Betreff: Children and mental health - BBC News
Von: Mobile phone mast network
Datum: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:45:47 EDT


I have just sent this e-mail after hearing today of the rise in mental problems in young people .  I just could not contain my anger.  The phone industry are causing the problems - the drug industry are reaping the benefits - what a sad world.
Sylvia



Betreff: Children and mental health - BBC News
Von: SylviaWright
Datum: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:42:27 EDT
An: dfes.ministers@dfes.gsi.gov.uk, dhmail@dh.gsi.gov.uk, william.stewart@hpa.org.uk, jill.meara@hpa-rp.org.uk

For the particular attention of:
Beverley Hughes - Minister for Children
Jim Knight - Minister for Schools
Caroline Flint MP - Minister for Public Health
Sir William Stewart - Chair HPA
Dr Jill Meara - Public Health Physician HPA
 
I am saddened and alarmed to hear, yet again, the BBC report on the growing incidence of depression and mental disorders in our young people.  Even more alarming is the persistent treatment of these unfortunate young people with (often) controversial drugs.
 
There are quite obviously many factors to consider when looking at the cause of such afflictions - but rather than the "deprivation" of today' young people, I believe that much of our modern day life can be implicated in one way or another (from air pollution to food additives).  However, I fear one very serious factor is being overlooked in the equasion - and could possibly be the major cause...Wireless technology!
 
There have been enough official warnings that our young people are being unacceptably exposed (and I would suggest exploited) by electromagnetic radiation - Sir William Stewart, in his report six years ago and reiterated last year, identified that children under 16 were in a vulnerable group who should not be exposed to mobile phone radiation (for anything other than emergency use).  Despite this specific warning - detailed in an official DOH leaflet (which most people have still not seen), our young people are being encouraged to use mobile phones more and more.   There have been many scientific studies since the Stewart Report,  identifying numerous detrimental health effects from both phones and masts (from headache to brain tumour). 
 
These aside, the list at the end of this e-mail was compiled by Prof. Olle Johansson and refer to studies which have shown behaviour/mood changes in subjects when exposed to low level electromagnetic radiation.  One is reluctant to say that these effects are "less serious" than the ones mentioned above.  If just a small percentage of young people have such adverse effects from exposure, we have a duty to take steps to limit the risk.  But just the opposite is happening;  despite an official warning by the German government on the possible health risk of DECT phones in the home - and a warning by Dr Gerd Oberfeld (Minister for Health, Salzburg) - both included here - this Government is still doing nothing to address this escalating problem.  In fact, wireless technology is spreading at breakneck speed in all areas of our life - DECT and mobile phones, masts near our homes and schools, WLAN(Powerwatch have given a specific warning of the possible health risk of the widespread changeover to this form of networking, particularly in our schools), WiFi, WiMax, etc.
 
In 2004 I was at a seminar at the Royal College of Medicine where both Prof. Johansson and Dr Jill Meara gave presentations.  It was stated by Dr Meara that the HPA investigations into possible health effects from mobile technology was to be widened, possibly encompassing scientific evidence from other countries.  Yet we are still in a position where any investigations or studies undertaken turn out to be nothing more than a PR exercise for the Wireless Industry.  Since Dr Meara's comments, there has been ample time to complete urgent short-term studies, which would have indicated that the HPA are giving this matter the urgent attention it deserves.  Instead, we see long term studies undertaken - which are mainly concentrating on the psychological aspect, rather than the physical and biological.
 
I call on all Ministers who have the awsome task of protecting our young people (not to mention the rest of us - but that's for another e-mail) to get together to see what measures can be put in place, as a priority, to limit the EMR to which our young people are being exposed.  If this is not done as a matter of urgency, then the people responsible for the serious consequences which will inevitably follow will not be able to claim that they were unaware of the risk;   the Childrens' Act clearly states that protection from even a perceived risk must be ensured.
 
This e-mail could be a hundred times more detailed;  the information contained here is the tip of the iceberg and does not include any studies relating to the mobile phones themselves, which children as young as 4 years old are being encouraged to use extensively;  Eileen O'Connor of the Radiation Research Trust has amassed a mountain of scientific evidence from around the world to demonstrate sufficiently the risk to mental and physical health, which I know has been passed on to the relevant Government departments.  If individuals and groups can hold so much information, then your capability must be so much greater.  I urge you to enter into dialogue with those experts who have already dedicated so much of their valuable time and effort into raising awareness of this potentially catastrophic situation.  We cannot afford to waste any more time - the health and wellbeing of the children in your care depends upon your decisive action.
 
Regards
Cllr Sylvia Wright
Essington
S Staffordshire
 

http://www.bfs.de/bfs/presse/pr06/pr0602


 
Bach SA, Baldwin M, Louis S, "Some effects of ultra high frequency energy
on primate cerebral activity", TS-111, 1959

********************************

Bach SA, "Biological sensitivity to radio-frequency and microwave energy",
Fed Proc 1965; 24, Suppl. 14: 22-26
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra
ct&list_uids=14281234&query_hl=16&itool=pubmed_docsum

********************************

Baldwin M, Bach SA, Lewis SA, "Effects of radio-frequency energy on primate
cerebral activity", Neurology 1960; 10: 178-187
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra
ct&list_uids=13796164&query_hl=16&itool=pubmed_docsum

********************************

Cobb BL, Jauchem JR, Mason PA, Dooley MP, Miller SA, Ziriax JM, Murphy MR,
"Neural and behavioral teratological evaluation of rats exposed to
ultra-wideband electromagnetic fields", Bioelectromagnetics 2000; 21:
524-537

Air Force Research Laboratory, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Directed
Energy Bioeffects Division, Radio Frequency Radiation Branch, Brooks AFB,
Texas 78235-5324, USA. Brenda.Cobb@AFRLARS.Brooks.af.mil

