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Radiation's Health Effects (EM; RF; Nuclear; Mobile Tech; Etc.)

Many people report symptoms of electromagnetic radiation sickness, WHO
12 Sep 2005

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=30499

"A lot of people report symptoms similar to yours, and there is even a name for it, electrical hypersensitivity (EHS)", writes Chiyoji Ohkubo of the EMF-radiation project of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in an e-mail to a patient. Though the WHO confirms the problem is serious, there will be a 'fact sheet' by the EMF-project within a few weeks, totally denying the existence of radiation sickness. The information is based on instructions by a working group of five people in Prague, 2004. It reads like a political manifesto, to hush up the epidemic and leave the patients behind without any care.

Symptoms of electromagnetic radiation sickness are for example sleep disturbances, dizziness, heart palpitations, headache, blurry sight, swelling, nausea, a burning skin, vibrations, electrical currents in the body, pressure on the brest, cramps, high blood pressure and general unwell-being. According to many testimonies of victims the symptoms appear in the vicinity of sources of electromagnetic radiation, like GSM- and 3G (UMTS)-antennas, cellphones, DECT wireless telephones and WIFI wireless networks. Many times the experiences are blind. Radiation measurements taken afterwards and investigations show, that the radiation density indeed is increased. Many sufferers find out the relationship with the radiation, when they stay for a while elsewhere, where the symptoms diminish or disappear. When they return home the symptoms immediately appear again. Many of the patients decide to move to another place. Others try to shield themselves against the radiation, for example building a Faraday cage of fine wire mesh.

Canary bird sings again

In one documented case a canary bird did not sing anymore and lost his feathers. The cage was at fifty metres distance from a GSM-antenna. After his owner had put a Faraday cage of fine wire mesh around the cage, shielding against part of the radiation, the bird started singing again and did not pick his skin anymore. So, the symptoms are real and not imaginative. That is confirmed by the co-ordinator of the EMF-radiation project, Michael Repacholi. He says, he has met many people who suffer from radiation sickness and electrical hypersensitivity. "I know how much it affects people and that the symptoms are real", he writes. But the EMF-project refuses to comment the many thrustworthy and verifiable testimonies. Repacholi says it is his responsibility, to tell the public that the problems do not exist, since science can not find 'electrosensitivity' in people. Of course not. Humans do not have a sense for the electromagnetic radiation of the relevant frequencies.

Secretariat only

The World Health Organisation does nothing at all to recognize and take care of the many sufferers reporting electromagnetic radiation sickness. Nothing is done to prevent future victims, nothing to map the epidemic and assess the high risks. The reports are not checked by anybody, not even on a national or local scale. The EMF-radiation project does not even answer highly relevant questions about individual and collected cases. Repacholi: "WHO does not make conclusions. WHO gets its information, conclusions and recommendations from experts worldwide. WHO staff only act as the secretariat to facilitate this process and then to promote the results through normal channels of communication. WHO staff do not make the conclusions and recommendations on any issue. They are merely the administrators of the project." However, that is in contradiction with the 'fact sheet'. The instructions for this information leaflet were formulated in Prague, October 2004, by a group of five people, including Emilie van Deventer of the EMF-project. These are more than recommendations - they are instructions of a political character.

Information for the public

The information leaflet will be a political document, though it is called 'fact sheet'. It gives information for the general public, the medical world and the governments. The instructions for the public: the symptoms of electromagnetic radiation sickness exist, but it is not allowed to attribute them to radiation. Electrical hypersensitivity (EHS) should not be registered or investigated. The public should be warned against products to measure radiation density and to shield against electromagnetic radiation from GSM- and 3G (UMTS)-antennas, DECT wireless telephones, WIFI wireless networks etcetera. Measurements are to be discouraged. There should not be made any correlation between the symptoms and following diseases and disabilities. The public should be reminded that only ionisating radiation, X-rays and radioactive radiation, is considered to be able to damage health. The symptoms of electromagnetic radiation sickness should be interpreted as the consequences of stress by the introduction of new technologies.

No diagnosis, no classification

The political message is clear. Health problems caused by electromagnetic radiation are not allowed to exist, even if a lot of people report them in thrustworthy and verifiable testimonies. The base of the coming information leaflet is a political document. Governments are instructed to develop tailored information for medical practitioners. The working group writes, that governments are not allowed to propose an official diagnosis, nor to introduce a classification for handicap status. That is a reaction to Sweden, where the Federation of Electrical Hypersensitive (FEB) is a member of the umbrella organization of federations of handicapped. Indirectly FEB receives some funds from the government. A few hospitals in Sweden even have a radiation free room. Governments who ignore the instructions of the WHO, are accused by Repacholi to foster victimisation and "to perpetuate a myth". Institutions who take the reports of citizens seriously, get a warning shot across the bows.

Appropriate interaction

The EMF-project makes a small exception. The instructions say the symptoms may be registered, as Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance attributed to Electro Magnetic Fields (IEI-EMF). But the political instructions continue. Governments have to make an end to measurements of radiation densities and structures. They have to develop 'appropriate interaction' with self-help groups. At last governments have to promote dialogue, to take away the anxiousness about the electromagnetic radiation sickness. After reading these instructions the questions are: how do the lots of reports by people who are sick by electromagnetic radiation relate to this 'fact sheet'? Why WHO refuses to give comment on the many thrustworthy and verifiable testimonies and cases? Why are these reports not registered and investigated?

Epidemiological research

The scientific foundations of the instructions and the leaflet are weak. Like with asbestos the only research that can give proof is epidemiological research, because electromagnetic radiation is a man-made environmental factor. According to the website http://www.stopumts.nl of Etwald Goes all epidemiologic research until now found negative impact on well-being and health, from sleep disturbances to death. Moreover, it is impossible that the negative impact does not exist, since more than half of the in vitro and in vivo laboratory and provocative research finds damage. Such investigations can never fully represent true life with all the parameters of permanent exposure of living people, animals and plants. However, if most of these investigations show a negative impact, something must be the matter. Indeed there is a problem, according to the lots of reports WHO mentions.

Swiss study

Politicians should play the ball now. A growing amount of municipalities takes the anxiousness of citizens seriously, but they don't register or investigate the reports of electromagnetic radiation sickness. Politicians are not much interested in this part of public health. They wait for the results of a study in Switzerland, about 3G (UMTS) and well-being. Coordinator Peter Achermann: "we are currently in the process of analyzing the data. We hope to have a publication ready by the end of 2005." Before he warned the politicians that whatever are the results of the study, it does not say anything about postponed effects and the consequences of permanent radiation. It has been established already, that these effects exist. In a report for T-Mobile by the Jülich Institute of May 9 2005, the experts report effects on the central nervous system, cerebral bloodflow, neuronal activity, EEG, working of the brain and cognitive function. The European Reflex study found damage to DNA, which is an confirmation of earlier research and has been confirmed afterwards.

