Published on Sep 27, 2016 Dear Fellow Activists, On Saturday, September 10, at 7 pm, the Woodstock Smart Meter Forum will launch its fall series. The first speaker of the season will be Dafna Tachover, founder and CEO of We Are the Evidence. She will discuss the environmental and health impacts of the 5G Spectrum Frontiers standards for cell phones and smart meters. The 5G protocol will create the technological framework for the Internet of Things. On July 14, 2016, the FCC voted to fast track the 5G rollout without holding any environmental or health studies. This is being done despite May 2016’s National Toxicology Program study, which demonstrated that the ambient radiation of the type emitted by cell phones and smart meters produces statistically significant increases in DNA damage and cancer in mice and rats. As of 2006, at least ten percent of the population was thought to be sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Considering the exponential increase in exposure to wireless radiation since then, levels are presently thought to be much higher. Symptoms include ringing ears, nausea, heart palpitations, memory loss and seizures. The FCC decision will facilitate implementation of the 5G platform in 2017, and it will be intensely infrastructure rich. For example, in the case of cell phones, the new standard calls for mini-cell towers on every telephone pole and on/in houses to support signal saturation. This is necessary since the signal cannot travel through walls. The program is designed to enable billions of microchipped appliances to seamlessly communicate—and it will spread unprecedented amounts of radiation through the environment and peoples’ homes. Dafna Tachover’s We Are the Evidence is an advocacy group for the protection of the rights of those injured by wireless radiation. Ms. Tachover herself developed electro sensitivity (ES) in 2009. She is licensed to practice law in New York State and Israel and she has an MBA. Further, she has a technical background, which dates from her service in the Israeli Army. There she was a communications and computers officer and commander of the computer center of the Israeli Defense Force Operations Center and Headquarters. Dafna's efforts in Israel led to significant change there. In 2012 she submitted a case to the Israeli Supreme Court asking for an injunction banning the use of Wi-Fi in schools. Following her lawsuit and media efforts, she gained the mainstream media's complete support, which led to growing public awareness. This has significantly impacted the stance of government officials, who now admit to the harm caused by non-thermal levels of wireless technology radiation, and who acknowledge that the current safety standard is obsolete. Dafna has been featured by international media on the subject of ES. A short movie for Time.com, Searching for a Golden Cage, helped to mainstream awareness of her work. In addition, her condition was recently written up in a New York magazine article titled “What It’s Like to Be Allergic to Wi-Fi?” Since 2013 Stop Smart Meters Woodstock has been raising awareness of the health, privacy and safety impacts of smart meters and cell phone technology. So far the Ulster County and Dutchess County legislatures have passed memorializing bills against smart meters. In addition, the City of Kingston and the Towns of Woodstock, Olive and Gardiner have passed similar measures. Further, as a result of continuous activism, the Town of Woodstock presently has a proceeding before the New York State Public Service Commission entitled “Option to Opt-Out of Using an AMR Device, and Substitute an Electro-Mechanical Meter, at no Additional Charge” (Case No. 14-01027). The Woodstock Smart Meter Forum is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place at the Woodstock Public Library, 5 Library Lane in Woodstock.