Several investigators have reported teratologic effects of electromagnetic
field exposure. The majority of these studies have been performed at levels
of exposure that could produce substantial heating of the animals. New and
unique sources of ultra-wideband (UWB) electromagnetic fields are currently
being developed and tested that are capable of generating nonthermalizing,
high-peak-power, microwave (MW) pulses with nanosecond (ns) pulse widths,
picosecond (ps) rise times, and an UWB of frequencies. Our study was
performed to determine if teratological changes occur in rat pups as a
result of (i) daily UWB exposures during gestation days 3-18, or (ii) as a
result of both prenatal and postnatal (10 days) exposures. Dams were exposed
either to (i) UWB irradiation from a Kentech system that emitted a 55
kV/m-peak E field, 300 ps rise time, and a 1.8 ns pulse width, average
whole-body specific absorption rate 45 mW/kg; (ii) sham irradiation; or
(iii) a positive control, lead (Pb) acetate solution (2000 microg/ml)
continuously available in the drinking water. Offspring were examined for
ontogeny (litter size, sex-ratios, weights, coat appearance, tooth-eruption,
eye-opening, air-righting, and ultrasonic stress vocalizations). Male pups
were tested on various performance measures (locomotor, water-maze learning,
and fertilization capabilities). The pups postnatally exposed were examined
for hippocampal morphology and operant behavior. Behavioral, functional, and
morphological effects of UWB exposure were unremarkable with these
exceptions: (i) The UWB-exposed pups emitted significantly more stress
vocalizations than the sham-exposed pups; (ii) the medial-to-lateral length
of the hippocampus was significantly longer in the UWB-exposed pups than in
the sham-exposed animals; (iii) male offspring exposed in utero to UWB mated
significantly less frequently than sham-exposed males, but when they did
mate there was no difference in fertilization and offspring numbers from the
sham group. There does not appear to be a unifying physiological or
behavioral relationship among the significant differences observed, and our
findings could be due to the expected spurious results derived when a large
number of statistical comparisons are made. Significant effects found
between our positive-controls and other groups on numerous measures
indicates that the techniques used were sensitive enough to detect
teratological effects. Bioelectromagnetics 21:524-537, 2000. Published 2000
Wiley-Liss, Inc.

********************************

Frey AH, Spector J, "Irritability and aggression in mammals as affected by
exposure to electromagnetic fields", presented at the URSI Annual Meeting,
Amherst, MA, 1976

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Frey AH, Spector J, "Exposure to rf electromagnetic fields decreases
aggressive behavior", Aggres Behav 1986; 12: 285-291

********************************

Sher L, "The effects of natural and man-made electromagnetic fields on mood
and behavior: the role of sleep disturbances", Med Hypotheses 2000; 54:
630-633

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Tattersall JE, Scott IR, Wood SJ, Nettell JJ, Bevir MK, Wang Z, Somasiri
NP, Chen X, "Effects of low intensity radiofrequency electromagnetic fields
on electrical activity in rat hippocampal slices", Brain Res 2001; 904:
43-53

Biomedical Sciences Department, CBD Porton Down, SP4 0JQ, Salisbury, UK.
jtattersall@dera.gov.uk

Slices of rat hippocampus were exposed to 700 MHz continuous wave
radiofrequency (RF) fields (25.2-71.0 V m(-1), 5-15 min exposure) in a
stripline waveguide. At low field intensities, the predominant effect on the
electrically evoked field potential in CA1 was a potentiation of the
amplitude of the population spike by up to 20%, but higher intensity fields
could produce either increases or decreases of up to 120 and 80%,
respectively, in the amplitude of the population spike. To eliminate the
possibility of RF-induced artefacts due to the metal stimulating electrode,
the effect of RF exposure on spontaneous epileptiform activity induced in
CA3 by 4-aminopyridine (50-100 microM) was investigated. Exposure to RF
fields (50.0 V m(-1)) reduced or abolished epileptiform bursting in 36% of
slices tested. The maximum field intensity used in these experiments, 71.0 V
m(-1), was calculated to produce a specific absorption rate (SAR) of between
0.0016 and 0.0044 W kg(-1) in the slices. Measurements with a Luxtron
fibreoptic probe confirmed that there was no detectable temperature change
(+/- 0.1 degrees C) during a 15 min exposure to this field intensity.
Furthermore, imposed temperature changes of up to 1 degrees C failed to
mimic the effects of RF exposure. These results suggest that low-intensity
RF fields can modulate the excitability of hippocampal tissue in vitro in
the absence of gross thermal effects. The changes in excitability may be
consistent with reported behavioural effects of RF fields.

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Sudakov KV, ["Modulated electromagnetic field as a factor of selective
influence on animal mechanisms of goal-directed behavior"] [Article in
Russian], Zh Vyssh Nerv Deiat Im I P Pavlova 1976; 26: 899-909

Proceeding from P.K. Anokhin's theory of the functional systems, the paper
considers the action of a modulated electromagnetic field (MEMF) on
different stages of the central architectonics of purposeful behaviour of
rats: afferent synthesis, decisions making, acceptor of the action results.
The action of MEMF was studied in different experimental situations: choice
of an alimentary or defensive reaction to one conditioned stimulus in
different situations; extinction of conditioned alimentary reactions;
elaboration and extinction of alimentary conditioned reactions in animals
group contacts; choice of the side of reinforcement in a T-shaped maze, and,
lastly, self-stimulation reactions. The experiments have shown that MEMF has
a selective effect on the animals' emotional reactions. Greater disturbances
are observed in the mechanisms of the animals' appraisal of the action of
situational and trigger stimuli or surrounding individuals of their species
and, hence, of decisions making and anticipation of future results of the
action, the acceptor of the action results.