Political manifesto

Scientifically the harmfulness of electromagnetic radiation is proven, based on the many testimonies and anamneses, epidemiological research and most of the laboratory and provocative research. Nevertheless, the EMF-project of the WHO denies the existence of electromagnetic radiation sickness and even promotes the non-existence, though many scientists give a warning. The EMF-project works together with scientists who serve the wireless providers, not even keeping the appearance of independency. They simply do not take notion of or wipe away the epidemiologic research and make laboratory studies cancel each other out, which is scientifically inadmissible. The 'fact sheet' therefore is not a scientifically responsible and independent document. The information leaflet is based on instructions by a working group of only five people, organised by and participated by the EMF-project itself. It is reasonable to call it a political manifesto.

Sources:
correspondence with Chiyoji Ohkubo, Michael Repacholi of the EMF-project, WHO, Geneva
correspondence with Peter Achermann of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Zürich
'Bobje zingt weer' (canary bird sings again) in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, August 19 2005
sauvonsleon.fr (42 testimonies in French around one antenna installation)
stopumts.nl (questions about health and radiation: email [email protected])
who.int/peh-emf/meetings/hypersens_wgrep_oct04.pdf (page 8)
http://www.feb.se and many other websites, like microwavenews.com
unizh.ch/phar/sleep/handy/tnostatement.htm

Written by Frans van Velden
Frans is an accredited journalist

Questions about this press article: e-mail [email protected]
 
Mobile masts signal rain showers
The signals from mobile phone masts have been used to measure rainfall patterns in Israel, scientists report.
A team from the University of Tel-Aviv analysed information routinely collected by mobile networks to make their estimates.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say their technique is more accurate than current methods used by meteorological services.

The scientists believe the technique can also measure snowfall, hail or fog.

"It may also be important because if you know there is heavy rainfall - you can warn about floods," Professor Hagit Messer-Yaron, of the University of Tel-Aviv, told the BBC News website.

The team's method exploits the fact that the strength of electromagnetic signals is weakened by certain types of weather and particularly rain.

Signal strength

According to Professor Messer-Yaron, the effect was commonly seen in the days before cable television.

"Whenever there was a storm outside, you had a bad picture on your TV," she said. "This is well known."

To make the measurements the researchers analysed data collected automatically at mobile base stations around Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.


It was win-win because we got both coverage and accuracy
Professor Messer-Yaron

The data is a by-product of mobile network operators' need to monitor signal strength.
If bad weather causes a signal to drop, an automatic system analysing the data boosts the signal to make sure that people can still use their mobile phones.

The amount of reduction in signal strength gave the researchers an indication of how much rain had fallen.

When they compared their estimates with measurements from traditional monitoring methods, such as radar and rain gauges, they discovered that the readings from all three closely matched.

But overall the new technique seems to give more precise measurements than radar and was able to monitor a greater area.

"It was win-win because we got both coverage and accuracy," said Professor Messer-Yaron.

Rain gauge

Researchers in the UK have demonstrated a similar technique before.

Scientists at the Institute of Engineering, Surveying and Space Geodesy (IESSG) - part of the University of Nottingham - showed that the delays in signals from global positioning satellites are a good measure of atmospheric humidity.

However, the team from Tel-Aviv University believes one of the advantages of its method is that it can measure rainfall at the surface and the technique therefore gives an accurate picture of the weather on the ground.

At the moment, meteorological services have to use rain gauges, which are expensive and therefore not widespread.

But the information necessary for this novel approach is effectively free, continuous and comes from a dense network of masts that already span almost the entire globe.

Professor Messer-Yaron believes the technique could act as a cheap and valuable complement to existing systems for meteorological services.

The next step for the team is to make use of the mobile phone users themselves - to start analysing their signal data to see if even greater accuracies can be achieved.

To do this, Professor Messer-Yaron must work out how to differentiate between changes in signal strength that are due to mobile phone users moving around and those that are due to weather conditions.

"This is a scientific challenge that is still ahead of us, but I believe it is possible," she said.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/s ... 974542.stm

Published: 2006/05/05 12:04:12 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
New investigation into gadget allergy
By David Sapsted

(Filed: 26/08/2006)

A university is trying to unravel the truth behind a 21st century "disease" produced by exposure to electrical equipment.

Ryan Warne says he suffers so badly from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) that he has to view a computer through binoculars. He cannot use a mobile phone and, when he goes outside, he wears a special "hairnet" to protect himself from phone mast electromagnetism.

Mr Warne, 35, has volunteered to take part in the largest-ever study to determine if the masts affect human health.

The University of Essex research, due to be completed at the end of the year, is examining the effects of electromagnetic fields on 264 people, half of whom are sensitive to mobile phone technology.

EHS sufferers - who include Gro Harlem, the former Norwegian prime minister and secretary-general of the World Health Organisation - experience headaches, nausea, dizziness and burning sensations when exposed to mobile phones, laptops and other equipment.

Mr Warne, from Elmstead Market, near Colchester, Essex, gave up his job in a furniture showroom two years ago when, he says, a new, wireless computer system made him ill.

"The problem is not being taken seriously enough," he said yesterday. "Before companies bring out all this new technology, they should find out what effect it has on people's health.

"I can't watch television for long and when I want to use the computer I have it on in one room and sit in the hallway looking at the screen through binoculars."

Dr Stacy Eltiti, a senior research officer at Essex University, said: "There are quite a range of symptoms associated with sensitivity. Unfortunately, a lot of them are common in everyday life. They include difficulty concentrating, memory problems, headaches, heat or warmth in the head and ringing in the ears.

"Some people have to leave work or move house and can't even go out shopping in the normal environment."

Dr David Dowson, an expert on electromagnetism sensitivity, said that exposure to electromagnetic emissions had affected radar operators and electrical supply workers.

"But the widespread use of new electrical devices in the home and workplace, at the same time that completely original technologies based on microwaves have been introduced, has spread this environmental trigger," he said.

http://tinyurl.com/ezt86
 
rynner said:
New investigation into gadget allergy
....

Dr David Dowson, an expert on electromagnetism sensitivity, said that exposure to electromagnetic emissions had affected radar operators and electrical supply workers....


I thought I'd heard the name David Dowson before...if you follow his concerns about the dangers of EM fields to their logical conclusion the only safe option is to move as far from civilization as possible and use candles.
 
Mobiles 'cleared' of cancer risk

Children are advised not to use mobile phones unless necessary
Long or short-term mobile phone use is not associated with increased risk of cancer, a major study has found.
Mobile phone antennas emit electromagnetic fields that can penetrate the human brain.

But a Danish team found no evidence that this was linked to an increased risk of tumours in the head or neck as had been feared.

