BBC News

Mobile phone drivers warned
Thursday, 30 January, 2003, 13:50 GMT

Motorists could be fined or cautioned if they are caught

Motorists using mobile phones are being targeted by police with video cameras, during a three-month campaign. West Midlands Police says Operation Breeze is an attempt to reduce "death and injury on roads and motorways." Officers will be on patrol in marked and unmarked cars.

Sergeant Dave Swift, in charge of the scheme, said: "The mobile is fast turning the car into a mobile office with people both giving and receiving information. "In some cases attempting to write that information down as they drive."

"One of our key aims is to reduce death and injury on roads and motorways. "We believe that more than 15% of all injury collisions take place while the driver uses a mobile phone."

Motorists stopped will either be given a caution, referred to a driver improvement scheme or could be fined.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2709661.stm

Informant: Robert Riedlinger

Dear Klaus,

I have a GSM paper that I wrote up for the KBC bank in Belgium when I was researching the Lipoatrophia Semicircularis problem for them. If anyone wants to know how GSM works my paper is a good start.
Regards Del.

Globe Service for Mobile (GSM) Operational specifications

GSM is a combination of Frequency Division Multiple Access -FDMA and Time Division Multiple Access -TDMA. GSM has four radio transmission modes, three data modes, and a speech mode. The GSM frequency spectrum bandwidths are 25 MHz for transmitting and 25 MHz for receiving. In Europe they have 20 MHz bandwidth as they are using the metric system.

The Analog frequencies are 890- 915 MHz for the base stations (downlink) and 935-960 MHz for the mobile cell phones (uplink). The PCS Digital frequencies are 1805-1880 MHz for base stations (downlink) and 1700-1787 MHz for the mobile cell phones (uplink).

GSM has a total of 124 of channels at 200 kHz bandwidth that is used for both FDMA and TDMA. The modulation structure is Gaussian Minimum shift Keying. The modulation rate of GSM carrier channel is 270 KBPS with a slow frequency hopping of 217 hops per second. FDMA uses a slow frequency hopping as a spread-spectrum mechanism scheme. TDMA is for increasing spectrum channel efficiency and each channel has a 32-code pattern (5bits and one sign bit) multiplexing scheme.

Voice channels in FDMA:
FDMA uses a 4-kHz analog speech signal that converts to 64-kbps digital signal, then down-converts to 13-kbps. Each voice channel contains 260 bits per block. The entire block with overhead will contains 316 bits.

The analog speech signal has two transmission modes.
1. Continuous transmission mode: (CTX) Each channel uses a speech waveform filter with eight transmitted coefficients in 20 ms; this equals to 260 bits per 20 ms speech block. The entire block will contain 316 bits. This will be up-converter to 22.8 kHz and modulated with the Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying. We will use one of the 124 channels with a 200kHz bandwidth.

2. Discontinuous transmission mode: (DTX)
Each channel will use 500 BPS without speech. The inactive speech block will be sent at 260 bits in 480 ms. this is 24 times longer then the active speech channel of 20 ms. A voice activity device (VAD) detects the DTX mode and will generate silence detection (SID) frame that will precede the start of DTX.
During inactivity, this SID frame will be sent twice a second.

Data Channels in FDMA:
There are three data rates that are used in GSM, 9600 BPS, 4800 BPS, and 2400 BPS. Each time slot of data channel contains 120 or 240 bits per block. These are then sent at 12 KBPS into one 200kHz channel.

There are two different modes that are used in data channels.
1. A forward error correction mechanism. (FEC)
2. Automatic repeat request (ARQ)

There are three kinds of traffic channels:
1. Traffic channel at full rate (TCH/F): Transmits a speech code at 13 KBPS or three data mode rates 12, 6, 3.6 KBPS.
2. Traffic channel at half rate (TCH/H): Transmits a speech code at 7 KBPS or two data modes of 6, and 3.6 KBPS.
3. Traffic channel at one-eighth rate (TCH/8) Used for low-rate signaling channels, common channels, and date rate channels.

