Europeans for Safe Connections attending a gathering in Belgium
What a nice day. The sun is shining, it’s nice and warm – it is Saturday the 17th of June, and ESC members have been invited to a White Zone event in the south of Belgium. The hosts are David and Guy from the organizations Mavieenmodeavion and Un lieu de vie pour EHS ASBL
We are directed to a huge area near the forest – a big open field with space for camping and cars and tents and tables – and of course for socialising. No telephones are allowed “inside” and a gate is set up to measure the EMF of the people entering.
Two huge party tents were set up – one for the French speaking guests and one for the English people. ESC were in the English tent with very interesting presentations.
ICBE-EMF joined us
ESC had received a fantastic opportunity to present some real VIP visitors in our tent – namely the ICBE-EMF (International Commission on Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields) in the form of an online videolink to three of their representatives from the Commission, Elisabeth Kelly, Kent Chamberlin and David Gee.
ICBE-EMF’s primary purpose is to make recommendations, based on the best peer-reviewed scientific research publications, to ensure the protection of humans and other species from the harmful effects of non-ionizing radiation. You can read more here.
A very interesting point was Kent Chamberlin’s explanation on how the ICNIRP guidelines were originally
established: by experiments on rats and monkeys! This is what ICNIRP uses as a scientific basis for their guidelines.
Why ESC?
Rob van der Boom, chairman of the ESC, was next on the podium. He spoke about the establishment of our organization, Europeans for Safe Connections, and its goals and objectives.
Then came a presentation by Pernille Schriver, Vice President of ESC, about the work with the European Citizens’ Initiative “Stop 5G – Stay Connected but Protected” with the aim of collecting 1 million signatures in the EU member states. That project ended after a year on March 1, 2023, with almost 100.000 signatures collected in the aftermath of corona lockdowns – quite a feat.
The connections established far and wide in EU created the basis for an even bigger collaboration: European EHS and EMF organizations came together and established Europeans for Safe Connection.
EMF free-houses and away with the masts!
Guy Lerat, the host and owner of the area, told us about the construction of his low-radiation house he and his wife Régine have built to house people with EHS. It was very interesting to learn about a radiation-proof house – the materials, the construction and the costs.
After a terrific lunch, Pernille Schriver had a power point presentation where she presented a number of instances from several countries in Europe where projects to establish masts and antennas have been stopped.
The most important message from Pernille: When many citizens in the same neighborhood join forces and activate a larger group of people and politicians, it is possible to stop the set-up of masts and antennas.
What happened in the French tent?
Kristien Pottie from Ma Vie en Mode talked about the creation of a white zone in Poncelle, Belgium. Benoit Louppe, a measurement specialist, gave a passionate presentation on technical developments in wireless equipment, measuring instruments and ways of protecting against radiation. Guy Lerat gave a speech in French about his radiation free house.
MEP Michèle Rivasi appeared online and gave a short talk about actions carried out in the European Parliament in connection with EHS and the protection of fellow citizens against the dangers of wireless technologies after which her parliamentary assistant, Charles-Maxence Layet gave a speech.
The day ended at four o’clock with a performance by a two-piece band with swinging songs accompanied by guitar and people dancing. Then there was dinner and mingling, networking, communication in nice weather and a super atmosphere. And no WIFI!
Sunday – a workshop day
After a very cold night for the camping people, we had quite a lot of rain but a very nice breakfast and again lots of talks. The day’s programme was put together by Charlotte from Europeans for Safe Connections (ESC).
We started off with some practical information and the programme of the day – more than 65 eager people were present and ready to get to work. Impressive! To get going, we started off with a celebration song written especially for ESC. (Watch here)
The central question was: What should the ESC do and how should we do it? All participants could individually write down on yellow stickers two main ideas that were most important to them. These were then collected and grouped by the organisers into themes. You could then join one of the themes in a workshop to further brainstorm and work out ideas on that particular theme. The workshops started, all were busy and in the afternoon we closed the day, but first the results from each workshop were presented to the rest – and later summaries were mailed back to the ESC Board.
It was a very enthusiastic and powerful day. Lots of great ideas came forward in the groups about what we can do and how to collaborate. EHS people may have EHS, but they certainly don’t lack spirit and ingenuity.
The workshops of the day are now turning into working groups of ESC, and we look forward to working together and – when more established – inviting more members to join.
The following groups were established
- Networking
- White Zones
- Press/PR
- Technical Solutions
- Children
- Politician/Law
- Education
One important message of the day: Even though we are all different and have different organisation goals, we can still have respect for each other. We should not try to be the same. People need different organisations, because there are so many different viewpoints out there, and they all want to be represented. Therefore we need organisations that stand for different issues in each country. Still, we can all work together on the broader issues and the most important one: Stopping harmful EMFs in the environment!
Thank you to all who made these two days special, to all the enthusiastic participants, and not least to the hosts Kristien, David, Guy and Régine who made it all possible.
Rob, Pernille, Charlotte
ESC Board
A video was made of the two days – stay tuned – it will be on our website soon!
A French presentation of the event.
