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Melatonin metabolite excretion among cellular telephone - ISIS miniseries
"Fields of Influence" - Technology breakthrough harnesses energy
from the molecular structure of water (12/12/02)
Tramès per Klaus Rudolph (Citizens'
Initiative Omega)
Int J Radiat Biol 2002 Nov;78(11):1029-36
Related Articles,Links
Melatonin metabolite
excretion among cellular telephone users
Burch JB, Reif JS, Noonan CW, Ichinose T, Bachand AM, Koleber TL, Yost
MG.
Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado
State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. james.burch@colostate.edu
PURPOSE: The relationship between cellular telephone use and excretion
of the melatonin metabolite 6-hydroxymelatonin sulfate (6-OHMS) was evaluated
in two populations of male electric utility workers (Study 1, n=149; Study
2, n=77).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants collected urine samples and recorded
cellular telephone use over 3 consecutive workdays. Personal 60-Hz magnetic
field (MF) and ambient light exposures were characterized on the same
days using EMDEX II meters. A repeated measures analysis was used to assess
the effects of cellular telephone use, alone and combined with MF exposures,
after adjustment for age, participation month and light exposure.
RESULTS: No change in 6-OHMS excretion was observed among those with daily
cellular telephone use >25 min in Study 1 (5 worker-days). Study 2
workers with >25 min cellular telephone use per day (13 worker-days)
had lower creatinine-adjusted mean nocturnal 6-OHMS concentrations (p=0.05)
and overnight 6-OHMS excretion (p=0.03) compared with those without cellular
telephone use.
There was also a linear trend of decreasing mean nocturnal 6-OHMS/creatinine
concentrations (p=0.02) and overnight 6-OHMS excretion (p=0.08) across
categories of increasing cellular telephone use. A combined effect of
cellular telephone use and occupational 60-Hz MF exposure in reducing
6-OHMS excretion was also observed in Study 2.
CONCLUSIONS: Exposure-related reductions in 6- OHMS excretion were observed
in Study 2, where daily cellular telephone use of >25 min was more
prevalent. Prolonged use of cellular telephones may lead to reduced melatonin
production, and elevated 60-Hz MF exposures may potentiate the effect.
PMID: 12456290 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12456290&dopt=Abstract
Informants: Reinhard Rückemann and elektrosmognews
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ISIS miniseries
"Fields of Influence"
Electromagnetic radiations are increasingly flooding our environment,
as evidence of health risks is mounting, suggesting that organisms are
sensitive to very weak electromagnetic fields.
This requires a new biology that understands organisms that has been systematically
ignored and excluded from mainstream discourse, to our peril. This miniseries
is in four parts:
1.Electromagnetic Fields Double Leukemia Risks
2.Mobile Phones & Cancer
3.Non-Thermal Effects
4.The Excluded Biology
Mobile Phones & Cancer
A spate of reports during 2002 is confirming links between electromagnetic
radiation from mobile phones and cancer. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports.
The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS members
site. Full details here
In October, 2002, cell biologist Fiorenzo Marinelli and his team at the
National Research Council in Bologna, Italy, reported that radio waves
from mobile phones could promote the growth of cancer cells.
The team exposed leukaemia cells to 900-megahertz radio waves at a power
density level of 1 milliwatt per squared centimetre (mW/cm2).
After 24 hours of continuous exposure to the radio waves, the researchers
found that certain 'suicide genes' were turned on in far more leukaemia
cells than in a control cell population that had not been exposed, and
20 per cent more exposed cells had died than in the controls.
But after 48 hours exposure to the radio waves, the apparently lethal
effect of the radiation went into reverse. Instead of more cells dying,
the exposed cells were replicating furiously compared to the controls.
Three genes that trigger cells to multiply were turned on in a high proportion
of the cells. The cancer, although briefly beaten back, had become more
aggressive.
Marinelli presented the results at the International Workshop on Biological
Effects of Electromagnetic Fields on the Greek island of Rhodes. He suspects
that the radiation may initially damage DNA, and that this interferes
with the biochemical signals in a way that ultimately triggers the cells
to multiply more rapidly.
