What they are saying: the Adelaide Study

(supplied courtesy Stewart Fist)

*The Swiss Institute of Technology's Dr Neils Kuster, probably the world's expert in how cell-phone radiations focus in brain tissue, said in a newspaper interview with SonntagsBlick: "It is incomprehensible to me that industry did not replicate this study 18 months ago, when the preliminary results became known."

*Dr John Goldsmith, probably the leading epidemiologist in such environmental exposure problems, wasreported in the Jerusalem Post as saying the Adelaide results "present startling new evidence that must be carefully evaluated".

*Dr John Stather, of the UK's National Radiological Protection Board, agrees that "this needs to be investigated thoroughly".

*In his 1995 report to the Government, Dr Stan Barnett, of the CSIRO's Radio Physics Laboratory, noted the absurdity of cell-phone exemption from national exposure standards: "It is odd that cellular telephones should be exempted when they represent a unique device that operates with its transmitter placed against the user's head." In reference to the Adelaide study, Dr Barnett says: "The effect reported in this paper appears to be substantial."

* Dr Gregory Lotz, of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, agrees. "The findings are very significant," he says. "They used a sizeable number of animals, and it appears to be a clear effect."

* The veteran virtuoso of cell phone/brain research, Dr Ross Adey of Loma Linda, California, has been studying these mechanisms for a few decades. He believes strongly it is the pulsed nature which causes the problems. Dr Adey has published hundreds of papers dealing with the ways in which cell growth and functions are disrupted by fluctuating magnetic and electrical fields.

He notes that the Adelaide findings match his own. "We now appear to have two, non-thermal effects, both linked to pulsed fields, and once again we must investigate the possibility that it is the low-frequency modulation that is the essential element," he says.

* Dr Henry Lai, whose years of research at the University of Washington first revealed double-strand DNA breaks in rat brain tissue following brief exposures to pulsed microwaves of a level comparable to cell phones, also sees the Adelaide study as confirmation of his work. Double breaks in DNA strands are widely regarded as precursors of tumour growth or of genetic mutations. "The main point is that RF radiation promotes cancer," Dr Lai says. He also has some harsh words to say about the release of the results: "It is irresponsible and unwise to keep the data secret for two years, knowing their implications.The secrecy only reinforces the public's suspicion that the industry is trying to cover up."