Category Archives: IARC

France bans Apple iPhone 12 while Canadians remain at risk – An immediate ban in Canada is imperative to protect public health – September 18, 2023

(click on photo to enlarge) https://www.reuters.com/technology/french-watchdog-halts-iphone-12-sales-over-too-high-radiation-minister-2023-09-12/

France bans Apple iPhone 12 while Canadians remain at risk

An immediate ban in Canada is imperative to protect public health

For immediate release

OAKVILLE, ON.

September 18, 2023 – Canada is continuing to permit sales of Apple’s iPhone 12 even after it has been banned from sale in France because it emits dangerously high levels of microwave radiofrequency radiation.

On September 12th, France’s regulator announced that sales of Apple’s iPhone 12 were banned until Apple implemented changes that would reduce the level of microwave radiofrequency radiation emissions below France’s regulatory maximum Specific Absorption Rate (SAR).

Although Health Canada’s Safety Code 6 SAR maximum limits are lower, the iPhone 12 phones remain on the Canadian market. Canada’s cell phone emissions regulator, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) says that Canada has some of the toughest standards for cell phone safety in the world: every device needs to pass rigorous testing and a certification process before being sold, and they are then regularly audited afterward.

If France’s SAR limits are breached, how can Canada’s not be exceeded to an even greater degree? We’ve been asking.

After nearly three years, Sharon Noble, Director, Citizens for Safer Tech, finally received information about ISED’s cell phone Market Surveillance Program. In the five years of audits sent to Ms Noble, a total of only 90 phones had been tested. None had been tested at zero distance from the body, where many people use and store their phones. “The report I received confirmed my worst fears – few cell phones are tested. The iPhone 12 has been sold in Canada since 2020, yet it was not listed in the report ISED recently provided. This means that it was not tested by ISED before it went on the market, and so Canadians, including children, have been using a phone that most likely exceeds Health Canada’s exposure standard when used against the body such as when carried in a pocket. To protect Canadians health, it is imperative that the Apple iPhone12 be withdrawn immediately from the Canadian market – as should all other wireless devices that exceed Canadian SAR limits – until their emissions are compliant. Safety Code 6 states clearly that its SAR limits ‘shall not be exceeded.’”

Surprisingly, ISED also confirmed that Canada’s SAR standards may be met by measuring the SAR with the phones at a distance from the body—not next to the body. SAR decreases as the device is moved away from the head or body.

Many well-respected independent scientists have published high quality peer reviewed studies showing that microwave radiofrequency radiation emitted by wireless devices such as cell phones can cause biological harm ranging from inflammation, DNA damage and tumours, to cardiac and fertility problems, headaches and brain fog, all at exposures below Safety Code 6 maximum limits.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified microwave radiofrequency radiation as a possible human carcinogen in 2011, based largely on human epidemiological studies. The Agency now lists it as a high priority for re-evaluation, to include subsequent large scale animal studies demonstrating “clear evidence” of carcinogenicity. Meg Sears, Chair of Prevent Cancer Now said, “Cancers are increasing rapidly in younger Canadians, and wireless radiation as well as chemicals, nutrition and activities are implicated. Radiation from wireless devices magnifies toxicities of hazardous chemicals, so we need to reduce both. There are lower- and zero-exposure options for communications, to choose at home and school; at work and play.”

It is time that this lack of protection is examined by our legislators, with clear recommendations to rectify the inadequate regulation of cell phones and other wireless devices. Frank Clegg, CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology and former President of Microsoft Canada says, “It is long overdue that Health Canada ditches the disproven premise that only heating can cause harm, and incorporate the evidence of adverse non-thermal effects at exposure levels far below Safety Code 6. One step in the right direction would be a full examination by the House of Commons’ Health Committee. Another is to provide adequate warnings about the use of cell phones with full disclosure of SAR values when cell phones are held next to the body. Our health depends on it.”

