San Antonio, TX. February 17, 2025. At the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) Annual Conference in San Antonio this weekend, Camilla Rees, Senior Policy Advisor, National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy, addressed the attendees, with W. Scott McCollough, Esq., Chief Litigation Counsel for Children’s Health Defense’s Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) and Wireless Program. Together they announced a new legal effort to overturn Section 704
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that prevents state and local governments from basing cell tower and antenna siting decisions on health or environmental grounds.
The federal preemption has also led to other judicially-created limits on citizens’ recourse for damage from radiofrequency radiation-emitting infrastructure and technologies.
The new campaign, led by Children’s Health Defense, called “704-No-More!“, will involve education, advocacy, litigation, and legislative efforts in collaboration with other advocacy groups interested in advancing individual liberties and returning state and local control.
Rees, a consultant to the “704-No-More!” initiative, was awarded the American Academy of Environmental Medicine’s highest honor in 2018, its Jonathan Forman Award, for her advocacy related to the biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields.
She recently co-authored a new paper, also announced at the AAEM conference, “Safety of Wireless Technologies: The Scientific View”. 
The paper shines a light on 50-year old U.S. government warnings about the health risks of wireless radiation, warnings that have been roundly ignored for decades by U.S. regulators, such as the FCC, EPA and FDA.
“Safety of Wireless Technologies: The Scientific View” explains that the unheeded warnings about biological and health risk from wireless technologies contributed to an explosion in chronic illnesses in the U.S. beginning in 1990, significantly harming human lives and burdening the health care system and economy.
The AAEM conference also featured environmentalist Erin Brockovich, as well as Del Bigtree, host of the internet talk show, The HighWire, and founder of the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), as keynote speakers. Both delivered extremely powerful keynotes about the need for change, the opportunities before us and the role that the public can and must play in driving the necessary changes to support human and environmental health.
Bigtree was awarded AAEM’s 2025 Jonathan Forman Award for his contribution to Environmental Medicine and Brockovich was presented with a new AAEM award for her role as a consumer advocate and environmental activist powerfully inspiring change.
Brockovich highlighted her online platform, Community Healthbook, where citizens at the local level can report water, land, air and other environmental issues of concern in their local communities so patterns can be appreciated early and acted upon.
Scott McCollough, Esq., Principal at the McCollough Law Firm PC in Dripping Springs, TX is Chief Litigator on Children’s Health Defense’s the “704-No-More!” initiative. A litigator for 40+ years focused on telecommunications, Internet regulation, utility law, privacy, and free speech litigation, McCollough, along with Environmental Health Trust and others, in 2021, won a case challenging the adequacy of the FCC health and safety 
guidelines for wireless technologies. The FCC has still not responded to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ order that it justify not updating its exposure guidelines given the scientific evidence about risks presented in the case.
McCollough says:
“Radiofrequency Radiation (RFR) emitted by wireless equipment is responsible for extensive health and environmental injury. Communities must be able to control placement of antenna infrastructure. Those harmed by involuntary radiation exposures must have their rights restored”.
Miriam Eckenfels, Director of the EMR & Wireless Program at Children’s Health Defense, describes the “704-No-More!” campaign as a multi-pronged, collaborative effort designed to address federal preemption from litigation, legislative and community-building angles. Eckenfels says,
“We believe many groups will come together around the “704-No-More!” campaign. We welcome the support of citizens nationwide who are outraged by the telecommunications industry’s egregious disregard for children’s health, and our collective rights and interests.”
EMF educator and environmental health funder, Peter Sullavin, of Clear Light Ventures also presented at the conference on the subject of electromagnetic fields, in a talk entitled, “The Biological Impacts of Polarized Waveforms”. He brought his signature EMF-shielded mesh tent to the conference so doctors could experience the benefits for themselves of an environment free of electromagnetic fields. One doctor remarked how peaceful she felt in the tent, noticing how harmonious communication was with others in the tent, and even on controversial topics, wondering if shielded environments might be used to foster improved communications at large.
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine, founded in 1965, has long been an educator about the biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields. At its 39th Annual Meeting in Hilton Head, SC in 2004, electronics engineer Lloyd Morgan, later Senior Research Fellow at Environmental Health Trust, presented evidence showing elevation of blood glucose from exposure to high frequency electrical transients, known as Dirty Electricity. In 2009, it endorsed a book by Rees and Havas, “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution“.
AAEM was at the forefront, as well, in 2012, adopting a position paper and resolution calling for a halt to wireless smart meter installations. AAEM called for recognition that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a growing problem worldwide, recommended hard-wiring, fiber optics or other non-biologically disruptive methods of data transmission, and called for more independent research on the health effects of electromagnetic fields.
In 2013, the AAEM issued a position paper on wireless radiation risks in schools.
In 2014, AAEM introduced online training for physicians on “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity as an Emerging Illness“, based on presentations on wireless risks at its 2013 conference in Phoenix by the late Dr. William Rae, MD and others, guiding doctors on diagnosing patients with electrosensitivity (EHS) (previously called microwave illness, now called Electromagnetic Radiation Syndrome), on how to mitigate exposure to electromagnetic radiation, on treatment options to help patients recover, and on how to educate patients on self-care and the elimination of exposures to improve health outcomes.
In 2018, it honored health advocate, Camilla Rees, MBA of ElectromagneticHealth.org, Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications, Campaign for Radiation Free Schools and the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy, with its highest honor, The Jonathan Forman Award, usually given to doctors, for her pioneering work raising awareness about the biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields and the benefits of hardwiring among physicians, policymakers and the public.
Contacts Re. the “704-No-More!” Legal Initiative:
Miriam Eckenfels
Director, EMR & Wireless Program
Children’s Health Defense (CHD)
[email protected]
Camilla R. G. Rees, MBA
Consultant, CHD’s “704-No-More!” Initiative
Senior Policy Advisor, National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy
Founder, Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications
[email protected] – o. 415-992-5093 – www.CamillaRees.com
Donate to CHD’s “704-No-More!” Legal Initiative Here
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/support/704-no-more/
———————-
Contacts Re. “Safety of Wireless Technologies: The Scientific View” LINK
Camilla R. G. Rees, MBA, Co-Author
Senior Policy Advisor, National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy
Founder, Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications
www.ManhattanNeighbors.org
[email protected] – o. 415-992-5093 – www.CamillaRees.com
Richard A. Lear, Co-Author
[email protected]
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