There are five downlink common channels.
1. Frequency correction channel (FCCH) used to identify a beacon frequency.
2. Synchronization channel (SCH) follows each FCCH channel.
3. Broadcast control channel (BCCH) broadcast continually at each cell base station to be received by the idle mode cell phones.
4. Paging and access grant channel (PAGCH) used for the incoming calls received at the mobile cell phone. The access grant channel is answered from the base station and Allocates a channel during the access procedure of setting up a call.
5. Call broadcast channel (CBCH) Each base station broadcasts a short Message for two seconds from the network to the mobile cell phone.

There is one unidirectional Uplink Common Channel: (RACH)
1. Random access channel (RACH) this channel is used by the cell Phones to access the base station. There are two rates RACH/Full And RACH/Half.

There are three shared or group signaling channels:
1. Slow associated control channel (SACCH) a slow-rate TCH used for signaling transport, non-urgent procedure, and handover decisions. 2. Fast associated control channel (FACCH) Indicates cell phone Establishment, authenticates subscribers, or commands a handover. 3. Stand-alone dedicated control channel (SDCCH) used for passing signaling information and not for calls.

Voice channels in TDMA:
In TDMA, the digital data signal is transmitted in bursts. The time interval of the burst brings the amplitude of the transmitted signal up from a starting value of ZERO to its normal value. Then a packet of bits is transmitted by a modulated signal. Afterwards the amplitude decreases to ZERO.

When TDMA is used within the 200 kHz channel, 8 time slots are required to form a frame. The frame duration is 4.615 ms and all time slots duration is 0.577 ms.

There are eight different training sequences:
The training sequence are inserted into the bursts, some are 26, 41, and 64 bits that are inserted in the middle of all burst frames, plus framing, trail, flag, and guard bits.

There are four kinds of TDMA bursts.
1. Normal bursts are used in normal traffic channels with 156 data bits.
2. Access burst is used on the uplink mode with 88 data bits.
3. Fast burst is used on the FCCH with 148 data bits.
4. Slow burst is used on the SCH with 140 data bits.

There are four different kinds of TDMA channel coding.
1. Convolutional coding, used for improving transmission interference, Multipath fading and Doppler shift effect.
2. Fire codes are used as block codes to detect and correct a single burst.
3. Parity check codes are used to check for block error detection.
4. Concatenation codes use a convolutional code as an inner code and reduces the probability of error and corrects most of the channel codes. There are 12 different Interleaving schemes used with the 124 GSM channels.
Interleaving scrambles and/ or spreads a sequence of bits prior to transmitting them. The sequence of bits is put back in order at the receiving end.

Delbert Parkinson
9327 Classic Dr. NE
Lacey, WA 98516
360-438-3636

Discussion:

Klaus
Your combined emails are great - keep them coming! Most useful and helpful in raising awareness of the important (vital) EMF/EMR/health issue.

However, in this latest one there are some glaring errors. Please post this to the list and to Delbert Parkinson. This sort of writing does not give our cause any credibility.

I am certain that ELF EMFs and pulsing microwave EMR are associated with increases in childhood cancer, especially ALL. Hoewever when I investigated the cluster aound the USAF/UKRAF Greenham Common (ex) Cruise base about 15 years ago it was clear that the cases mainly lay under the take-off path of the aircraft. I checked for EMR and alpha and gamma ionising radiation and found nothing significant. The USAF then admitted that one of the fighter fuel additives they have been testing/trialling in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s was carcinogenic and caused leukaemia in mice and rats. This additive (I will have to track down its name) was put in US home base fuel from about 1990. I have an article about this and will try to hunt it out from my files. Quite a lot of unburnt and partially burnt fuel vapour get emitted at take-off when the engines haven't got up to full working temperature and when full thrust is required. I suspect this will be the main causal factor of the leukaemia, with EMR possibly a secondary promoting one.

Here are a few of the errors I found in the article: "The body separates the Electromagnetic Radiation Waves when they encounter the Aura. The body bends the radiating Electrical Fields as they pass through the body. The body passes the radiating Magnetic Fields straight through the body."

