Workers comp case re brain dysfunction and microwave radiation

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Worldwide CANCER and EMF increases during 20th Century

Klaus,

Could you ask your members to try to find a graph for:

1] RATE OF INCREASE OF CANCER DURING 20TH CENTURY.

2] RATE OF INCREASE IN EMF POLLUTION IN 20TH CENTURY.

Then we can compare the two graphs.
Michael

Occupational exposure to RF/MW and "Microwave sickness" (excerpt)

Some months ago I was contacted by the Trade Union responsible for Australian crane operaters. They are receiving many concerns about health problems from crane operaters who were working at elevations close to active microwave antennas, such as mobile phone antennas on top of buildings.

From our discussions it was apparent that there seemed to be a connection with health complaints and working in close proximity to antennas. The symptoms were the same as those listed under the condition of "microwave sickness" in the Russian medical literature.

Don Maisch

Could you please post this message, I believe people in this group would no doubt have various opinions on this, I would appreciate a varied response, as no one person I've met yet, can even begin to explain this situation.

I have worked in the construction and maintance of towers/base stations etc for over 8 years.

I would like to know if anyone has ever suffered this skin disorder(as above titled). I have it on the back of my neck. It resembles a small pimple with a clear fluid in it, but it cannot be burst. Steroid cream reduces the visual effects, but not all. Some days after heavy use of the mobile phone these bumps get itchy and swell and more bumps become present. Having worn a gold necklace during my periods at work, I believe this is some how connected.

Doctors can not identify causes, and with all research pointing to cell changes due to RF, I was wondering could this be a possible heating and cell changing of the skin from my necklace re-radiating. I know this is RF related because it increases and spreads when I'm actively onsite and making heavy use of the mobile phone. I know when I'm holidays, off work,-no sites-no phone, it reduces. Although, I have a permanent set of dots that never go away.

I have noticed that several people who have worked in the same field suffer similar small dots and dicoulouration around the back and sides of their neck. It's especially evident on the men who have worked in the industry longer than 10 years. I have also noticed it on workers who have built power transmission lines. Is this a coincidence or should we be doing some research on it. Or, could we just simply survey the men, who for the past 50 years have built these RF emitting structures.

Your comments are welcomed.

Jay, Australia

Technology: Letter writers sick of cell phone masts

Informant: Robert Riedlinger

"The Government want us to say that these masts are completely safe and
aren't dangerous, but we can't say that"

Professor Lawrie Challis, The Government's New Mast Safety Supremo

By Andy Mosley - Express & Echo - Friday January 24 2003

The Government's new top adviser on mobile phone mast safety has admitted transmitters have still not been proven to be safe. Professor Lawrie Challis, the new chairman of the expert Stewart Committee, said: "We cannot say there is no risk. You could never say that. All you can do is take measures to reduce those risks.

"The Government doesn't want to hear that message. They want us to say that masts are completely safe and aren't dangerous, but we can't say that."

Speaking exclusively to the Express & Echo, Prof Challis said more research needed to be carried out on cancer victims - such as six-year-old Devon girl Emma Cann - who lived near the structures. He said he did not think Government research had gone far enough and said that investigations by other experts would now be considered.

He was speaking after a seminar on mast safety held in Devon yesterday. At the same conference, a top university scientist said he believed the Government had been looking at the wrong research.

Dr Gerald Hyland, of Warwick University's physics department and the International Institute of Biophysics, said that 16 cancer clusters had been identified throughout the country - including the area around George Hill, Crediton, where the Cann family live. And he said some recent research showed that people suffering ill health had got better once they had moved away from the masts.

Prof Challis, who has recently replaced Sir William Stewart as head of the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research (MTHR) team, said: "we recognised while carrying out the research for the Stewart Report three years ago that people hadn't been using mobile phones for that long and some diseases take many years between the incidence of a disease and the observance of a symptom. It could take up to 10 years before we know for sure. There are fears that there might be biological effects and it is not possible at present to be sure that exposure is not without potential health effects. That is why we advised the precautionary approach to the siting of masts.

"Conventional thinking would say exposure to radiation would be too small to have any effect, but there may be things we still don't know about, so we do need to be careful.

"I have been impressed by the fear factor. If you have a mast near you and you have heard that they might be dangerous, that can have an effect.

"We have spent quite a bit of time talking about this and I think it will take a while until the public is convinced that masts are safe."

Last week it was announced that new research into the health effects of mast emissions was to be carried out. This is due to begin this year, with studies on individuals who believe radiation from masts has made them ill.

Prof Challis said: "We have received about 150 proposals for research, which we have to look at. The research will start towards the end of the year once we have looked at the proposals."

He said he was more concerned about the safety aspects of using mobile phones and had been surprised at the level of worry over masts.

