WHO continues to encourage the active participation of interested stakeholders in these processes.
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Hamburg, den 04.09.2003 Puzyna, D- 20355 Hamburg webmaster@umtsno.de to: emfproject@who.int Dear Sirs, On the 4th of July 2003, Mrs. Kheifeits, doctor, team leader of a private union in Munich called the ICNIRP (International Commission for Nonionizing Radiation Protection, Munich Germany"), left her executive position at the EMF (Electro Magnetic Fields) Project, organized by the WHO (World Health Organization). It would be appropriate for the EMF Project, that Mr. Repacholi should also leave his position as coordinator at this project. Dr. Repacholi as implementer and former chief executive to the ICNIRP association in Munich had a direct influence on the unilateral decisions considering the amount of radiation in the range of high and low frequencies. My personal involvement in this case of the danger caused by the use of EMF has following reasons 1. Historical matters In Hamburg where I am living I have witnessed some of the greatest german medical scandals with -experts-. - In the Eppendorf (UKE) hospital in Hamburg, a Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics had been injecting his patients fallopian tubes with doze of artificial substances in need of finding a proper "formula" for the best artificial material. - Professor Dr. Klaus-Henning Hübener and Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Frischbier were accused of over-dozing the amount of radiation. In need of eliminating cancer from their patient bodies; in result we are aware that minimum 317 patients suffered from irradiation or have been deceased (of course we may speculate that there were more casualties, which were not or could not be reveilled). None of them went to prison or had been punished in any way. - Professor Dr. Dr. Dr. (orthopedist) Rupprecht Bernbeck who had been "playing God in Hamburg-Barmbek hospital for 19 years, forcing his patients for further treatment in the hospital which only made their matters worse, making minimum 598 patients handicapped. Dr. R. Bernbeck was never accused of any medical crime. 2. Local matters - Because of the radiation caused by the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), my own health, and the health of my neighbours, their children and all of the citizens is being endangered. The UMTS poles are being placed without notice and permission of the locals. - The decision of chancellor Gerhard Schröder concerning taking over the references of the specialists working on the UMTS project, as if Mr. G. Schröder were a specialist himself, and were aware of all the matters connected with the EMF. - On the 19th of June 2003, the Hamburg politicians set up a law which says that the UMTS poles will be installed without prewarning, or any notice. 3. Political matters - Uncritical obedience of the functionaries working in controlling institutions throughout the country: the post, the telephone provider(- RegTP) and the radiation security department (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz- BfS). These Institutions have set up permissions for the UMTS Project without any medical proof. So far the harmlessness of the EMF has not been examined yet. - Trimmering of the EMF project - the epidemiological analyze is firstly being announced and then held for not known reasons. |
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![]() Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Explanations about JP Lentin's info from France Dear all, May I react to Jean-Pierre Lentin's mail, dated Dec 17, about what is happening in France, in which my name was quoted, but associated with some incorrect information. I wish Jean-Pierre had asked me before sending out this mail, or had at least sent me a copy of it right away, which unfortunately he didn't do. The complaint I filed is against Bernard Veyret and Rene de Seze. Both of them made scientific communications in 1991 and 1995, recognizing and even explaining the specific effects of EMF in great details, even though they now deny them. The complaint is based on their own scientific documents, as well as on prooves of their financial links with Motorola and consorts. If the Russian knew about all that, they probably would'nt accept what is being proposed to them. The judge seemed interested. He let me know he would upheld the complaint after a certain event takes place, which I unfortunately cannot mention. The question is, when ? All of us are concerned by Veyret's lies, for