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EMFacts Blog

    • 13 FEB 15

    Recommended!: The GameChanger: revision of dosimetry by Schmid & Kuster (Dariusz Leszczynski

    From Dariusz Leszczynski:

    Excerpt:

    In the spring of 1999, while I was still working as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, I took part in the planning meeting of the EU REFLEX Project. At that time I was virtually unknown in the area of cell phone radiation research and for the invitation to join REFLEX project I need to thank Bernard Veyret, whom I meet once, at the radiation meeting in Capri.

    Two persons, one present and one absent from the REFLEX meeting, impacted heavily on the direction of the research executed by my group at STUK.

    The present person was Mays Swicord of Motorola, who was invited by Franz Adlkofer, to be coordinator of the REFLEX project, to provide advice. It was Mays Swicord who got visibly agitated and outright dismissed my pilot results that I presented at this meeting. In his opinion it was wrong to use high SAR even if exposure system had water cooling to keep temperature of the endothelial cell culture at 37 + 0.2-0.3oC.

    The results that I presented showed dramatic changes in protein expression in human endothelial cell line EA.hy926 exposed at 10.0 SAR. Mays Swicord said, very authoritatively that what we did was wrong, even if the temperature was controlled.
    SNIP

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    • 04 FEB 15

    Digital Electronic “Internet of Things”(IoT) and “Smart Grid Technologies” to Fully Eviscerate Privacy

    By Prof. James F. Tracy
    Global Research, February 02, 2015

    The “Internet of Things” (IoT) and Smart Grid technologies will together be aggressively integrated into the developed world’s socioeconomic fabric with little-if-any public or governmental oversight. This is the overall opinion of a new report by the Federal Trade Commission, which has announced a series of “recommendations” to major utility companies and transnational corporations heavily invested in the IoT and Smart Grid, suggesting that such technologies should be rolled out almost entirely on the basis of “free market” principles so as not to stifle “innovation.” As with the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, the FTC functions to provide the semblance of democratic governance and studied concern as it allows corporate monied interests and prerogatives to run roughshod over the body politic…..The IoT is developing in tandem with the “Smart Grid,” comprised of tens of millions of wireless transceivers (a combination cellular transmitter and receiver) more commonly known as “smart meters.” Unlike conventional wireless routers, smart meters are regarded as such because they are equipped to capture, store, and transmit an abundance of data on home energy usage with a degree of precision scarcely imagined by utility customers. On the contrary, energy consumers are typically appeased with persuasive promotional materials from their power company explaining how smart meter technology allows patrons to better monitor and control their energy usage.
    SNIP

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    • 04 FEB 15

    Just how powerful are 4G towers?

    From Echonetdaily, The North Coast’s Independent News (Queensland,Australia):

    Mullumbimby 4G Telstra tower disrupts TV, EFTPOS

    If Mullumbimby residents and businesses are having TV reception issues and EFTPOS drop outs, the recent upgraded Telstra tower in the town’s CBD appears to be the culprit. Court House manager Laurie Driscoll told The Echo the 4G Telstra tower across the road on Dalley Street has caused havoc with the TV signal and EFTPOS. ‘A lot of people in the vicinity may have the same problem,’ he said. ‘Thankfully Telstra have accepted liability, and agreed to reimburse us for the cost of having to buy and install a $400 filter to reduce the 4G interference on our TVs.’
    SNIP

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    • 02 FEB 15

    France limits spread of the wi-fi by a new law, Finland does not care at all

    From the blog of Dariusz Leszczynski:

    Excerpt

    In the Finnish news media, there is a complete silence (nobody dares to speak?) about the new law introduced in France, limiting the spread of the wi-fi networks (story in the French Le Monde) (for the translation in English, see below).

    In fact, the situation in Finland is just the opposite to what is happening in France. In Finland wi-fi is allowed to be spread freely and everywhere, including daycare centers and schools.The justification for this “freedom” are the obsolete safety limits from 1998 (!) that were “reaffirmed” in 2009.

    The freedom to spread the wi-fi is scientifically unwise in the situation when the research evidence on the effects of the wi-fi-emitted radiation is extremely limited but, at the same time, the wi-fi radiation is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
    SNIP

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    • 28 JAN 15

    What Happens To Privacy When The Internet Is In Everything?

