Corporate influence on Science, government and the military

- 10 NOV 12
EHS: Itʼs all in your head but we wonʼt hold it against you
From John Weigel

I would like to draw you attention to a new technique being used in Ireland to foster the idea that electromagnetic sensitivity is a psychological disorder. Unlike Sweden which has declared EHS a disability, Ireland has chosen to deny the condition exists. At present there is a concerted effort to remove the stigma attached to mental illness. What is curious is the individuals and companies that are seeking to address the issue. In this instance they are drawn from the business community – and nearly all of the members of the board of the Network for Responsible Business are currently or past employees of the microwave industry.

It is also important to note that Ireland plans to be an incubation centre for technologies using the Smart Grid which is currently under construction across North America and elsewhere through partnership between government and business.
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- 31 OCT 12
Book Review: Seeds of Deception By Jeffrey M. Smith
When eminent scientist Arpad Pusztai went public about his accidental discovery that genetically modified (GM) potatoes severely damage the immune system and organs of rats, he was suspended from the prestigious Scottish research institute where he had worked for thirty-five years. He was silenced with threats of a lawsuit while the Institute denied or distorted his findings.

In the ensuing war over public opinion, biotech advocates tried to spin the science in favor of GM foods, but were thwarted at each attempt by leaked documents and compelling evidence. Pusztai, who describes this chapter as “the most thorough and accurate report on the topic,” was ultimately vindicated when his potato study was published in the Lancet. His remains the only independent safety assessment in a peer-reviewed journal.
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- 22 OCT 12
ICNIRP to the rescue: Downplaying the Italian court ruling on mobile phone use
I was wondering how long before ICNIRP came out downplaying the recent Italian supreme court ruling finding a “causal link” between heavy mobile phone use and cancer. Now we have ICNIRP’s Paolo Vecchia (below) spinning out the court ruling, claiming that the Italians got it all wrong and what they need to do to improve the “quality” of their expert witnesses in legal proceedings. He recommends that this could be achieved by following the recommendations issued by professional associations such as EBEA and BEMS.

The problem here is that both of these organizations are firmly tied to the ICNIRP in their approach to science
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- 15 OCT 12
End the not-so-smart spin with real smart meter research
To give an idea of what kind of research those promoting smart grid/meter technology spend their money on see the latest spin put out by the British Department of Energy and Climate Change. Titled, Quantitative Research into Public Awareness, Attitudes and Experience of Smart Meters, the report assessed consumer awareness of, attitude to, and understanding/experience of smart meters and in-home displays (IHDs). In answer to the widespread reports of adverse health effects in countries after the introduction of smart meters, the researchers simply claim that that the negative issues identified could probably be resolved by reassurance, and that consumers would still be willing to accept the technology. This conclusion suggests that concerns over possible health hazards from smart meters are probably a result of public misunderstandings and unfounded fears – in other words, ignorance.
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- 27 SEP 12
Allan H. Frey with a historical perspective on cell phone risks
Published in The Scientist

Opinion: Cell Phone Health Risk? Security concerns during the Cold War may have led to the generation of misinformation on the physiological effects of microwave radiation from mobile phones.
By Allan H. Frey | September 25, 2012
Excerpt:
Recently, Congress tasked its investigative arm, the General Accountability Office (GAO), to consider the health risks of mobile phones and to report back to Congress. While a previous report published in May 2010 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that there was no evidence of increased health risk resulting from exposure to the radiofrequency (microwave) energy emitted by cell phones, the World Health Organization reported the following year that cell phone radiation may be carcinogenic. Also in 2011, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse published a paper in JAMA reporting that 50 minutes of cell phone use by people altered glucose metabolism in the part of the brain closest to where the cell phone antennas were located. This summer, the GAO completed the task and sent a report to Congress stating that the risks were unclear and deserved greater scrutiny from the government.
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- 26 SEP 12
Who should research reported smart meter health hazards in Australia?
Recently I was contacted by a member of Stop Smart Meters Australia asking me for my opinion on advice they had received that health complaints should be directed to Andrew Wood, head of Bioelectromagnetics and Cellular Neuroscience at Swinburne University of Technology. On the surface of it, Wood’s Bioelectromagnetics group at Swinbourne are well qualified. They have the facilities and well qualified personnel to do research to determine the extent of the adverse health effects now being reported by a number of people in Victoria after a smart meter was installed on their homes, especially when in close proximity to sleeping areas. Looking beneath the surface, however, it gets very murky for there is more to consider than just good academic qualifications.
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- 24 SEP 12
Recommended viewing: Lawrence Lessig on cell phone spin
From George Parker:

Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig discusses the cell phone industry’s political and media manipulation of the science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dme1UH2h2mQ&feature=player_embedded

