on 8 19 21

Is CRISPR related in any way to the gene therapy 'vaccines' that are being used for COVID

Do the following articles and the information in them have any bearing on the delivery platforms of our COVID vaccines?

New Genetic Method Using CRISPR to Eliminate Covid 19 Virus Genomes

https://bioengineering.stanford.edu/research-impact/prevent-covid-19/new-genetic-method-using-crispr-eliminate-covid-19-virus-genomes

It is predicted the development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent COVID-19 will take 12 to 18 months, by which time hundreds of thousands to millions of people may have been infected. With a rapidly growing number of cases and deaths around the world, this emerging threat requires a nimble and targeted means of protection.

To address this global pandemic challenge, we are developing a genetic vaccine that can be used rapidly in healthy and patients to greatly reduce the coronavirus spreading. We developed a safe and effective CRISPR system to precisely target, cut and destroy COVID-19 virus and its genome, which stops coronavirus from infecting the human lung.

We’ve shown that the CRISPR system can reduce 90% of coronavirus load in human cells. It can also protect humans against essentially 90% of all current and emerging coronaviruses. The project is ongoing, and we are working around the clock towards getting an actual product by combing our CRISPR method with an inhaler-based delivery device.

The project will likely to result in a potential therapeutics towards COVID-19, which can help slow down or eliminate the outbreak

• A preprint of the work (not yet peer reviewed)

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 What is CRISPR

https://www.newscientist.com/definition/what-is-crispr/#ixzz7KIWCJ3A2

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CRISPR gene-editing urgently needs an off-switch – now we have one
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933170-800-crispr-gene-editing-urgently-needs-an-off-

Scientists at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) say they have co-opted the CRISPR-Cas9 system to forcibly activate genes—rather than edit them—in human immune cells. The method, known as CRISPRa, lets them discover genes that play a role in immune cell biology more thoroughly and rapidly than previously possible, according to the researchers.

“This is an exciting breakthrough that will accelerate immunotherapy research,” says Alex Marson, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology and senior author of the new study. “These CRISPRa experiments create a Rosetta Stone for understanding which genes are important for every function of immune cells. In turn, this will give us new insight into how to genetically alter immune cells so they can become treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

The study (“CRISPR activation and interference screens decode stimulation responses in primary human T cells”), published in Science, reportedly is the first to successfully use CRISPRa at large scale in primary human cells, which are cells isolated directly from an individual person.

The team activated each gene in the genome in different cells, enabling them to test almost 20,000 genes in parallel. This allowed them to quickly learn the rules about which genes provide the most powerful levers to reprogram cell functions in ways that could eventually lead to more powerful immunotherapies.

“Human T cell responses to antigen stimulation, including the production of cytokines, are critical for healthy immune function and can be dysregulated in autoimmunity, immunodeficiencies, and cancer. A systematic understanding of the regulators that orchestrate T cell activation with gain-of-function and loss-of-function gene perturbations would offer additional insights into disease pathways and further opportunities to engineer next-generation immunotherapies,” write the investigators.

Zachary Steinhart (left) and Ralf Schmidt (right), scientists at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology led by Alex Marson, engineered a new CRISPR-based pipeline to test every gene in the genome and rapidly discover genes that can be “turned on” in immune cells to enhance their functions. [Michael Short/Gladstone Institutes]

“Although CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screens are powerful tools for gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies in immortalized cell lines, deploying them at scale in primary cell types has been challenging. Here, we developed a CRISPRa and CRISPRi discovery platform in primary human T cells and performed genome-wide screens for functional regulators of cytokine production in response to stimulation.

“We optimized lentiviral methods to enable efficient and scalable delivery of the CRISPRa machinery into primary human T cells. This platform allowed us to perform genome-wide pooled CRISPRa screens to discover regulators of cytokine production. Pools of CRISPRa-perturbed cells were isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting into high and low bins based on levels of endogenous Interleukin-2 (IL-2) production in CD4+ T cells or interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production in CD8+ T cells. Hits included proximal T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway genes, indicating that overexpression of these components could overcome signaling “bottlenecks” and tune stimulation and cytokine production.

“Reciprocal genome-wide loss-of-function screens with CRISPRi detected hits with critical regulatory functions, including some missed by CRISPRa. By contrast, CRISPRa also identified hits that may not be required and in some cases were expressed at only low levels under the conditions of the screen. This was strongly exemplified by regulation of IFN-γ production by the nuclear factor κ B (NF-κB) signaling pathway, in which CRISPRi identified a required TCR–NF-κB signaling circuit (including MALT1 and BCL10). CRISPRa selectively detected a set of tumor necrosis factor superfamily receptors that also signal through NF-kB, including 4-1BB, CD27, CD40, and OX40.

“These receptors were not individually required for signaling in our experimental conditions but could promote IFN-γ when overexpressed. Thus, CRISPRa and CRISPRi complement each other for the comprehensive discovery of functional cytokine regulators.

