09/03/2002 - Various EMF News stories

4th February 2002 (personal communication)
Since a Vodafone mast near Swindon started transmitting, the health of those within 150 metres of the site have noticably deteriorated, says a nearby resident. he believes his story will be dismissed as 'just another anecdote', but they keep coming in ...
Three dogs developed extensive body tumours of different types, and two have died.One worker, who lives 50 metres away, and was previously very fit has had to retire, another developed an ear tumour [surgically removed and grafted], and the neighbour has noticed changes in the only other long serving full time worker. In the next nearest property, one of the two elderly residents, prevoiusly well, has been taken into an institution.
It could, of course, be coincidence.
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3rd February 2002
Mrs Gitchel from New Hampshire learned from her attendance at the many meetings of the NIEHS sponsored RAPID EMF study that transients were identified as a serious prospective source of EMF health consequences, possibly initiators of electrical sensitivity.
Transients are sudden spikes of energy that appear in the flow of electrons in an electric current. They can be caused by any number of different kinds of 'inputs' or interruptions to the normal flow of the current. The sudden impact upon the current that is caused by the sudden "turning on" or "turning off" of a large piece of machinery, for example. The presence of nearby 'lightning' is usually a major source of transients.Sometimes transients can be originated within the generating turbines themselves. During those RAPID meetings, it was suggested that the researchers should be giving the transients (now being called: dirty power) much more emphasis in their research.
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31st January 2002 Westword.com
Gordon and Nancy Hamilton spent most of the fifteen years they were married immersed in television and radio waves, on Jefferson County's Lookout Mountain, the location of the metro area's largest and most extensive antenna farm. In March 2001, Nancy was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a fairly rare and especially deadly form of cancer that has been anecdotally linked to the nonionizing radiation associated with RF exposure. She died in June.
Nancy's story provides powerful motivation for Lookout Mountain-area residents who object to the proposed addition of a digital tower to the antenna nest.
They were incensed when it was released that the IEEE were suggesting a relaxation of exposure levels to what the reswidents consider to be dangerous radiation. The change in regulations has been put on hold for the moment, until June.
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American powerlines head for trouble again in the following two stories.
31st January 2002 - Pierce County Herald
SPRING VALLEY-A Pierce County jury has awarded a Spring Valley dairy farmer $450,000 for damages caused by stray voltage.
Harold and Mary Thompson sued Pierce-Pepin Cooperative Services because their cows produced less milk for about a 12-year period beginning in 1985.
The couple's attorney, said low-level voltage from a utility line made the cows' behaviour erratic. After an isolation transformer-which directs away excess voltage-was installed, the cows started producing more and more milk.