For further information, please contact:

Sharon Noble, Citizens for Safer Tech

Email: citizensforsafertech@shaw.ca

Meg Sears, Prevent Cancer Now

Phone: 613 297-6042

Frank Clegg, Canadians for Safe Technology

Email: Frank@c4st.org

Marg Friesen, Canadians for Safe Technology

Email: Marg.c4st@gmail.com

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https://normryder.substack.com/p/france-bans-apple-iphone-12-while

5G – Unsafe , Uninsurable and Expensive – If insurance companies won’t take the risk, why should we? – Environmental Health Trust

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Former CDC Scientist Issues Report – Strong Evidence That Cell Phone Radiation Causes Cancer

“the evidence on an association between cellular phone use and the risk of glioma in adults is quite strong.”

Christopher Portier PhD – A retired U.S. government scientist who served as Director of the United States National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry….

More Legal News: Major Wins in US Courts Allow Disability Discrimination Cases to Proceed and New Brain Cancer/Cell Phone Lawsuit Launched

 

 

Announcing the TechSafe Schools project! – February 25, 2021

https://www.techsafeschools.org/

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Experts have been warning for years that children are being endangered by being exposed to wireless radiation in schools. They may become ill while students or suffer as adults because of exposure in schools that didn’t need to happen and shouldn’t have happened. Many of us have provided scientific evidence to Ministers of Education, to School Trustees and the Public Health Officials. Teachers have asked for safe places in which to teach, yet wireless technology is used in schools throughout the province and country. This group is from the USA but, in many of their documents, simply exchange “FCC” with “Health Canada” and the information applies here. I have asked the organization for permission to use their templates and “Canadianize” them and will let you know when I receive their response. Please read the letters and documents hyperlinked in the article, and please consider sharing widely. There is power in numbers.

Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters

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Grassroots Environmental Education and Grassroots Communications are very pleased to announce the launch of the TechSafe Schools project – a multi-faceted program designed to help schools reduce exposure to RF radiation.

The TechSafe Schools project consists of a personal letter addressed to school administrators, a legal letter from seven prominent attorneys with experience in wireless radiation and tort litigation; a short Q&A brochure about RF radiation in schools and an invitation for school officials to attend one or more of three national webinars we will be sponsoring in early March.

….continued here: https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/2021-02-25-announcing-the-techsafe-school-project/

European Alliance Stop 5G Protest – France – September 19, 2020

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https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stop-5G-Les-collectifs-Stop-Linky-5G-in-France-September-19-2020.pdf

Appeal to the Government of Canada: Suspend 5G Until Proven Safe – Press Release – May 14, 2020

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Twenty-Four Canadian Groups Say: Suspend 5G Until Proven Safe   Appeal to the Government of Canada “Look Before We Leap”

For Immediate Release  May 14, 2020

Ottawa:  Scientists and citizens groups from across Canada, including several from British Columbia, are launching an Urgent Appeal demanding the right to say “No” to 5G in their neighbourhoods. Twenty-four Canadian groups are banding together and calling for a national moratorium on the roll out of 5G until questions about its human health effects are resolved.

“This has nothing to do with Covid-19. All groups launching this Appeal condemn acts of violence such as burning antenna towers, said one of the organizers. “The Parliamentary Health Committee has been investigating the negative health impacts of cell phones, cell towers and Wi-Fi for over a decade. So far the only assurance that it’s safe comes from the wireless companies profiting from it, but scientists disagree.”

The Appeal is also requesting that Health Canada conduct a comprehensive and rigorous assessment of the health effects of radiofrequency radiation.

“Health Canada’s 2015 guidelines for human exposure to non-ionizing radiation (Safety Code 6) were out of date before they were published, and the review process was flawed,” said Dr. Meg Sears, PhD, Chair of Ottawa based Prevent Cancer Now, one of the signatory groups. “Hundreds of peer-reviewed, published studies show that radiofrequency (RF) radiation can cause cancers, damage sperm and DNA, impair reproduction, learning and memory, and more. We should be limiting public exposure, not increasing it.”

“We have sufficient data to classify RF radiation as a Group 1, known human carcinogen, along with, for example, asbestos and tobacco smoke,” states Dr. Anthony Miller MD, Professor Emeritus of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, who worked with the International Agency for Research on Cancer on the 2011 scientific review. Dr. Miller is a signatory to the appeal.