he is a leading member of ICNIRP, OMS and DG XIII's European Commission, the three of which are responsible for producing "protection" standards and recommendations that make so many people ill all around the world. Should any of you be willing to file such a complaint in your own country, I'd be glad to let you have the necessary documents (most of them are in French, you will probably have to pay for a certified translation). Shortly before Ross Adey's death, I spoke to him on the phone, asking if he was aware of what I'd just had a confirmation to : the extremely low frequency of 16 Hz is present in the European GSM. He told me that he knew about that. Some of you probably know the studies of Ross Adey and Carl Blackman about the calcium ion efflux that takes place at 16 Hz. Several measurements on a mobile phone during the communcation, with professional instruments, showed not only 16 Hz, but every harmonics (multiple) of 8 Hz, up to 500 Hz. This means that not only 16 Hz, but other frequencies that may provoke this calcium ion efflux, are emitted. The question is, why ? Probably because of the "american and japanese" electronical components, as per a scientist who participated the the GSM working group more than 20 years ago. Anyway, I've been lead to interesting findings about the causal link between the calcium ion efflux caused by certain particular frequenciesand the micro-wave syndrom, as well as other diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's desease, diabetes, depression and insomnia. This scientific data is currently being examined by several experienced seekers. I didn't intend to speak up on the public scene before their validation, but I have to do it now, because of Jean-Pierre Lentin's mail. It's a few months too early but now, you are aware of what is about to happen. Should some of you want to propose help, I'd be very glad to receive it. Truly yours, Annie Lobe alobe@club-internet.fr PS : I'm not an activist but a free-lance journalist who specialized in scientific investigation. I began to investigate on cell phones 3 years ago. ![]() (From Jean-Pierre Lentin) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 From: Don Maisch <dmaisch@emfacts.com> Dear Roy In the below informative message from Jean-Pierre Lentin take special note about what is mentioned about ICNIRP's Bernard Veyret. Interesting as Veyret will be "guiding" the so-called French/Russian series of studies to verify (or not) the validity of the Russian RF Standards, (and therefore ICNIRP's as well). As I mention in my report on the Russian cell phone conference the credibility of ICNIRP is also at stake in these studies. Allowing ICNIRP to "guide" this research effort I would call a BIAS of the highest order. All the more reason that Section III of my report http://emfacts.com/papers/moscow_conf.pdf is taken up as a requirement by the Russian RF scientific community. This is a recommendation that an independent oversight committee be formed to monitor the progress of the research. I have previously suggested this to the RNCNIRP . Whether that translates into firm action remains to be seen. In my opinion what ICNIRP hopes to accomplish with these studies is to lead the Russians down the garden path right to their scientific slaughterhouse. And then the main threat to ICNIRP's version of "science" is eliminated. IT IS VITAL THAT THE JOINT FRENCH / RUSSIAN STUDIES BE INDEPENDENTLY MONITORED TO KEEP THE BASTARDS HONEST! Pass it on! Don Dear Don, I am currently reading Alexander and Ann Shulgin's "PIHKAL", originally published in 1991, a book about their life of research on psychedelic drugs, with no obvious connection with EMF health issues, except this interesting "factoid" : In year 1966, Alexander Shulgin, a chemistry researcher, was briefly employed by an American military facility, the San Carlos Aerospace Laboratory, at Sunnyvale, California. This is his account of top-secret on-going research projects at the time : Here were arcane projects such as black membrane dynamics, and studies of the influence of gravity on plant growth, the relationships between magnetic fields and the blood-brain barrier, and the effects of radiation on fertility. All were intriguing studies, and all were being run in well equipped laboratories by extremely competent scientists. Until now, the earliest references found for American military research about EMF effect on blood-brain barrier were 1972 or 1974. Now, we find that this subject of research was already being studied in 1966 ! Apparently, the American army knows a lot