"We conducted a prospective study to examine whether in-utero exposure to magnetic fields (MFs) increases the risk of childhood obesity. Participating women carried a meter measuring MF levels during pregnancy and 733 of their children were followed up to 13 years to collect clinically recorded information on growth patterns with 33 weight measurements per child on average. Prenatal exposure to high MF level was associated with increased risk of being obese in offspring than those with lower MF level (odds ratio51.69, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-2.84).

The association demonstrated a dose-response relationship and was stronger (more than 2.3 fold increased risk) among children who were followed up to the end of the study. The association existed only for persistent obesity, but not for transitory (unlikely) obesity. Maternal exposure to high MF during pregnancy may be a new and previously unknown factor contributing to the world-wide epidemic of childhood obesity/overweight. . . .

Part A Lessons from health hazards

Part B Emerging lessons from ecosystems

Part C Emerging issues
Part D Costs, justice and innovation 

Part E Implications for science and governance 

 

The European Environment Agency published a major report today to alert governments about the need to attend to early warning signs about technology health risks, including mobile phones.

Jan. 24, 2013 - The 750-page volume, "Late Lessons from Early Warnings," includes twenty new case studies and has major implications for policy, science and society.  Although the report was prepared by the European Environment Agency to provide guidance to the EU nations, its implications are global. (1)

Brain tumor risk associated with cell phone use is addressed in one of the report's chapters. (2) The report highlights the classification of this form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) as "possibly carcinogenic", or cancer causing, by the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2011.

The research that has found increased brain tumor risk associated with long term mobile phone use is reviewed. The authors note that governments and industry have been slow to respond to the WHO's precautionary warnings and urges policy makers to respond to early warnings more quickly.  It argues that industries that cause future harm must pay for the damage and suggests that taking early precautions can stimulate rather than stifle innovation.

The report accuses the mobile phone industry of "inertia in considering the various studies and taking the IARC carcinogenic classification into account," criticizes the media for not "providing the public with robust and consistent information on potential health risks," and attacks governments for shirking "their responsibilities to protect public health from this widespread source of radiation."

Although the report acknowledges the many benefits of mobile phones to society, it recommends the need for precautionary actions to reduce cell phone radiation exposures to minimize the extent and seriousness of the risks to the brain and other organs. 

The report makes four specific recommendations about cell phones:

a.       Governments, the mobile phone industry, and the public should take all reasonable measures to reduce EMR exposure, especially from mobile phones, particularly exposure to children and young adults who are likely most at risk for brain and salivary gland tumors. The report recommends texting, use of hands-free sets, and improved design of phones which generate less radiation and make hands-free use more convenient. 

b.      Governments should reconsider the scientific basis for the present exposure standards "which have serious limitations such as reliance on the contested thermal effects paradigm; and simplistic assumptions about the complexities of radio frequency exposures." 

c.       Mobile phones should be required to have effective labeling and warnings about potential risks for users.  

d.      Adequate funding should be provided for the "urgently needed research into the health effects of phones" and base stations.  Funding could include industry grants and a small fee on the purchase and/or use of mobile phones. 

It is time for the U.S. to end its two decades of denial and assume a leadership role in adopting precautionary measures to reduce the potential harms associated with exposure to mobile phone radiation. Otherwise we may a steep price in terms of preventable health care costs, lost productivity, and reduced quality of life. A nickel a month collected on each cell phone subscription would generate sufficient funds for the U.S. to undertake the needed training and research to head off this potential epidemic.  (3)

For more information about the health risks of cell phone radiation and other forms of EMR see the new BioInitiative Report at http://www.bioinitiative.org and http://saferemr.com

(1)  "The cost of ignoring the warning signs - EEA publishes 'Late Lessons from Early Warnings, volume II' 

New technologies have sometimes had very harmful effects, but in many cases the early warning signs have been suppressed or ignored. The second volume of Late Lessons from Early Warnings investigates specific cases where danger signals have gone unheeded, in some cases leading to deaths, illness and environmental destruction. 

News Release, European Environment Agency,  Jan 23, 2013. URL: 
http://www.eea.europa.eu/pressroom/newsreleases/the-cost-... 

(2)  Lennart Hardell, Michael Carlberg, and David Gee. "Mobile phone use and brain tumour risk: early warnings, early actions?" Chapter 21 in Part C-Emerging Issues. "Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation." European Environment Agency. EEA Report No 1/2013. Pp. 541-561. January 23, 2013. URL: 
Part C: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2/part...

