by dariuszleszczynski

In the afternoon of Thursday, June 13th, Eric van Rongen presented evaluation of the epidemiological evidence done by Dutch Health Council of The Netherlands. The process has begun before the 2011 IARC evaluation of the carcinogenicity of RF. However, the literature search was performed up to July 10th 2012 and therefore included a study that was not reviewed by […]

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These are comments, on the scientific issues that came up at BioEM2013, that Devra Davis submitted as a guest blog. The opinions expressed in it are of Devra Davis herself. Publication of these opinions in BRHP does not mean that BRHP agrees with or endorses these opinions.
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It is inherently unfair to ask people who've spent their […]

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The day was opened with tutorial on genomic stability and signaling pathways. The first talk by Robert Kanaar had some interesting statements and suggestions. The spontaneously occurring DNA damage is very common in cells and it requires efficient repair mechanisms to continuously repair this damage. Some rough numbers were as follows: single strand breaks - […]

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by dariuszleszczynski

Recent BEMS meetings, and from now on always BEMS & EBEA meetings called BioEM, take place all over the world in many distant locations – for example 2010 BEMS was in Seoul, South Korea, 2012 BEMS was in Brisbane, Australia, the BioEM2014 will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. As the former co-Chair of […]

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by dariuszleszczynski

The second day of the BioEM2013 opened with tutorial on systems biology. It left me somewhat unsatisfied. The first talk was bad. I got an impression that it was prepared by relatively novice to the field of systems biology. Searching Pubmed confirmed my “feeling” – presented had no publications related to systems biology. The content […]

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by dariuszleszczynski

These are comments, on the scientific issues tat came up at BioEM2013, that Devra Davis submitted as a guest blog. *****************************************
Devra's comments on day 1 of the BioEM2013 As you, Dariusz, and I have repeatedly written in many different journals, the Danish Cohort study is severely constrained and is not a complete study of a […]

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On the first day of the meeting, in the epidemiology session was presented the just published UK million women study. In the introduction of this talk was briefly reviewed epidemiological evidence of the possible causal association between exposures to cell phone radiation and brain cancer. In this context was mentioned the Danish Cohort study. The […]

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The first plenary session presented some of the therapeutic applications of electromagnetic fields. Some of the presented data indicated that not only it is possible to use low-level radiofrequency exposures to heal cancer but also confirmed that non-thermal effects exist. The first two talks by Julie Gehl of the Center for Experimental Drug and Gene […]

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Just published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, May 31, 2013

Wi-Fi technology – an uncontrolled global experiment on the health of mankind

Marko Markov – Research International, Williamsville, NY, USA, Yuri G. Grigoriev – National Committee of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, Moscow, Russia
http://www.viewdocsonline.com/document/6kn1ey

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking input on its radiofrequency (RF) policies. Although the WHO is applying a "risk management" framework to this issue, recent presentations by the WHO and by ICNIRP, its standard setting body, suggest these organizations perceive RF radiation to be more of a public relations problem than a public safety issue.

How long will the WHO (and ICNIRP) continue its denialist policy regarding radiofrequency bioeffects and long term health risks from low intensity, microwave radiation associated with use of mobile phones and Wi-Fi? More importantly, what will it take to get the WHO to embrace the precautionary principle?

Announcement of International Stakeholder Seminar on Radiofrequency Policies and call for examples of good risk management practices

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking the views of stakeholders and interested parties in the process of preparing an Environmental Health Criteria (EHC) monograph on radiofrequency (RF) fields. The monograph will include a scientific review of all studied health outcomes and it will provide an overview of risk management policies and practices around the world.

As part of the EHC process, the WHO is convening a seminar on 5 June 2013 at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) in Paris, France. The purpose of the seminar is to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to present their views on specific questions to be addressed during the course of this project. The discussions at the seminar and their conclusions will be considered carefully in the development of the WHO monograph.

http://www.who.int/peh-emf/meetings/stakeholder_announcement.pdf

Read more > http://saferemr.com/

The women who say they are allergic to modern life: Blinding headaches. Violent sickness. Even blackouts. So could wi-fi, mobile phones and TV screens be to blame?

Julia Taylor from East Devon suffers from electro-hypersensitivity (EHS)
Essentially an allergy to man-made radiation
Jessica Sapphire from West Sussex, had to give up her job because of EHS
Hannah Metcalfe believes EHS has prevented her from becoming pregnant

By Angela Epstein

PUBLISHED:22:33 GMT, 26 May 2013

Her headaches were constant and vice-like. So extreme was the pain that it ruined any chance of a decent night's sleep, and left Julia Taylor reduced to little more than 'a walking zombie'.

