Quelle: Israelische Zeitung Haaretz, 31.03.2003, Übersetzung Hebräisch-Englisch von Iris Atzmon, übersandt von Klaus Rudolph, BI Omega

Nach einem ausführlichen Zeitungsbericht der israelischen Zeitung Haaretz gibt es wie in Deutschland auch in Israel eine erhöhte Krebsrate bei Radartechnikern des Militärs (insbesondere bei Leukämie und Gehirntumor, aber auch erhöhte Raten bei der allgemeinen Krebshäufigkeit (Inzidenz) und der Sterblichkeit (Mortalität). Selbstverständlich werden auch bei Radar die Grenzwerte eingehalten, die - natürlich - wieder vom Privatverein ICNIRP e.V. erarbeitet wurden und nur thermische Wirkungen berücksichtigen. Wer sich also fragt, warum es beispielsweise wichtig sei, dass bei Radartechnikern oder Anwohnern von starken Rundfunksendern erhöhte Krebsraten auftreten, dem sei gesagt, dass es hierbei wie bei den Mobilfunksendern jeweils um hochfrequente elektromagnetische Felder im Mikrowellenbereich geht (Robert C. Kane bezeichnet bestimmte Frequenzbereiche als besonders gefährlich und biologisch relevant), und dass ausserdem der Privatverein ICNIRP e.V. hierfür jeweils Grenzwertempfehlungen abgegeben hat, unterhalb derer es jedoch dennoch zu Krebshäufungen und anderen schweren Erkrankungen kommt.

Der Vollständigkeit halber sei ergänzt, dass der Privatverein ICNIRP e.V. natürlich auch bei den niederfrequenten Magnetfeldern (Hochspannungsleitungen, Trafostationen, Umspannwerke, Elektrogeräte usw.) die fast überall gültigen Grenzwertempfehlungen abgegeben hat. Die ICNIRP empfiehlt für diese Magnetfelder nach wie vor einen Grenzwert von 100 Mikrotesla (der auch in Deutschland gültig ist), obwohl die WHO nach Auswertung einer Vielzahl von epidemiologischen Studien bei Anwohnern von Hochspannungsleitungen festgestellt hat, dass sich bei Kindern das Leukämierisiko oberhalb eines Wertes von 0,4 Mikrotesla verdoppelt. Kindern wird also nach deutscher Gesetzgebung ein Höchstwert zugemutet, der 250 Mal so hoch ist wie der Wert, bei dem sich das Kinderleukämie-Risiko verdoppelt. Neuere Untersuchungen aus Kalifornien (staatlicher Auftrag) bestätigen die WHO-Ergebnisse und ergaben außerdem ein erhöhtes Risiko für Gehirntumor bei Erwachsenen, Leukämie bei Kindern und Erwachsenen, für Fehlgeburten und Gehirnerkrankungen wie Alzheimer und Parkinson.

Daraus läßt sich nur schlußfolgern, dass die Aufgabe der ICNIRP nicht der Gesundheitsschutz der Bevölkerung, sondern die Wahrung der Interessen der Industrie ist. Von verantwortungsvoller Vorsorge kann hier in keinem Fall die Rede sein.

Was die Radarkrebsfälle betrifft, haben jetzt in Israel wie in Deutschland mehrere Opfer bzw. deren Angehörige jetzt Klage gegen die Armee eingereicht. Interessant ist, dass nirgends in dem Artikel die Rede von ionisierender Strahlung/Röntgenstrahlung ist (in Deutschland bemühte man sich permanent, in den Medien immer darauf hinzuweisen, dass die Röntgenstrahlung die Ursache dafür sei, nicht jedoch die Hochfrequenzstrahlung). Experten wie Professor Käs, bis vor kurzem an der Universität der Bundeswehr in München tätig, äußerte sich hierzu jedoch eindeutig:

