#738: Comments on message #736: Letter of support for Olle Johansson
From Frans van Velden:
The ‘skeptic’ and electromagnetic fields.
Eileen O’Connor wrote:
BBC News 24 has apparently highlighted news from a Swedish blogger DennisJ who sent news to badscience.net saying that Johansson was the 2004 recipient of the Misleader of the Year award. I would like to know who voted for this award and who funds them.
Frans van Velden: The ‘skeptic’ people. Around the world (also in The Netherlands) there are societies against paranormal claims and ‘pseudoscience’. That is reasonable. However, when it comes to electromagnetic fields in the environment and the consequences of effects on biological systems, they usually lack knowledge and experience. I have read claims by them like ‘the blood vessels are a cage of Faraday preventing effects of electromagnetic fields’ and ‘electrosmog does not exist’, as if wireless communication has no physical working mechanism at all. That is ridiculous. They reason ‘if five effects are investigated and one is found, this effect is a statistical anomaly’. That can be wrong.
The following quote is taken from an article written by UK journalist Kate Figes; she has written about her own sensitivity to wireless technology, this was reported in many UK national news papers. She has also faced ridicule from people who refuse to accept this problem is real.
Frans van Velden: The problem is real, even the WHO does acknowledge in Factsheet 296 about electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). Moreover, scientifically, consistent and strong evidence of health effects by non-thermal, non-ionising electromagnetic fields in the environment exists (see figures in EMF Handbuch by the Ecolog Institut, Hannover, Germany). Authorities like Sir William Stewart state that ‘the WHO is wrong, since there is evidence of effects by long term low density radiation’ (BBC Panorama). The problem is real indeed.
The government and the telecoms industry sit happily in each other’s pockets and we have no say, no way to stem the tide or voice objection. It is left to a handful of scientists, such as Dr Johansson from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who has found skin changes under the effects of low-level microwave exposure …
Frans van Velden: There is no ‘misleading of the year’ whatsoever in his scientific result. Johansson is not involved in pseudoscience or paranormal claims. The ‘skeptics’ and the Swedish blogger are wrong. Probably they are just afraid the effects of electromagnetic fields on biological systems can be devastating indeed and they try to avert the evil by a magical spell like the Misleader of the Year Award. As a result, the ‘skeptics’ give themselves an aura of incredibility. I nominate them for the Misleader of the Year Award 2007.
Frans van Velden
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