A sensible, rational woman, the 53-year-old nutritionist went to her GP for an explanation - only to be told her repeated headaches were simply the countdown to the menopause. Yet every conceivable brand of painkiller, alternative remedy, and even hormone replacement therapy failed to help.

'I felt like I was going crazy. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me, I was fit and healthy in every other way - a battery of tests proved that. And yet my head felt like it was about to explode. I couldn't work properly because I was so exhausted all the time. Once, I didn't sleep for four nights in a row. I felt like I was living in a nightmare.'

So why did nothing help? Julia is convinced it's because she suffers electro-hypersensitivity (EHS). She believes she is allergic to atmospheric man-made radiation caused by wi-fi, phone signals, mobile phones, TV screens and fluorescent lights. In short, she is allergic to modern life.

The symptoms reported by sufferers of EHS range from headaches to nausea, sickness, severe abdominal pain, heavy bleeding and even blackouts. Yet EHS is a controversial condition. While some countries, such as Sweden, recognise it as a 'functional impairment', here the Health Protection Agency says there is no scientific evidence linking ill health with electrical equipment.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2331369/The-women-say-allergic-modern-life-Bl...
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Terrible night's sleep? Blame your mobile phone: How exposure to artificial light 'fools' the brain into staying awake

Laptop and smartphone screens disrupt sleep and make us drink caffeine
Britons uses 4 times more artificial light today compared to the 1950s
Poor sleep associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and depression

By Emma Robertson

PUBLISHED:17:00 GMT, 22 May 2013
Electric lights, including those which illuminate laptop computers, smartphones and tablets, often play a key role in causing people to sleep badly, a leading expert has warned.

Artificial lights disrupt the body's natural rhythm, affect chemicals in the brain and drive people to use stimulants like caffeine to stay awake longer, according to Harvard academic Professor Charles Czeisler.

Writing today in the journal Nature, the professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School called for research to help develop 'behavioural and technical' ways of counteracting the ill effects of artificial light on modern sleeping patterns.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2329068/Terrible-nights-sleep-Blame-mobile-ph...
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Experiments with Cress [and Wi-Fi] in 9th Grade attracts international attention [Denmark] 16th May 2013

Foreign researchers are extremely excited for a biology project from five 9th grade girls.

Researchers from England, Holland and Sweden have shown great interest in the five girls' biology experiments.

Take 400 Cress seeds and place them into 12 trays. Then place six trays in two rooms at the same temperature. Give them the same amount of water and sun over 12 days, and remember to expose half of them to mobile [Wi-Fi] radiation.

It is a recipe for a biology test so brilliant that it has attracted international attention among acknowledged biologists and radiation experts. Behind the experiment are five girls from 9b in Hjallerup School in North Jutland, and it all started because they found it difficult to concentrate during the school day:

- We all think we have experienced difficulty concentrating in school, if we had slept with the phone next to our head, and sometimes also experienced having difficulty sleeping, explains Lea Nielsen, who is one of the five aspiring researchers.

The school was not equipped to test the effect of mobile phone radiation on them. Therefore, the girls had to find an alternative. And the answer was Cress.

Six trays of seeds were put into a room without radiation, and six trays were put into another room next to two [Wi-Fi] routers. Such routers broadcast the same type of radiation as an ordinary mobile.
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Fratibha Masand, TNN May 13, 2013,

MUMBAI: Excessive use of cellphones can cause the deadliest of health hazards among users, from hearing loss to neuro-endocrine disruption, hormonal imbalance and cancer.

Over the last decade, cellular phone usage has grown exponentially with the introduction of new communication systems and newer and smaller phone models. But it is a mark of how much people use cellphones these days, that doctors report as much as a 50% hearing loss among users.

Dr Divya Prabhat, ENT surgeon with Bhatia and Wadia hospitals, said he had been getting many patients who complain of pain in the ears and even hearing loss.

"The most common complaint is that after they hang up, the ears get hot. Many patients come with complaints of tinnitus, where there is a buzzing in the ears. This also results in irritability and lack of concentration," he said.
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Brain Diseases Affecting More People and Starting Earlier Than Ever Before

May 10, 2013 — Professor Colin Pritchard's latest research published in journal Public Health has found that the sharp rise of dementia and other neurological deaths in people under 74 cannot be put down to the fact that we are living longer. The rise is because a higher proportion of old people are being affected by such conditions -- and what is really alarming, it is starting earlier and affecting people under 55 years.

Of the 10 biggest Western countries the USA had the worst increase in all neurological deaths, men up 66% and women 92% between 1979-2010. The UK was 4th highest, men up 32% and women 48%. In terms of numbers of deaths, in the UK, it was 4,500 and now 6,500, in the USA it was 14,500 now more than 28,500 deaths.