Numerous 4G and 5G microcell antennae are appearing in neighbourhoods with no prior notice; some being placed by children’s bedrooms. This blatant disregard for potential health consequences is unCanadian and unnecessary. A safer, faster, and more environmentally friendly Internet option is available — fibre optic cables connected right to the home.

Oona McOuat of Salt Spring Island says, “COVID-19 has shown us we need dependable and affordable Internet. With the government increasing connectivity funding, and the Connected Coast bringing fibre optics to 154 BC communities, now is the perfect time to connect fibre to our homes. Rural communities like Denman, Hornby and Salt Spring islands and the Slocan Valley are exploring how to create net neutral and energy efficient community-owned fibre networks. These networks may be up to 20 times faster than wireless 5G, while offering untold financial and other benefits.”

“The proponents would prefer that we hear only about the up-side – the additional billions in purported  revenues from 5G – but there is little recognition of the increased costs,” said Frank Clegg, former President of Microsoft Canada and CEO of Canadians For Safe Technology.

“Canadians deserve a full economic analysis including the unspoken increased costs to our healthcare system, which is particularly stressed right now. Also the lost productivity from adverse health effects; security and privacy breaches; increased energy consumption, damage to the environment; and risks to safety and property should be included. We are living in a different world than we were three months ago, and this is a standard cost-benefit analysis that might open the eyes of the public that is paying for it,” said Clegg.

The Appeal requests that Ottawa give local governments and their citizens proper notification and grant them a decisive say over the placement of cell towers and microcell antennas.

Visit the Appeal here: http://c4st.org/5Gappeal/

Thank-you Letter to MP Ron McKinnon for Sponsoring the School/Cell Tower Petition and Response Letter to Editor of Tri-City News by Dr. Magda Havas – May 08, 2020

From: “drmagdahavas” <drmagdahavas@gmail.com>
To: “Ron McKinnon” <Ron.McKinnon@parl.gc.ca>
Sent: May 8, 2020
Subject: Thank you for Sponsoring the School/Cell Tower petitionLetter to Editor below

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https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2424

Mr. McKinnon,

You don’t know me and I’m not in your riding but perhaps the information below will be self explanatory.

I would like to thank you for sponsoring the petition regarding cell tower buffer-zones around schools and playgrounds.  We desperately need to reduce exposure especially of children to microwave radiation.

Yesterday (May 7) you were criticized unfairly in the Tri-City News.

I sent a letter to the editor but seldom do these letters get published, especially one that criticizes a reporter for being biased.   So I thought I would send you a copy.

In the event it is NOT published I will post it on my website and circulate it broadly.

We need people who are not afraid to speak the truth and who are willing to take a stand that may not be popular.

If there is anything I can do to support you as you engage the government to follow-up on the HESA recommendations please let me know.  I testified at both the 2010 and 2015 meetings and am deeply committed to and concerned about this issue.

Thank you for your courage and your integrity.

Kind regards,

-magda

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Below is what I sent to the Editor of Tri-City News….

https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Response-Letter-to-Editor-of-Tri-City-News-by-Dr.-Magda-Havas-May-08-2020.pdf

Brain cancers – 4 times more new cases of glioblastoma in 2018 according to Public Health France by Alert Phone Gate – November 18, 2019

https://www.phonegatealert.org/en/press-release-brain-cancers-4-times-more-new-cases-of-glioblastoma-in-2018-according-to-public-health-france

 

 

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In July 2019 (updated in September 2019), the French Public Health Agency “Santé Publique France“, together with the Francim cancer registries, the Hospices Civils de Lyon and the Institut National du Cancer, published national estimates of cancer incidence and mortality in metropolitan France between 1990 and 2018. These are based on the modeling of observed incidence data (new cases) until 2015 by cancer registries, supplemented by projections until 2018.