The study, of more than 420,000 mobile phone users, appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

We can have some confidence in the results

Professor Tricia McKinney
University of Leeds

The researchers, from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, looked at data on people who had been using mobile phones from as far back as 1982.

More than 56,000 had been using a mobile phone for at least 10 years.

They found no evidence to suggest users had a higher risk of tumours in the brain, eye, or salivary gland, or leukaemia.

Professor Tricia McKinney, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Leeds, said: "The results of this Danish cohort study are important as they have analysed data from mobile phone company records and do not rely on users remembering for up to 10 years in the past how often they used their phone.

"The large numbers of subscribers in the study mean we can have some confidence in the results that have not linked mobile phone use to a risk of any cancer, including brain tumours."

Similar findings

The study follows a report published earlier this year by the Institute of Cancer Research, which concluded that mobile phone use was not associated with a greater risk of brain cancer.

An independent group for the UK government, led by Sir William Stewart, that looked into the safety of mobile phones in the late 1990s also concluded mobile phones did not appear to harm health.

However, expert advice is still to limit mobile phone use among young people as a precautionary measure, as their head and nervous systems may still be developing.

And the government currently advises mobile phone users to keep their call times short.

There are more than one billion mobile phone users worldwide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6209960.stm
 
Get a hand held dectector that measures the output from a Microwave oven. Get someone on the other side of the workshop to bring in and use a mobile phone and watch the needle go F*****g beserk. You will never keep a mobile phone on youself afterwards.
 
Met a teacher who's so paranoid about her microwave that she keeps it in the basement. How convenient is that?! :roll:
 
Well they would say that...

Find No Adverse Health Effects From Base Station Radio Waves, Say Japanese Mobile Phone Operators
24 Jan 2007

(JCN Newswire) - Japan's mobile phone operators, NTT DoCoMo, Inc., KDDI Corporation and SoftBank Mobile Corporation have confirmed that radio frequency energy from mobile phone base stations does not cause damage to human cells in vitro studies.

Since November 2002, the companies have been collaborating to examine the effects of radio waves. As part of the collaboration, large-scale experiments have been conducted on the cellular and genetic level using radio waves up to 10 times stronger than the limit set forth in radio frequency radiation protection guidelines for base stations. In an interim report on April 26, 2005, the companies announced they had found no effects on cell proliferation, gene expression profile, or DNA single-strand breaks.

Now they have found there are no genetic alterations or protein functions that could be associated with cell transformation or programmed cell death (apoptosis). Based on these findings, the operators have concluded that they could not find adverse health effects from radio waves from mobile phone base stations.

The World Health Organization (WHO), European and American government institutions, and Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Committee to Promote Research on the Possible Biological Effect of Electromagnetic Fields) generally agree there is no firm scientific evidence that radio waves from mobile phones and base stations have adverse health effects.

However, as there are some studies claiming that radio waves pose a health hazard, WHO has recommended further research on the safety of radio emissions. In response, the three mobile phone operators started examining the effects of radio waves from mobile phone systems on the human body.

Mitsubishi Chemical Safety Institute Ltd., a specialized research institution, conducted the experiments on behalf of the operators. The results so far have been presented (or are scheduled to be presented) at international symposia and in academic journals. Detailed studies of this joint research have been published in the annual report of the Bioelectromagnetics (BEMS) international academic society and other publications during the last three years.

Three papers summarizing the results have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by the BEMS Journal

-- Sakuma et al., BEMS 27: 51-57, 2006
-- Hirose et al., BEMS 27: 494-504, 2006

The research used an in vitro exposure system developed by NTT DoCoMo that incorporated a horn antenna and dielectric lens in an anechoic chamber. The exposure system generates 2GHz-band Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) modulated-signal RF fields that meet the IMT-2000 specifications for third-generation mobile communications. See BEMS 25: 599-606, 2004.

Some results of the experiments have already been registered in the WHO database, and are being used in the WHO International Electromagnetic Field Project on radio waves and health.

About NTT DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company. DoCoMo serves more than 51 million customers, of which more than half subscribe to FOMA(TM), launched as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA in 2001. DoCoMo also offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode(TM), the world's most popular mobile e-mail/ Internet service, used by more than 46 million users. With the addition of credit-card and other e-wallet functions, DoCoMo mobile phones have become highly versatile tools for daily life. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com.

About KDDI Corporation

KDDI (TSE: 9433) is a diversified telecommunication operator formed by the merger of DDI, KDD and IDO in 2000, and is the only domestic company that provides both mobile communication service and broadband service. The number of subscribers to the mobile phone services under the au and TuKa brands is over 25 million, and the number of fixed-line subscribers (MyLine) is approximately 7.2 million. The 73 KDDI group companies have more than 8,300 and turnover of 3.060 billion yen through March 2006. At KDDI, aggressive improvement of the communications environment in preparation for the coming ubiquitous network society is underway and KDDI is aiming to become a "ubiquitous solution company" that provides high value-added solutions. For more information, please visit www.kddi.com.



http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=61511
 
signalnorth said:
Get a hand held dectector that measures the output from a Microwave oven. Get someone on the other side of the workshop to bring in and use a mobile phone and watch the needle go F*****g beserk. You will never keep a mobile phone on youself afterwards.

Most hand held detectors work in the 2450MHz ± 25MHz range. AFAIK They are not calibrated to handle mobile phone output, hence the overload that causes the needle to go berserk.

Calculations have shown that the maximum temperature rise produced in the head due to absorption of energy in the radio waves from a mobile phone is around 0.1ºC. Wearing a woolly hat is more dangerous.
 
ArthurASCII said:
Calculations have shown that the maximum temperature rise produced in the head due to absorption of energy in the radio waves from a mobile phone is around 0.1ºC. Wearing a woolly hat is more dangerous.
can't let that go unchallenged!

in cold weather, a large proportion of body heat is lost through the head (which contains the brain, that energy hungry organ). so a hat, woolly or otherwise, is a good thing.

why use microwaves to fry your brain, when a woolly hat (preferably with bobble) is much safer? :D
 
rynner said:
in cold weather, a large proportion of body heat is lost through the head (which contains the brain, that energy hungry organ). so a hat, woolly or otherwise, is a good thing.

why use microwaves to fry your brain, when a woolly hat (preferably with bobble) is much safer? :D

This losing all your heat through your head idea was featured in Mythconceptions a few months ago, where it pointed out that if it were true, you could go around on a cold day naked except for a woolly hat and still feel nice and warm. So it's probably not true, although it will keep your head warm, presumably.
 
gncxx said:
...