The full 750 page report is available at http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2

(3) Joel  M. Moskowitz. "Comments on the 2012 GAO Report: 'Exposure and Testing Requirements for Mobile Phones Should Be Reassessed.'" URL: http://saferemr.com.

Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Family and Community Health

School of Public Health

University of California, Berkeley

Introduction
Charges on the body of an individual bee and on the colony

Environmental Influences

• Electric Field 
• Atmospheric Ions 
• Humidity and Temperature 
• Light Irradiation  

Changes in Behaviour brought about by electric parameters 
Mechanics of these effects 
Weather sensitivity of bees
Electrocommunication
Electronavigation
References

OTHER STUDIES ABOUT BEES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC EFFECTS

European Parliament
Directorate General for Research
Division Industry, Research and Energy
STOA
Scientific and Technological Options Assessment

This study focuses upon an aspect of how living organisms and humans in particular can be adversely affected by highly coherent electromagnetic fields of technological origin, in a way that is not entertained or addressed by existing Safety Guidelines - namely, through the possibility of non- thermal, frequency-specific influences of an informational nature. Supporting evidence is presented, and attention drawn to a disturbing consistency between some of these influences and the nature of certain adverse health effects found amongst some exposed people. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the present situation, a number of recommendations are made to promote a higher degree of electromagnetic biocompatibility between these fields and the living human organism than currently obtains.

This collection contains links to 78 studies and articles involving bees, electromagnetism and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) from 1973 to 2008.

"If the California Coastal Commission's decision is any indication, no endangered species, viewshed, or habitat is safe from a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) 4G cell tower popping up right next door. It's open season, as smart phone addictions drive a kind of selective blindness toward wireless damage to life itself.

"Though dozens of nearby residents had sent letters of opposition to the Commission, far outweighing those in support, and despite the project clearly violating several key sections of the Coastal Act and Local Coastal Plan, the Commission approved the project at the direction of the wireless industry, seemingly irritated by the large number of people who showed up to speak and defend Big Basin State Park and Santa Cruz County's pristine North Coast . . .

"No concern was expressed by Commissioners that they might be violating any other federal law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Endangered Species Act, despite the fact that more than a dozen legal declarations were submitted to the Commission, testifying that Californians injured by microwave radiation would lose access to North Coast Beaches if the wireless project went ahead.

"Never mind that studies of tadpoles exposed to cell tower radiation show 90% mortality rates, and that the wetlands adjacent to one of the cell sites is crucial habitat for the red-legged frog and other endangered species . . .

"These communication waves may have such a disastrous impact on a wide range of insects using olfactory and/or visual memory, e.g., on bees."

"The European editors of two international journals refused to publish this Belgian study which shows serious perturbations in the olfactory and visual memories of ants exposed to electromagnetic radiation similar to that surrounding GSM and communication masts. The American journal, "Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine" accepted the study for publication in June 2012 . . .

Original in French

"A first in Belgium: Studies conducted at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles show clearly that GSM waves affect the memory and response to pheromones in ant colonies, and that they worsen the motility of cell membranes of protozoa."

Brussels - 11/07/12

"Hide this truth that I would not like to see ... Anything to discredit these alarmist studies which prevent me from calling in peace. Reassure me. Tell me that all this is exaggerated and doesn't concern me ... - Such is the substance of the unspoken reaction of each person who continues to not want to face up to reality and refuses to take into account the progress of independent research . . .

Original in French

Effect of Microwave Exposure on the Ovarian Development of Drosophila Melanogaster

"Pulsed Radio Frequency (RF) microwave radiation used in modern mobile Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) telecommunications has raised concerns about its possible biological health impacts. Despite inconsistencies among different experimental studies, some of the results show distinct mutual agreement, although with different biological models and under different laboratory conditions. Such similarity appears among results regarding DNA damage or oxidative stress in insect and mammalian (including human) reproductive cells, and other results reporting mammalian (including human) infertility, or chicken embryonic mortality or decreased insect reproductive capacity. Additionally, DNA damage and cell death in reproductive cells may possibly explain the recently reported population declines of bees and birds.

"Reproductive cells seem to be more sensitive to radiation than other types of cells, as they undergo multiple biological processes such as mitotic and meiotic division, synthesis of all kinds of biomolecules, etc.  The oogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster is a model biological system, very well-studied with quite good timing of its developmental stages under certain laboratory conditions.  It starts during the last stages of pupation, a few hours before eclosion of the adult female insect, and it is divided into 14 discrete developmental stages . . .