    From the Techcrunch website:

    Jan 25, 2015 by Natasha Lomas

    Excerpt:

    This week Google’s Eric Schmidt was on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he suggested that the future Internet will be, in one sense, invisible – because it will be embedded into everything we interact with. “The Internet will disappear,” he predicted (via The Hollywood Reporter). “There will be so many IP addresses…so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. “Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”
    SNIP

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    • 26 JAN 15

    The Triumph of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex To understand perverse military decision-making, follow the money

    From the “War Is Boring” blog

    by BEN COHEN & WINSLOW WHEELER

    In his farewell address in January 1961, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower famously cautioned the American public to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Today it’s routine for critics of wasteful military spending to cite Eisenhower’s warning. Unfortunately, Eisenhower did not warn us that the military-industrial complex would become increasingly malignant as it morphed into less obvious forms. The “complex” is no longer just “military” and “industrial,” and it has extended far beyond just its congressional branch, which Eisenhower also intended to include. It’s now deeply embedded in the fiber of the American political system, academia, the civilian leadership of the Defense Department and–increasingly–the White House itself.
    SNIP

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    • 25 JAN 15

    Leszczynski will be keynote speaker in Switzerland

    Swiss association Gigaherz will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its existence. On this occasion Gigahertz is organizing Jubiläums-Generalversammlung taking place in Thalvil (near Zurich) on March 7, 2015. Dariusz Leszczynski will be the keynote speaker at this meeting with presentation discussing the validity of the currently available science on cell phone radiation and health, in […]
    Read more of this notice here

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    • 22 JAN 15

    Why the modern world is bad for your brain

    From The Guardian

    In an era of email, text messages, Facebook and Twitter, we’re all required to do several things at once. But this constant multitasking is taking its toll. Here neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin explains how our addiction to technology is making us less efficient

    Daniel J Levitin Q&A, Sunday 18 January 2015

    Excerpt

    Our brains are busier than ever before. We’re assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumour, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more. Thirty years ago, travel agents made our airline and rail reservations, salespeople helped us find what we were looking for in shops, and professional typists or secretaries helped busy people with their correspondence. Now we do most of those things ourselves. We are doing the jobs of 10 different people while still trying to keep up with our lives, our children and parents, our friends, our careers, our hobbies, and our favourite TV shows.
    SNIP

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    • 17 JAN 15

    Forbes Magazine Caves to Industry Pressure

    From Joel M. Moskowitz

    Joel’s comment: An annotated version of the original Forbes article (Jan 12, 2015), “Study Suggests Wi-Fi Exposure More Dangerous To Kids Than Previously Thought,” is available on the The “Take Back Your Power” web site if you wish to compare the original version of this article with the revised version that now appears on the Forbes web site (updated on Jan 14, 2015).

    Forbes Magazine Caves to Industry Pressure

    Coalition to Stop Smart Meters, Jan 13, 2015

    An example of how industry influences news. Two days ago I sent out the original version of an article by Forbes saying that a study showed that wifi could be more dangerous to children than previously thought. Here is the original version of some parts along with the “updates” and a new ending version that is now on the web:

    “More generally, the studies cited in the paper found RF/EMF exposure is linked to cancers of the brain and salivary glands, ADHD, low sperm count, and, among girls who keep cell phones in their bra, breast cancer….

    CHANGED TO:

    “More generally, the studies cited in the paper seek to link RF/EMF exposure to different types of cancer, low sperm count, and other disorders.”

    NEW ADDITION:

    “However, it is important to note that studies such as these need to be taken in their proper context. This particular study is one group’s perspective. It was published in a relatively new and minor journal with limited data sets. They also note that the average time between exposure to a carcinogen and a resultant tumor is three or more decades, thus making it difficult to arrive at definitive conclusions.”
    SNIP

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    • 14 JAN 15

    Open letter to European Economic and Social Committee TEN Section on electrosensitivity

    From Eileen O’Connor, Director, EM Radiation Research Trust

    Open letter – please distribute widely.

    For the attention of UK and Ireland members representing the European Economic and Social Committee TEN Section on electrosensitivity,

    I am contacting you after receiving a copy of the opinion on Electormanetic hypersensitivity (EHS) report recently adopted by the EESC’s TEN section: https://toad.eesc.europa.eu/ViewDoc.aspx?doc=ces%5cten%5cten559%5cES%5cEESC-2014-05117-00-00-AS-TRA_ES.doc&docid=3045930

    The reports main purpose is to protect people suffering with electrosensitivity and your important work will hopefully lead towards suggesting binding EU legislation on EMF. I am grateful to all members for allocating almost five hours towards this important debate on 7th January, 2015 and appreciate the voting has been close in the final text along in the voting on each of the amendments. I understand that the next plenary session is due to take place on 21st January, 2015 to finalise the report and therefore call on all members to review the evidence and information contained within this letter.
    SNIP

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    • 14 JAN 15

    Study Suggests Wi-Fi Exposure More Dangerous To Kids Than Previously Thought

    From Lloyd Morgan, author of the paper mentioned in the Forbes article

    Forbes, January 13, 2015

    Excerpt:

    Most parents would be concerned if their children had significant exposure to lead, chloroform, gasoline fumes, or the pesticide DDT. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRIC), part of the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), classifies these and more than 250 other agents as Class 2B Carcinogens. Another entry on that same list is radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF/EMF). The main sources of RF/EMF are radios, televisions, microwave ovens, cell phones, and Wi-Fi devices.