Electric microwave fields are stopped by the conductive body tissue. The magnetic field is only present as part of a radiating EM wave and if you stop the electric field the magnetic field stops too. What happens is the body absorbs the radiation (and in extremis actually heats up). It is more complicated when in the inductive-near-field within about one metre from a transmitting antenna. It IS the case in a pulsed radar field more than a metre or so from the antennas.

The possible existence of, and meaning of, scalar waves and torsion fields is an other debate and should not be confused with the normal E and H fields of a microwave signal. Such 'weird' fields may be relevant here but won't be detected or measured by conventionional EMR measurement techniques or instrumentation. I do believe such 'weird' (wyrd) fields exist and have health implications.

"The body has about 700 to 35,000 VDC potential on the top of your head. "Static charge" "

Most misleading. A high DCV with respect to what? A human body has a low electrical impedance and it is impossible to maintain more than a few tens of volts across a person without the risk of electrocution. 700 volts DC would kill a person. Your whole body can get a static charge of up to 100,000 VDC when walking across plastic based carpets with unsuitable clothing and footware, especially in a dry environment. This will destroy sensitive electronic chips/circuits when the person touches them. But this is a charge on the whole person with respect to the carpet and room they are in. The effect does not occur oustide, or if you use natural materials and keep the humidity reasonable and/or use a negative ioniser to help discharge static.

We recommend natural materials and good natural ventilation to help prevent build up of static charge.

"The body has 65 trillion Cells (220 types) that maintain a electrical voltage level of -60 to -70 Millievolts. This is a Power Level of -10 to -11 DBm."

Meaningless. You cannot convert a millivolt measurement into a power level without knowing the impedance. The body's DC impedance is one thing, its power-frequency impedance is another, and RF and microwave impedance varies greatly throughout the RF range 100 kHz - 100 GHz. Also individual people's skin texture and condition, diet, water and mineral status significantly affect their electrical impedance.

"The body is a good conductor of magnetic and electric currents, because of our Saline body fluid." Saline increases conductivity of electrical currents but does (virtually) nothing at all for magnetic ones. Magnetic permeability and susceptibilty matter for this and saline does not measurably change these.

" The FCC allows our Aura/Corona to be radiated with 1000 Microwatts/cm2. This 1000 Microwatts/cm2 level has radiating power that equals "ONE Mil Watt". ONE Mil Watt" of power equals ZERO DBm. ZERO DBm equals 225 Mil Volts. These 225 Mil Volts of Polarized and Modulated, Pulsating Digital Radiation are 3 - 4 times stronger then your cells
normal operating level of -60 to -70 Mil Volts."

Oh dear, this is very muddled up, wrong and misleading. 1 mW is 224 mV into a 50 ohm impedance. Equals 0dBm. The impedance of free-space (air) is 377 ohms.

1 mW/cm2 is a field strength that in the far-field (more than a few metres from the antenna) is equivalent to sq.root(3770) = 61.4 volts/metre; i.e. 61 volts between two points in space (air) one metre apart. This is a limit of 'maximum exposure', but is a time averaged one (over 6 minutes, I think - in Europe anyway) so the peak pulse power can legally be many times this level as it is (they are) time-averaged out. As radar pulses are usually very short with longish gaps, this can lower the average power by many thousands - hence allowing very high peak power informational EMR pulses. It is these pulses that we think are most dangerous to human health, rather than the averaged power (for non-thermal effects).

======================================
Claims by well meaning, but technically ignorent, people are not helpful.

Good wishes
Alasdair (Philips)
www.powerwatch.org.uk

The Institute of Science in Society

Pharming Cytokines in Transgenic Crops

Crop plants are being used to produce a range of vaccines and drugs including powerful molecules that affect cells of the immune system. The inevitable contamination of our food crops has been uncovered. Prof. Joe Cummins sounds warning of cytokines, to be used in agriculture in place of antibiotics.

The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS members site.