Meanwhile, a research team in the University of Florence reported that
normal human skin fibroblasts, placed over an active cell phone for 1
h, also showed significant changes. The fibroblasts shrivelled up, and
several genes indicative of stress response became expressed, that are
involved in cell proliferation, growth inhibition and cell death. There
was a significant increase in DNA synthesis and in key molecules that
signal cell division. These findings are similar to those reported earlier
from yet another laboratory.
Dariusz Leszczynski at the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Helsinki
found that one-hour exposure to mobile phone radiation caused cultured
human cells to shrink.
Leszczynski believes this happens when a cell is damaged. In a person,
such changes could destroy the 'blood-brain barrier' that normally prevents
harmful substances in the bloodstream from entering the brain and damaging
it.
Radiation-induced changes in the cells could also interfere with normal
cell death when the cell is damaged. If cells that are 'marked' to die
do not, tumours can form.
This research is particularly important, Leszczynski said, because it
demonstrates that mobile phone radiation too weak to heat up the cells
can still affect them.
David de Pomerai, molecular toxicologist at the University of Nottingham,
provided the first clear evidence on such non-thermal effects of mobile
phone radiation. He found that nematode worms exposed to radio waves had
an increase in fertility - the opposite effect from what would be expected
from heating.
De Pomerai also insisted that a consensus is emerging that electromagnetic
waves such as those used in mobile phones can indirectly damage DNA by
affecting its repair system without heating the cell. "Cells with
unrepaired DNA damage are likely to be far more aggressively cancerous,"
he said.
Non-thermal effects due to weak electromagnetic radiation are at the heart
of the debate on the health hazards of mobile phones and other electrical
installations in the environment.
These recent results should be seen in the light of the report released
in March 2002 by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), which
concluded that children exposed to high levels of electromagnetic radiation
in the home could be doubling their risk of leukaemia (see "Electromagnetic
fields double leukaemia risk". This series).
One doesn't have to be a cell-phone user to become exposed to the radiation.
You could be living near a base-station that's beaming the radio waves
at you (see Box 1). Or you could be exposed as a passenger on a crowded
train full of mobile phone users.
Tsuyoshi Hondou, a physicist from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan,
currently working at the Curie Institute in Paris, calculated that in
a typical Japanese railway carriage with mobile phone users surfing the
net, the radio waves rebounding from the metal wall of the carriage would
give an electromagnetic field that could exceed the maximum exposure level
recommended by the International Committee for Non-Ionising Radiation
(ICNIRP), even when the train is not crowded.
Hondou's calculations show that it is possible to exceed ICNIRP exposure
limit if 30 people, each with a mobile phone that emits radio waves at
a power of 0.4 watts, all use their phones at the same time.
The ICNIRP limits have already been severely criticised for being set
far too high, and are aimed at protecting people from acute heating effects
only, and take no account of non-thermal effects.
An inquiry in April 2000 by the British government found no evidence of
any health risks from mobile phones. But the report nevertheless recommended
a precautionary approach until further evidence emerged. In particular,
it suggested children should not use mobile phones excessively.
Box 1
How do mobile phones work?
Mobile telephony is based on radio communication between a portable handset
and the nearest base-station. Every base-station serves a 'cell', varying
in radius from hundreds of metres in densely populated areas to kilometres
in rural areas, and is connected both to the conventional landline telephone
network, and by tightly focused microwave links to neighbouring stations.
As the mobile-phone user moves from cell to cell, the call is transferred
from one base-station to the next without interruption.
The radio communication depends on microwaves at 900 or 1800 megahertz
(MHz) (a million cycles per second) to carry voice information via small
modulations of the wave's frequency. A base-station antenna typically
radiates 60W and a handset between 1 and 2 W (peak). The antenna of a
handset radiates equally in all directions, but a base-station produces
a beam that is much more directional. In addition, the stations have subsidiary
beams called side-lobes, into which a small fraction of the emitted power
is channelled. Unlike the main beam, the side-lobes are located in the
immediate vicinity of the mast, and, despite their low power, the power
density can be comparable with that of the main beam much further away
from the mast. At 150 to 200m, the power density in the main beam near
the ground level is typically tenths of microWatt/cm2.