    Uh-oh. Not another diatribe about the dangers of our modern communication systems? Obviously, these devices and the resulting fields are extremely (and increasingly) common in modern society. Even if we want to, we can’t eliminate our exposure, or our children’s, to RF/EMF. But, we may need to limit that exposure, when possible.

    That was among the conclusions of a report published in the Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure entitled “Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults: The consequences.” From an analysis of peer-reviewed studies, the authors argue that children and adolescents are at considerable risk from devices that radiate microwaves (and that adults are at a lower, but still significant, risk). The following points were made:
    SNIP

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    • 09 JAN 15

    Welcome to the Matrix: Enslaved by Technology and the Internet of Things

    Sent in by Laura Jacobsen as published by The Rutherford Institute

    Excerpt

    Welcome to the Matrix: Enslaved by Technology and the Internet of Things

    By John W. Whitehead
    January 07, 2015

    “There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’” ― Philip K. Dick

    If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and entertainment that can be simultaneously streamed to our TVs, tablets and cell phones.

    Likewise, if ever we find ourselves in bondage, we will have only ourselves to blame for having forged the chains through our own lassitude, laziness and abject reliance on internet-connected gadgets and gizmos that render us wholly irrelevant.

    Indeed, while most of us are consumed with our selfies and trying to keep up with what our so-called friends are posting on Facebook, the megacorporation Google has been busily partnering with the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, and other governmental agencies to develop a new “human” species, so to speak.

    In other words, Google–a neural network that approximates a global brain–is fusing with the human mind in a phenomenon that is called “singularity,” and they’ve hired transhumanist scientist Ray Kurzweil to do just that. Google will know the answer to your question before you have asked it, Kurzweil said. “It will have read every email you will ever have written, every document, every idle thought you’ve ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself.”

    But here’s the catch: the NSA and all other government agencies will also know you better than yourself. As William Binney, one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA said, “The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control.”

    SNIP

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    • 04 JAN 15

    Smart meters proposed for Tasmania in new Tas. government draft for public comment

    It had to come: The industry push (with the usual spin) to introduce smart meters in Tasmania. Note that in the government’s draft policy statement public comments are invited until February 15, 2015. I will certainly be sending in a submission and invite all interested individuals and groups to send in submission as well.

    Don Maisch

    **********************************************************************

    The following appeared in the Tasmanian Mercury newspaper on December 22, 2014:

    Bid to restore energy advantage with pay-less power strategy

    DAVID KILLICK
    Mercury
    December 22, 2014 12:00AM

    SMART meters, an increased uptake of electric vehicles and a second Basslink cable look set to be part of Tasmania’s energy future.

    Releasing a draft of the state’s energy strategy yesterday, Energy Minister Matthew Groom said the aim was to drive down the cost of electricity prices for all Tasmanians.“This is about ensuring that in Tasmania we have the lowest possible power prices that are genuinely sustainable over the long term,” he said.

    The policy has nine goals, among them ensuring a safe, secure, and reliable supply; that Tasmanian electricity prices will be among the lowest in Australia; and that consumers will have greater choice in how to meet their energy supply needs and will pay competitive, fair and predictable prices for those choices.
    SNIP

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    • 17 DEC 14

    Does The Internet Make You Dumb? Top German Neuroscientist Says Yes – And Forever

    Source:EMF Refugee

    BERLIN – Dr. Manfred Spitzer knows that people find his arguments provocative. In his first book, he warned parents of the very real dangers of letting their children spend too much time in front of the TV. Now, in a second book called Digitale Demenz [Digital Dementia], he’s telling them that teaching young kids finger-counting games is much better for them than letting them explore on a laptop.

    Spitzer, 54, may be a member of the slide-rule generation that learned multiplication tables by heart, but his work as a neuropsychiatrist has shown him that when young children spend too much time using a computer, their brain development suffers and that the deficits are irreversible and cannot be made up for later in life.

    South Korean doctors were the first to describe this phenomenon, and dubbed it digital dementia – whence the title of Spitzer’s book. Simplistically, the message can be summed up this way: the Internet makes you dumb. And it is of course a message that outrages all those who feel utterly comfortable in the digital world. In the aftermath of the publication of Spitzer’s book, they have lost no time venting their wrath across Germany.

