A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

RMIT: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

August 2, 2006

The incidence of malignant tumors on the two top floors of a high-rise buildingat RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, are within the expected range, according to reports released today.

When benign tumors are included, however, the total tumor count is statistically higher than expected. Southern Medical Services, which carried out the occupational health and safety assessment for RMIT, attributes the "apparent increase" to incomplete collection of benign tumor data by the cancer registry.

The reports, together with RMIT public statements, are available from the RMIT Web site. (See also our posts of June 1 and before.) Southern Medical Services, found that "there is no correlation between tumor case office locations and ELF magnetic fields greater than 4 mG." 

June 1, 2006

RMIT University has released a more detailed version (the third) of EMC Technologies' EMF/EMR measurement survey (see our May 25 post).  

May 25, 2006

RMIT University has announced that environmental surveys have identified "no anomalies" on the top two floors of the Melbourne building where a cluster of brain tumor cases had been identified (see our May 13 and May 19 posts).

May 19, 2006

As the investigation of the RMIT University brain tumor cluster continues in Melbourne (see our May 13 post), we are reminded of another cancer cluster, which was also much in the news down under about this time last year. In this earlier case, some ten women working in the Australian Broadcasting Co.'s (ABC) offices in Brisbane developed breast cancer and, as at RMIT, power-frequency EMFs and RF radiation were under suspicion because there were antennas on the roof of the ABC building.

EMC Technologies, a test and measurement consulting company, was called in to survey the entire ABC site. Soon afterwards, ABC Queensland director Chris Wordsworth told the Sydney Morning Herald that testing had shown "nothing adverse." That April, Chris Zombolas, the technical director of EMC Technologies, confirmed to us what Wordsworth had already told the local newspapers: He had not found high levels of any electromagnetic signals. But, Zombolas added, he was not in a position to release the report —that would be up to ABC. Figuring there was nothing much more to the story, we moved on and did not give it much thought until the RMIT cluster became news.

May 13, 2006

The brain tumor cluster at Australia's RMIT University is Topic A for EMF watchers around the world. It all began on Thursday when Australian TV news reported that the university had launched an investigation into seven cases of brain tumors among staff members in a 17-storey building on its Melbourne campus. Five of those who developed tumors worked on the top floor of the building (two others were on the 11th and 14th floors), and six of the seven had been there for more than a decade, according to the Australian, a national newspaper. Five of the cases were uncovered in the last month, while two others were reported in 1999 and 2001, Melbourne's The Age reported.

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