A handset in operation also has a low-frequency magnetic field associated,
not with the emitted microwaves, but with surges of electric current from
the battery that's necessary to implement 'time division multiple access',
the system used to increase the number of people who can simultaneously
communicate with the base-station. Every communication channel has 8 time
slots (thus the average power of a handset is 1/8 of the peak values,
ie, beween 0.125 and 0.25W), which are transmitted as 576 microsecond
bursts. Together, the 8 slots define a frame, the repetition of which
is 217 Hz. The frames transmitted by both handsets and base-stations are
groups into 'multi-frames' of 25 by the absence of every 26th frame. This
results in an additional low frequency pulsing of the signal at 8.34Hz,
which, unlike that at 217 Hz, is unaffected by call density, and is thus
a permanent feature of the emission.
With handsets that have an energy-saving discontinuous transmission mode
(DTX), there is an even lower frequency pulsing at 2 Hz, which occurs
when the user is listening but not speaking.
Thus, the fields to which users are exposed can be quite complex.
A review published in The Lancet the same year by Gerard Hyland, physicist
at Warwick University, listed numerous studies over the past 30 years
that showed microwaves do have a range of non-thermal effects (see Box
1 and Box 2). Some of the findings, such as increases in chromosome aberrations,
DNA single- and double-strand breaks, promotion of cancer in cells, and
in transgenic mice, are all consistent with the recent reports. Hyland
is extremely critical of the current exposure limits set by the ICNIRP.
Box 2
In vitro nonthermal effects of microwaves
Elicits epileptic activity in rat brain slices in conjunction with certain
drugs. Affects cell division of yeast and on the genome conformation of
E. coli. Synchronises cell division in yeast, S. carisbergenis.
Switches on l-phage and colicin synthesis in bacteria.
Alters ornithine decarboxylase activity in cultured cell line.
Reduces T lymphocyte cytotoxicity.
Increases permeability of red blood cell membrane.
Affects calcium efflux in brain cells.
Increases chromosome aberrations and micronuclei in human blood lymphocytes.
Promotes cancer synergistically with cancer-promoting drugs such as phorbol
esters.
Box 3
In vivo non-thermal effects of microwaves
Causes epileptic activity in rats, in conjunction with certain drugs.
Depresses chicken immune systems (melatonin, corticosterone and IgG levels).
Increases mortality of chick embryos.
Affects brain electrochemistry (dopamine, opiates).
Increases DNA single- and double-strand breaks in rat brain.
Promotes lymphomas in transgenic mice.
Synergeistic effects with certain psychoactive drugs.
A delayed increase in spectral power density (particularly in the alpha
band) corroborated in the awake EEG of adults exposed to mobile phone
radiation.
Influences on the asleep EEG include a shortening of rem sleep during
which the power density in the alpha band increases, and effects on non-REM
sleep.
Exposure to mobile phone radiation also decreases the
preparatory slow potentials in certain regions of the brain and affects
memory tasks.
Resting blood pressure was found to increase during exposure to radiofrequencies.
Dr Zenon Sienkiewicz, a radiation biologist at the National Radiological
Protection Board (NRPB), told BBC News Online that there was still no
hard evidence that showed mobile phones causing harm in real humans, rather
than human cells in a test tube.
He said: "The bottom line is there are no known mechanisms by which
mobile phone radiation can increase the risk of cancer."
Hyland disagrees. He points out that mobile phone radiation has been found
to affect a wide variety of brain functions - such as electrical activity
(EEG) electrochemistry and the permeability of the blood/brain barrier
- and to undermine the immune system.
Although the precise mechanisms are unclear, Hyland pointed to an "undeniable
consistency between some of these non-thermal influences and the nature
of many of the health problems reported", such as headache, sleep
disruption, impairment of short term memory, increases in the frequency
of seizures in some epileptic children when exposed to Base-station radiation,
and of brain tumours amongst users of mobile phones.
Thus, reports of headache are consistent with the effect observed on the
dopamine-opiate system of the brain, and the increase in permeability
of the blood-brain barrier, both of which have been medically connected
with headache. The reports of sleep disruption are consistent with the
observed effect of the radiation on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and
on melatonin levels; whilst memory impairment is consistent with the finding
that microwave radiation targets the hippocampus. Epileptic seizures are
known to be induced by visible light flashing at a certain low frequency,
and there is no reason to suppose that microwave radiation, which can
access the brain directly through the skull, flashing at a similar frequency,
cannot cause the effect. Indeed, exposure to such microwave radiation
is known to induce epileptic activity in certain animals; and there have
been reports of increased seizures in some children suffering from epilepsy
that were exposed to base-station radiation.