This losing all your heat through your head idea was featured in Mythconceptions a few months ago, where it pointed out that if it were true, you could go around on a cold day naked except for a woolly hat and still feel nice and warm. So it's probably not true, although it will keep your head warm, presumably.
The figure I've heard is around 30% of one's body heat is lost through the head. So, wearing a woolly hat would keep you around 30% warmer over all, than not.

I work a lot outside, at the moment and it does work.
 
from the grauniad:
Pre-match warm-up on a very cold night. Though not as cold as last night. "Can you tell me what Chimbonda is wearing if he's playing," asks David Killick. He is playing, but just not yet. "He usually wears mittens, bobble hat and a duffle coat in the middle of august. I am expecting he'll be wearing a balaclava, ugg boots, and be carrying a flask of tea as he runs up and down the wing." The Arsenal players aren't averse to wearing black gloves either.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/news/mat ... 28,00.html
don't let your little grey cells freeze! 8)
 
Leaferne said:
Met a teacher who's so paranoid about her microwave that she keeps it in the basement. How convenient is that?! :roll:

My Mum uses her microwave as a little cupboard. Bless. :)
 
My point was that a microwave induced temperature change of 0.1deg is unlikely to fry ones brain.

But perhaps I'm woolly-headed ;)
 
Now here's a twist!
Threat to church phone masts 'that relay porn'
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:19am GMT 12/03/2007

The Church of England is facing an embarrassing test case over whether mobile phone masts on steeples are illegal because they can relay pornography.

The church's highest court is to hear an appeal after a diocesan judge ruled that churches were "wrong in law" to "facilitate the transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way".

Many parishes have cashed in on the mobile phone boom by charging telecom companies thousands of pounds a year to put antennae on their towers or steeples. Even Guildford cathedral has a mast under its golden angel weather vane.

They were encouraged by official Church guidance, which acknowledged that immoral material can be transmitted by the new technology but argued that any "ill" was outweighed by the benefits.

However, critics said mobile phones can now transmit dangerously obscene internet images and the church should dissociate itself from such technology, especially after the General Synod condemned media exploitation last month.

The contentious issue has now reached the Archbishop of Canterbury's 800-year-old Court of Arches, which is due to hear an appeal against the ruling by the diocese of Chelmsford's consistory court within weeks.

The row began in October when Chancellor George Pulman, Chelmsford's ecclesiastical judge, rejected an application from St Peter and St Paul church in Chingford, north east London, to erect a T-mobile base station in its spire.

In his judgment, Mr Pulman, a QC who also sits as a deputy High Court judge in the Family Division, became the first Chancellor to refuse a faculty on the grounds that "revolting and damaging" pornography could be transmitted by the network. He said that it was "no part of the work or the mission of the Church" to facilitate or gain financial advantage from the transmission of pornography.

He said: "No Church bookstall would consider it appropriate to offer for sale 'top shelf' magazines with their images of sexual titillation or impropriety."


Mr Pulman also attacked local authorities for granting planning permission for such antennae, saying that their social services department were well aware of the dangers to children.

The Rev Chris Newlands, the chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev John Gladwin, said at the time that this was a landmark ruling.

The MP for Chingford, the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, said he welcomed the ruling which was a "victory for common sense".

But the judge's words flew in the face of guidance issued in 2002 by the Archbishops' Council after signing a national agreement appointing the QS4 communications company as the Church's approved mast installers.

The council, which is chaired by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, said: "Clearly there is a risk with any communication medium that it will be used for ill; but this has to be balanced against the enormous good which can flow from mobile communications - such as emergency calls, or the simple pleasures of people keeping in touch."

It added, however, that parishes "who feel strongly on this issue should not register with the national scheme".

The Rev Tom Page, the rector of Chingford, and QS4 have now appealed to the Court of Arches.

Church spokesmen declined to comment on the case, saying that it was sub judice.
http://tinyurl.com/2pzz4l
 
..and now, back to radiation and cancer:
Cancer clusters at phone masts
Daniel Foggo

SEVEN clusters of cancer and other serious illnesses have been discovered around mobile phone masts, raising concerns over the technology’s potential impact on health.

Studies of the sites show high incidences of cancer, brain haemorrhages and high blood pressure within a radius of 400 yards of mobile phone masts.

One of the studies, in Warwickshire, showed a cluster of 31 cancers around a single street. A quarter of the 30 staff at a special school within sight of the 90ft high mast have developed tumours since 2000, while another quarter have suffered significant health problems.

The mast is being pulled down by the mobile phone after the presentation of the evidenceoperator O2 by local protesters. While rejecting any links to ill-health, O2 admitted the decision was “clearly rare and unusual”.

Phone masts have provoked protests throughout Britain with thousands of people objecting each week to planning applications. There are about 47,000 masts in the UK.

Dr John Walker, a scientist who compiled the cluster studies with the help of local campaigners in Devon, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands, said he was convinced they showed a potential link between the angle of the beam of radiation emitted from the masts’ antennae and illnesses discovered in local populations.

“Masts should be moved away from conurbations and schools and the power turned down,” he said.

Some scientists already believe such a link exists and studies in other European countries suggest a rise in cancers close to masts. In 2005 Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, said he found four such studies to be of concern but that the health risk remained unproven.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 687491.ece
 
..and there's this, too:
Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog'

::: Revealed - radiation threat from new wireless computer networks
::: Teachers demand inquiry to protect a generation of pupils

By Geoffrey Lean, environment editor
Published: 22 April 2007

Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.

Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms across the nation.

Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards of mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a similar examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause cancer and premature senility.

Wi-Fi - described by the Department of Education and Skills as a "magical" system that means computers do not have to be connected to telephone lines - is rapidly being taken up inschools, with estimates that more than half of primary schools - and four-fifths of secondary schools - have installed it .

But several European provincial governments have already taken action to ban, or limit, its use in the classroom, and Stowe School has partially removed it after a teacher became ill.

This week the Professional Association of Teachers, which represents 35,000 staff across the country, will write to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education, to demand an official inquiry. Virtually no studies have been carried out into Wi-Fi's effects on pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone masts.

Recent research has linked radiation from mobiles to cancer and to brain damage. And many studies have found disturbing symptoms in people near masts.

Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute, who is deeply concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says there are "thousands" of articles in scientific literature demonstrating "adverse health effects". He adds: "Do we not know enough already to say, 'Stop!'?"

For the past 16 months, the provincial government of Salzburg in Austria has been advising schools not to install Wi-Fi, and is considering a ban. Dr Gerd Oberfeld, its head of environmental health and medicine, calls the technology "dangerous".

Sir William - who takes a stronger position on the issue than his agency - was not available for comment yesterday, but two members of an expert group that he chairs on the hazards of radiation spoke of his concern.

Mike Bell, chairman of the Electromagnetic Radiation Research Trust, says that he has been "very supportive of having Wi-Fi examined and doing something about it". And Alasdair Philips, director of Powerwatch, an information service, said that he was pressing for monitoring of the health of pupils exposed to Wi-Fi.

