Australian Democrats warning on mobile phone towers

Executive summary
hilst the increase in certain illnesses has been steady for about four
decades - most figures indicate that for the last 15 years there has been
a steep increase worldwide in illnesses such as cancers, cardiac illness,
diabetes, asthma, allergies in children, and neurological conditions such as short
term memory problems, Alzheimer’s disease and sleeplessness.
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The currently acknowledged causes of these illnesses are chemical pollution,
artificial environmental hormones and the pace of modern living, however a marked
spike suggest a major new environmental factor is involved. Arguably, the only new
factor is the sudden explosion in wireless communications technology, which began
in Australia approximately 15 years ago.
This report, for the first time, matches these illnesses to the published
research into the effects of low level microwave radiation on human health,
and many scientists agree that such illnesses are a likely outcome of
exposure.
Indeed, an increase in these illnesses was predicted as the infrastructure was
being rolled out in the early 90s.
In 1994 Australia’s CSIRO produced a 150 page literature review on the
status of health effects from EMR. The report’s author, Dr Stan Barnett said
that while researching the scientific database in preparation it has become
evident that subtle changes in cell structure and biochemistry were frequently
reported at exposure levels where gross thermal change - the current
measure on which exposure standards are set - could not be attributed as a
cause.
From 1996 until he died in 2003, the late New Zealand physicist and metaanalyst
Dr Neil Cherry, studied the work of over 600 researchers worldwide.
He found that EMR caused DNA breakages, chromosome aberrations,
increased oncogene activity in cells, altered brain activity, altered blood
pressure and increased brain cancer at very low levels - much lower than
those allowed by the Australian standard. He also found that it impacts on the
pineal gland in the brain, resulting in a reduction of melatonin. Melatonin is
vital to the body’s biochemical systems, including the mediation of many
hormone functions (including the control of weight) and is a major scavenger
of damaging free radicals, leading to increased DNA strand breaks and
chromosome aberrations. These observed biological changes can in turn
lead to cancer and reproductive damage.
He was surprised to discover how much published research there was to
show that - across the entire EMR spectrum - damage was done to cellular
DNA, rendering it genotoxic and therefore likely to be implicated in the
formation of tumours and other illnesses.
The rise in high blood pressure is also linked to melatonin production. In
Australia in 2007 the Baker Heart Research Institute found that 42 per cent of
Australians now have high blood pressure, which is reflected in the research
of Dr Stephan Braune of the University of Freiberg in Germany, who found in
1998 that raised blood pressure occurred as a result of exposure to
electromagnetic radiation. Other studies have produced similar results.
A study published in New Scientist in August 2007 by scientists at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that after only 5 minutes of
exposure to radiation one tenth of the power of a mobile phone, rat and
human cell chemicals undergo changes.
Asthma and allergies - especially in children, have also skyrocketed. In 1997
microbiologist Dr Peter French of St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney was
conducting experiments on mast cells. He discovered that the production of
histamine - the chemical responsible for allergic reactions, and which is
involved in bronchial spasm - is nearly doubled after exposure to mobile
phone frequencies. He speculated at the time that this could result in an
increase in illnesses such as asthma and allergies in the years to come.
This paper reports that all around the world cancer clusters and other
illnesses have been reported in the vicinity of mobile phone towers and on top
floors of buildings that have antennas on their rooves, such as hospitals and
universities. During 2007 more research and evidence of cancer clusters has
emerged. A cancer cluster in a hospital in Israel has been found, with 10
people on the top floor contracting cancer.
Inquiries into these clusters typically do not consider the possibility that EMR
is a cause because emission levels are “within current standards”.
Brain and other tumours, as predicted by independent researchers, are all
rising rapidly. In November 2007 new research has been published claiming
that autism in children has been accelerated by exposure to wireless
communications - with now one in 150 children with this condition compared
to one in 10,000 children twenty years ago.
It is also possible that that exposure to radiation emitted from a computer for
several hours a day could be a contributor to the overall EMR load but this too
is rarely studied and, like smoking, it is theoretically a choice that informed
individuals can make. With wireless communications there is no choice -
everyone is exposed, whether they choose to be or not.
Under Federal law, telecommunications companies are exempt from state
and local government planning approval, and are still allowed to install mobile
phone antennas and base stations wherever they like, in spite of opposition
by many communities.
Ambient EMR is the only environmental pollutant that is not subject to
regulation of any sort and this situation is urgently in need of review.