Professor Pritchard of Bournemouth University says: "These statistics are about real people and families, and we need to recognise that there is an 'epidemic' that clearly is influenced by environmental and societal changes."

Tessa Gutteridge, Director YoungDementia UK says that our society needs to learn that dementia is increasingly affecting people from an earlier age: "The lives of an increasing number of families struggling with working-age dementia are made so much more challenging by services which fail to keep pace with their needs and a society which believes dementia to be an illness of old age."
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POTENZA PICENA RESOLUTION

On April 20th, 2013 the International congress of Potenza Picena entitled
“Radar, radiofrequency and health risk”,
reached the following conclusions:

• radars use pulsed radiofrequency that causes characteristic biological effects which are more invasive than non pulsed EMF;

• radiofrequency can cause structural changes in enzymes with time reactions of nanoseconds, while the pulsed radiofrequencies emitted by radars occur every milliseconds, thus suggesting that for every pulsing event several enzymatic changes occur;

• the pulsed signals can induce significant modifications on DNA regulations as an effect of the methylation of the genome;

• scientific literature concludes that biological/health effects can occur at low intensity exposure and chronic exposure can make a living organism more susceptible to the effect of the EMFs;

• ICEMS monograph (Eur. J. Oncol., 2010) concludes that there are non thermal mechanisms of action of EMF (including RF) on the living matter;

• experiments on cell cultured in residential areas in Potenza Picena showed that the radar signal activates apoptosis for short exposures and cell survival signal after 24 hours of exposure;

• preliminary results of animal experiments show that radiofrequency is a co-carcinogenic agent;

• radiofrequency induces oxidative stress processes in tissues and living organisms;

• different epidemiological studies show that there is a significant increase of health risks on the people exposed to pulsed radiofrequency and more studies need to be done to conclude especially about pulsed radiofrequency;

• scientific literature suggests that for EMF the precautionary principle should be internationally adopted;

Thus, stricter safety standards for EMF needs to be adopted by governments and public health agencies because the existing ones are obsolete and they are not based on recent literature about biological effects.
According to the precautionary principle RF sources should be reduced as low as possible because at now it is not possible to establish a safe limit under which no biological effects can be observed.
RF sources should be kept far from residential areas. For pulsed RF sources, such radars and Wi-Max antennas, the distance from the EMF source should be even greater because they cause more biologically effects than non pulsed signals.
Wi-Fi should not be placed in schools and in public areas since they have characteristics of pulsed signals.
The precautionary principle suggests to use special caution for the younger people and for susceptible such as those with Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitivity a condition growing in modern societies that makes people sick for exposure to EMF even at low level of intensity.

Signatories:
Prof. Massimo Scalia, physicist, CIRPS at University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
Dr. Eleonora Miranda, Institute of Molecular Genetics, National Council of Research, biologist, Bologna, Italy
Maurizio Brizzi, Associate Professor of Statistics, University of Bologna, Italy
Prof. Mario Barteri, chemist, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
Ian Marc Bonapace, Assistant Professor, Department of Structural and Functional Biology, University Insubria, Busto Arsizio (Varese), Italy
Prof. Henry Lai, Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Dr. PhD Livio Giuliani, mathematician, University La Tuscia, Viterbo;
ICEMS spokesman Dr. Fiorenzo Marinelli, biologist, Institute of Molecular Genetics, National Research Council Bologna, Italy; Scientific Secreteriat, Member, ICEMS;
Olle Johansson, Associate Professor, Karolinska Institute, histology; cell biology; basic and applied neuroscience, Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Michela Padovani, biologist, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the Ramazzini Institute, Bologna, Italy
Prof. Dr. Nesrin Seyhan, biophysicist, Founding Chair, Biophysics Dept. of Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey; Founding Director, GNRK Center; Scientific Secreteriat Member, ICEMS; Advisory Committee Member, WHO EMF
Dr. Maurizio Fontana, physician, Genova, Italy
Mr. Örjan Hallberg, MSc Electrical Engineering, Hallberg Independent Research, Farsta, Sweden

Francesca Romana Orlando
Vice President of AMICA
Association for Chronic Chemical
and/or Environmental Injury

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors wanted that fact sheet describing possible dangers of cell phone radiation would be available for every buyer of the cell phone. They also wanted that this information would be clearly and visibly displayed by cell phone selling establishments. CTIA did not agree and the court sided with them. Board of [...]

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Mr. Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of CTIA, was nominated to be the next Chairman of the FCC. He has clear conflict of interest. The planned revision of the cell phone safety standards by FCC is now in danger to be adjusted to the industry liking. My new science column in The Washington Times Communities speaks about [...]

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