Labour MP Ian Gibson, who was interviewed with Sir William for a forthcoming television programme, last week said that he backed proposals for an inquiry.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health ... 472133.ece
 
rynner said:
“Masts should be moved away from conurbations and schools and the power turned down,” he said.

The unfortunate of effect of this being that then the phones stop working...

This is one of the problems of this controversy, if EM radiation from mobile phone masts and Wi-Fi systems does turn out to be harmful. how many people would be happy to give up their mobiles to avoid the risk?
 
one of my little sisters claims that nearby mobile phone masts give her a headache.
 
The Chernobyl diet
By Stefan Gates
BBC presenter, Cooking in the Danger Zone

For the BBC Two series Cooking in the Danger Zone, food writer Stefan Gates travels to Chernobyl in Ukraine and meets people who live and eat in the "radioactive zone".

"Niet! Niet!" screamed the cook.

I had asked her if it was possible to eat any of the local food, to which she replied: "Good God, no. We don't eat fish, meat, fruit. We don't eat anything. It's all contaminated. You can't. You can't."

In 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident took place at Chernobyl Power Plant here in northern Ukraine when an explosion blew the top off reactor number four and a fire sent plumes of radioactive material into the air, contaminating much of Europe.

Today a vast exclusion zone, the size of Lancashire, encircles Chernobyl and much of the land is still radioactive.

Despite this, several thousand people still work here decommissioning the plant, so the Chernobyl canteen cook has to import food from the farthest reaches of Ukraine.

'Zone of Alienation'

It turns out that the Chernobyl "Zone of Alienation" is home to several hundred mainly elderly people living illegally in the area, and their attitude to the risks of radiation is very different.

They returned to their homes soon after the disaster and are now growing vegetables and raising livestock again, despite the fact that the entire region is now an empty, isolated and post-apocalyptic vision of abandoned villages and rampant wildlife.

Anna is a wonderful, garrulous 83-year-old babushka who has returned to the Zone of Alienation.

She was outraged to hear that the BBC had instructed me not to eat any of her food and she began a sustained bullying campaign, saying: "What's wrong with you? There's nothing to fear from my food - God will protect you."

Her reasoning was pretty simple: "If it were contaminated we would have died a long time ago, but we've been eating it for 20 years already!"

The ultimate test

It did seem odd that we were filming a fabulous cook making food but could not eat it.

Anna kept chipping away at my resolve, saying: "Just eat it! You won't die. God will protect you. We eat it and we're alive and you'll be alright too!"

My producer Marc Perkins was hissing: "You're NOT allowed to eat it," but when she produced her homemade butter and our local guides made me more confident by tucking in, my resolve crumbled.

I fell upon the food, much to her admiration.

It was just pork fat soup, but it tasted deep, smoky and very, very Ukrainian.

Admittedly, the fear of radiation had made my taste buds extra sensitive, but I felt much more comfortable with the idea after Anna forced several glasses of her plum moonshine down my throat.

Standard of living

The nearest functioning town to the Zone of Alienation is Slavutych, a town built to re-house workers who continued to work at the nuclear plant after the accident (strange though it may seem, the other three nuclear reactors at Chernobyl were restarted six months later and continued to operate until 2000).

Slavutych is only 50km (31 miles) from Chernobyl and land around here was also contaminated by the accident.

The local market even has a radiation testing lab and stallholders have to have their produce tested regularly.

Despite this, the residents are remarkably sanguine about radiation.

Lena Vasilenko, an English teacher, explained to me that radiation effectively provides Slavutych with employment and a higher standard of living than the rest of Ukraine, and the construction of the town was 85% funded by the company running Chernobyl.

Conditions here are better than in the rest of Ukraine, which is still recovering from the post-Soviet reform.

Death toll

We ate lunch with Lena's friends Yuri, Denis, Natasha and Anatoly, who seemed to be in denial about radiation.

"Nothing's happened yet," they say.

Yuri echoes a widely-held belief that vodka absorbs and flushes radiation out of the system, a dangerous attitude in a country so fond of hard liquor that 38% of men are classified as "heavy alcohol users".

The real toll of the disaster is highly disputed, with the authorities - represented by the Chernobyl Forum - predicting the total final number of deaths at 4,000.

Greenpeace, however, suggest 270,000 cases of cancer attributable to Chernobyl fallout with around 93,000 of these fatal.

If these numbers are right, it seems highly dangerous to turn a blind eye to radiation.

'National character'

The future for the Slavutych now looks bleak as jobs at Chernobyl begin to disappear.

We met up with the town mayor, who was keen to put a glossy spin on the situation and took us mushroom-picking to prove his point.

Mushrooms are one of the foods most susceptible to radioactive contamination but Ukrainians love them, and in the forest next to the town, we found a carpet of fine ceps.

"None of the land around here is dangerous," he enthuses, "it's not a problem we have."

Just to be sure, we took the mayor's mushrooms to the market testing-station and had them checked for radiation poisoning.

Both the inspector and myself were shocked to see that they were eight times over the safe levels.

I called the mayor to warn him but he just said: "It doesn't matter."

I asked if he was really going to eat them and he said: "Yes. No problem."

I was shocked, but Lena said: "A lot of people are eager to come here to work and we pay this price of not paying attention to radiation."

Ukraine has a history of suffering. The country was on the frontline of world wars, faced appalling famines under Stalin and has been trying to rebuild itself since the fall of communism.

I ask if this attitude to radiation is part of the Ukrainian national character and Lena sighs. "Ah, yes, we are used to suffering."

On our last day in Ukraine I had a full body radiation check, which discovered unusually high radiation in my stomach.

The doctor told me that the levels were reasonable for someone who was just visiting the area briefly, and that I would return to normal pretty soon, but I realised that Lena and her friends were almost certainly being affected by the foods they ate.

They were gambling with their health.

The Chernobyl canteen cook was right. Just say "niet". But the people of Slavutych feel as though they have little choice.

Lena's friend Natasha put it very simply: "Why are we so tolerant? Radiation feeds us."

Cooking in the Danger Zone will be broadcast on Sunday, 13 May, 2007 at 1900 BST.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/c ... 638351.stm
 
Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi
Environment Ministry's verdict on the health risks from wireless technology puts the British government to shame. By Geoffrey Lean
Published: 09 September 2007

People should avoid using Wi-Fi wherever possible because of the risks it may pose to health, the German government has said.

Its surprise ruling – the most damning made by any government on the fast-growing technology – will shake the industry and British ministers, and vindicates the questions that The Independent on Sunday has been raising over the past four months.

And Germany's official radiation protection body also advises its citizens to use landlines instead of mobile phones, and warns of "electrosmog" from a wide range of other everyday products, from baby monitors to electric blankets.