    And yet Spitzer has accumulated a wealth of scientific information that gives his thesis solid underpinnings, and the studies and data he draws on offer more than enough room for consternation.

    SNIP

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    • 15 DEC 14

    Lennart Hardell: Moving radiofrequency radiation from Group 2B to 1 as a human carcinogen

    From Lennart Hardell’s blog:

    Excerpt

    The carcinogenic effect of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) on humans was evaluated at a meeting during 24 – 31 May 2011 at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at WHO in Lyon, France. The Working Group categorised RF-EMF from mobile phones, and from other devices that emit similar non-ionising electromagnetic fields, as a Group 2B, i.e. a ‘possible’, human carcinogen.

    After that meeting supportive evidence has come from e.g. the French CERENAT study and also our recent publication on glioma. An increased risk for acoustic neuroma associated with use of wireless phones was published by our research group after the meeting giving pooled results of our study periods 1997-2003 and 2007-2009. Also other studies have reported similar findings.

    We evaluated the Hill viewpoints on association and causation used in the 1960’s in the debate on lung cancer risk among smokers. Using these viewpoints our summary was that RF-EMF exposure should be a Group 1 carcinogen according to IARC criteria. There is now a petition to support that notion aiming at alerting IARC to classify such exposure to cause human cancer. Those who want to support the petition can follow this link.
    SNIP

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    • 14 DEC 14

    Louis Slesin on the current industry spin over powerline safety

    Excerpt from Microwave News:

    No Cancer Risk from Power Lines,
    Says the New York Times
    Big Score for Industry Scientists
    December 1, 2014
    Last updated
    December 12, 2014

    Still worried about power lines and cancer? That’s so retro, says the New York Times. You’re just stuck in the 1980’s.

    This is what the “newspaper of record” wants you to know about the risk of childhood leukemia from power lines: A “fairly broad consensus among researchers holds that no significant threat to public health has materialized.”

    The full message is told in a new 7+ minute video, produced by the Times’ RetroReport, which boasts a staff of 13 journalists and 10 contributors, led by Kyra Darnton. The video even credits a fact checker. What’s missing is the common sense to do some digging when reporting on a controversial issue.

    If Darnton’s crew had done its homework, they would have realized that their view is based on two industry-friendly researchers, David Savitz and John Moulder. Savitz, now VP for research at Brown University, has come a long way since he first reported that power lines are linked to childhood leukemia back in 1986. Power line EMFs have been very, very good for Savitz’s career. He parlayed that study into a multimillion contract from the electric power industry to study cancer risks among electric utility workers. He found a link to brain tumors. A couple of years later, he paid the industry back by renouncing his own work and that of many others. Now he’s done it again with his original power line study in the new Times video.
    SNIP

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    • 14 DEC 14

    Paul Brodeur on the current industry spin over powerline safety

    Conflicts of Interest in Coverage of a Health Issue by the New York Times

    Paul Brodeur, Huffington Post, Dec 12, 2014

    In recent days, employees of The New York Times have posted no fewer than three pieces on the newspaper’s website, asserting that the risk of harm from the electromagnetic fields (EMF) given off by power lines is negligible, and that fears of it are unfounded. Among the postings is a seven-minute video produced by Kyra Darnton for Retro Report, entitled “Long After an 80’s Scare, Suspicion of Power Lines Prevails.” An accompanying article with the same title has been posted by a reporter for Retro Report named Clyde Haberman, and a third piece entitled “A Fresh Look at Power Lines, Cancer and the Dread-to-Risk Ratio” has been put up by a reporter for the newspaper named Andrew C. Revkin.

    The video produced by Darnton and some colleagues at Retro Report relies preponderantly on the testimony of two researchers — David Savitz, who is vice-president for research at Brown University, and John Moulder, director of radiation biology at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
    SNIP

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    • 13 DEC 14

    ‘Safe use of technology – Your guide’ a new video by WiFi in Schools Australia (WISA)

    Excerpt

    A notice from WiFi in Schools Australia (WISA):

    ‘Safe use of technology – Your guide’ a new video by WiFi in Schools Australia (WISA) published 12 December 2014

    The video raises awareness on the new recommendations from the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE) for the safe use of wireless radiation emitting devices. Since these recommendations have not yet been made publicly available to students and parents, WISA have produced this short informative video on DETE’s publications.

    DETE’s ICT Policy now puts the responsibility of ensuring the safe use of wireless devices (tablets, laptops etc) onto principals, who in turn, have to ensure that parents and students acknowledge the correct usage according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.

