#1049: “Wake Up call” A program on cell phone dangers not to be missed
Australia’s “60 Minutes” investigative TV program (see below) tonight aired a report on cell phone dangers not to be missed. In it, Australian neurosurgeons Charles Teo and Vini Khurana tell of their concerns, including an apparent alarming increase in children with aggressive brain tumours. The other side of the controversy is also given by Rodney Croft, Director of the Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR) who is adamant that cell phones are harmless and that Teo and Khurana are wrong. Although ACRBR presents itself as a leader in cell phone research it has a huge conflict of interest problem by being a joint partner with Telstra – and an examination of its history finds links with the transnational public relations agency Burson Marsteller , the world”s biggest PR firm well known for its work on behalf of the tobacco industry, the industry group the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and Motorola.
Telstra has good reason to be partners with ACRBR. This is seen in the 2004 Telstra Annual Report where it was stated in bold type, under the heading “Risk factors” that “[t]he establishment of a link between adverse health effects and electromagnetic energy (EME) could expose us to liability or negatively affect our operations”. Consequently, any research effort into this possible link would be of vital importance to Telstra, not because of the truth it may uncover but its potential to adversely impact on litigation, regulation and the corporation”s bottom line.
As Sheldon Krimsky observed: “Corporations view science not as a generator of truth but as one among many inputs into production”
(See: Science in the Private Interest: Has the lure of profits corrupted biomedical research? Sheldon Krimsky, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2003).
This is the state of cell phone research in Australia…..
Don
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=797215
Wake Up Call
Friday, April 3, 2009
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Nick Greenaway
If you own a mobile phone, you must see this.
For years, the experts have been arguing over them.
Some say they’re perfectly safe, others claim they fry your brains.
Well, an international team of doctors, including two of Australia’s finest surgeons, have just released their latest, comprehensive research.
And, as the father of young children, it really made Liam Bartlett sit up and take notice.
They say prolonged use of mobile phones could double the risk of malignant brain tumours.
The deadliest of all cancers, the kind that leaves no survivors.
With an entire generation now growing up hooked on their mobiles, that could be absolutely devastating.
Full transcript arrives Monday.
STAY TUNED
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