Martin Röösli: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

There’s an old English saying that goes “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

This also applies to cell-phone health studies according to a new analysis by a team from Switzerland’s University of Basel. In a paper accepted for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), Matthias Egger and Martin Röösli and coworkers found that: “Studies exclusively funded by industry reported the largest number of outcomes but were least likely to report a statistically significant result...compared to studies funded by public agencies or charities.”

Their analysis is based on 59 experimental studies published between 1995 and 2005. They note that a majority (68%) of these studies reported biological effects. Egger and Röösli advise that “the interpretation of the results from existing and future studies of the health effects of [RF] radiation should take sponsorship into account.”

The results of the attempted replication of the TNO study will be announced tomorrow in Zurich. The Dutch TNO study, caused quite a stir when it was released in the fall of 2003. It suggested that 3G RF fields as low as 1 V/m could be detrimental to a person's sense of well-being and has been widely cited by those opposed to the siting of mobile phone towers near schools and in residential neighborhoods.

Peter Achermann of the University of Zurich, Niels Kuster of IT'IS (see June 2, below) and Martin Röösli of the University of Bern will present their findings at a press conference scheduled to begin at 10:30am Swiss time. Their paper has been accepted for publication and will be posted on the Internet after the press conference. The word on the street is that they failed to repeat the TNO findings —but no one expected the TNO to find such effects in the first place. More tomorrow.