of things about EMF effects on health, things that are still not revealed today... Well, while I'm at it, here are a few infos on what's happening in France and elsewhere on the "frontline" of EMF & health issues. Mobile phone operators in France have filed a judiciary complaint against two notorious French anti-masts activists, Etienne Cendrier and Annie Lobe, demanding incredible sums... As French justice is pretty slow, these trials will probably happen within the next year (2005). The activists are being pursued for declarations they have made to the press, so it seems to me that this is in clear violation of freedom of expression rights. Ever an optimist, I think this complaint will not be upheld by the judges, and that this "gagging" strategy from the mobile phone operators will turn out to be viewed as a very bad idea, and seriously tarnish their reputation. We will see... I must add that Annie Lobe herself did file a complaint against French scientist Bernard Veyret, who heads the "biology commission" at ICNIRP (although he is a physicist !!!). Veyret may be viewed as the "French Michael Repacholi", i.e. the reassuring expert who constantly downplays, in official reports and media communication, all independant research about EMF health-risks. Now, unfortunately, I seriously doubt that Annie's action will be followed by the judges, for lack of scientific evidence, despite the encouraging message she received from W. Ross Adey shortly before his death... We have a lot of "cancer clusters" in France, linked to mobile phone masts, but despite the valiant efforts of several citizens associations, the plight of those poor people is not being seriously considered by public health authorities. And things won't change in the near future, as our new "health czar" (i.e. director of the "Delegation Generale de la Sante", the top health public institution in France), nominated last year, is none other than Dr. William Dab, who headed for years the "medical department" of EDF (French national electricity distribution), and repeatedly said you can live safely under a high-voltage line... Right now, the top independant scientific website on EMF health risks in France is http://csifcem.free.fr/. Most of their material is in French, but they have several English translations, and I strongly suggest a visit to their pages. These people (Richard Gautier, PhD, Roger Santini, PhD, Pierre Le Ruz, PhD, and Daniel Oberhausen, PhD) are the best French independant experts on EMF & health. They published a "white book" last year on mobile phone health risks, which caused quite a stir. I might add that my own book, "Ces ondes qui tuent, ces ondes qui soignent" (Waves that kill, waves that heal), on EMF & health, has been republished as a pocket book last May, and has sold so far about 20 000 to 30 000 units, which is a nice figure for France, and makes me one of the most outspoken opponents of EMF pollution in France. Unfortunately there is no English translation. The only abroad publishing so far is.... an Arabic translation ! A more exotic note to finish. My ex-wife, who's a TV documentary director and who did with me a 52 minutes documentary on EMF health risks, "Ces ondes qui nous entourent" / Mit Strahlung in die Zukunft), aired on French-German TV channel Arte in 2002, is now a fervent Tibetan Buddhist and is traveling a lot in India. A few weeks ago, she was in the Myrik monastery, in north-eastern India, the world leading center for the Changpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. And she was horrified to find that a mobile phone base station is being built on the roof of the "retreat center", i.e. the place where dozens of young Buddhist converts, coming from from all the world, will spent four years in isolation and prayer in order to become Buddhist monks or nuns. That means they will live for 4 years, 24 hours a day, under a phone mast ! We are right now setting up a campaign to have the masts relocated to a safer place. Stay in tune ! Well, that's it for today. Of course, all these informations may be posted on the list, if you wish. Warm Regards Jean-Pierre Lentin |
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Words of Wisdom |
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![]() National Institute of Applied Science in Lyon, France Dokumente Prof. Dr. Santini - HEALTH OF PEOPLE LIVING IN VICINITY OF CELLULAR PHONE BASE STATIONS
1. R. SANTINI, P. SANTINI, M. SEIGNE, J.M. DANZE. Symptômes exprimés par des riverains de stations relais de téléphonie mobile. La Presse Médicale. 2001. 30 : 1594.