The German government's ruling – which contrasts sharply with the unquestioning promotion of the technology by British officials – was made in response to a series of questions by Green members of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament.

The Environment Ministry recommended that people should keep their exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi "as low as possible" by choosing "conventional wired connections". It added that it is "actively informing people about possibilities for reducing personal exposure".

Its actions will provide vital support for Sir William Stewart, Britain's official health protection watchdog, who has produced two reports calling for caution in using mobile phones and who has also called for a review of the use of Wi-Fi in schools. His warnings have so far been ignored by ministers and even played down by the Health Protection Agency, which he chairs.

By contrast the agency's German equivalent – the Federal Office for Radiation Protection – is leading the calls for caution.

Florian Emrich, for the office, says Wi-Fi should be avoided "because people receive exposures from many sources and because it is a new technology and all the research into its health effects has not yet been carried out".

http://environment.independent.co.uk/li ... 944417.ece
 
7 October 2007 11:01
Public health: The hidden menace of mobile phones
Research into the link between regular handset use and disease reveals the risks rise significantly after 10 years, despite official assurances that they are safe. Geoffrey Lean reports
Published: 07 October 2007

Using a mobile phone for more than 10 years increases the risk of getting brain cancer, according to the most comprehensive study of the risks yet published.

The study – which contradicts official pronouncements that there is no danger of getting the disease – found that people who have had the phones for a decade or more are twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.

The scientists who conducted the research say using a mobile for just an hour every working day during that period is enough to increase the risk – and that the international standard used to protect users from the radiation emitted is "not safe" and "needs to be revised".

They conclude that "caution is needed in the use of mobile phones" and believe children, who are especially vulnerable, should be discouraged from using them at all.

The study, published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Occupational Environmental Medicine, is important because it pulls together research on people who have used the phones for long enough to contract the disease.

Cancers take at least 10 years – and normally much longer – to develop but, as mobile phones have spread so recently and rapidly, relatively few people have been using them that long.

Official assurances that the phones are safe have been based on research that has, at best, included only a few people who have been exposed to the radiation for long enough to get the disease, and are therefore of little or no value in assessing the real risk.

Last month, Britain's largest investigation into the health risks of the technology, the £8.8m Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme – funded by "government and industry sources" – reported that "mobile phones have not been found to be associated with any biological or adverse health effects".

But its chairman, Professor Lawrie Challis, admitted that only a small proportion of the research had covered people who had used the phones for more than a decade. He warned: "We cannot rule out the possibility at this stage that cancer could appear in a few years' time."

He said the investigation had discovered "a very slight hint" of increased numbers of brain tumours among those exposed for more than 10 years, and called for more research.

The new study – headed by two Swedes, Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro and Professor Kjell Hansson Mild of Umea University, who also serves on the MTHR programme's management committee – goes some way to meeting the deficiency.

The scientists pulled together the results of the 11 studies that have so far investigated the occurrence of tumours in people who have used phones for more than a decade, drawing on research in Sweden, Denmark Finland, Japan, Germany, the United States and Britain. They found almost all had discovered an increased risk, especially on the side of the head where people listened to their handsets.

Five of the six studies of malignant gliomas, cancers of the glial cells that support and protect the nerve cells, found an increased risk. The only one that did not still found an increase in benign gliomas. Four of the five studies that looked at acoustic neuromas – benign but often disabling tumours on the auditory nerve, which usually cause deafness – found them. The exception was based on only two cases of the disease, but still found that long-term users had larger tumours than other people.

The scientists assembled the findings of all the studies to analyse them collectively. This revealed that people who have used their phones for a decade or more are 20 per cent more likely to contract acoustic neuromas, and 30 per cent more likely to get malignant gliomas.

The risk is even greater on the side of the head the handset is used: long-term users were twice as likely to get the gliomas, and two and a half times more likely to get the acoustic neuromas there than other people.

The scientists conclude: "Results from present studies on use of mobile phones for more than 10 years give a consistent pattern of an increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma." They add that "an increased risk for other types of brain tumours cannot be ruled out".

Professors Hardell and Mild have also themselves carried out some of the most extensive original work into tumours among long-term mobile phone users and have come up with even more alarming results. Their research suggests they are more than three times more likely to get malignant gliomas than other people, and nearly five times more likely to get them on the side of the head where they held the phone. For acoustic neuromas they found a threefold and three-and-a-half-fold increased risk respectively.

They have also carried out the only study into the effects of the long-term use of cordless phones, and found this also increased both kinds of tumours. Their research suggests that using a mobile or cordless phone for just 2,000 hours – less than an hour every working day for 10 years – is enough to augment the risk.

Professor Mild told The Independent on Sunday: "I find it quite strange to see so many official presentations saying that there is no risk. There are strong indications that something happens after 10 years." He stressed that brain cancers are rare: they account for less than 2 per cent of primary tumours in Britain, though they are disproportionately deadly, causing 7 per cent of the years of life lost to the disease. "Every cancer is one too many," he said.

He said he uses a mobile phone as little as possible, and urges others to use hands-free equipment and make only short calls, reserving longer ones for landlines. He also said that mobiles should not be given to children, whose thinner skulls and developing nervous systems make them particularly vulnerable.

The danger may be even greater than the new study suggests for, as Professor Mild says, 10 years is the "minimum" period needed by cancers to develop. As they normally take much longer, very many more would be likely to strike long-term users after 15, 20 or 30 years – which leads some to fear that an epidemic of the disease could develop in the coming decades, particularly among today's young people.

On the other hand, the professor points out that the amount of radiation emitted by phones has decreased greatly since the first ones came on the market more than a decade ago, which suggests that exposures and risks should also be falling. But he still recommended choosing phones that give out as little radiation as possible (see below), and pointed out that people are now also exposed to many other sources of radiation, such as masts and Wi-Fi systems, though these emit much less than mobile handsets.

Britain's official Health Protection Agency – which has taken a cautious view of claims that radiation from mobile phones, their masts and Wi-Fi installations can damage health – admits that the study "may be indicative" of a risk, but says that "such analyses cannot be conclusive".

The Mobile Operators Association said: "This is not new data for the World Health Organisation and the many independent expert scientific committees who state that there are no established health risks from using mobile phones that comply with international guidelines."

Both sides agree that there is need for more research. Professor Mild said a possible link between mobile phones and Alzheimer's disease should also be examined, since "we have indications that it might be a problem" as well as a possible link with Parkinson's disease, "which can't be ruled out".

In the meantime, the scientists want a revision of the emission standard for mobiles and other sources of radiation, which they describe as "inappropriate" and "not safe". The international standard is designed merely to prevent harmful heating of living tissue or induced electrical currents in the body – and does not take the risk of getting cancer into account.

