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Why are British GPs silent on this matter??
German wide cross sectional survey on health impacts of electromagnetic fields in the view of general practitioners

Int J Public Health

DOI 10.1007/s00038-009-0110-2

Bernd Kowall

• Ju¨rgen Breckenkamp •Kristina Heyer • Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff

Department of Epidemiology and International Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, PO 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany.

OBJECTIVES: The proportion of general practitioners (GPs) in Germany who assume health impacts of electromagnetic fields (EMF) is assessed. Moreover, factors associated with this risk perception are examined. METHODS: A 7% random sample was drawn from online lists of all the GPs working in Germany. 1,867 doctors received a long version of a self-administered postal questionnaire about EMF and health (response rate 23.3%), 928 doctors received a short version (response rate 49.1%). RESULTS: 37.3% of responders to the short and 57.5% of responders to the long questionnaire agreed "that there are persons whose health complaints are caused by EMF when legal limit values are met". A late responder analysis for the survey with the short questionnaire led to a still lower estimate of 29% for GPs believing in health-relevant effects of EMF. CONCLUSION: About a third of German GPs associate EMF with health complaints and thus deviate considerably from current scientific knowledge. To avoid a strong selection bias in the surveys of the perception of EMF risks, use of short questionnaires and late responder analysis are recommended.

PMID: 20020175 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Available in full here

http://www.springerlink.com/content/?k=German+wide+cross+sectional+survey+on+health+impacts+of+electromagnetic+fields+in+the+view+of+general+practitioners
 
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GQ Magazine : Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Ever worry that that gadget you spend hours holding next to your head might be damaging your brain?

Well, the evidence is starting to pour in, and it's not pretty. So why isn't anyone in America doing anything about it?


Earlier this winter, I met an investment banker who was diagnosed with a brain tumor five years ago. He's a managing director at a top Wall Street firm, and I was put in touch with him through a colleague who knew I was writing a story about the potential dangers of cell-phone radiation. He agreed to talk with me only if his name wasn't used, so I'll call him Jim. He explained that the tumor was located just behind his right ear and was not immediately fatal—the five-year survival rate is about 70 percent. He was 35 years old at the time of his diagnosis and immediately suspected it was the result of his intense cell-phone usage. "Not for nothing," he said, "but in investment banking we've been using cell phones since 1992, back when they were the Gordon-Gekko-on-the-beach kind of phone." When Jim asked his neurosurgeon, who was on the staff of a major medical center in Manhattan, about the possibility of a cell-phone-induced tumor, the doctor responded that in fact he was seeing more and more of such cases—young, relatively healthy businessmen who had long used their phones obsessively. He said he believed the industry had discredited studies showing there is a risk from cell phones. "I got a sense that he was pissed off," Jim told me. A handful of Jim's colleagues had already died from brain cancer; the more reports he encountered of young finance guys developing tumors, the more certain he felt that it wasn't a coincidence. "I knew four or five people just at my firm who got tumors," Jim says. "Each time, people ask the question. I hear it in the hallways."

 

Read the rest here: http://www.gq.com/cars-gear/gear-and-gadgets/201002/warning-cell-phone-radiation
 
Do Mobile Phones Cure Alzheimer’s Disease?

Comments by Andrew Goldsworthy on a widely publicised paper by Arendash and co-workers that suggests that mobile phone radiation may cure Alzheimer’s disease.


I have looked at the original Arendash et al. paper and things are not quite as reported in the press.

The radiation was not modulated
The first point I should make is that they used radiation at 918MHz (similar to a GSM mobile phone in this respect) but it was neither pulsed nor modulated, so it cannot be regarded in any way as being equivalent to real mobile phone or Wifi radiation.

Unmodulated radiation is less biologically active
The non-thermal effects of unmodulated radio frequency radiation are normally much weaker than modulated radiation and could even produce the opposite effect (this is called radiation hormesis, which has been studied mostly in relation to ionizing radiation, but it probably also applies to non-ionizing radiation).