“Arrayed CRISPRa perturbation validated the effects of key hits in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. We also assessed how individual CRISPRa perturbations more broadly reprogram cytokine production beyond IL-2 and IFN-γ by measuring a panel of secreted cytokines and chemokines.

“Finally, we developed a platform for pooled CRISPRa perturbations coupled with single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) readout (CRISPRa Perturb-seq) in primary human T cells. We used CRISPRa Perturb-seq for deep molecular characterization of single-cell states caused by 70 genome-wide screen hits and controls to reveal how regulators of cytokine production both tune T cell activation and program cells into different stimulation-responsive states.

“Our study demonstrates a robust platform for large-scale pooled CRISPRa and CRISPRi in primary human T cells. Paired CRISPRa and CRISPRi screens enabled comprehensive functional mapping of gene networks that can modulate cytokine production. Follow-up of CRISPRa hits with arrayed phenotypic analyses and with pooled scRNA-seq approaches enabled precise functional characterization of key screen hits, revealing how key perturbations may tune T cells to therapeutically relevant states. Future CRISPRa and CRISPRi screens in primary cells could identify targets for improved next-generation cellular therapies.”

In recent years, Marson and his colleagues have used CRISPR’s targeted scissors to knock out genes from various types of human immune cells, including regulatory T cells and monocytes. Their results have begun to illuminate how immune cells can be engineered to be more effective against infections, inflammation, or cancer. But his team knew they were still missing part of the story.

“Knocking out genes is great for understanding the basics of how immune cells function, but a knock-out-only approach can miss pinpointing some really critical genes,” says Zachary Steinhart, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in the Marson Lab and co-first author of the new paper.

In particular, knocking out a gene does not tell you what would happen if you instead made the gene more active. So the researchers turned to CRISPRa, short for CRISPR activation. In CRISPRa, the Cas9 protein is altered so that it can no longer cut DNA. Rather, scientists can attach an activator—a molecular “on” switch—to Cas9, so that when it binds to a gene, it activates it. Alternatively, they can attach a repressor—an “off” switch—to Cas9 to turn genes off, achieving a result similar to a typical knockout approach (called CRISPRi for CRISPR interference).

Mapping T cell genes

T cells are one of the key mediators of immunity in the human body; they not only target invading pathogens, but also direct other immune cells to increase or decrease their responses to intruders or cancer cells. This messaging is achieved through the production of cytokines. Different types of T cells produce different repertoires of cytokines, and different cytokines or cytokine cocktails have different effects on the immune response.

Controlling T cell cytokines, Marson says, would offer new opportunities to reshape entire immune responses in a wide range of different disease contexts. But researchers have an incomplete understanding of exactly which genes control which cytokines.

In the new work, Marson, Steinhart, and co-first author Ralf Schmidt, MD, worked with their colleagues to adapt CRISPRa and CRISPRi to work at high efficiency in primary T cells—something never before done.

“This improved efficiency in delivering the CRISPRa or CRISPRi machinery into the cells was critical to enable genome-wide experiments and accelerate discoveries,” explains Marson.

Then, the research team used these approaches to activate or inactivate nearly 20,000 genes in human T cells isolated directly from multiple healthy volunteers. They screened the resulting cells for changes to cytokine production and homed in on hundreds of genes that serve as key cytokine regulators, including some never before identified in knock-out screens.

“Our work demonstrates the precision and scalability of this technology in human T cells,” notes Schmidt. “And we quickly learned the rules of which genes you could turn on to dial the levels of certain cytokines.”

Better T cell therapies

To treat some cancer types, clinicians are increasingly using CAR-T cell therapy, in which T cells are removed from a patient’s body, engineered in a lab to target cancer cells, and then reinfused. Boosting the ability of T cells to fight cancer—by altering their cytokine production, for instance—could make CAR-T cell therapy even more powerful.

Immunotherapy. CAR T-cells work to fight cancer. [Design Cells/Getty Images]

“Our new data give us this incredibly rich instruction manual for T cells,” says Marson. “Now we have a basic molecular language we can use to engineer a T cell to have very precise properties.”

Marson’s lab is now studying some of the individual genes identified in their screen, as well as working to further leverage CRISPRa and CRISPRi to discover genes that control other critical traits in human immune cells.

“Working with the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, the Innovative Genomics Institute, and the UCSF Living Therapeutics Initiative, our team now hopes to use our new instruction manual to create synthetic gene programs that can be CRISPR-engineered into the next generation cellular immunotherapies to treat a wide-range of diseases,” says Marson.

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I HAD TO LOOK UP THIS WORD.

IT WAS USED IN DEFINING CRISPR.

palindrome

păl′ĭn-drōm″

noun

1. A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
2. A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.
3. A word, verse, or sentence that reads the same either from left to right or from right to left. The English language has few palindromes. Examples are—“Madam, I'm Adam” (supposed speech of Adam to Eve); “lewd did I live & evil I did dwel” (John Taylor).