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How Exposure to GSM & TETRA Base-station Radiation can Adversely Affect Humans
1. It is perfectly true that the levels of microwave radiation in publicly accessible locations near GSM and TETRA Base-stations comply, by many factors of 1000, with the current safety guidelines set by the International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) [1]. These limits are, however, purely thermally based - i.e. they simply limit the intensity of the radiation to ensure that the amount of tissue heating by absorption of microwave radiation is not in excess of what the body"s thermoregulatory mechanism can cope with. If heating were the only effect of the radiation, existing guidelines would afford the public adequate protection against the emissions of Base-stations; unfortunately, however, this is not the case. For microwaves are simply one particular realisation of electromagnetic radiation (visible light being another, relative to which microwaves lie on the far side of the infrared) and, as such, have properties other than solely intensity. In particular, the pulsed microwave radiation used in the GSM and TETRA systems of telecommunication has a number of rather well-defined frequencies, which, in at least two quite distinct ways, entail the possibility of non-thermal effects. 2. Firstly, although microwave radiation is non-ionising i.e. has insufficient energy (energy being proportional to frequency) to break chemical bonds, thereby producing electrically charged ions it does have enough energy to be able to effect subtle conformational changes, whereby molecular "architecture" can be sufficiently altered that certain biochemical processes are affected - even those that are apparently not contingent on aliveness, such as the increased leakage of calcium from brain tissue, which has been reported, in vitro, under exposure to radio frequency and microwave radiation that is (sinusoidally) amplitude modulated at certain low frequencies, in particular, 16Hz (See Para.5 below). 3. The second, more interesting, possibility is of an "informational" non-thermal influence allied to the fact that the alive human organism as a whole itself supports (but only when alive) a variety of oscillatory electrical biological/ biochemical activities, each characterised by a specific frequency, some of which happen to be close to those found in the GSM/TETRA signals - a coincidence that makes these bioactivities potentially vulnerable to being affected in various ways [2]. Since these activities are involved in bio-communication and in the control and regulation of bioprocesses essential to well-being, it is reasonable to anticipate that it is the functionality of the alive organism that is impaired by exposure to radiation of sub-thermal intensity containing bioactive frequencies. Experience in the case of exposure to GSM radiation suggests that the interference is with bioprocesses that would otherwise afford a natural protection against adverse health effects This contrasts strongly with the situation at thermal levels where actual material damage to DNA, cells and tissue can occur. It is to be stressed again, however, that unlike heating, non-thermal influences of an informational kind are possible only when the organism is alive: the Dead have no electrical brain activity, for example, with which an external electromagnetic field can interfere! The existence of endogenous biological oscillatory electrical activities thus makes the living organism an electromagnetic instrument of great and exquisite sensitivity that is able - by decoding (demodulating) its various frequency characteristics, including those of any (lower frequency) amplitude modulations - to "recognise" and discern the presence of external electromagnetic fields and radiation "informationally", and so be affected in a purely non-thermal way. 4. The frequency of the radiation that is used to carry (by appropriate modulations) the voice information (messages) in both GSM and TETRA lies in the microwave band - a frequency range in which there is some evidence (particularly at higher frequencies [3]) that processes as fundamental as cell division can be interfered with in various ways - the somewhat lower carrier frequencies characterising the radiation used in TETRA facilitating its deeper penetration into tissue. On the other hand, the rates at which the microwaves are emitted in distinct groups of flashes (or pulses) happen to be close to the frequencies of some of the brain"s own electrical and electrochemical rhythms; accordingly, these can be (resonantly) amplified (perhaps to a biologically unacceptably high level), interfered with (similar to the case of radio reception), and even entrained by the radiation i.e. forced to operate at frequencies that are "unnatural", in that they differ from those that characterise the natural rhythms of the body, thereby possibly compromising homeostasis. In GSM, the basic "flash rate" is 217Hz; these flashes are, however, emitted in groups of 25 (each group being defined by the absence of the 26th flash) at the rate of 8.34Hz a frequency lying in the range of the human alpha brain wave activity. In the case of TETRA, on the other hand, the nature of the Base-station pulsing is somewhat different, but is again described by low frequencies that are here close to 70Hz and 17Hz the latter characterising the much more accentuated pulsing of the emissions of vehicularly mounted transmitters. 5. 