    Parents from WISA raised wireless radiation safety concerns with DETE continually over the last two years – urging DETE to seriously consider the potential long-term health risks to children, future legal ramifications, and the need to reduce unnecessary exposure. As a minimum precautionary measure, parents from WISA have been calling for DETE to educate students and staff on the safe use of WiFi enabled devices and to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines.

    In passing the responsibility onto parents and students, DETE is covering their legal liability for student use of wireless devices. Their installation of wireless access points may meet current standards for individual devices based on the current thermal based standard. However, who is going to be held responsible for ignoring the impact of multiple devices (30+ laptops and tablets in a classroom + mobile phones + WiFi access points) and the cumulative effect of simultaneous use of all these devices over the duration of a student’s school life?

    The Australian standards that are being applied to classrooms were developed for individual Radio Frequency (wireless radiation emitting) devices. More importantly, these standards are based solely on short-term heating of body tissue. They do not take into account any biological effects that may occur from prolonged or cumulative low-level wireless radiation exposure.

    SNIP

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    • 10 DEC 14

    Australian smart meter health impact paper now published

    This paper was published in the November/ December 2014 issue of the Journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and strengthens the urgent need for independent research on the health impacts (such as sleep disruption) from smart meter emissions.

    From PubMed online

    Altern Ther Health Med. 2014 Nov;20(6):28-39.
    Self-reporting of symptom development from exposure to radiofrequency fields of wireless smart meters in victoria, australia: a case series.
    Lamech F.

    Abstract

    Context • In 2006, the government in the state of Victoria, Australia, mandated the rollout of smart meters in Victoria, which effectively removed a whole population’s ability to avoid exposure to human-made high-frequency nonionizing radiation. This issue appears to constitute an unprecedented public health challenge for Victoria. By August 2013, 142 people had reported adverse health effects from wireless smart meters by submitting information on an Australian public Web site using its health and legal registers. Objective • The study evaluated the information in the registers to determine the types of symptoms that Victorian residents were developing from exposure to wireless smart meters. Design • In this case series, the registers’ managers eliminated those cases that did not clearly identify the people providing information by name, surname, postal address, and/or e-mail to make sure that they were genuine registrants. Then they obtained consent from participants to have their deidentified data used to compile the data for the case series. The author later removed any individual from outside of Victoria. Participants • The study included 92 residents of Victoria, Australia. Outcome Measures • The author used her medical experience and judgment to group symptoms into clinically relevant clusters (eg, pain in the head was grouped with headache, tinnitus was grouped with ringing in the ears). The author stayed quite close to the wording used in the original entries.
    SNIP

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    • 06 DEC 14

    Epidemiology: ICNIRP hijacked WHO EMF Project (Dariusz Leszczynski)

    From Dariusz Leszczynski’s blog: Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

    Excerpt:

    Epidemiological evidence is considered as the most important evidence when evaluating possibility of health effects induced by radiation emitted by wireless communication devices (RF-EMF). I disagree with this notion because of the intrinsic limitations of epidemiological method. It is too crude method to give reliable answers. I am not alone in this opinion. Notably, Michael Repacholi, former Head of the WHO EMF Project has similar opinion and he said in his Guest Blog on BRHP: “my concern is that there is an over-reliance on epidemiology studies.”

    The problem with the, so far, executed epidemiological studies in RF-EMF area is the inadequate radiation dosimetry.

    In some studies, like the case-control studies (Interphone, Hardell and CERENAT) the dosimetry is based on what person remembers. It is very crude information. However, in defense of the planners of case-control studies, it is necessary to mention that when the Interphone was being planned, and I participated in these discussions as then Head of Radiation Biology Laboratory of STUK, scientists asked network operators to provide information on the use of cell phones by study subjects. Operators refused, calling the information “trade secret”. So, the scientists had to rely on peoples’ memory…

    Situation of dosimetry data in cohort studies is even worse. Scientists attempted to avoid reliance on users’ memory but, instead of improving exposure data, they made it worse. The dosimetry evidence in cohort studies, Danish Cohort and Million Women Study, is absolutely inadequate to use it as proof of no risk of cancer from the use of cell phones.

    However, the ICNIRP scientists just do so. They quote Danish Cohort and Million Women Study as the evidence of no cancer risk. At the same time they simply dismiss the evidence provided by the case control studies.

    In the past, I wrote critically about the Danish Cohort and the UK’s Million Women Study.

    My critical evaluation of the Danish Cohort was published in The Scientist Magazine whereas evaluation of the Million Women Study I published in my blog on The Washington Times Communities site.
    SNIP

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