On Sunday Oct. 15, 2017 Senate Bill 649 has been vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. SB 649 would have created a state mandated system of cell towers every couple hundred feet apart in California. 300 cities, 47 counties and over 100 community, planning, health, environment and justice organizations opposed SB 649.
EMF Safety Network and Ecological Options Network opposed SB 649 since the bill was introduced in March because cell towers emit harmful radiation. The bill would have allowed unlimited refrigerator-size cell equipment on utility poles, streetlights, sidewalks, in parks, on schools and public buildings with no safety oversight.
Sandi Maurer, Director of EMF Safety Network said, “We mailed Governor Brown a couple thousand postcards depicting SB 649 as a slobbering warty monster wielding a zapping cell tower and asked him to veto SB 649. We are thrilled and relieved Governor Brown vetoed this bill.”
Mary Beth Brangan co-director of EON said, “Now we need to prepare ourselves for the next state and federal telecom push, where they will try again with bills to overtake local authority and disregard public health.”
Governor Brown’s veto statement: 
See this post for more information about SB 649: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/stop-sb-649-in-california/
Thank you to everyone who helped achieve this victory and to all the cities, counties and organizations opposed. This is a win not only for California but for the rest of the United States!
Please thank Governor Brown for vetoing SB 649! You can contact him on his website, call or send a card in the mail: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov39mail/
phone: (916) 445-2841
Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
No #5G https://inpowermovement.com/#comment
Where Is The Link To The Group #EmPower ?!? Thx
From Mark: I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled that he vetoed this bill. It would have been a statewide public health fiasco. There is a light pole right out in front of my house, one of only 2 on this street with a cul de sac. The telecoms would have put a cell antenna on it and it would have blasted me and my neighbors 24/7. Being electrosensitive this would have been an immediate and ongoing health crisis. Where would I sleep? How much shielding would I have to put up, and would it be enough? What city ordinance regulates the placement of a metal screen shield to protect myself? Fortunately I do not have to answer those questions. A HUGE thank you to EMF Safety Network and everybody who opposed SB649.
Mark
Gov Brown’s veto statement is political. An insider told us that Governor Brown vetoed the bill to save face with environmental and health groups- all the while knowing there are federal preemption bills pending in Congress. First Victory Lap, next take action at Federal level.
We have so few wins in this effort, it’s important to take time to celebrate this veto, take a breather, sigh of relief, raise a glass, and then, yes, keep on with the work.
If you are having trouble posting a comment please let me know. I can post it for you, and look into the problem with captcha. emfsafe@sonic.net
From Ron: I can’t seem to get past the CAPTCHA mechanism for submitting comments. Here’s my comment on Brown’s veto of SB 649:
Not to throw water on the parade, but has anyone actually read Brown’s statement that accompanies his veto? More than a little disappointing, it’s alarming and disgusting.
Although he may deserve a thank you for his veto, we need to realize he did the right thing in only the very narrowest, technical sense, restricting his disapproval of the bill, this time around only, to it’s lack of financial fairness for municipal properties. Apparently California’s fracking proponent-in-chief either doesn’t understand or probably worse, doesn’t care about the ubiquity and iniquity of health hazards proposed in SB 649–not to mention the loss of local sovereignty on the question of whether to even allow these toxic Trojan horses into the midst of our communities; apart from the rate of compensation for these proposed permanent, ongoing violations. He is also apparently ignorant of the superiority, in the alternative, of buried fiberoptic cable in performance, reliability, and safety. Compared to how, for instance, 5G streetside equipment would have fared as it melted off poles in the recent firestorm?
Instead, he virtually invites the industry to regroup and redouble their efforts by simply renegotiating the going rate–the old bottom line. In spite of the 300 cities, 47 counties and over 100 community, planning, health, environment and justice organizations who have already expressed their disapproval of SB 649, he eagerly signals he won’t have any trouble enthusiastically approving of such a renewed effort, in his most telling statement:
“There is something of real value in having a process that results in extending this innovative technology rapidly and efficiently.” (Was he prompted from the graveyard by pre-Governor Ronald Reagan who used to pimp for General Electric with his smug, arrogantly misguided slogan, “Progress is our most important product”?)
Of all the celebrants, Mary Beth Brangan co-director of EON has the most sober observation: “Now we need to prepare ourselves for the next state and federal telecom push, where they will try again with bills to overtake local authority and disregard public health.”
If they can ban fracking in Scotland, we can do it here–AND turn Big Telecom around.
Meanwhile, let’s not delude ourselves–Jerry Brown is not exactly our most dependable ally. Which will come first, the next state and federal telecom push, or the election for Governor of California?
While I am thrilled this bill wasn’t signed, it is quite alarming that Gov. Jerry Brown sees “value in … extending this innovative technology rapidly and efficiently.” That means he ignored the major health concerns and IS in favor of exposing the public to rf radiation! So another bill might just be signed by him and the industry will know this. If you write Gov. Brown, please let him know that the reason to deny ANY bills allowing more electrosmog in our communities should be health and safety-based!
A huge thanks Governor!
I hope you and your staff are becoming more aware of this kind of dangerous technology.
Many, including myself have become electrically sensitive and the thought of cellular companies and local utilities placing mini cell towers everywhere is plain scary.
Non-thermal microwave frequencies are dangerous and at the levels that plaster our states right now, more and more people are becoming sick without even knowing that it is this very technology causing their illnesses.
Again, thank you.
respectfully,
Monise Sheehan