"Günter Käs, ein vielzitierter Radar-Experte der Bundeswehr, widerspricht der Darstellung des Dienstherrn. „Die Röntgenstrahlung ist seit Jahrzehnten wohlbekannt und geht nur von einzelnen Bauteilen aus. Kritisch wird es höchstens für das Wartungspersonal", so der Wissenschaftler. Das Hauptproblem sei die hohe Mikrowellenstrahlung. Der Professor für Radartechnik an der Bundeswehr-Universität Neubiberg musste immer wieder feststellen, dass die Soldaten den Mikrowellen schutzlos ausgesetzt sind. „Die Grenzwerte sind völlig unzureichend für den Gesundheitsschutz" , moniert Käs. „Sie garantieren sicherlich nicht die Gesundheit, besonders nicht bei gepulster Hochleistungsstrahlung.

Den Experten der Bundeswehr ist seit Jahrzehnten bekannt, dass der Gesetzgeber die besonders gefährliche gepulste Hochleistungsstrahlung verharmlost. „Die Hochleistungsstrahlung ist für den Gesetzgeber irrelevant - in der Bundesimmissionsschutzverordnung wird einfach ein Mittelwert angesetzt", so Käs. „Darauf führe ich die gesamte Geschichte zuruck" - gemeint ist die hohe Zahl an Krebserkrankungen. Auf die Frage, ob er die Hardthöhe vor den Risiken gewarnt habe, sagt der Bundeswehr-Wissenschaftler: „Das habe ich nie versucht." Eine Intervention wäre nicht erfolgversprechend gewesen, da die Hardthöhe sich auf die amtlichen Grenzwerte berufen hatte.Käs: „Wer macht da schon einen Alleingang?"

Die Bundeswehr hatte 1962 Schutzvorschriften für den Betrieb von Radaranlagen erlassen, die 1978 von der Nato für verbindlich erklärt wurden. Für den zivilen Bereich, etwa Flughäfen, erließ die Bundesregierung erst 1984 spezielle Schutzvorschriften."

Weitere Infos zu den deutschen Radarkrebsfällen: http://www.elektrosmognews.de/news/valladolid11.htm

Der Fall eines Radaropfers: http://www.elektrosmognews.de/news/radaropfer.htm

Die Original-Übersetzung des hebräischen Artikels (Kommentare in Klammern von Iris Atzmon):

Haaretz 31.3.2003

by Neta Zach

In spite of very high rates of soldiers who are exposed to
electromagnetic radiation and get cancer-Zahal (=israeli army) denies
the problem. Warning of the state comptroller are not useful, even that
it's about  a little investment to deal with the risk.

Brain Cancer is a rare phenomenon, surly in a young age. The national
data in Israel is that 1 of 100,000 20 years old-24 years old found in
1997 that he/she had brain cancer. But it appears that there is one
group in the population where brain cancer in 21 years of age are not so
rare - among the radar workers in Zahal.

Of several hundreds radar antennas technicians who are occupied in the
army, at least 4  claimed to get brain cancer in the last 5 years. If
there are 800 radar technicians in the army, it is high rate relatively
to the population. 2 of  them were still in the army when their disease
was found. Another was diagnosed only 2 years after, by accident, during
checks after a car accident. 2 of them had brain surgery one of them is
still treated. The fourth, technician in the control system of the air
force died when he was 29. It is not the end of the list.

Until 2001, in the report of the state comptroller, 134 cancer cases of
radar soldiers were documented. 53 served in the airforce, specially in
the control department, they are helped by the radars to direct the
pilots. Of a group of 25 soldiers who were occupied in directing
antennas in the  connection force, 6 got cancer. Common complaints among
the soldiers are about cancer illness- leukemia and testicle cancer.

In another intelligence force, which contained 70 soldiers, 3 soldiers
and the  woman-guide got cancer. One of the soldiers died when she was
23 years old. After a lawsuit that lasted for 5 years, the court
determined that "The death of the girl is recognized as death which was
caused within and during her army service".

Yet, Zahal did not change its position:
The radiation emitted by the radars is not dangerous. It is so not
dangerous, that there is no point to protect the soldiers against it.

"Radio waves cause movement of whole mulecules inside cells of the
body",
explains Dr Menahem Margaliot, the head of radiation measurements in the
nuclear research center. [By the way, this man is documented in a video
movie saying to Zoran residents that also if they had been exposed to
500 V/m, nothing would have happened to them. I.A] "one result of this
movement is creating heat. This is the principle upon which the
microwave
ovens work. Heat increase like that, hurts especially the sensitive
areas like the eyes or testicles,  that is why high exposure can lead to
cataract and to temporary loss of reproductivity in men. Especially
embroys are sensitive to heat, and pregnant women exposure raises the
probability to birth defects and misscarriage".

Can electromagnetic radiation cause cancer? That is the question of the
state comptroller to Zahal. "Zahal" he writes, "did not make any effort
to find out how many patients we're talking about and in what units they
serve. But the mediccal army force stated anyway: "There are no
epidimiological proofs to the existence of  radiation epidemic in
Zahal".

Colonel Dr. Shlomo Moshe, head of occupational health branch in
principle medical headquarters officer, also said to the state critisicm
committee of the Knesset, that electromagnetic radiation is not
carcinogenic, and "All the serious researchs in this area, and all the
world organizations,
have the same position".

But it seems that the position of serious researchs in this area is that
electromagnetic  may cause cancer. Thousands of  case researchs in the
world, showed the same thing that happens now in Zahal. One study was
about 40,000 soldiers who served in Korea war in the  US naval unit in
the 50's. The soldiers who were exposed to high radiation died in double
rate from leukemia. Flight technicians who worked with radars had 3.5
times more death rate from leukemia.

According to a research on men who served in the american airforce
between the years 1970-1989, the more the soldiers were exposed to high
radiation levels, they had higher risk to get leukemia. According to a
research in the polish army, soldiers who were exposed to radiation in
high and also low levels, had double rate of cancer. They had double
risk for brain cancer and higher risk than that, for leukemia.

The damage does not happen only to soldiers- a huge study on 62,000
radio amateurs in the US found that 15 years after a license apply to
operate the transmitters, their brain cancer death rate was higher in
1.5 times than the rest of the population.

Dr. Lika Kneifets from the WHO, summerized results of 29 researchs about
brain cancer. She found that on average, workers exopsed to radiation
had higher cancer illness and death rate. "Another thing that attracts
attention", tells Dr. Heim Biran, a senior oncolog in the Kaplan
hospital, "In these cases of radar soldiers, was that they were young.
Cancer appearance is a function of age. It is more common in higher age.
If cancer shows under 40, and surely after 30- we have to look for a
genetic or environmental cause".

Dr. Eliahu Richter supports this position. "Cancer that appears after a
small number of years after the exopsure, is evidence that the radiation
is the cause".

By Biran, "another hint about the disease source is that excess of brain
cancer fits especially to the influence of the electromagnetic
radiation, because a possiible mechanism was offered to creating cancer,
by which the radiation hits the brain's natural protection layer, that
prevents toxins from entering into the brain".

After all these evidences, Dr Ronen Hareuveni, head of electromagnetic
radiation department of the center of nuclear research center, says that
the WHO determined that there is not enough evidence in this subject.

Not only in the world, but also in Israel the formal authorities, apart
from the army,  are not convinced about the cancer danger issue. "There
are many question marks in the subject" says Dr. Kurt Lemesh, the
principle doctor in the work control in the work ministry.

Also the health ministry hesitates:"Most of the researchers are
convinced that RF creates heat only and apart from this influence no
damage is expected.

