09/12/2008 - The journal Science admits its error on DNA breakage

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Also in the News

• AITN - An excellent presentation by Mikko Ahonen on the need for wireless precaution
• AITN - Belgian Minister refuses to allow further GSM base stations to be erected
• AITN - Bioinitiative group put pressure on Interphone group to publish as soon as possible

Science have admitted being wrong with one of their magazine articles we previously covered (and covered excellently by Microwave News).

Reporter Gretchen Vogel started the article with the outlandish statement "The only two peer-reviewed scientific papers showing that electromagnetic fields from cell phones can cause DNA breakage are at the center of a misconduct controversy", which as we have previously stated, is both completely incorrect and has been so since the turn of the century.

Fortunately, in acknowledgement of her error, she have accepted that there is at least one more paper that has found DNA breaks^{[Yao May 2008(1)]}, but is very adamant about the important difference between DNA breakage and DNA damage^{(Source: Microwave News)}, which she apparently thinks is not sufficiently notable for inclusion in her article. This is a shame, because obviously DNA damage is equally undesirable as an effect, and the mechanism is not an issue of energy, but typically creation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), known to have the potential for severe cellular damage. The amount of evidence for RF radiation and the creation of ROS is quite strong, both for in vivo experiments ^{[Oktem 2005, Oral 2006, Ferreira 2006, Panagopoulos 2007, Yan 2008, Sokolovic 2008]}, and in vitro experiments ^{[Nikolova 2005, Friedman 2007, Yao May 2008(1), Yao May 2008(2)]}. Even though some papers have failed to replicate this effect^{[Lantow 2006, Valbonesi 2008]}, it is clearly strongly misleading to claim that some of the REFLEX work is all there is on the subject. One wonders why the author makes such an attempt to defend what she did, is this genuine lack of understanding of the subject material on her part or simply spin in the name of sensationalist journalism?

References

Also in the news

An excellent presentation by Mikko Ahonen on the need for wireless precaution

Mikko Ahonen, a regular blogger on creativity and technology, has produced an excellent presentation giving a solid overview of the possible health implications and reasons for precaution on WiFi, entitled "Wireless Systems and Health Risks - Implication for Pedagogical and Educational Practices". Well worth a read, as are a number of his other entries on the blog.

Belgian Minister refuses to allow further GSM base stations to be erected

Next-Up have covered a very strong statement by Belgian Minister André Antoine, stating that "We can no longer bury our heads in the sand. As an elected politician, it is my duty to take my responsibilities seriously. I have therefore decided to forbid the further development of new GSM phone masts. It's a matter of public health." Covered by Belgian Newswire La Derniere Heure" (for which there is also an English translation), this an extremely strong political statement, showing that there is increasing awareness of the issue at a policy making level in some countries.

Bioinitiative group put pressure on Interphone group to publish as soon as possible

11 researchers from the BioInitiative working group are now applying polite pressure to the Interphone group to publish the results from the remaining five countries' data (Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Italy and Canada). The delay is now becoming ridiculous, with the original expectation that the group's data would be published over 3 years ago. Especially as some of the studies are finding strong indications that long term mobile phone use may indeed constitute a tumour risk^{[Lonn Nov 2004, Schoemaker 2005, Takebayashi 2008, Hours 2007]} it is high time that all the data is made available so that future research can be as focused and productive as possible.

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