A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

Powerwatch: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

June 30, 2014

The new INTEROCC paper raises an intriguing question: Might the ELF component of GSM phone radiation present a brain tumor risk?

To date, all the attention on the cancer risk from mobile phones has been on RF radiation. Now that INTEROCC points to a credible association between exposure to ELF EMFs and brain tumors (see main story), is it possible, we have been focusing on the...

The new INTEROCC paper raises an intriguing question: Might the ELF component of GSM phone radiation present a brain tumor risk?

To date, all the attention on the cancer risk from mobile phones has been on RF radiation. Now that INTEROCC points to a credible association between exposure to ELF EMFs and brain tumors (see main story), is it possible, we have been focusing on the...

February 25, 2014

Lost Research Opportunities

Five years ago we reported on what we thought was an important clue in the search for understanding the well-documented association between childhood leukemia and EMF exposure. A team based in Shanghai presented evidence that children carrying a genetic variation linked to DNA repair were four times more likely to develop leukemia than those without that genetic marker. We called the finding a “major breakthrough” and predicted, “It simply cannot be ignored.”

We were wrong. So wrong.

What happened next —or rather, what did not happen— sheds light on why EMF research treads water and never moves forward.

May 27, 2011

U.K.'s Powerwatch Says No Phones for Children

Alasdair Philips, a founder of Powerwatch, the U.K. activist group, is calling for "urgent action" to protect children from an epidemic of brain and other tumors in 10-30 years. He says that it's now "morally irresponsible" to allow youngsters to use mobile phones. Philips's call to arms follows word that two...

October 20, 2010

Scams Galore

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, H.L. Mencken, the American journalist, famously said years ago. And so it continues today, not only in the U.S. but most everywhere else. The continuing EMF controversy, stimulated by three new books —Sam Milham’s Dirty Electricity, Devra Davis’s Disconnect and Ann Gittleman’s Zapped— has fueled the demand for quick fixes. (None of these authors recommends them.) Just about every day, someone contacts us, pitching a new product or, on the consumer side, asking if they do any good.

May 14, 2008

Mother's Use of Cell Phones May Lead to Children's Behavior Problems

It's certainly a provocative and surprising finding —almost to the point of being unbelievable. A joint U.S.–Danish team has reported that young children born to mothers who had used cell phones during pregnancy were more likely to have behavioral disorders, such as hyperactivity and emotional problems.

June 16, 2006

U.K.’s Powerwatch on Microcells

Powerwatch, the U.K. EMF group, has taken us to task for not being "outspoken enough" in our comments on the HPA's new paper on microcells (see our June 14 post). Alasdair Philips is outraged over the NRPB's (now the HPA) failure to survey the more powerful base station antennas that are less than 10 meters off the ground. "The operators have installed high-power macrocell type transmitters at microcell sites," he wrote. He offered a one-word assessment of the JRP paper —"rubbish." Last year, Powerwatch posted a detailed critique of the 2004 NRPB report.