A small number of researchers think that there are enough proofs to
other radiation effects. Although this is not the majority notion, the
public health responsible authorities are considerate about it and take
it into account"

Not surprisingly, Zahal position becomes sharper in lawsuits cases of
soldiers who want to be resognized as army handicaps. In 18 cases files
in 2001, it turns out from the report of the  state comptroller, that
all the medical expressions of opinions from the rehabilitiation
department deny the possibility that cancer is caused by RF radiation or
state that
there is no link between the army service to the disease, while all the
experssions  of opinions from the side of the soldiers determine that
there is a causal relationship between the disease and the RF exposure".

The expressions of opinion of the army were not influenced by the fact
that  the court had already recognized the causal link about soldiers.
Most of the lawsuits for handicap recognition are rejected, because a
soldier has to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the cancer was
caused by his army service, and cancer is a disease which its cause
cannot be determined at any case and case.

"The only case when the proof is opposite - Zahal is demanded to prove
that  the cancer was not caused by the radiation", tells lawyer Gidi
Frishtick, "is when the soldier not only got the cancer but also died
from it while serving in the army". Because the cancer is generally
found out after he is free from service, this situation is rare. Anyway,
it happened to 2 soldiers from the intelligence force who were exposed
to radiation and got cancer while they were serving in the regular army.
In these 2 cases Zahal couldn't prove that their death was not caused by
the radiation exopsure and their families were recognized as bereaved
families. "There is a cynical and absurd situation" says a lawyer who
deals with such lawsuit. "In order to be recognized as Zahal handicaps,
someone from their unit has to die".

Adi Agmon was 23 when she died from kidney cancer while serving in the
regulary army. Zahal recognized that her death was caused by her
service.
Her father, David Agmon says that this achievement of the familly in
front of the army used as a precedent for other cases in the same unit
(but not in other units because it's not necessary the same radiation
level). Agmon says that in the trial, which lasted for 5 years, there
was a trial of the security ministry to have a settlement.

Another way to check objectively if there is a tendency for cancer among
the workers is to make a research to check the cancer rate. That's also
what the state comptroller report determined. "We understood that there
are professional controvensions", Heim Leshem from the comptroller State
Ministry told to the critisicm committee. "We recommended to do a big
epidimiological study". The research was supposed to be finished in
October 2001.

In October 2001, when Zahal didn't start the checking, a government
decision was made: "Zahal will apply to the health ministry for making
an expression of authorized opinion". Although it takes years to
determine if the exopsure to radiation causes cancer, the investigation
took less than 10 months. It came to the same conclusions that Colonel
Dr Moshe and stated that "Until today there is not evidence for the
carcinogenic influence of EMR on the people that are exposed to it
during their work or other frameworks".

Knesset member Ofir Pines, then a critisicm committee member, made it
harder for the committee: "Why  has  Zahal to check itself?". Colonel
Dr. Moshe answered: "It is about exposed data, it will be exposed and
can be criticized". The Health Ministry and Zahal refused to expose the
data or enable an interview with one of the committee members. "I am
going  to raise this subject beyond what the law requires, in the
critisicm committee, says Pines.

In the meeting of the critisicm committee Dr. Sigal Sadezki was present,
the manager of the cancer and radiation epidimiology unit of  the
disease control center in the health ministry. She was surprised from
the conclusions and said "It can't be said that this is the Health
Ministry position". To Haaretz she said: "The link (between cancer and
EMR) is not proven, but also not refuted".

It is not clear how this committee made the research was supposed to,
because  it says it hasn't the medical files of the plaintiffs at all:
Despite the fact that Zahal is committed to it by law, it doesn't give
the plaintiff soldiers their medical files.

"The problem", says an anonymus lawyer, "is that when requesting a file,
several pages arrive after a year. Either they don't have information or
they hide it".

Brigadier-General [second highest rank in Israeli army], Paul Bendact
claims that "the loss of medical files in Zahal is about 15-20% rate".

No Protection
As Zahal thinks that electromagnetic radiation does not cause cancer, it
doesn't do much in order to protect against it. First of all, there is
no formal standard which determines above which level electromagnetic
radiation is dangerous. There are recommendations, that the WHO
determined in 1998.