Finally, mobile phone users show statistically significant increase (by
a factor of between 2 and 3) in the incidence of a rather rare kind of
tumour (epithelial neuroma) on the side of the brain nearest the mobile
phone.
What then is the appropriate exposure limit? Hyland points out that some
experiments are indicating non-thermal thresholds for biological effects
of the order of microwatt/cm2. Adverse effects have been reported, however,
at power densities a few tenths of that value at distances of 150-200m
from a typical 15m high Base-station mast and within the range of the
more localised side-lobes in the immediate vicinity of a mast. Incorporating
a further safety factor of 10 to allow for the possibility of long-term
exposure, the power densities should not exceed 10 nanoW (billionth of
a Watt)/cm2.
The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS members
site. Full details here
This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FOI2.php
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E-Wire
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scientific Breakthrough Liberates Energy Users from Fossil Fuel Dependence
Technology breakthrough
harnesses energy from the molecular structure of water
BOISE, ID, Dec. 6 -/E-Wire/-- Genesis World Energy, a privately funded
consortium created by a group of military and space program research and
development specialists, today unveiled a scientific breakthrough that
allows consumers to easily access the energy contained within the hydrogen
and oxygen molecular structure of ordinary water. This scientific breakthrough
provides a limitless, low cost and environmentally clean source of energy
that can be implemented with minimal cost and effort.
The viability of using water as an energy source, previously a theoretical
concept, is now a reality. "Water has always been the source of life
on this planet, now it will also transform the way we create energy,"
said Charles Shaw, corporate counsel and spokesperson for Genesis World
Energy. "The implications for worldwide energy generation and consumption
are nothing less than staggering." The Genesis Project The technology
is the result of nearly two years of continuous effort by a team of more
than 400 visionaries from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including science,
technology and engineering. Assembled as the "Genesis Project,"
the team discovered a way to extract far more energy from water than the
extraction process itself required; differentiating this new fuel cell
technology from any other development efforts thus far. The key component
of the Genesis Project technology is the Genesis gCell, which through
a series of electro-chemical processes separates hydrogen and oxygen molecules
in water. The resulting gas molecules can either be burned cleanly as
a replacement for natural gas or various other traditional forms of fuel,
or may be remarried within Genesis eCells (an advanced fuel cell) to generate
large amounts of electrical current. When both Genesis gCells and eCells
are combined, the entire process becomes self-generating, recycling both
water and electricity from the molecular reattachment phase.
A more detailed description of the process can be found on the Genesis
World Energy Web site www.genesisworldenergy.org.
The Edison Device the first application of this technology is represented
in the "Edison Device," a self-contained, self-sustaining energy
generation unit. Roughly the size of an outdoor air conditioning system,
the power source can be quickly and easily installed in any home or business
to provide virtually unlimited energy from any available water source.
The Edison Device utilizes the existing electrical wiring and natural
gas plumbing in a home or business to replace the energy provided by utility
companies. The home version of the Edison Device produces approximately
30 kilowatts of combined gas and electrical energy per day. By comparison,
the typical home uses between five to six kilowatts per day.
The commercial model is capable of producing 100 kilowatts of energy per
day. The energy generation portion of the devices has no moving parts.
In fact, the only "mechanical" aspects of the equipment are
small circulation pumps and micro-valves, making the Edison Device both
silent and virtually maintenance-free. A minimum amount of water is used
over an estimated 20+ years of service life.
Market Ready
The commercialization of the devices is the responsibility of two business
entities, Genesis World Energy and World Energy Management. Genesis World
Energy is a technology development, production and supply consortium,
while World Energy Management functions as the exclusive licensing representative
for the worldwide distribution of Edison Devices. According to Nejhla
Shaw, World Energy Management President, "We will make Edison Devices
rapidly available to governments and industries on a worldwide basis,
with special licensing opportunities for those industries that will be
most affected by the technology. For the first time in the history of
the world, a clean and abundant source of renewable energy is as simple
as the attachment of three wires, a gas line and a water hose.
SOURCE: Genesis World Energy/ 12/06/2002
CONTACT: Guy Rome & Associates, Diana Echeverria, 208/345-4143
Informant: Joanne Mueller
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