Also see Reconnect by Kevin Kunze : http://kck.st/NojhHi
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- 07 AUG 12
Cellphone-safety advocate hopes Congress forces the FCC to update its regulations
Cellphone-safety advocate hopes Congress forces the FCC to update its regulations By Cecilia Kang, Published: August 4 http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/cellphone-safety-advocate-hopes-congress-forces-the-fcc-to-update-its-regulations/2012/08/03/e534b0ca-da7f-11e1-a3f5-b4e7667a8298_story_1.html Devra Davis, a long-ignored evangelist on the health dangers of cellphones, finally feels like she”�s been heard. As soon as next week, Congress is expected to say that a year-long investigation by the Government Accountability Office has
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- 01 JUL 12
More on CTV’s supposedly independent reporting: Bell Canada bought 100 percent of CTV Inc. for $1.3 billion in 2010
As a follow up to my blog of 28 June, titled “Canada TV caught out passing off industry spin as an investigative report”, it now turns out that CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcasting network, is 100% owned by Bell Canada (telecom). Sent in by Susan Foster: Read all about it on Barb Toronto’s blog: http://energycanaries.blogspot.com/2012/06/investigative-something-ism-hazards-of.html?spref=fb
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- 01 JUN 12
John Goldsmith on scientific misconduct and the Lilienfeld study (An oldie but still relevant today)
Background to the Lilienfeld study and the “Moscow signal”: In the early 1960s it was discovered that from 1953 the Soviets had been beaming highly focused microwaves directly into the US Embassy in Moscow at an estimated power density that ranged from .005 mW/cm2 to .018 mW/cm2.112 Averaged measurements determined that although the intensity reaching
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- 30 MAY 12
More on the pursuit of Gro Brundtland by Michael Repacholi
Back in April of this year a number of messages on this list examined Michael Repacholi’s attack on the former Head of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland. At that time a lengthy article by Thomas Ergo was published in the Norwegian news magazine, PLOT. Just released this week is an authorized English translation on the
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- 10 MAY 12
Beware the creeping cracks of bias (with implications for bioelectromagnetics research)
Article published in NATURE, 10 May, 2012: Beware the creeping cracks of bias Evidence is mounting that research is riddled with systematic errors. Left unchecked, this could erode public trust, warns Daniel Sarewitz. 10 MAY 2012 VOL 485 NATURE 149 Excerpt Alarming cracks are starting to penetrate deep into the scientific edifice. They threaten the
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- 05 MAY 12
Swerdlow’s biased HPA report receives damning criticism
In a recent message I suggested that the latest Health Protection Agency AGNIR report, headed by Anthony Swerdlow, was highly biased because of Swerdlow’s industry connections. It is increasingly looking like the AGNIP report is more of a desperate effort at IARC ‘damage control’ on behalf of the mobile phone industry, or in the case
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- 30 APR 12
The Swerdlow reports: downplaying the mobile phone cancer risk
In November 2011, a paper was published in Environmental Health Perspectives that gave ICNIRP’s opinion on the findings of the Interphone studies. Written by members of ICNIRPs Standing Committee On Epidemiology, led by Anthony Swerdlow *, the paper, titled; “Mobile Phones, Brain Tumours and the Interphone Study: Where Are We Now?” concluded that “although there
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- 27 APR 12
Monsanto co-ops colony collapse disorder science
For some time there has been a section on this blog titled, “Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)” originally to report on the possible connection between CCD and increasing radiofrequency/microwave (RF/MW) levels worldwide. Although it is likely this may be a factor, the central culprit increasingly looks like pesticides, such as Imidacloprid which has been
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- 17 APR 12
A new paper on corporate science is now available online
From David Schleifer: Please circulate … I co-edited a special issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society with Bart Penders of Maastricht University, published last week, about the social study of corporate science. The table of contents is online at http://bst.sagepub.com/content/31/6.toc. Yours, David Schleifer, PhD Associate Research Scholar Center on Medicine as a
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- 10 MAR 12
How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense
From the Union of Concerned Scientists: How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/how-corporations-corrupt-science.html Federal decision makers need access to the best available science in order to craft policies that protect our health, safety, and environment. Unfortunately, censorship of scientists and the manipulation, distortion, and suppression of scientific information have threatened federal science in
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- 25 JAN 12
Silencing an ‘inconvenient’ voice in the Czech Republic
And now a brief look at the Czech Republic’s 2001 acquiescence to ICNIRP. The following is extracted from my thesis, The Procrustean Approach. Chapter 4: IEEE’s thermal paradigm spreads internationally, pp. 173 – 175. Unfortunately this is how modern science works on behalf of ICNIRP. Just replace the word ‘science’ with ‘economics’ and its more
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- 04 NOV 11
The Politics and Economics of Bias
From Louis Slesin, Microwave News: The latest analysis of the tumor risks among cell phone users in Denmark and the accompanying editorial brings to mind the old saying: “Trust your mother, but cut the cards.” Be warned: Before you believe what you are told by the Danish Cancer Society or the Karolinska Institute or what
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- 03 OCT 11
The Environmental Health Trust on the discredited JNCI published study on children and cellphone use (Part 3)
Sent in By Lloyd Morgan: (Don’s note: what does this say about the quality of peer review as practiced by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute ?) The JNCI Study by Aydin et al on Risk of Childhood Brain Cancer from Cellphone Use Reveals Serious Health Problems L. Lloyd Morgan, Sr. Research Fellow Environmental
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Corporate influence on Science, government and the military

EHS: Itʼs all in your head but we wonʼt hold it against you

Book Review: Seeds of Deception By Jeffrey M. Smith

ICNIRP to the rescue: Downplaying the Italian court ruling on mobile phone use

End the not-so-smart spin with real smart meter research

Allan H. Frey with a historical perspective on cell phone risks

Who should research reported smart meter health hazards in Australia?

Recommended viewing: Lawrence Lessig on cell phone spin

Cellphone-safety advocate hopes Congress forces the FCC to update its regulations

More on CTV’s supposedly independent reporting: Bell Canada bought 100 percent of CTV Inc. for $1.3 billion in 2010

John Goldsmith on scientific misconduct and the Lilienfeld study (An oldie but still relevant today)

More on the pursuit of Gro Brundtland by Michael Repacholi

Beware the creeping cracks of bias (with implications for bioelectromagnetics research)

Swerdlow’s biased HPA report receives damning criticism

The Swerdlow reports: downplaying the mobile phone cancer risk

Monsanto co-ops colony collapse disorder science

A new paper on corporate science is now available online

How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense

Silencing an ‘inconvenient’ voice in the Czech Republic

The Politics and Economics of Bias

The Environmental Health Trust on the discredited JNCI published study on children and cellphone use (Part 3)

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