"Around 85 per cent of public concern when we carried out the Stewart Report was about masts, which surprised us but was a very important message to us. I am sure still more concerned about having a phone two centimetres from my head than a nearby mast," he said.

However, he did admit that some of the recommendations made in the Stewart Report regarding masts had not been fully met by the Government. "I don't think it has done everything it could have done. I would give it about eight out of 10.

"We asked for greater public consultation over mast siting because we were aware that concern affects people's well-being because they worry about it. There has been more consultation, but it wasn't quite what we wanted to see," he said.

Prof Challis said research showed that radiation led to an increase in a person's temperature of only one degree. "I don't know anyone who is too concerned about this because the temperature of a normal healthy human goes up and down by about a degree every day anyway," he said. "So heat isn't the issue."

He added that recent research had not added much to the mast safety debate.

Prof Challis insisted the team that compiled the Stewart Report was totally independent from Government or industry. "Our concern was about public health not the wishes of Government or the profits of industry," he said.

Prof Challis added that he was worried by the level of mobile phone use among children.

He said more needed to be done towards educating youngsters about limiting the time they spend on phones.

END

Informant: Iris from Israel

Following is the Forword of a report on the Russian medical literature that was compiled in Germany in 1996-7. Unfortunately the English translater had a personal crisis and never finished the translation and so the report remains half finished - and with the price of translators it will unfortunately have to remain so.

Draft Translation:

Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields on Humans in the Frequency Range 0 to 3 GHz :

Summary and results of a study of Russian medical literature from 1960 - 1996

Prepared for the German Federal Ministry for Postal Services and Telecommunication in order to compare the differences between West European and CIS (former Soviet Union) EMF standards.

Contract No 4231/630 402

Berlin 1997

Editors:
Prof. em. Prof. Dr. med. Karl Hecht
Dr. rer. nat. Hans-Ullrich Balzer

Foreword by Drs. Hans-Ullrich Balzer and Karl Hecht, The Institute of Stress Research, Berlin Germany.

As presented to the Tenth International Montreux Congress On Stress, Montreux Switzerland, February 28 to March 5, 1999

There is a great deal of controversy about the biological and psychobiological effects of electromagnetic fields on human beings. In the discussions of results of studies of Western countries, which usually take place over a time period of only 1 to 3 years, Russian medical literature is neglected to a great extent. We analyzed about 1500 original works of Russian medical literature from the years 1960 to 1996, in which the effects of electromagnetic fields on humans, animals and plants were studied. The following evaluation summary has to do to a large extent with examinations carried out by company physicians involving several thousand industrial workers subject to effects from electromagnetic fields, radar stations, and high-voltage electrical plants, where the periods of influence spanned a range of up to 20 years. The following symptoms are characteristic and appeared much more often directly in relation to the number of years of service by the worker in the plant.

Objective findings:

* Neurasthema, neurotic symptoms
* Arterial hypotension, bradycardia or tachycardia
* Hypoglycemia
* Vagotonic displacement of the cardiovascular system
* EEG changes (deterioratrion of the alpha rhythm)
* Hyperfunction of the thyroid
* Sexual Potency disturbances
* Passive tremor of the fingers
* Disturbances in the hypothalamic-hypophyseal cortico-adrenal system
* Digestive system disorders
* Sleep disorders
* Slowing down of the sensorimotor system
* Hair loss

Subjective symptoms reported by the patients:

* Exhaustion, weariness
* Lack of concentration
* Headaches
* Dizziness
* Profuse outbreaks of perspiration
* Spontaneous excitability due to hypotonic reaction conditions, especially under heavy work pressure
* Heart trouble

A three-stage symptom complex was determined:

1st stage: Beginning symptoms which can last up to three years without findings or a sympathicotonic reaction level.

2nd stage: Weakly pronounced symptoms lasting 3 to 5 years. A reversial gradually occurs from the normal or hypertonic level to that of hypotonia.

3rd stage: Highly pronounced symptoms more or less distinct replications of the symptom complex mentioned above.

Whereas the symptoms at stages 1 or 2 can subside into remission, they become unremitting at stage three.

In extensive supplementary experiments on test animals, it was determined that the biological effects of electromagnetic fields depend on a number of factors:

* Duration of exposure to influence
* Individual sensitivity
* Kind of electromagnetic field
* Dose

It also depends on the particular wavelength (when the dose is the same): mm-waves cause hardly any biological effect at all, cm-waves very little effect, d-waves a distinct effect, and m-waves a very highly pronounced effect.

It has also been shown from the results of animal experiments that electromagnetic fields (depending on the factors previously mentioned) trigger an unspecific biological reaction over a long period of time (along the lines of Hans Seyle) that later usually remain at a hypotonic level.

Comparisions were made between the symptom complex caused by electromagnetic fields and by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Informant: Don Maisch