RadioActive 3/25/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Earlier today the Maine House of Representatives voted down the Health and Human Services Committee’s minority report on LD 1706.  The proposed bill would have required labels on cell phones sold in Maine, warning of potential health risks, including brain cancer, and would have specifically cautioned against their use by pregnant women and children.
The public hearing LD 1706 drew experts from the scientific and medical fields across the US and Europe, cell phone industry lobbyists, and a great deal of media attention, but the bill did not make it out of committee.
As we’ve reported, both here on RadioActive, as well as on Weekend Voices, some of the expert testimony from the public hearing on LD 1706 was not available, due to an apparent technical glitch with the webstream from the State House.   With the assistance of Representative Andrea Boland, sponsor of the bill, we were able to obtain a copy of the audio from an independent videographer, Liz Barris, and with her permission we are able to bring you these excerpts today, from expert witnesses who flew to Maine from different parts of the US, and even Europe, to testify at the public hearing in Augusta on March 2nd.  Not exactly the missing Nixon tapes, but important nonetheless, as we are left to educate ourselves on this issue.
FMI: www.environmentalhealthtrust.org ,  http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/

RadioActive 3/18/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic:

Today we look at how the health insurance industry’s still unbridled quest for profits hits close to home.  Tomorrow state courts will hear Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s lawsuit against Maine for stopping their proposed 18% rate increase.

We also hear an editorial on a bill which would require cell phones to carry labels cautioning consumers on the health hazards of their radiation.

And we also review upcoming events which we will be covering in the next few days, concerning the war in Afghanistan,  the constitutional rights of corporations, and mountain top removal coal mining.