Radiation hormesis

It is argued that living cells and organisms perceive the damaging effects of the radiation and put themselves into “repair mode”. This includes boosting enzymes needed for cellular growth and regeneration and also triggering inflammation to increase the blood supply to the affected region. Provided these measures are successful, there may be no observable adverse effects. However, some of these mechanisms are generic and may also affect other illnesses, so that very weak radiation may have net beneficial effects, even on systems that are not directly affected by it. This may be what we are seeing here; mild inflammation of the brain would increase its blood supply and could stave off the degeneration normally associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Amplitude modulated waves can weaken cell membranes and cause illnesses
Amplitude modulated radio waves (such as those used by mobile phones), where the strength of the carrier wave rises and falls in time with the modulating waveform, give greater biological effects. This is perhaps because they are more effective in jerking structurally-important calcium ions free from cell membranes, which makes them more inclined to leak. The effects of this can be harmful in many cases (see http://tinyurl.com/5ru6e6 for a proposed mechanism and some of the consequences).

Amplitude modulation can also affect cryptochrome to increase the risk of cancer

When a carrier wave is modulated in this way, it generates a range of other frequencies on either side of the carrier (called sidebands), which contain the information. Digital transmissions have particularly wide sidebands that encompass many other biologically active frequencies, including those that interfere with the activity of cryptochrome, which some animals use to sense magnetic fields for navigation (Ritz et al. Nature, Vol. 429, 13 May 2004). Cryptochrome also occurs in most animal and plant cells, where it is an essential part of the “body clock” that controls their natural circadian rhythms. It is effects on cryptochrome that probably account for the sleep disturbances experienced by people living near base stations. It may also explain their apparent increased risk of getting cancer since the immune system, which normally disposes of aberrant cells before they become cancerous, is controlled by the body clock. This is to make the most efficient use of limited bodily resources, which are switched from physical activity during the day to the immune system at night. If our natural body rhythms are disrupted or reduced in amplitude by the radiation, it means that at no time can the immune system function at maximum strength and we are therefore more likely to develop cancer.


The take-home story
To sum up, it is perfectly possible that unmodulated microwaves could mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, but modulated microwaves are likely to do more harm than good. So now may not be the time to buy granny a mobile phone, but we should nevertheless look more carefully at the effects of unmodulated radiation. It may really help, but we still need to proceed with great caution.

Andrew Goldsworthy BSc PhD

Lecturer in Biology (retired)

Imperial College London
 
WHY IS THERE MORE CONCERN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH IN FRANCE??
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173740/reduce_radio_wave_exposure_warns_french_government_agency.html

Reduce Radio Wave Exposure, Warns French Government Agency
Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

Thursday 15th October 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:10 AM PDT

A French government agency has warned that measures should be taken to reduce everyday exposure to radio signals -- even though, it said, there is
no definitive proof that such signals have a negative effect on human health.

The French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety conducted a review of around 3,500 studies and publications.

Around 10 studies indisputably demonstrate that radio signals have an effect on the activity of cells, the agency said, but only one mechanism has so far
been identified by which the signals affect cells: the heating effect due to the very high signal levels typically only found close by transmitters.

The agency suggested a number of measures to cut exposure in its report "An updated expert evaluation relating to radio frequencies" published (in
French) on Thursday.

Among the measures recommended, it called on authorities to identify the areas of the country subjected to the strongest radio signals, and take
efforts to reduce them. However, it also warned city authorities not to introduce local regulations limiting the power of transmitters for mobile
phone networks, which might lead to an increase in the number of transmitters, with as-yet unknown consequences.

It also encouraged phone companies and ISPs to supply cordless phones based on the latest low-power technologies and to supply DSL modem-routers with multiple Ethernet jacks and an easily accessible physical on-off switch for the Wi-Fi interface.

Consumers should also be given more information about the specific absorption rate (SAR) of all devices emitting radio signals. SAR is a
measure of the heating effect of the signals on human tissue, and is already published for most mobile phones, allowing consumers to choose a model with a lower SAR if they are concerned about the effect of radio signals.

The agency recognized that some people undeniably experience pain and other symptoms that those people attribute to their hypersensitivity to radio
signals, but said there is no proof that radio signals are indeed the cause of the pain.

French businesses are cashing in on fears about the health effects of radio waves, with health-food stores selling all manner of sprays and
self-adhesive patches that supposedly protect their wearers from radio signals.

However, the agency said, "The effectiveness of these products has not been proven."

Legislators are already taking action to limit the exposure of those they believe most vulnerable to the radio signals. The French Senate last week
approved a bill forbidding schoolchildren from using mobile phones in the classroom in primary and middle schools. The bill also requires the approval
of the National Assembly before it can become law, but it has not yet been scheduled for debate there.
 
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