Volume 1 of the report is devoted to solid tumors (27 tumors and 22 subtypes). Between 1990 and 2018, the overall incidence rate of solid tumors remained relatively stable in men and continued to increase in women. At the same time, the annual number of new cases of glioblastoma with histological confirmation (one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer) has increased fourfold and more for both sexes.

In 20 years, the number of glioblastomas multiplied by 4, affecting all ages

Santé Publique France estimates that there will be 3,481 new cases of these glioblastomas in metropolitan France in 2018, 58% of them in men. There were only 823 in 1990….

https://www.phonegatealert.org/en/press-release-brain-cancers-4-times-more-new-cases-of-glioblastoma-in-2018-according-to-public-health-france

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https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/brain-cancer/

Radio frequency waves are among the agents proposed for IARC to reassess with high priority by Alert PhoneGate – April 23, 2019

https://www.phonegatealert.org/en

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[Press release] Radio frequency waves are among the agents proposed for IARC to reassess with high priority by Alert PhoneGate – April 23, 2019:
&
Advisory Group recommendations on priorities for the IARC Monographs – The Lancet – April 17, 2019:
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(video 00:49) World Health Organization Scientist “Cell Phone/Wi-Fi Radiation is A Carcinogen” 2017 by Environmental Health Trust – August 04, 2017:

Dr. Anthony Miller, senior advisor to the WHO IARC reviewed the best available scientific evidence and now concludes that cell phone and wireless radiation is a carcinogen. This excerpt is from a July 31, 2017 lecture he gave in a scientific symposium sponsored by Environmental Health Trust….

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Third International Forum on Protection from Electromagnetic Environmental Pollution

At the Third International Forum on Protection from Electromagnetic Environmental Pollution three scientists speaking at the city’s Hall of Sessions told the international audience of the threat posed by modern microwave based technology to human life amid the environment of political and corporate corruption.

Krakow remains the only municipality on the planet to protect its citizens from the dangers of electromagnetic radiation pollution.

For those of you that are seriously interested in the world wide assault on human health by the explosion of RF Radiation devices, you should spend 30 minutes to read this report.

see the full report at https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Krakow_final.pdf

Collaborative on Health and the Environment – 2018 OCT 19

See this very informative site for those of you that are inquisitive and wish to understand what is going on in this precious world of ours
see https://www.healthandenvironment.org

CHE has a section on the health problems related to RF Radiation see https://www.healthandenvironment.org/environmental-health/environmental-risks/technology-environment/radiation-environment

Here is the latest email from Joel MOSKOWITZ at CHE

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For the U.S. version of this story see the following reports:

Mark Hertsgaard and Mark Dowie. “The inconvenient truth about cancer and mobile phones.” The Guardian, July 14, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/14/mobile-phones-cancer-inconvenient-truths

Mark Hertsgaard and Mark Dowie. “How big wireless made us think that cell phones are safe: A special investigation.” The Nation, March 29, 2018. https://www.thenation.com/article/how-big-wireless-made-us-think-that-cell-phones-are-safe-a-special-investigation/

Alster, Norm. Captured agency: How the Federal Communications Commission is dominated by the industries it presumably regulates. Cambridge, MA:  Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University.  2015. http://bit.ly/FCCcaptured

Note: The International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection will soon issue an inaccurate summary of the science to reaffirm its obsolete safety guidelines for wireless radiation exposure. See  ICNIRP’s Exposure Guidelines for Radio Frequency Fields.

Mobile Phone Cover-up? Gov’t advisory body disbanded – inaccurate and misleading conclusions remain

Annelie Fitzgerald, TruePublica (United Kingdom), Oct 17, 2018

TruePublica recently ran a piece highlighting the most censored stories in Britain. One story that never made it into the mainstream media or even any independent media outlets in the UK at the time was the disbanding of the UK Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation (AGNIR) in May 2017. This followed the revelation in December 2016 that AGNIR’s latest assessment of the science on the health impacts of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs)—the type emitted by modern wireless technologies—was inaccurate and subject to conflicts of interest, a story that elicited no media interest in the UK either.