Professors Hansen and Mild serve on the international BioInitiative Working Group of leading scientists and public health experts, which this summer produced a report warning that the standard was "thousands of times too lenient".

The BioInitiative report added: "It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that some adverse health effects occur at far lower levels of exposure... some at several thousand times below the existing safety limits." It also warned that unless this is corrected there could be "public health problems of a global nature".

Case study: 'Mobiles are the smoking of the 21st century; they need health warnings'

Neil Whitfield, a 49-year-old father of six, developed an acoustic neuroma in 2001 after years of heavy mobile phone use, on the left side of the head, to which he had held his handset. He says he had no family history of the disease and that when he asked a specialist what had caused it, the doctor had asked him if he used a mobile.

"I was on it four hours a day, easily" he says. "When I held it to my head, I could feel my ear getting warm."

He adds that he completely lost his hearing in his left ear and was off work for 12 months. Unable to go back to his old job in marketing, he became a teacher, suffering a £20,000 drop in income.

"It has had a devastating effect on my family," he says. "Mobile phones are the smoking of the 21st century; they should have health warnings on them. You would never buy a child a pack of cigarettes, but we give them mobiles which could cause them harm."

Warning: your model might be dangerous

Exposure to radiation, shown as Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) levels, varies widely in different models. Manufacturers and the Government have ignored the Stewart report that urges they be clearly marked on phones and boxes. They are thus hard to find, though the Carphone Warehouse catalogue includes them. An easily accessible list of phones and radiation exposures is published in Germany, where low-radiation models, defined as having SAR of 0.6 or under, are encouraged.

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3036005.ece
 
Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep

Using a mobile phone before going to bed could stop you getting a decent night's sleep, research suggests.
The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion.

It may also cut our amount of deep sleep - interfering with the body's ability to refresh itself.

The study was carried out by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.

Funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45.

Some were exposed to radiation equivalent to that received when using a mobile phone, others were placed in the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure.

Those exposed to radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one.

The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."

Researcher Professor Bengt Arnetz said: "The study strongly suggests that mobile phone use is associated with specific changes in the areas of the brain responsible for activating and coordinating the stress system."

Another theory is that radiation may disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body's internal rhythms.

Electrosensitivity

About half the people in the study believed themselves to be "electrosensitive", reporting symptoms such as headaches and impaired cognitive function from mobile phone use.

But they proved to be unable to tell if they had been exposed to the radiation in the test.

Alasdair Philips is director of Powerwatch, which researches the effects of electromagnetic fields on health.

He said: "The evidence is getting stronger that we should treat these things in a precautionary way.

"This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don't have your mobile by your bedside table."

Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, said the study was inconsistent with other research.

He said: "It is really one small piece in a very large scientific jigsaw. It is a very small effect, one researcher likened it to less than the effect you would see from a cup of coffee."

Last September a major six-year study by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHRP) concluded that mobile phone use posed no short-term risk to the brain.

However, the researchers said they could not rule out the possibility that long-term use may raise the risk of cancer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7199659.stm
 
Orange to remove mobile mast from 'tower of doom', where cancer rate has soared

Orange to remove mobile mast from 'tower of doom', where cancer rate has soared
Last updated at 23:52pm on 06.08.07

John Llewellin: Died last month
A mobile phone company is to remove a mast from a block of flats after seven residents were struck down by cancer.

Three have died and another four have battled the disease since two masts were erected on the roof of the five-storey block which has become known locally as the Tower of Doom.

The cancer rate on the top floor - where residents of five of the eight flats have been affected and the three who died all lived - is 20 per cent, ten times the national average.

Residents of Berkeley House in Staple Hill, Bristol, also complain of terrible headaches and other ailments which they blame on radiation from the masts.

Orange has agreed to remove its mast after a five-year campaign by residents and pressure from the local authority. But it has caused anger with plans to move it to a residential street nearby.

The other mast belongs to Vodafone, which has no plans to move it.

The most recent death was that of John Llewellin, 63, who lost his battle against bowel cancer two weeks ago.

Scroll down for more


Anger: The mast (circled) on the block known to locals as the Tower of Doom


Two years ago, Barbara Wood died in her 70s from breast cancer. Two years earlier Joyce Davies died, also from breast cancer.


Danger zone: Residents at this Bristol flat have suffered illness and death

The other victims on the top floor are Hazel Frape, 63, who has had breast cancer, and 89-year-old Phyllis Smith who moved out after she contracted the same disease.

On the fourth floor Bernice Mitchell, 69, has battled womb cancer. On the second floor, 78-year-old Barbara Watts, who has lived in the block for 31 years, is in remission from breast cancer.

Many of the 110 residents, including Doreen Sheppard, 74, have complained of headaches and other health problems.

She said: "The masts are bound to be doing something. I get terrible headaches and I've started suffering from Meniere's disease, where I lose my balance. I'm worried about the children on the estate as there are so many of them now."

Both masts were erected in 1994. South Gloucestershire Council served a notice asking for them to be removed when the ten-year contract expired three years ago.

But because current guidelines say there is no risk from radiation the council does not have a legal right to force their removal.

After a long legal battle Orange has submitted a planning application to put the mast on top of a shopping precinct in a street near homes, a primary school and a public library.


Left alone: Moira Llewellin's husband died of cancer, one of three flat residents to die

Jeanette McCormack, 69, who has led a campaign against the mast, said a petition against the new location had gathered more than 200 names.

She added: "People of all ages who live and work near the mast will be exposed to the radiation and so there's a lot of anger about it."

World Health Organisation guidelines have dismissed the risks of masts despite other evidence which has found they are harmful.

A spokesman for Orange said the company takes health and safety very seriously.

He added that the company was satisfied its mobile phone base stations do not present a health risk.

Vodafone is working on a new longterm lease from South Gloucestershire Council. A spokesman said the company took residents' concerns "extremely seriously" and would continue to work with them and the council to provide reassurance.



Up, up and away: Orange's controversial mobile phone mast will be no longer be a blot on the landscape

Link to original, 'This Is London,' article

Edit: Link Fixed. P_M
 
Heavy mobile phone use a cancer risk
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 1:09am GMT 18/02/2008

People who use a mobile phone for hours a day are 50 per cent more likely to develop mouth cancer than those who do not talk on them at all, new research has shown.

The study also suggests that mobile users who live in rural areas may be at an increased risk of cancer because handsets need to emit more radiation to locate fewer antennas.

Research author Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer specialist at Tel Aviv University, investigated the cases of nearly 500 people diagnosed with benign and malignant tumours of the salivary gland.

The study is regarded as significant as it was conducted on the Israeli population who were among the first to widely adopt mobile phone technology and are among its heaviest users.

