News Center: Short Takes Archive
According to the U.K.'s National Grid, here is ICNIRP's new statement on chronic EMF health risks: "It is the view of ICNIRP that the currently existing scientific evidence that prolonged exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields is causally related with an increased risk of childhood leukemia is too weak to form the basis for exposure guidelines. In particular, if the relationship is not causal, then no benefit to health will accrue from reducing exposure" [emphasis added].
At the same time, ICNIRP has doubled the occupational magnetic limit to 10 G (1 mT) and the public exposure limit to 2 G (200 µT).
We will have much more to say about this stunning rejection of precautionary policies in the future [see our November 15 post], but for the moment, we ask: Why did this important news first appear on an EMF Web site run by an electric utility rather than ICNIRP itself? If nothing else, it reinforces the widely-held perception that ICNIRP is a subsidiary of industry. It's high time for full public disclosure on how ICNIRP elects its members and where it gets its money.
A follow-up to our "Scams Galore" piece: Today, the Australian TV show MediaWatch ran an item on the Q-Link scam —"Q Are the Missing Link." Well worth a look. The piece was prompted in part by an item in the Sydney Daily Telegraph promoting the bogus shield (it has now been thankfully removed from the Web). See also ScienceBlogs and a more detailed piece on Crikey.
A potentially important decision: "Cell Phone Liability Lawsuits Pre-empted by FCC, 3rd Circuit Rules" in Law.com (item actually dated October 25).