If you or someone you love has hay fever every spring, imagine if the pollen count grew to be that high all year long. As some of us are more susceptible than others, some would begin to be unable to function at all. As the pollen continued to increase, all of us would begin to suffer. A similar thing is happening to our world right now - the proliferation of man-made radiation, from our love of modern technology.

Every day more cell towers are springing up in our neighbourhoods, next to our schools and daycares, and on top of our hospitals and seniors centers. More communities are going wireless - Wi-Fi, Wi-Max. Buildings have Wide Local Area Networks, wireless routers, wireless keyboard, wireless mice, etc. All give off radiation.

At a talk sponsored by Health Action Network in Vancouver in October, Dr. George Carlo said,
"Exposure to environmental electromagnetic radiation is potentially the most significant health threat that society has ever faced." He should know. Dr. Carlo ran the wireless industry's 6-year, $28.5-million research program from 1993 to 1999, and has continued to be on the leading edge of this research around the world.

How did this threat come about? In 1984, the first wireless technology was introduced. At that time the only known mechanism of harm was heating. As the power from cell phones was too weak to cause heating, the industry convinced government that it should be exempt from premarket testing. In 1993, the industry was shocked when a Florida woman died of a brain tumour and her husband sued, alleging that her death was caused by her cell phone. As the phones had been exempted from testing, there was no data to evaluate safety.

According to Carlo, after first falsely claiming that there were thousands of studies proving phones were safe (the studies were on microwave ovens), the industry made an arrangement with governments that they would put money into research as long as the government did not regulate them until the research was completed. Dr. Carlo was hired to run the research program, which was expected to return a clean bill of health. However, by 1998 the longterm studies were showing harm. There was leakage of the blood-brain barrier, which is designed to keep toxins in the blood from getting into the brain. There were micronuclei in blood cells. Micronuclei are DNA fragments that form a membrane around themselves and can lead to cancer. In fact, after the Chernobyl meltdown, first responders tested the blood of locals for one thing - micronuclei. Those having it were worked up as cancer patients.

When Dr. Carlo told industry and government about the findings, encouraging them to caution consumers, they treated the situation as a public relations problem, not a public health problem. Their solution was to get rid of the messenger and to attack the 200 doctors and scientists who worked on the studies. That attitude continues to this day. Very significantly, when the insurance industry looked at the research and the fact that it was funded by the industry, they began a process of excluding health risk claims from product liability coverage.

By 2003 the industry could no longer get insurance against health claims regarding cell phones. As their business IS assessment of long term risk, this a telling message. In 2002, a number of lawsuits were launched and in the discovery process it was disclosed that in 1995-6 the industry had applied for patents to cover technology to make phones safe. At the same time,customers' user manuals were saying that there was no evidence that the phones were harmful. The manuals even quoted Health Canada as stating that there was no proof of danger.

From 1997 to 2004, only the European Union had money to fund studies. This work from 15 laboratories was finished in April 2004, but was suppressed until December. The findings supported Dr. Carlo's work, showing leakage of the blood brain barrier and formation of micronuclei. They took the research further, however, to discover the mechanisms of harm. As it turns out, heating isn't the problem.

Digital cell phone networks work on frequencies around 1900 megahertz, which means the carrier wave oscillates back and forth at 1900 million times per second, which is too fast for our body to recognize and react to it. However, to make the phones work, the carrier wave carries packets of information which oscillate in the hertz [Hz] range, which our cells  do recognize. For example, our hearts beat at 2 Hz. Our brain waves range from .5 to 50 Hz or slightly higher. Our cells take about 30 seconds to respond and then the cell membrane reacts by shutting down active transport channels, denying the entry of nutrients and preventing the release of toxins. Eventually the free radical-buildup inside the cell prevents DNA repair, and micronuclei are formed. When the cell dies, these micronuclei are released into the nutrient-rich fluid between the cells and proliferate, and this can lead to tumour development. Intercellular communication is also disrupted.

Ten years ago, autism spectrum disorders occurred about once in 10,000 births. Last year it was once in every 162 births. Other parts of the autism spectrum include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning problems, sleep problems, headaches, inability to focus, unexplained irritability and anxiety disorder. The common element in all of these is disruption of intercellular communication. During this timeframe, background levels of radiation have increased hundreds of thousands of times. In 1999, the concern was the near field plume of a cellphone. Today, background levels are so high that a percentage of the population is experiencing electrosensitivity.

In 2002, the Safe Wireless Initiative set up a registry for people to report health effects of cell phones. From 2002-4, almost all of the complaints were about cell phone exposure. For the past 18 months, 80 percent of registrants have been reporting electrosensitivity, and they don't use cell phones. In the mid 90s, governments auctioned off frequency bands to wireless companies for $200 billion. As the companies didn't have that amount of cash, they offered to pay 10 percent down, with the balance coming from consumers through cell phone revenues. Prior to the auctions, vast amounts of information was going to be sent via fiber optic cable networks, which send more information, faster, without giving off radiation. However, after the auction, this effectively left government holding the mortgage on wireless infrastructure. Therefore, fiber optics networks were bypassed in favour of wireless networks, to pay back the mortgage.

What we need now is a return to fiber optic networks, leaving merely the last link as wireless, and this could reduce the background radiation levels by at least 75 percent. This will take some courageous, forward-thinking politicians and advocates, as well as the development of new uses of some technologies currently available. Considering the consequences of doing nothing, the choice is clear. More pollen or less?

HANS consultant and member Milt Bowling is President of the Clean Energy Foundation (www.cleanenergycanada.com), which works with the public, industry, and government for better regulations and safer technology.

DVDs of Dr. Carlo's talk are available by calling the HANS office at 504-435-0512.

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