17Hz is very close to the frequency (16Hz) at which radio-frequency /microwave radiation of sub-thermal intensities that is amplitude modulated in various ways - in particular, continuously (sinusoidally) and discontinuously (pulsed) - is reported, mainly under in vitro conditions, to cause: (i) a significant increase in loss (efflux) of calcium from brain cells, which is, however, reproducible only under certain exposure conditions [4], and which occurs even in the case of dead brain tissue; since calcium triggers release of neurotransmitters, any disturbance in the delicate balance of this chemical could well upset the integrity of the nervous (and also the immune) system; (ii) increased levels [5] of Ornithine Decarboxylase (ODC), a (rate limiting) enzyme that plays an important role in DNA replication, and possibly also in cancer promotion (see Para.9); (iii) opposing (and thus possibly stress inducing) effects [6] on the principal inhibitory and excitatory neuro-mediating brain chemicals that underpin the activity of the central nervous system. In addition, it should further be noted that the TETRA frame repetition rate is also close to the frequency at which seizures can be provoked in people suffering from photosensitive epilepsy by exposure to a light, flashing at between 15-20 times per second (see Para.8). 6. More disturbing is that the low frequencies that characterise the GSM/TETRA pulsing are close to those at which it is known that human mood and behaviour can be influenced in a number of ways (ranging from depression/docility to rage), depending on the kind/ frequency of modulation used [7], it being actually possible to induce sounds, and even words, intercranially by appropriate modulations of the microwave signal [8]. 7. What the Mobile Phone Industry and the various national governmental Regulatory Bodies (such as the NRPB in the UK) dispute is that the very weak, pulsed microwave radiation used in GSM and TETRA exerts any non-thermal biological influences that entail adverse health reactions. Their conviction that, provided the intensity of the radiation complies with the ICNIRP safety guidelines, human exposure to this kind of radiation is innocuous derives, however, firstly, from the erroneous belief that electromagnetic fields should be regarded as toxins to the body - rather than an integral feature of its alive state and, secondly, from an outdated "linear" mindset that prejudices the conclusion that exposure to weak radiation (below guideline levels) can entail only correspondingly weak effects, and vice versa. The invalidity of the latter is clearly indicated by the existence of the "informational" influences referred to above, which, being contingent on our aliveness, are inherently non-linear effects i.e. they depend not only on the electromagnetic field to which a subject is exposed, but also on the state of the individual at the time of exposure: any attempt to understand such effects from a purely linear perspective is thus doomed, in that it is unable to address the most discriminating feature of all, namely, the "aliveness" of the system under consideration. 8. "Official" reviews of published research (such as the Stewart Report of the IEGMP [10], the Zmirou Report [11] commissioned by the French government, and the NRPB"s report on TETRA [12]) fail to adequately address the issue of electromagnetic sensitivities that are contingent on aliveness, and are regrettably characterised by a consistent tendency to put the most negative possible "spin" on any positive results (that are suggestive of, or consistent with, possible health problems) - demanding further corroboration before accepting them - or to reject them either on the grounds that, in their opinion, the experiments are flawed for one reason or another, or because of difficulties in identifying credible mechanisms for the (disputed) observed effects. Whilst such scepticism is, of course, healthy and essential to the progress of reliable science, care must, at the same time, be taken to ensure that valuable indicators of potential positive effects are not missed (or prematurely dismissed), and equally, that negative findings (consistent with the safety of the technology) are not automatically deemed exempt from similar scrutiny: at present, there is a definite bias towards regarding any positive results as "false positives", whilst rarely considering the possibility of "false negatives" a dangerous and totally unacceptable state of affairs that is geared to promote a quite unjustified and unrealistic sense of security. 9. The importance of ensuring non-thermal electromagnetic compatibility between mobile phone radiation and energised electronic equipment, such as that in aircraft and hospitals is, of course, generally accepted and respected. Ironically, however, the same does not yet obtain in the case of the alive human organism, despite (i) the fact that the latter is itself an electromagnetic instrument par excellence, which, as already mentioned, can detect electromagnetic fields that are millions of times weaker than those to which the public is exposed by GSM/TETRA Base-stations, (ii) the existence of a wide variety of non-thermal bio-effects induced by low intensity microwave radiation (both pulsed and non-pulsed) that have been revealed by many experiments, enjoying varying degrees of corroboration , which have been performed over the last 30 years on many different kinds of biosystems - ranging from cells in test-tubes to the entire living human organism most of which have been published in international, peer reviewed scientific journals [13]. 