31st January 2002 - Duluth New Tribune
Douglas County has thrown a large monkey wrench into plans to build the Arrowhead-Weston high-voltage transmission line between Hermantown and the Wausau, Wisconsin area. Two county committees have unanimously denied Minnesota Power permission to enter county land to conduct work necessary before the 345-kilovolt line can be built. While that doesn't necessarily kill the project, it could force the utilities to go back to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission with a request to find a new route for the line. One reason the committee rejected Minnesota Power's request was because the full board
voted 17-4 to oppose the line in October 1999. Project opponents worry that the line will damage their health, their property values and the environment.
The line is also due to cross Marathon County and Clark county amongst others and has already met opposition.
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30 Jan 2002 Brominated flame retardant to be banned in Europe
A chemical flame retardant, used in the plastic casing of some TVs and VDUs is accumulating so rapidly in the breast milk of nursing mothers that environmentalists and some scientists are expressing concern, and Europe has moved to ban one form of it. Like PCB's and DDT, PBDE is a persistent organic pollutant, meaning it can remain in the environment for years without breaking down. Some of these pollutants have such an affinity for fat that
they build up in the bodies of humans and other animals from before birth until death. Industry uses several forms of PBDE to decrease the flammability of various plastics. In 1998, Swedish scientists reported that levels of PBDE in breast milk had increased 40-fold since 1972. Users of PBDE could substitute another flame-retardant chemical in its place.
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23rd January 2002
Military Radar Station in Qabala, Azerbaijan
Strange things happen to people living in the shadow of the Russian military's Qabala radar station in northern Azerbaijan: birth defects are commonplace, the children are always ill, apparently healthy adults die in their sleep, couples become infertile. Azeri President Heidar Aliyev is due to extend Russia's lease on the site for another ten years when he flies to Moscow on Thursday. Local people, ecologists and independent scientists are convinced that the massive  electro-magnetic radiation from the station are unleashing a stealthy ecological and health catastrophe on this area. Qabala station is the cornerstone of Russia's missile early warning system. Rovshan Sadugov, a villager from Amili, a nearby village, said, "I had four children. One of them died and the rest are ill all the time. Three of my brothers' kids have died." "All my kids' teeth have fallen out. Whenever I have enough money I take them to the doctors but they can't do anything."
In the village of Zalam, a little further up a mud track and still in sight of the listening post, 48-year-old Alovshad Alimamedov is tramping in the snow around the unmarked graves in the cemetery. For every adult grave there are four smaller ones, where children are buried. He buried four of  his children there, side by side. None of them got to be older than four years old. He blames the radar station. Nearby Akif Alimamedov points to his son, Elshan. He looks about six years of age. "Look at him," says the boy's father, "you wouldn't think so but he is 12 years old. It's the radar station that's done that."
A study found that birth defects had increased four times and illnesses of the nervous system were 7.8 times more common than before. Rates of kidney disease shot up 8.5 times, the birth rate fell from 6.1 percent to 1.7 percent in 1992 and Qabala district was found to have the highest rates of cancer among 15-20 year olds in Azerbaijan. With little prospect of the radar station closing down, all of the people living nearby say they want to leave. Most though are too poor to move. They look with envy at the 300 Russian servicemen who work at the station. Natiq Khamidov, an activist with the opposition Musavat party in Qabala, said: "They get transferred back home after two years but we are condemned to live here until we die."
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MOBILE PHONE RISK UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
A £7.4 million research programme aimed at providing definitive answers about the safety of mobile phones has been launched.
Fifteen science projects will receive an initial £4.5 million for a wide-range of studies examining the biological effects of mobile phone radiation. Four studies will investigate whether the use of mobile phones increases the risk of brain cancer or leukaemia. Others will look at the effect of mobile phone signals on brain function, and exposed cells in the laboratory, and examine how the energy is absorbed by the body. One study will see how mobile phones
effect the performance of drivers. Douglas Alexander, the Minister for E Commerce and Competitiveness at the DTI welcomed this research.

Two years ago the Stewart Inquiry reported there was no evidence that mobile phones were a health hazard and could cause brain and nervous system cancers. Sir William Stewart, who chaired the inquiry, recommended a "precautionary approach" which has already been adopted by the Government.
Sir William said he had no concern over use of mobile phones by children in occasional emergencies, but added: "We recommend that they shouldn't be used willy-nilly for long periods. "Parents have a responsibility, shops who sell phones have a responsibility, which I'm afraid they don't always accept."
"A lot of research carried out to date has focused on possible indirect effects of mobile phones. We now need to focus more on the direct impacts, if any, on human health. This requires well-planned studies on people including volunteers, using the best possible methods. This is what our programme seeks to do."
Sir William said for ethical reasons children would not be used as study volunteers, even though they were especially vulnerable to mobile phone radiation.
He pointed out that text messaging, especially popular with children, may be a safer option for them. "There's a lot of evidence that the amount of radiation from text messaging is much less than that from voice messages," he said at a news conference in London. Fellow committee member Professor Lawrence Challis urged children to hold their phones away from their heads * and, in the case of boys, their laps, where radiation might affect "other organs". "It might be an idea not to hide your mobile phone under the desk," he said. Sir William repeated an earlier controversial claim that in some cases children were being
deliberately targeted as mobile phone customers. Health Secretary Alan Milburn today wrote to the chief executives of mobile phone retailers
reminding them to give the Government's precautionary guidelines to customers buying handsets.

1. Further details about the research being funded is available on the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research web site.

