Powerwatch News - 18/12/2007 - Israeli INTERPHONE study finds increased tumour risk

Another installment in the international INTERPHONE project has now reported in, with a finding of statistically significantly increased risk in salivary gland tumours of over 50%.

"For ipsilateral use, the odds ratios in the highest category of cumulative number of calls and call time without use of hands-free devices were 1.58 (95% confidence interval: 1.11, 2.24) and 1.49 (95%confidence interval: 1.05, 2.13), respectively. The risk for contralateral use was not significantly different from 1. A positive dose-response trend was found for these measurements. Based on the largest number of benign PGT patients reported to date, our results suggest an association between cellular phone use and PGTs."

Sadetzki S et al (2007)
Cellular Phone Use and Risk of Benign and Malignant Parotid Gland Tumors - A Nationwide Case-Control Study Abstract

This time the study was not looking at brain tumours, but at salivary gland tumours (PGT = Parotid Gland Tumour). The study did not just find an association, but one that had a correlation with ipsilateral use (i.e. the tumour on the same side of the head as the main phone usage) and found some degree of a dose response trend, hinting that increased exposure matched with increased risk. The increases found were statistically significant, and this is yet another study providing strong evidence for a clearly non-thermal effect of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation on health. With all public guidance reliant on compliance with only ICNIRP guidance levels (set on heating and electrical shock), this is yet another strong argument that the ICNIRP values are out of date and in urgent need of revision.

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Also in the news

EHS in the Netherlands

This questionnaire was completed by 250 electrohypersensitive (EHS) persons in the Netherlands over a 3-year period, who contacted the EHS Foundation on their own initiative. Self declared health problems were recorded along with the sources of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) - if known - that caused the health effects.

The results of this study were interesting, with the worse symptoms being "Chronic fatigue", "Concentration problems", "Hearing problems" and "Face and skin problems" - all thought to be some of the worst of ES symptoms generally. The demographics were reasonably spread throughout age groups, with middle-aged people being the most common, and with women about twice as likely to respond as men.

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GSM Signals in "talk" mode affect sleep

A new British paper has found marked effects on sleep latency (speed at which a person falls asleep) and EEG responses from "typical" exposure to a GSM 900 MHz mobile phone.

The phone was transmitting of 1/8 of its max power, which is fairly reasonable for a standard internal house signal strength. 10 healthy young adults, sleep restricted to 6 hours, were randomly and single-blind exposed to one of "talk", "listen", "standby" and "sham" modes for 30 minutes whilst lying in a sound-proof, lit bedroom. Bipolar EEGs were recorded continuously, and subjective ratings of sleepiness obtained every 3 minutes. After the exposure was ended, the bedroom darkened and a 90 minute sleep opportunity followed.

No changes were found to the subjectively reported symptoms, but both sleep latency and EEG results were significantly effected by the exposure, leading to the following conclusion:

"There was no condition effect for subjective sleepiness. Post-exposure, sleep latency after talk mode was markedly and significantly delayed beyond listen and sham modes. This condition effect over time was also quite evident in 1 - 4 Hz EEG frontal power, which is a over time was also quite evident in 1-4 Hz EEG frontal power, which is a frequency range particularly sensitive to sleep onset. It is possible that 2, 8, 217 Hz modulation may differentially affect sleep onset."

Hung CS et al (2007)
Mobile phone 'talk-mode' signal delays EEG-determined sleep onset

This is another study showing "objective" effects from exposure to phone radiation, recorded despite the adults not subjectively feeling different, which makes it unlikely for the association to be psychosomatic.

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Cognitive impairment in rats exposed to 900-MHz GSM radiation

The University of Lund in Sweden have just published a study showing statistically significant reduced memory functions in rats after long-term exposure to GSM microwave exposure.

Exposing the rats to 2 hours per week of very low levels of GSM 900 MHz microwave radiation (0.00006 to 0.06 W/kg -- ICNIRP = 2 W/kg) for 55 weeks, this is a startlingly strong effect for exposure considerably lower than most mobile phone users would experience.

"Effects on exploratory behaviour were evaluated in the open-field test, in which no difference was seen. Effects on cognitive functions were evaluated in the episodic-like memory test. In our study, GSM exposed rats had impaired memory for objects and their temporal order of presentation, compared to sham exposed controls (P = 0.02). Detecting the place in which an object was presented was not affected by GSM exposure. Our results suggest significantly reduced memory functions in rats after GSM microwave exposure (P = 0.02)."

Nittby H et al (2007)
Cognitive impairment in rats after long-term exposure to GSM-900 mobile phone radiation

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Non-thermal RF effects in plants provide possible mechanism

In yet another paper published in the last few months, researchers from France have found a mechanistic effect in plants from low levels of 900 MHz radiation. The plants initiated "self-repair" processes very similar to those expected when the plant perceives itself to be injured. The following is taken from the discussion in the paper itself:

"Taken as a whole, the data provide new evidence supporting the hypothesis that plants perceive and respond to microwave irradiation as though it was an injurious treatment. Even though the RF-EMF is non-thermal and the total power we used very low (0.1 W dissipated in 200 m³), the similarities with wounding (leaf-pricking, burning and cutting) are striking. In addition to the rapidity of the response and its dependency on the second messenger calcium, we observed a strong correlation between all the parameters measured (total and polysomal transcript abundance, ATP concentration and AEC). This suggests a functional relationship between them all. Further work will help in understanding the transduction pathways involved and how the RF-Weld interacts with the cell."

Roux D et al (2007)
High frequency (900 MHz) low amplitude (5 V m(-1)) electromagnetic field: a genuine environmental stimulus that affects transcription, translation, calcium and energy charge in tomato.

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