10. Whilst the occurrence of non-thermal effects does not, of course, necessarily entail any adverse health consequences, there is, nevertheless, a disturbing consistency between some of these non-thermal bioeffects and the nature of some of the adverse health reactions reported both by certain users of mobile phones and by certain people (involuntarily) exposed long-term to the radiation from GSM Base-stations [2]. Of particular concern is the way in which this radiation (non-thermally) affects brain function specifically, its electrical activity (EEG), its electro-chemistry, and the blood/ brain barrier - and degrades the immune system. Thus, for example, the radiation is known to (i) disturb the delicate balance of chemicals in the brain in particular, the dopamine-opiate system - and (ii) to increase the permeability of the human blood brain barrier (thereby facilitating the passage of chemical toxins from the blood into brain fluid), both of which are medically considered to underlie headache, one of the most persistently reported adverse health effects. Similarly, the duration of REM sleep is shortened by exposure to radio-frequency radiation, whilst nocturnal secretion of melatonin is partly inhibited, both of which are consistent with reports of sleep disruption and concentration problems, and with anecdotal reports of an elevated incidence of certain cancers in some exposed people; for melatonin is an oncostatic hormone i.e. a hormone that protects against cancer, particularly in females. Furthermore, the possibility of deliberately provoking epileptic seizures in certain animals by exposing them to pulsed microwave radiation is consistent with reports of an increased incidence of seizures in some epileptic children when exposed to the emissions of GSM Base-stations. The latter finding is not at all unreasonable, given the established ability of a visible light (such as that from a stroboscope) flashing at a rate somewhere between 15-20 times per second to provoke seizures in the 5% minority of people who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy. For visible light and microwaves are both simply different realisations of electromagnetic radiation, and the microwave radiation used in GSM and TETRA similarly "flashes" (pulses) at rates that the brain is able to recognise; unlike visible light, however, pulsed microwaves are not reliant on the eye and optic nerve to access the brain, since they can penetrate the skull directly. 11. It has already been noted that although microwave radiation is non-ionising i.e. does not have enough energy to break chemical bonds, particularly in DNA it can, nevertheless, functionally interfere with the natural processes involved in DNA replication and repair by subtly altering molecular conformation (architecture), for example; this could well account, respectively, for the reports of certain effects observed in vitro, such as chromosome aberrations/ micronuclei formation and for the increased amount of DNA fragmentation found under irradiation. Similarly, the in vivo finding that exposure to pulsed GSM radiation (of an intensity comparable to that realised during mobile phone use) promotes the development of cancer in mice that have been genetically engineered to have a predisposition to cancer is consistent with other (in vitro) studies showing (i) increased levels [5] of an enzyme (ODC) that has been implicated in tumour promotion, and (ii) over-expression (in the short-term) of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in both human and animal cells [15] exposed to GSM radiation; for it has been hypothesised that over-expression of HSPs inhibits natural programmed cell death (apoptosis), thereby allowing cells that should have "committed suicide" to continue to live; this hypothesis is currently being tested experimentally [16]. Under-expression (associated with chronic exposure), on the other hand, can adversely affect the natural repair of DNA breakage. Taken together, these various effects are, in turn, consistent with (a) the 2-3-fold increase in the incidence of a rare form of cancer in the periphery of the human brain, where the penetration of the (electric field component of the) radiation from the handset is greatest (the laterality of the tumours correlating with that of handset use), which has been found in a epidemiological study in the USA [17], and (b) with the increased incidence of cancer amongst users of mobile phones found in a recently published Swedish epidemiological study [18], although in both studies it should be noted that, in the majority of cases considered, exposure was not to (digital) GSM phones, but rather to the somewhat higher powered, older analogue ones, which, having been available for rather longer, permit the effects of exposure over a rather longer period to be studied . 12. It is important to appreciate that the contents of Paras.9-11, which pertain to exposure to the emissions of GSM handsets, are not irrelevant to the consideration of the effects of exposure to Base-station radiation, since the informational content of the latter is the same as that of the phone signals; indeed, the increasing number of disturbing reports of rather serious adverse health effects in animals (particularly cattle [19]) exposed to GSM Base-station radiation could well be valuable warning portents that should not be ignored; equally, the steadily increasing number of reports [20] of unexplained clusters of human cancers in the vicinity of certain GSM Base-stations warrants urgent investigation. 