2. The Department of Health has produced two leaflets that summarise the health evidence on mobile phone handsets and base stations. These leaflets are available in retail outlets, GP surgeries, libraries, post offices and at http://www.doh.gov.uk/mobilephones.
Both the Stewart Report and Chief Medical Officer advise a precautionary approach to mobile phone use.
Calls should be kept short, and children and young people should use mobile phones for essential purposes only.

3. The research programme has been established in response to the recommendations of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones and Health chaired by Sir William Stewart. Their report was published in May 2000. See further resources link below.

4. Details of the worldwide research to which this programme is contributing can be found at: http://www.who.int/emf
Contact: Martin Doolan, Department of Health, Tel: +44 (020) 7210 5233
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Mobile phone "shielding" devices
Dozens of companies are selling gadgets that claim to "block all harmful radiation" from phones although many are treated with scepticism by scientists. Powerwatch has tried several of these gadgets and despite the 'scientific' claims made, most are completely rubbish.
Professor Laurie Challis, who sits with Professor Stewart on the board of the research project, said: "We did think at one stage that it would be useful to have a kitemark to say if such gadgets reduced exposure. But that hasn't been adopted." It is hardly surprising, there is nothing scientific to measure.
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Valladolid school childhood cancer outbreak.
A new team of experts, commissioned by the health ministry, have been asked to do another epidemiological study. The team will comprise experts from the Instituto Carlos III and the National Institute of Cancer, both at the ministry, and independent epidemiologists, oncologists, paediatricians, and haematologists. Juan José Represa, a researcher at the Higher Research Council, considered the most sensible approach from now on was to investigate whether the malignancies may be related to other causes such as a high-dose exposure to chemical agents in the school or materials used to construct the school.
The new study will include an examination of all sources of ionising and non-ionising radiation and will include an analysis of the school's water supply. All children and school staff will have a medical examination. A representative from the school will be invited to all the meetings of the public-health team.
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12 January 2002 THE LANCET Volume 359, Number 9301
From what we have seen with the handsets, if there is a family disposition to develop cancer, then the exposure levels need not be prolonged provided that the exposure level is sufficently high to trigger the onset of the cancer.
It is very important to check to see if the extended familiy of the sick children have a history of cancer. Note Repacholi's study of Lymphoma in a strain of mice
genetically predisposed to develop cancer. The incidence of cancer increased by 46% when exposed to GSM phone radiation. Exposure was for half an hour per day.
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23 December 2001 - Mail on Sunday
PROTESTERS delivered a fresh blow to controversial plans to build a £2.9bn nationwide police radio network. A campaign against the siting of radio masts near homes on health grounds has already slowed the building of the network by mobile phone giant mmO2.
And now, mmO2 has been forced to drop proposals to site high- tech masts in a Cotswold village after a local backlash.
The Airwave network is already used by police in Lancashire and Greater Manchester and is due for adoption by all forces by 2005.
Applications to build masts in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Suffolk have been blocked. And protesters last week forced the company to scrap plans to site an Airwave mast in Amberley in Gloucestershire. Lynne Edmunds, joint coordinator for the pressure group Mast Action, said the scheme was to have gone to a planning inquiry next month, but mmO2 withdrew the application. The Police Federation, which represents most officers, will decide in the next few weeks
whether to urge its members to boycott the project because of health worries. Police Federation chairman Fred Broughton said: 'We are concerned about officers being used as guinea pigs. If our concerns are not answered we may advise our members not to use the system.'
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Somerset County Council: Mobile Phones and Masts seminar November 2001
Various points arose at this useful seminar.

1. Tetra is not part of the telecoms industry's (FEIs) 10 commitments.

2. Mobile phone masts location should be part of local district plan.

3. Prof. Laurence Challis, a member of the Stewart committee, when going around the country collecting information for the Stewart report was astonished at the strength of public opposition to masts when it was felt that the handsets were likely to be far more hazardous.

4 Driving in a car using a mobile phone causes 3 times more distraction than at the drink drive limit (we visualise the other person and they cannot relate
to your driving experiences and dangers). Prof Challis reminded the audience that the government was taking no action even when evidence is clear.