Traffic radar and cancer: Do you know the number of 'hits' you are receiving?

What is fact is that there is very legitimate suspicion that traffic radar causes cancer . . . Also for sure, we are getting very high doses of radar from the huge number of hits we are getting almost, if not, every day

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Update: From a commenter, below. To read all comments, or to add your own, click on the comments button at the bottom of the story.

"FACT: I saw a cop no more than once per week in the 1st 10 years I lived here. Because Will Conley lobbied for more cops here, and because we've had a rash of fatalities (1 in a parking lot), I see 2 or 3 every single day. In the old days the cops were to "serve and protect".

Nowdays, the motto is" "To lurk and suspect".

Editor's Note: The following was published in the Saturday April 18 edition of the Wimberley View. Dr. Morales resides in the Wimberley area.

By M. David Morales, M.D.

After being pummeled by radar 13 out of the last 13 times I have driven through Wimberley (plus almost every other time), I feel compelled to write this. I must say at the outset, that I have only had one traffic ticket many, many years ago and that I don’t try to exceed speed limits.

I do have a radar detector to protect against a time I might not be watching the speedometer, AND so I can monitor how many hits of traffic radar I am getting.

It is well known that many respected scientists believe there may well be an association between radar and cancer, particularly leukemia, lymphoma, and testicular cancer. Radar is a microwave energy beam, similar to what heats your food in the microwave oven. Historically, law officers who, in earlier days, kept the radar guns on their laps, when not pointed at a car/person, developed an amazingly high incidence of testicular cancer and weird, soft tissue cancers of the thigh in that area, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

From a medical perspective, it certainly seems feasible that chromosomes could be damaged by repeated, sudden microwave blasts, particularly where cells are dividing rapidly as in the bone marrow, testes, and other areas. I could continue on about this, but if you are interested you can do a Google search on traffic radar and cancer.

Denials from government agencies are not evidence-based

Government agencies that run traffic radar will argue that traffic radar hits produce very little energy, and that it is safe. However, their denials are not evidence-based, not scientific, and definitely motivated by the huge amount of revenue they receive from speeding tickets. Actually there is very little in the way of well-controlled scientific study of this subject as not too many folks want to volunteer to be zapped by radar to see if they will develop cancer.

What is fact is that there is very legitimate suspicion that traffic radar causes cancer, as mentioned above. Also for sure, we are getting very high doses of radar from the huge number of hits we are getting almost, if not, every day. Recently, I left the DFW area on a Saturday morning to return to Wimberley. I got no less than 11 radar hits before I was out of that area. I received many more hits through the various towns en route. Oh, and don’t forget the construction areas where they have radar running constantly to remind you of your speed. Couldn’t we just look at our speedometers? People that speed through those areas know what they are doing and deserve a double price ticket.

All this doesn’t bother me as much as the daily hits through my hometown (remember 13 hits for 13 trips). Hays County has radar in every Sheriff’s car, the Constable’s car, and every motorcycle. Now Wimberley has radar in the town Marshall’s car. Of course every car belonging to the Texas DPS has radar too.

And I never pass through Kyle on Center St. by the police station without finding they are leaving their radar units running while their cars are out in the parking lot.

Yeah there's pressure for revenues and traffic control, but what about the public health?

There is no doubt this is seen as big money to Hays County, Wimberley Village, the State of Texas, and every little burg in every state – especially those without much of a revenue base. Personally, I think it is a huge problem. If I had my way, traffic radar would be like medicines, it couldn’t be used until proven relatively safe! Don’t forget though, with medicines you get a certain dose, whereas with radar who knows what dose you are getting. We just know it is a big dose.

Now I know that all this will not stop by guessing that the officers running all this radar are probably more at risk of damaging their chromosomes with microwave radiation than the rest of us, although this seems logical. I know that by surmising that we are more at risk of harm from this radar than from speeding vehicles, all this will not stop. There are methods other than radar for catching speeders; but they aren’t as effective, thus not as lucrative.

What I am hoping for at the very least, by writing this, is that these radar units, at least in Hays County, Wimberley, and Kyle, will be turned off when not actually pointed at a car/person the officer thinks is speeding. DPS is better than the others about leaving radar off when not in use, although they are far from perfect. I am hoping that the Sherriff’s units particularly will quit leaving their radar unit on constantly while going through Wimberley from one end to the other. They do this even when traffic is in a solid line and couldn’t possibly be speeding.

So, Sheriff, Wimberley Marshall, how about doing yourselves and us a favor and leave the radar off unless actually being used at the moment? I would further urge each officer to research this subject on his/her own so that he/she might be encouraged to keep the radar off at least for their own personal safety. Sooner or later there will be class action lawsuits over this as there are in other countries and perhaps, but not to my knowledge, in the USA.

Can’t you just hear it now on TV? “Have you been hit repeatedly by traffic radar and now have developed ________ cancer?” Call the law offices of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe at 1-800-MOMONEY.