Dr Sadetzki said: "Unlike people in other countries, Israelis were quick to adopt cell phone technology and have continued to be exceptionally heavy users.

"Therefore, the amount of exposure to radio frequency radiation found in this study has been higher than in previous cell phone studies. This unique population has given us an indication that cell phone use is associated with cancer."

In the study, the 500 patients were asked to detail their mobile phone use patterns in terms of how frequently they used one, and the average length of calls. Later they were compared to a sample of around 1,300 healthy subjects.

She found that those who had used the mobile phones against the side of their heads for many hours a day were 50 per cent more likely to develop a tumour of the paratoid gland compared to infrequent users.

The parotid gland is the largest human salivary gland and is located near the jaw and ear, where mobile phones are typically held.

In the study, published by the American Journal of Epidemiology, Dr Sadetzki speculated that the greatest effects will be found in heavy users and children over a period of time.

She also highlighted rural users as being slightly more at risk than those in cities, because there are fewer masts and the phones have to emit more radiation to ensure a clear connection.

However, many other studies in recent years have found no increased risk of cancer due to mobile phone use.

In September 2007 the U.K. Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme found that "mobile phones have not been found to be associated with any biological or adverse health effects," although it noted that "the situation for longer term exposure is less clear."

Professor Lawrie Challis, Chairman of MTHR, said: "The results are so far re-assuring but there is still a need for more research, especially to check that no effects emerge from longer-term phone use from adults and from use by children."

Dr Sadetzki says the risks have been hard to prove, but believes this is mainly due to the long latency period involved in cancer development.

She says that anecdotal evidence has been substantial and the consistency of her study results support an association between mobile phone use and these tumours.

The report also outlines that the risks of mobile use can be diminished by using the speaker, hands free devices and limiting the number of calls made and hours spent on the phone.

Dr Sadetzki said: "While I think this technology is here to stay I believe precautions should be taken in order to diminish the exposure and lower the risk for health hazards. Some technology that we use today carries a risk. The question is not if we use it, but how we use it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... nes118.xml
 
More on the risks of using mobile phones. If the headline is true, then the time to give up using your mobile, is NOW! :shock:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...hones-more-dangerous-than-smoking-802602.html

Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'

Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation


Independent Online. By Geoffrey Lean. Sunday, 30 March 2008

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this will be "definitively proven" in the next decade.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".
Ever since I discovered that mobile phones were a source of microwave radiation, I've thought that there's something just not right about microwaving one's brain. If this is true, then it's potential major disaster in waiting.

Never mind the grown-ups, just think of all the kids, whose brains are still forming, regularly bathing their grey matter in microwave radiation, like they were heating up a Tesco's ready Meal. :?
 
rynner said:
She found that those who had used the mobile phones against the side of their heads for many hours a day were 50 per cent more likely to develop a tumour of the paratoid gland compared to infrequent users.

The parotid gland is the largest human salivary gland and is located near the jaw and ear, where mobile phones are typically held.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... nes118.xml
Since I posted that, someone I know was found to have cancer in his neck. It was originally thought to be 'gland trouble'. He's had operations, and will also need chemo and/or radio-therapy.

And yes, he is a heavy user of mobiles. In fact, I wondered how much he might be at risk when I read the article.

So yes, the time to give up using your mobile, is NOW!
 
It seems that mobiles also impinge on mental health
(which makes me doubly glad I don't have one!)


Phone-reliant Britons in the grip of 'nomo-phobia'

Monday, 31 March 2008

Being out of mobile-phone contact is as stressful as moving house or breaking up with a partner for nearly one in five phone users, according to a survey which suggests many Britons are in the grip of "nomo-phobia".

Anxiety over running out of battery or credit, losing one's handset and not having network coverage affects 53 per cent of the UK's 45 million mobile-phone users, according to the study by YouGov.

Stewart Fox-Mills, the head of telephony at the Post Office, which commissioned the survey, said "nomo-phobia" was a real phenomenon for many people. "We're all familiar with the stressful situations of everyday life such as moving house, break-ups and organising a family Christmas, but it seems being out of mobile contact may be the 21st century's contribution to our already manic lives," he said. "Being phoneless and panicked is a symptom of our 24/7 culture."

Men were more likely than women to be affected by losing mobile phone contact, with 48 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men admitting to feelings of anxiety. More than 20 per cent of the 2,163 people questioned said they never switched off their mobiles, and one in 10 said their job required them to be contactable at all times.

Some 55 per cent cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason for being wedded to their handsets and 9 per cent said having their phone switched off made them anxious.

The Post Office has now produced a guide to avoiding "nomo-phobia" which recommends leaving loved ones an alternative contact number and making a back-up list of all contacts in case the phone is lost or stolen.

The ban on mobile-phone use on planes has posed a problem for those who feel the need to be contactable. But last month, Ofcom, the communications regulator, confirmed British airline passengers could, by next year, use mobiles on aircraft flying above 3,000m. The calls are likely to cost between £1 and £2 a minute.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/phonereliant-britons-in-the-grip-of-nomophobia-802722.html
 
Warning: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby
Study of 13,000 children exposes link between use of handsets and later behavioural problems
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 18 May 2008

Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose "is not much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol".

The research – at the universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Aarhus, Denmark – is to be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology and will carry particular weight because one of its authors has been sceptical that mobile phones pose a risk to health.

UCLA's Professor Leeka Kheifets – who serves on a key committee of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the body that sets the guidelines for exposure to mobile phones – wrote three and a half years ago that the results of studies on people who used them "to date give no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect".

The scientists questioned the mothers of 13,159 children born in Denmark in the late 1990s about their use of the phones in pregnancy, and their children's use of them and behaviour up to the age of seven. As they gave birth before mobiles became universal, about half of the mothers had used them infrequently or not at all, enabling comparisons to be made.

They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

The scientists say that the results were "unexpected", and that they knew of no biological mechanisms that could cause them. But when they tried to explain them by accounting for other possible causes – such as smoking during pregnancy, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status – they found that, far from disappearing, the association with mobile phone use got even stronger.

They add that there might be other possible explanations that they did not examine – such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay less attention to their children – and stress that the results "should be interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies. But they conclude that "if they are real they would have major public health implications".

Professor Sam Milham, of the blue-chip Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and the University of Washington School of Public Health – one of the pioneers of research in the field – said last week that he had no doubt that the results were real. He pointed out that recent Canadian research on pregnant rats exposed to similar radiation had found structural changes in their offspring's brains.

The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be "limited". It concludes that children who talk on the handsets are likely to suffer from "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability" in the short term, and that longer-term hazards include "depressive syndrome" and "degeneration of the nervous structures of the brain".

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 30352.html

It seems mobiles are proving to be a scourge of our society - can we live without them? We'd need to replace loads of lost public call boxes...
 
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