13. It is essential to appreciate, however, in the case of non-thermal influences contingent on aliveness, that it necessarily follows that not everyone will be equally susceptible, even when exposed to exactly the same radiation for exactly the same length of time - susceptibility depending not only on the radiation, but also on the genetic predisposition and physiological state of the individual when irradiated, such as the stability of a particular person"s electrical brain activity and level of stress prior to exposure. Whilst this admittedly makes the occurrence of non-thermal effects more difficult to predict (and hence to regulate against) than is the case with thermal effects - and, of course, undermines the extent to which they can be considered to be "established", in the sense required for them to be eligible for consideration in safety deliberations - it does not mean that they can be safely ignored, or that they cannot provoke adverse health reactions in certain people, the severity of which will again vary from person to person, according to the robustness of their immune systems. More meaningful is to ask whether there is an established potential risk to human health from exposure to GSM/TETRA radiation: the answer is undoubtedly "yes". It is probably true to say that if a similar degree of risk and uncertainty as to subjective noxiousness obtained in the case of a new drug or foodstuff, it is unlikely that they would ever be licensed. 14. Quite apart from their weaker immune systems, pre-adolescent children are particularly vulnerable as recognised by the Stewart Report [10] - because of the increased rate at which their cells are dividing (which makes them more susceptible to genetic damage), and because their nervous system is still developing - the smaller size of their heads and their thinner skulls increasing the amount of radiation that they absorb, particularly at 900MHz. Especially vulnerable to interference by the pulsed microwave radiation used in GSM is their electrical brain-wave activity, which does not settle into a stable pattern until puberty . The use of mobile phones by pre-adolescent children is thus to be strongly discouraged, and the siting of Base-station masts in the vicinity of schools and nurseries (including those hidden in church towers and in illuminated signs, such as those at petrol stations, for example) must be strongly resisted: financial gain must not be allowed to be the overriding consideration. 15. In connection with Base-station exposure, it must be appreciated that it is impossible to cite a universally applicable "safe distance". The only meaningful approach, at present, is to require, in publicly accessible locations near a mast, that the intensity of the radiation should be below the level at which any adverse health effects have so far been reported; including an additional safety factor of 10, a maximum intensity limit of 10nW/cm2 ( = 10-4 W/m2 - equivalent to 0.2V/m) is, in this way, indicated. The precise distance from a mast at which this level is realised depends, however, on how powerful are the antennae, their height above ground-level, the orientations of the main beams and their "side lobes" (subsidiary emissions that are much more localised in the immediate vicinity of a mast ), and the local topography. 16. To cite the examples of radio and television transmissions (to which we have been exposed for a much longer time than is the case with GSM/TETRA) in an attempt to support the claim that exposure to the (much less intense) radiation used in mobile telephony is harmless is flawed on at least three accounts: (i) the occurrence, in any case, of certain health problems that correlate with exposure to the radiation from such installations [21], (ii) the fact that, unlike that used in GSM/TETRA, the radiation from TV and radio transmitters is not emitted in pulses, in particular, in patterns characterised by frequencies that the brain can recognise, and neither are the carrier frequencies in the (more biologically active) microwave band, and (iii) the beam morphologies are quite different. Furthermore, before taking reassurance from the asserted absence of health problems amongst continental users of TETRA, it should be remembered that it is often the much less biologically active TETRAPOL system (as opposed to TETRA) that is there used. 17. In conclusion, it can hardly be disputed that to enjoy an acceptable quality of life requires more than simply an absence of terminal disease. Adverse health effects in humans of the kinds already reported worldwide such as headaches, sleep disruption, impairment of shortterm memory, etc. - whilst maybe not life-threatening in themselves, do nevertheless have a debilitating effect that undoubtedly affects general well-being, and which in the case of some children could well undermine their neurological and academic development, as is already evident from experience in the case of a number of infant/junior schools at which a GSM Base-station is located. It should be stressed, however, that, to date, the apparent absence on a global scale of more serious pathologies attributable to exposure to the emissions of GSM/TETRA Base-stations is no guarantee of immunity in the long-term; indeed, as mentioned earlier in Para.10, there is already an increasing number of reports [19] of unexplained clusters of cancers in the vicinity of certain GSM Base-stations, whose non-involvement remains to be established. |
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Prof. Dr. Peter Semm
"Man sollte die Mobilfunktechnik ändern, damit biologische Reaktionen durch gepulste Strahlung nicht stattfinden können. Es ginge auch ohne Pulsung." (1998) Dokumente Responses of neurons to an amplitude modulated microwave stimulus (pdf, 101kB) |
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