AGNIR’s role was to provide Public Health England with objective, science-based recommendations and advice on safe public exposure levels to man-made RF-EMFs. PHE is the agency from which the devolved UK nations take their advice, and other public health agencies from around the world also referred to AGNIR’s recommendations.

In 2012 AGNIR published what turned out to be its last report: Health Effects from Electromagnetic Fields (RCE-20).

The report’s executive summary included the following definitive-sounding statement on RF-EMF safety: ‘Taken together, these studies provide no evidence of health effects of RF field exposures below internationally accepted guideline levels.’

While this conclusion might appear to justify the dissolution last year of AGNIR, close examination reveals that the final AGNIR report was a partial one—in every sense of the word.

In December 2016 UK neuroscientist Dr Sarah J. Starkey published a peer-reviewed paper, ‘Inaccurate official assessment of radiofrequency safety by the Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation’, roundly criticising the AGNIR report.

Accuracy, Starkey pointed out, ‘is vital when most people only read the executive summary and overall conclusions from a 348-page report and national and international public health decisions and exposure levels are based on them’ (p. 494).

In reality, as Starkey demonstrates, the conclusions drawn by AGNIR did not accurately reflect the scientific evidence available: the report contained ‘incorrect and misleading statements’ and omitted significant quantities of relevant research.

For some reason, AGNIR set the cut-off date for research to be considered in its report as December 2010. This meant that it excluded reference to the classification in May 2011 of RF-EMFs as a 2B possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and to a paper by the IARC Monograph Working Group published in The Lancet in July 2011.

It is clear, however, that AGNIR’s official cut-off date was not always adhered to: for example, a paper co-authored by one of its members (Maria Feychting) and published in 2011 was included in the report. This paper concluded that there was no causal association between mobile phone use and brain tumours in children and adolescents. Including this ‘no-effect’ paper while excluding reference to the IARC classification might be considered an instance of ‘cherry-picking’.

Indeed, in her study Starkey notes that the executive summary and overall conclusions of the AGNIR report disregarded or excluded much of the evidence of harm to health from RF-EMFs (p. 493).

For example, although 78% of the studies cited on male fertility described significant adverse effects on sperm, male reproductive organs or changes in male testosterone concentrations, AGNIR’s conclusion was that there was ‘no convincing evidence that low-level exposure results in any adverse outcomes on testicular function’ (p. 495).

Starkey’s painstaking analysis of the way AGNIR’s review of the science had been conducted made clear that the report was unsuitable for determining safe public exposure levels, and her conclusion didn’t mince words: ‘Public health and the well-being of other species in the natural world cannot be protected when evidence of harm, no matter how inconvenient, is covered up’ (p. 500).

Starkey’s criticism of the accuracy of the AGNIR report was echoed by Dariusz Leszczynski, an expert on RF-EMFs from the University of Helsinki and a member of the IARC panel that classified RF-EMFs as a 2B possible human carcinogen. Describing reading the report as ‘surreal’, Leszczynski wrote that it appeared that ‘the authors would either not understand the studies they read or had pre-written conclusions. It was like reading a wish list written by someone claiming that there [are] not and will never be any problems related to cell phone exposures.’ He condemned the report as misleading, pointing out that it is ‘not a comprehensive review [as it claimed to be] but it is a biased review.’

According to the British Medical Journal’s website, biases in reviewing science and in conclusions reached can be considered scientific misconduct: the definition of falsification of data ranges from ‘fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data.’

Could AGNIR’s partial assessment of the evidence be considered scientific misconduct? Might the omissions and inaccuracies in the report having been brought to light by Starkey’s paper account—at least in part—for AGNIR’s sudden demise, just six months later?

AGNIR’s conflict of interest

As Starkey points out, the AGNIR report also was subject to conflict of interest: AGNIR’s chair, Anthony Swerdlow, and two of its members—Maria Feychting and Zenon Sienkiewicz—were also members of the controversial International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), whose contested RF-EMF exposure guidelines have been adopted by most of the western world, including the UK. In fact, in 2012 Swerdlow was chair of AGNIR and simultaneously chair of the ICNIRP standing committee on epidemiology.