Cytokines are small proteins secreted by one animal cell to alter the behavior of itself or another cell. Cytokines send signals to the cell by binding to specific 'receptors' on the cell-surface. The biological effects depend on the cytokine and the cell. Typically, these molecules affect cell activation, division, apoptosis (programmed cell death), or movement. Cytokines produced by leucocytes and acting mainly on other white blood cells are called interleukins. Cytokines that have chemo-attractant activity are called chemokines. Those that cause differentiation and proliferation of stem cells are called colony-stimulating factors. Those that interfere with viral replication are called interferons. Interferons protect cells by inducing intracellular production of molecules that interfere with virus replication, and increase recognition of virally infected cells by cytotoxic (cell-killing) T lymphocytes. Interferons also have anti-proliferative effects on some cancer cells.

Cytokines provide useful treatments of infections, and of cancer symptoms and diseases affecting the immune system. Their clinical deployment has been limited by the cost of producing the drug proteins, and recombinant cytokines have allowed them to be used more widely.

In recent years, animal and human genes have been incorporated into crop plants in order to produce vaccines, antibodies, plasma proteins, cytokines and other therapeutics, with little thought given to the consequences of the pharmaceuticals genes spreading to food crops or the genes and gene products polluting surface water, groundwater and the air. The first (of possibly many) such disasters has already been uncovered. It has been suggested that recombinant cytokines might provide a safe replacement for antibiotics. Chicken interferon gamma has been proposed as a vaccine adjuvant and growth promoter for chickens. The worldwide production of chickens for meat and eggs is staggering, so the recombinant interferon treatment could spread far and wide in short time. To provide for efficient delivery of the cytokine, adenovirus vectors have been proposed to deliver the cytokine genes to the chicken. The adenovirus has posed significant problems in human gene therapy and is known to cause severe immune reactions including death. The adenovirus may impact the immune system of the treated chicken and also be carried into eggs, offal and meat. Interferon gamma structural gene has a high degree of homology (sequence similarity) to human interferon gamma and a comparison of cytokines in different species shows 6 with 60% or greater homology to the avian gene and tend to cross react immunologically with the protein.

As a further complication, the cytokine transcript RNA is subject to alternative splicing to produce different proteins depending on the cellular environment in which the gene is expressed. This will complicate safety assessment considerably.

Chicken interferon has been produced using baculovirus vector in cultured insect cells and in transgenic plants both as a source of the cytokine and as a means of controlling plant disease.

Human interferon alpha has been produced in potato and potatoes expressing interferon alpha were found to resist phytopthora. A ribonuclease gene forming a part of the human interferon alpha virus defense was used to transform potato, the transgenic potato 'defended' against virus infection by forming necrotic spots followed by the death of the infected plants 20 days later, a rather extreme and impractical form of defense.

However, production of human interferon in crops may provide therapeutic agents for a number of human diseases. Oral ingestion of recombinant human interferon has been reported in over fifty publications involving different disease treatments, such as the prevention of rejection of allograft islet transplants. Cytokine treatments are known to induce sickness and central nervous system toxicity. Recombinant human interferon alpha was reported to cause dementia, neurotoxicity and mood and cognitive side effects.

It is clear that crops expressing interferons would have disastrous consequences as the interferon genes spread and contaminate food crops, and poison our entire food chain. Incorporating them into chickens may well produce demented as well as poisonous chickens.

Other cytokines have begun to be produced in crop plants. Interleukin-10 a powerful immune suppressant used to control graft rejection was produced in open field trials of modified tobacco. I already warned of the potential for ground and surface water to become polluted, and the danger that the transgene product, or the transgene itself could turn a relatively harmless virus into a killer.

The human granculocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor fused with seed glutelin protein was used to create an easy system for oral delivery of the cytokine. Such modified seeds may be widely dispersed by birds and by wind to contaminate food crops or to propagate the modified crop.

Interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 were produced in modified tobacco cells in suspension culture, the cytokines were excreted into the suspension medium allowing for easy recovery and purification. This contained production method should avoid most of the risks of open production in plants in the field.

In conclusion, cytokines are proving valuable agents for treating disease, but like vaccines and other drugs, their production should be confined to contained facilities, and field releases of any kind should not be allowed.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk