#907: Ambient magnetic fields may affect the quality of human sperm
From Microwave News:
Exposures to ambient magnetic fields may affect the quality of human sperm
and may well explain its well-documented decline over the last few decades,
according to a new study by De-Kun Li, an epidemiologist at Kaiser
Permanente in Oakland, CA.
Li has also shown that how the dose of a magnetic field exposure is defined
can determine whether or not a study points to an EMF effect.
Read the whole story at:
http://www.microwavenews.com
Best,
Louis Slesin
__________________________________________________________
Louis Slesin, PhD
Editor, Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
Phone: +1 (212) 517-2800; Fax: +1 (212) 734-0316
E-mail:
Internet:
Mail: 155 East 77th Street, Suite 3D
New York, NY 10075, U.S.A.
#906:Ground currents force closure of pedestrian bridge
Tuesday July 08th 2008, 10:45 am
Filed under:
50/60 HzThe following article I find particularly interesting as a local Hobart school, located near transmission lines and with a substation in the basement had to close down its swimming pool because people were receiving shocks when entering the water.
Don
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From Joanne Mueller:
Elm Creek Park bike-pedestrian bridge closed due to close proximity to high voltage powerlines
STAR TRIBUNE.COM - MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
Medicine Lake trail bridge is, uh, shocking
Literally. Bicyclists have reported electrical shocks crossing the Maple Grove bridge. MnDOT says no one is in danger.
By RODRIGO ZAMITH, Star Tribune
Last update: July 3, 2008 - 11:35 PM
Shocked by the new bridge on the Medicine Lake Regional Trail?
Some bikers were, causing the Minnesota Department of Transportation to shut down the bridge leading into Elm Creek Park Reserve over County Road 81 in Maple Grove.
The bridge, which opened last fall, is expected to re-open next week with additional grounding support to prevent shocks. It was closed on June 16 after a handful of complaints.
“It felt like insects fluffed my bicycle shorts,” said Kris Siejko, a cyclist who has experienced the shock numerous times.
According to MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard, nobody on the biker and pedestrian bridge was in danger at any point and that the shocks only caused discomfort.
Barnard said the shocks appear to be connected with nearby power lines, although both the bridge and the power lines were all built within specifications.
“We are operating under the assumption that part of what is happening is that people themselves are getting charged as they are traveling underneath [the power lines] and they are discharging to the bike and rail,” Xcel Energy engineer Benjamin Gallay said. “There’s nothing significant we can do to stop that other than telling people, ‘No, you can’t walk there.’ ”
Gallay said that even with additional grounding, riders may still feel a bit of the sensation.
Siejko, an electrical engineer at Boston Scientific, said it felt like a current ran through his bicycle seat every time he went underneath the power lines on the bridge. “Eventually I just started riding standing up,” he said.
Barnard said the department has dealt with similar issues before, and that if additional work on the bridge is necessary, they will look into it.
He also said MnDOT will pick up the tab for the project, and though no cost figures are available, “we are not looking at it costing much money.”
Three Rivers Park District spokesman Tom Knisely said his office has received three complaints about people getting shocked. The first complaint came in early April, another came in mid-May and by Siejko’s complaint in early June, the park system sent a specialist to have a look.
After complaints were confirmed on June 13, the park notified MnDOT and re-routed traffic to a nearby crossing. MnDOT officially closed the bridge three days later.
One complainant said he felt “a zap in his left leg.” Another said “a current tingles my fingers” every time he crossed under the high lines on the south side of the bridge.
Barnard said work was done via a partnership among MnDOT, Three Rivers Park District and Xcel Energy.
Detour signs are now in place advising trail users to cross at the controlled intersection at Fernbrook Lane.
Rodrigo Zamith • 612-673-4895
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/22923059.html?page=1&c=y
#905: The Progressive Libarians Guild statement on WiFi in Libaries
From Martin Weatherall:
The Progressive Librarians Guild, Jun. 16, 2008
http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/ht080625.htm
PROGRESSIVE LIBRARIANS GUILD STATEMENT ON WIFI IN LIBRARIES
Often unaware of the potential risks to both library staff and the
public, libraries have adopted wireless technology as a means to
bridge the Digital Divide and in order to fulfill their mission under
the Library Bill of Rights.
Research on the health effects of wireless technologies (2.4GHz and
5.0GHz bands)[1] and electromagnetic (microwave) radiation indicates
wireless technology, among other effects, may cause immune
dysfunction, increased risk of brain tumors and acoustic neuromas,
childhood cancers, breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease (European
Environment Agency, Bioinitiative Working Group, 2007), and
genotoxicity.[2] Research also indicates that public health standards
are inadequate in offering guidance on the use of wireless
technologies in community spaces.
The Precautionary Principle can act as a policy guide in which to
critically debate the risks and benefits of wireless technology. The
European Environmental Agency, Bioinitiative Working Group and the
International Commission for Electromagnetic Safety through the
Benevento Resolution[3] have called for the application of the
Precautionary Principle in the use of wireless technology. In the
United States, the Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle
(1998) states
“When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the
environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause
and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically…”
Therefore, exposure to wireless technologies in the above bandwidths
is a public health issue that library workers should address
philosophically as a profession and directly in terms of daily library
operations, programs, and services. European library workers have
taken steps calling for such an examination based on the current
research on health effects of wireless. The Bibliotheque Nationale de
France[4] has forgone installation of a public wireless system and the
staff of the Sainte Genevieve Library (Paris V) has called for a
discussion on wireless technology safety in university and public
libraries based in part on the conclusions reached by the European
Environmental Agency BioInitiative Working Group (2007,4, 26):
Although this RF target level does not preclude further rollout of WI-
FI technologies, we also recommend that wired alternatives to WIFI be
implemented, particularly in schools and libraries so that children
are not subjected to elevated RF levels until more is understood about
possible health impacts. This recommendation should be seen as an
interim precautionary limit that is intended to guide preventative
actions; and more conservative limits may be needed in the future.
Based on this information, Progressive Librarians Guild recommends
that via their professional organizations, information workers address
the risks of wireless technology in public spaces, take steps in
learning about the risks of wireless in terms of exposure and impact
on library services, monitor wireless technology in their
facilities,[5] critically evaluate and adopt alternatives to wireless
technology[6] especially in children’s sections of libraries, create
warning signage on risks of wifi throughout their libraries, and act
as a community resource in the public education on wireless
technologies.[7]
Notes
1. Wireless-B, or “IEEE 802.11b” standard operates on the 2.4 GHz
band. Wireless-G, or IEEE 802.11g, uses the same frequency band, but
is capable of higher speeds. Wireless-A (IEEE 802.11a) uses the 5.0
GHz band, a higher data transfer. Wireless-N, using both 2.4 and 5.0
GHz bands, with proposed data transfer capability exceeding wired
networks. See Wireless Standards.
2. Genotoxic or genotoxicity: capable of causing damage to DNA. See
Lai, below, a review of the literature on wireless and genotoxicity.
3. Benevento uses 0 to 300 GHz as a baseline for recommendations.
4. 2400 MHz mentioned in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France press
release is synonymous with 2.4 GHz.
5. Inexpensive AC gauss meters which measure 1-5 GHz can be found on
the Web at stores such as EMF Safety Superstore.
6. For example, one alternative is the Panasonic HD-PLC power line
network adapter uses electrical wiring (power outlet) as a link
between a PC and modem. The adaptor is available through amazon.com.
7. Thanks to Carolyn Raffensperger and Ted Schettler at the Science
and Environmental Health Network, Rebekah Azen, SJSU SLIS students
Abe Ignacio, and Milton John Kleim, Jr. for their comments.
References
American Library Association. Library Bill of Rights. 1948, 1996
(accessed May 29, 2008).
Anders Ahlbom, et al. “Epidemiology of Health Effects of
Radiofrequency Exposure: CNIRP (International Commission for Non-
Ionizing Radiation Protection.” Environmental Health Perspectives 112
no. 17(2004): 1741-1754 (accessed May 27, 2008).
Collaborative on Health and the Environment. Consensus Statement on
Electromagnetic Radiation Draft, October 10, 2006 (accessed May 22,
2008).
Environmental Research Foundation. Precaution Reporter #67, December
6, 2006 (accessed May 22, 2008).
European Environmental Agency. “Radiation Risk from Everyday Devices
Assessed.” September, 2007 (accessed June 1, 2008)
European Environmental Agency, BioInitiative Working Group.
Bioinitiative: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure
Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF) August 31, 2007
(accessed May 22, 2008).
The French National Library Renounces WiFi,” Press Release, April 4,
2008. English: “La Bibliotheque Nationale renonce au Wi-Fi,” 4 Avril
2008, (accessed May 27, 2008).
Harremoës, Poul, eds., et al. Late Lessons from Early Warnings: the
Precautionary Principle 1896-2000. Environmental Issue Report No. 22,
European Environment Agency, January 10, 2002 (accessed June 1, 2008).
EEE. “Wireless Fidelity — WiFi” (accessed May 22, 2008).
International Commission for Electromagnetic Safety. Benevento
Resolution, Benevento, Italy, on February 22, 23 & 24, 2006 (accessed
May 22, 2008).
Labor Institute, NYC. Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs): A Training
Workbook for Working People. New York: New York. Occupational Safety
and Health Training and Education Program, 199?.
Lai, Henry.”Evidence for Genotoxic Effects — RFR and ELF DNA
Damage.” European Environmental Agency, BioInitiative Working Group.
Bioinitiative: A Rationale for a Biologically-Based Public Exposure
Standard for Electromagnetic Fields. August 31, 2007. Section 6, 1-43
(accessed May 22, 2008).
Lakehead University. “WiFi Policy.” January 1, 2004 (accessed May
22, 2008).
Lee, S. et al. “2.45 GHz Radiofrequency Fields Alter Gene Expression
in Cultured Human Cells. “FEBS Letters (Federation of European
Biochemical Societies) 579 no. 21 (2005):4829-36.
Science and Environmental Health Network. The Precautionary
Principle (accessed May 22, 2008).
Thatcher, Diana. “Librarians: Keep Public Library Wi-Fi Free. Sante
Fe New Mexican June 8, 2008 (accessed June 8, 2008).
WEEP. “French Library Gives up WiFi.” April 7, 2008 (accessed May
22, 2008).
World Health Organization. Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health:
Exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Fields. June, 2007 (accessed May
30, 2008).
Wingspread Consensus Statement on the Precautionary Principle,
January 26, 1998 (accessed May 22, 2008).
Copyright Progressive Librarians Guild, 1997-2008.
#904: New ABC Site found to be too radioactive
New ABC site too radioactive
By Darren Cartwright
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23981701-1248,00.html
July 07, 2008 03:20pm
Article from: The Courier-Mail
THE ABC has abandoned a new site for its Brisbane headquarters after discovering it was too radioactive.
The national broadcaster was intending to build new headquarters on a site in Newstead after it had to abandon its Toowong riverfront offices last year after a study confirmed breast cancer rates among females staff at 11 times the normal level.
Since the mid-1990s, 15 women who worked at Toowong have developed the disease.
The ABC had secured 3800sqm of land but has lodged Supreme Court documents to stop the sale.
Staff were informed of the latest decision via an email from managing director Mark Scott.
“At the time I said that the ABC intended to be a leader in the community for best environmental practice when it comes to the design and work practice of this new facility, and as a starting point we had specified that the site itself must meet the highest environmental standards before settlement could take place,” he wrote to staff.
“Recently, following completion of site remediation work, the ABC discovered the possibility of radioactive contamination affecting parts of the site. Further investigation revealed elevated levels of radiation above the naturally occurring background levels.
“The existence of any elevated levels of radiation is of great concern to the ABC. The breast cancer cluster among staff who worked at the former ABC studios at Toowong, and the evacuation of those studios as a result of those health concerns, is well known.
“Consequently the ABC has today terminated the contract of sale on the Newstead land and commenced action in the Supreme Court in Queensland to vindicate our position.”
Mr Scott said the decision had not been taken lightly but the health and wellbeing of staff over the next several decades was of upmost concern.
He said the design work already done could be transferred to another site and management would begin work immediately on identifying a new site.
The ABC’s main newsroom is currently at temporary quarters at the Network Ten studios on Mount Coot-Tha, while other staff have been scattered around six other locations.
#903: (re-sent) Interphone delay causing concern
From Microwave News:
The delay in the release of the results of the Interphone project is getting
wider and wider attention. The International Herald Tribune features a story
in its Monday editions. (TEXT BELOW)
See: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/business/mobile30.php
Louis Slesin, PhD
Editor, Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
Internet:
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International Herald Tribune
Rift delays official release of study on safety of cellphones
By Doreen Carvajal
Sunday, June 29, 2008
PARIS: For 10 years, scientists have been waiting for the outcome of a global examination of the habits of thousands of brain cancer patients to explore whether there are links between cellphone use and brain tumors.
But now the findings of the 15 million, or $24 million, Interphone study are stalled, caught in an international rift among prominent cancer researchers who are divided about how to interpret the risks of radio-frequency radiation emitted by mobile telephones.
The research group’s manuscript of results has drifted for almost three years among scientists in Europe, Israel, Japan and Canada without publication. Some of the researchers are barely on speaking terms, according to some participants. And there is the prospect of further delays because of an ongoing general debate about whether or not cancer patients accurately report their mobile telephone use.
“There seems to be a split,” said Lennart Hardell, a participating Swedish cancer specialist who said the divisions focused on whether the faulty memories of brain cancer patients skewed the results of the study. “It’s not fair to the public. This has been paid for by taxpayers and they have a responsibility to show the results.”
Many of the individual countries involved in the study have already started to release results, some of which have shown increased risk of brain tumors for heavy users - those who have used their cellphones for more than 10 years on the same side of the head. But since national samples are small, the information is not considered as significant as the pooled analysis of the 7,400 patients in the study with tumors in the head and neck area in the study.
Until the Interphone study is published, institutions like the World Health Organization and the European Commission have cautioned that conclusions about possible cancer risks cannot be drawn. But others, in the meantime, are defining the risks - from a hoax video clip that circulated millions of times on YouTube this month showing four ringing mobile telephones popping kernels of corn, to a manifesto issued by French scientists in the same period urging cellphone users to take precautions with hands-free kits.
Michael Milligan, the secretary general of the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, said that cellphone makers were disappointed by the delays of the Interphone study, which it helped to finance.
“We’ve heard that they can’t agree on a manuscript and that’s essentially where it comes down to,” he said, adding, “We certainly have been encouraging the principle investigators to resolve whatever issues they need to get results to the public.”
The GSM Association, a global trade organization of mobile operators, and the forum, which includes Nokia and about a dozen other manufacturers, contributed more than 3.5 million to help finance the project. The European Commission also helped fund the project with contributions passed through the International Union Against Cancer to create a barrier between the mobile phone industry and scientists.
The final report was scheduled to be published in 2006, but as time has dragged on, the director of the Interphone study, Elisabeth Cardis, has left her post at the International Agency for Research in Cancer in Lyon, which was coordinating the project. Now at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Cardis has a standard answer when questioned about when the draft manuscript will be submitted for publication: “hopefully quite soon.”
“It’s true that the interpretation isn’t clear,” she said. “Basically what we’ve done for the last two years is to try and just tease out the results.”
Some of the delay, she added, was caused by the additional research that she was involved in to test how cancer patients, as compared to a control group, recalled past phone use. Those results, published this year, showed that cancer patients and control group users tended to underestimate the number of their calls while overestimating the duration of calls.
Some of the strains and animosity surfaced this month at the annual meeting of the Bioelectromagnetics Society in San Diego, according to Louis Slesin, the editor of Microwave News, a trade journal in New York that tracks mobile telephone health issues and who attended the conference where many of the key researchers gathered for a panel discussion on brain tumors.
“There’s some really bad blood between various teams,” he said. He noted that there were divisions between the Israeli and Australian researchers, who have publicly urged people to moderate their use of mobile telephones, and researchers from England and Germany, who are wary that the data could be skewed by “recall bias,” or the faulty memory of cancer patients.
Joachim Schüz, a cancer researcher who led the German study of cancer patients, dismissed the strains. He said that he expected the results to emerge in six months if the manuscript is submitted in the autumn.
“Of course there are discussions going on,” he said. “That’s still different between people not talking to each other and people who have different opinions.”
Schüz said he believed the evidence was convincing that there was no risk from short-term mobile telephone use although uncertainties remain for long-term use.
“That is why it’s so important to have extra information and everybody is working hard to get it out,” he said. “I’m still talking to all of them. And we even met for dinner.”
Anthony Swerdlow, the scientist who led the British study for Interphone, declined to comment about “unpublished materials or my views about them.”
“This would not be right to the other co-authors and to the unpublished nature of the material,” he said.
While the manuscript remains unpublished, speculation has increased about the actions of some scientists who have spoken publicly about applying caution. The latest one to speak out was the lead researcher, Cardis, who was asked to sign a manifesto this month urging restraint by French scientists.
She declined to sign, to avoid taking sides. But she did respond to questions from Le Monde, on the same theme. She continues to suggest cautious use.
“I would concur with the idea of limiting the use among young people, first of all because through out their life they are going to be using a phone a lot more than all of us,” she said during an interview, adding. “but I would certainly not ban phones, because they are too useful.”
Some critics of the delays said they worried that the backstage disagreements of scientists could ultimately weaken the ultimate impact of the study.
Cindy Sage, who helped write a report with several scientists this year in the United States which reviewed existing studies on mobile telephone risks, said that she attended the meeting in San Diego where scientists discussed two circulating versions of the Interphone manuscript.
“This enormous project may come to nothing but ambiguous results,” she said. “It sounds pessimistic at this point. What I worry about is that the study will be publicized as an ‘all clear.’ When in fact the study failed to do a good enough job to know.”