There is an obvious conflict of interest in allowing scientists who are members of the body pronouncing on safe exposure guidelines to sit also on panels tasked with evaluating the science relating to the adequacy of the guidelines.

As Starkey asks:

‘How can AGNIR report that the scientific literature contains evidence of harmful effects below the current guidelines when several of them are responsible for those guidelines?’ (p. 493).

In a recent article George Monbiot pointed out that governments determine the conclusions of reviews in advance through the appointments they make to panels. Although AGNIR was represented as an ‘independent’ advisory body, Starkey revealed that 43% of its members were from the Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England), the government health agency which commissioned the report, and from the Department of Health. AGNIR could therefore hardly be thought of as ‘independent’.

Furthermore, ICNIRP and AGNIR’s Swerdlow and Feychting are both recognised as ‘leading sceptics’ about the existence of adverse health effects from RF-EMFs, while another member of AGNIR, psychiatrist James Rubin, has published a number of studies all concluding that RF-EMFs cause no adverse health effects.

Swerdlow and his wife also hold shares in wireless and telecommunications companies, an interest he declared in a 2011 paper downplaying brain tumour risks from mobile phone use, but such a disclosure did not feature in the AGNIR report. (The BMJ considers ‘failures of transparency to be forms of misconduct’.)

In 2012, the Union of Concerned Scientists published an important report called Heads They Win, Tails We Lose. How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense. Noting that ‘Government agencies rely on independent scientific advisory panels to provide objective advice’, the report revealed that ‘panel members often have undisclosed financial conflicts of interest: ties to companies that stand to win or lose based on the findings of these advisory committees.’ Surely having a personal financial stake in a company while being responsible for assessing the safety of the technology developed and commercialised by that company constitutes a serious conflict of interest requiring disclosure.

Accumulating evidence

Any queries addressed to governments or public health bodies in the UK about the safety of wireless technologies continue to be dismissed through reference to the ‘authoritative’ AGNIR report from 2012. Recent research, however, has strengthened IARC’s 2011 classification of RF-EMFs as a 2B carcinogen.

In 2015 the replication of a German animal study from 2010 confirmed that the incidence of carcinogen-induced tumours (lung and liver) in mice was significantly higher with RF-EMF exposure. Lead author Alexander Lerchl (Jacobs University, Bremen) stated in a press release:

Our results show that electromagnetic fields obviously enhance the growth of tumours.’ Lymphomas, he observed, were also found to be significantly elevated by exposure. In the study, the authors noted: ‘The fact that both studies found basically the same tumour-promoting effects at levels below the accepted (and in most countries legally defined) exposure limits for humans is worrying.’

This conclusion was given added salience by the fact that Alexander Lerchl had previously been an outspoken sceptic regarding the existence of health effects from RF-EMFs.

Earlier this year, a $25m animal study on RF-EMFs—one of the world’s biggest to date—by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) underwent peer-review. The peer-review panel concluded that the case-control study showed ‘clear evidence of carcinogenic activity’ (exposed rats developed rare heart tumours), and confirmed ‘some evidence’ of a link between RF-EMFs and brain cancer.

The findings made by the Bremen team and the NTP should contribute to a revision of permitted public RF-EMF exposure limits. The formulation of adequately protective public health policies requires the existence of an expert panel such as AGNIR—albeit with radically reformed membership and true scientific independence.

Following the disbanding of AGNIR, the assessment of health risks from RF-EMFs is now the responsibility of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), another expert committee which is supposed to provide ‘independent’ advice about the health impacts of both ionising and non-ionising radiation.

The UK government website states that COMARE has a watching brief on non-ionising radiation and that Public Health England ‘remains committed to delivering expert review reports on non-ionising radiation topics as and when sufficient new evidence has accumulated.’ No review of research on non-ionising RF-EMFs appears to be on the horizon in COMARE’s work programme for 2018-19, the main focus of which remains ionising radiation.