The Environment Quality Ministry stated it's process of making it a law
but it is still in discussion. The internet site of the Ministry
states"these recommendations are called sometimes "standards". Because
these are only recommendations, the Work Ministry does not see a reason
to make regular checking of the radiation levels that workers are
exposed to. "We don't have enough on what to  base on" says Piter Magnus
the main work controler in the Health Ministry.

In Zahal, after radiation checks found exceeding values, it was decided
in 1999 that the army would do radiation levels checkings regulary by
soldiers who would be specialied in that. The principle medical
headquarters did not determine a certain  way to authorize the mesearing
people, and the workers are  not directed to the formal course in the
nuclear research center ("Sorek"). More serious than that, is the lack
of shielding equimpment. Soldiers are not given any shield against
radiation, despite the fact it's easy to get- it's about metal strips
like in the microwave oven. "Every metal net blocks radiation" says Dr.
Margaliot. A basic protection program can guide the soldiers.

The soldiers who got cancer in the connection unit told that they had
worked directly with the antennas while they had been operating. "The
simplest way to avoid the radar radiation is to get closer to it only
when it is turned off", says Margaliot. And if it's necessary to direct
the antenna while still working, it has to be remembered that the radar
radiation is very accurate and the soldiers can be warned not to be in
the radiation range of the ray.

Dr. Biran adds "It is important to do also what is done in cases of X
ray- to give the workers rest time, when the body corrects itself."
The soldiers who were hurt used to work with no break and say they were
not told about the possibility that the radiation causes cancer and were
not told to avoid exposure.

"According to the patients I checked, says Richter, "they did not use
any
sort of shield and did not know about the dangers". "Instead of making a
survey, to invest in that the soldiers will know about the dangers, it's
better to invest in monitoring equipment that will warn when the
exposure limit is above the determined level of magnetic field"
[speaking is the responsible to ignoring from Zoran and Porat disaster,
who used exactly the same monitoring equipment to deny the high
radiation levels, he made some kind of average mixing the radiation
levels when the transmitters
were working, with the levels when the transmitters when NOT  working.
Is that the reason he doesn't want to invest in giving some knowledge to
these poor soldiers?! I.A] said Dr Stilian Galberg, the head of
radiation department in the Environment Quality Ministry, to the
critisicm committee.

"Today it's possible to pervent radiation completely" says Eliezer
Goldberg. "Will they stop using radars after the survey? of course not.
Then they will have to deal with the problem. That's why I am asking,
why not deal with the problem when there is doubt. Why not take the
strictest measures to shield in order to prevent doubt. If there is
doubt, there is no doubt".

Zahal spokesman reaction:
Zahal position is that there is no scientific basis to claim that
there's a link between radiation exposure and cancer. The medical unit
adopted the WHO position and the INCIRP position, which the Environment
Quality Ministry also adopted. By which, the only proven dangers are
thermic.

After dozens of year of deep research in the subject, there was not
found
any scientific basis for the existance of other health effects from RF.
The exposure limits in Zahal are determined by the strict standard of
the ICNIRP that are adopted by the WHO.

The Environment Quality Ministry also adopts the standard which is in
the
process of becoming a law in Israel. Zahal has been committed to the
exposure standard for 15 years (since the day it was published).
The standard is very strict, takes high safey measures and is accepted
by
Europe and most of western countries.

The accepted way for protection against radiation is standing in strict
standards by radiation mesearments and by safety guidlines. This way is
implemented in Zahal by the guidance of the principle medical officer.
Personal  protection means are not effective against non-ionizing
protection [give me a break ! And they expect the soldiers to serve them
loyaly...I.A].

The standard for the workers population is safe, because it takes into
account 10 times fold from the threshold of the health effects. From
that it is concluded that this population is protected against radiation
according to the standard. [That's exactly the problem, they are
protected just according to the standard, but not  according to reality
I.A].