In a lecture given at the National Education Union Conference in Northern Ireland, in May 2018, Starkey pointed out that the conflict of interest associated with membership of ICNIRP also exists for COMARE. The person responsible for deciding whether to advise COMARE to look at any new evidence of health impacts was an author of the inaccurate AGNIR report and is also a member of ICNIRP’s Scientific Expert Group.

There needs to be an expert advisory group independent of AGNIR, ICNIRP, the wireless communications industry and UK governments. Starkey is calling for the inaccurate 2012 AGNIR report (and government advice based on it) to be retracted and for there to be mechanisms put in place whereby incorrect government information can be corrected or removed, as can occur for peer-reviewed published scientific papers.

While evidence of adverse health effects from RF-EMF exposure below guideline levels continues to accumulate, chronic public exposure to RF-EMFs is also increasing: smart meters are being installed across the UK at the moment and the government is forging ahead with the development and deployment of 5G. Last year it awarded £16m to the universities of Surrey and Bristol and to Kings College, London, to develop and test new 5G networks. (These experimental test-beds appear to include no provision for assessing risks to public health, though ‘commercial risks’ are considered.)

As a scientific appeal of September 2017 made clear, 5G deployment will lead to a massive increase in mandatory exposure to RF-EMFs. Over 180 scientists from 35 countries called for a moratorium on the roll-out of 5G technology in the EU until potential hazards for human health and the environment have been fully investigated by scientists independent from industry.

A similar appeal was addressed this year to the new Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres (an electrical engineer and former university professor of systems theory and telecommunications signals). Both appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

In this context of increasing public exposure to RF-EMFs, it seems strange indeed to decide that it is ‘no longer viable to support a dedicated standing advisory group to address non-ionising radiation.’

With 5G on the horizon, surely a dedicated, truly independent expert advisory group on RF-EMFs is now more necessary than ever.

Perhaps disbanding ANGIR can be understood as a clumsy bid to pre-empt any discredit or further criticism of AGNIR after the publication of Starkey’s study, despite the latter’s being ignored by the UK media.

Yet closing down AGNIR on the grounds that it had ‘completed its work’ also suggests that the UK government considers—or, more likely, wants—the case to be closed as far as RF-EMFs and health effects are concerned, something that clears the way for the planned deployment of 5G and other so-called ‘smart’ wireless technologies.

George Monbiot recently pointed out that ‘Agencies of the state, newspapers and broadcasters, campaign groups and charities that claim to restrain corporate power fall under its spell.’ Consequently, he noted, their ‘mission becomes confused and their purpose dissipates.’

Far from holding the government and public health agencies to account as they like to claim, the vast majority of the UK media—including outlets that think of themselves as independent—appears to be complicit in turning a blind eye to this vital public health and environmental issue by failing to cover stories such as AGNIR’s dissolution and its inaccurate assessment of the safety of RF-EMF exposures. As a result, the UK public remains largely ignorant of the real health risks that come with the convenience of wireless.

Annelie Fitzgerald is a member of the Safe Schools Information Technology Alliance. SSITA recently sent an open letter to Education Secretary Damian Hinds on the subject of AGNIR’s inaccurate conclusions about the safety of RF-EMF exposure, particularly as they relate to children’s health and well-being.

http://bit.ly/TruePublicWireless

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Recent Posts on Electromagnetic Radiation Safety

Scientific Evidence of Harm from Cell Phone Radiation: Two Years of Research
An annotated bibliography which contains 92 papers published in scientific journals during the last two years that report evidence of harm from cell phone radiation exposure.

5G Wireless Technology: Is 5G Harmful to Our Health?
 “Both oncologic and non-cancerous chronic effects have been suggested.”

5G Wireless Technology: Cutting Through the Hype
 News stories debunk exaggerated benefits of 5G cellular technology.

Research on Smart Phone and Internet Addiction
Recent studies on dependence or addiction to mobile devices, gaming, or the internet.

Hybrid & Electric Cars: Electromagnetic Radiation Risks

  Modern automobiles increasingly incorporate EMF-emitting devices that pose a risk to human health.

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Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Electromagnetic Radiation Safety

Website:          https://www.saferemr.com

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/SaferEMR
Twitter:            @berkeleyprc