A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

The End of BEMS
A Merger or a Heist?

U.S. & European Research Societies Set
To Join and Become BioEM

Monday, November 29, 2021

Last updated June 2, 2022

The Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS) and the European BioElectromagnetics Association (EBEA), the two leading research groups in Western countries, will soon join together and become BioEM. Like its predecessors, the new society will be a forum on the interactions of all types of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields and radiation with living organisms. BioEM will be based in Zurich, Switzerland.

The move is hardly unexpected. Just the opposite. A union has been in the planning stages since at least 2016. Many favored a BEMS-EBEA consolidation even earlier, but it ran into one roadblock or another, at least partly because directors did not want to lose control.

Continues

IARC on RF: What’s Next?

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer Risk
Trends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved

Friday, June 11, 2021

Last updated July 7, 2022

A new analysis from the radiation group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) calls into question the agency’s own classification of wireless radiation as a possible human carcinogen.

On May 27, IARC’s Isabelle Deltour presented the new analysis of the incidence of malignant brain tumors (glioma) in the Nordic countries —Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden— over the last several decades. She spoke at an online colloquium hosted by the German Federal Office of Radiation Protection, known as the BfS.

Deltour argued that the trends are mostly not “compatible” with those seen in the epidemiological studies —principally, Interphone and Lennart Hardell’s— that were the basis of IARC’s 2011 designation of RF radiation as a possible, or 2B, human carcinogen.

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Yuri Grigoriev, Russian Biophysicist
And Non-Thermalist, Dies at 95

Stressed the Importance of Modulations and Strict Standards
Founder of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Last updated June 14, 2021

Yuri Grigoriev, a Russian biophysicist and a singular figure in the world of electromagnetic health and safety over the last 50 years, died in Moscow on April 6 at the age of 95.

“We have lost a ‘scientific grandfather’,” Oleg Grigoriev told Microwave News. “Yuri supported scientists and pushed them to do research. He was greatly respected by all his colleagues, myself included.”

In contrast to many of his counterparts in the West, Yuri Grigoriev promoted the idea that microwave biology is more complex than simple tissue heating. His views were based, in part, on his own research showing the importance of modulation characteristics.

Continues

German Court Moves To Silence
Relentless Critic of RF DNA Studies

Alexander Lerchl’s Unfounded Claims of Fabricated Data from Vienna Lab
13-Year Campaign of Disinformation

Monday, February 8, 2021

Last updated March 10, 2021

A German court of appeals has ordered Alexander Lerchl to stop smearing the authors of two papers which show that mobile phone radiation can break DNA and possibly cause cancer. For more than a decade, Lerchl, a professor of biology at Jacobs University in Bremen, has charged, without evidence, that the experimental data from Hugo Rüdiger’s lab at the Medical University of Vienna (MUV) were fabricated.

In its long-awaited decision, dated December 11, 2020, and released at the end of January, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Bremen threatened Lerchl with a fine of up to €250,000 (~US$300,000), or six months in prison, if he continues to falsely disparage the Rüdiger papers. The penalties would apply each time Lerchl violates the court order. Lerchl must also pay €20,000 in court costs.

Continues

Lerchl’s Unattainable Prize:
The IARC RF Panel

A Chance To Vote on RF–Cancer Link
But Disqualified for Having Ties to Industry

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Alexander Lerchl wanted a seat at the table and wanted it bad. It was 2010 and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was setting up a working group to assess the cancer risks of RF radiation. The meeting would be a landmark event with major long-term implications for the cell phone industry.

As it turned out, in May 2011, the working group voted, by a large margin, to classify RF, including cell phone radiation, as a possible human carcinogen. But that outcome was far from assured before its 30 members —from 14 countries— deliberated for eight days at IARC headquarters in Lyon, France.

Lerchl, a professor at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, was making a name for himself as a self-appointed debunker of claims of radiation health effects. Lerchl craved to be invited to Lyon, but IARC would not have him.

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Short Takes

The MW Debate Continues
—in Norwegian

July 14, 2022

Last updated July 15, 2022

Close to 40 years after its first publication, The Microwave Debate, Nicholas Steneck’s history of research and regulation of microwave health effects, is back in print —this time in Norwegian.

The new translation comes with an epilogue by Thomas Butler, a professor at Ireland’s Cork University Business School, who has contributed seven chapters —about 30,000 words— to bring Steneck’s story up to the present.

The translation is the brainchild of Einar Flydal ...

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NIER Effects on Flora & Fauna:
A Major Review

September 27, 2021

Last updated May 2, 2022

A detailed examination —likely the most exhaustive ever attempted— of the environmental effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation has been published in Reviews on Environmental Health.

“Effects of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Fields on Flora and Fauna” is in three parts, the last of which was posted today.

Taken together, the three papers run over 200 pages in the journal and include more 1,000 references.

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Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit at Risk

May 3, 2021

Last updated May 5, 2021

Italy’s 6 V/m RF exposure standard, one of the strictest in the world, may soon fall victim to 5G.

The Italian limit, adopted more than 20 years ago, is widely perceived as standing in the way of the build-out of 5G infrastructure, which will require the installation of many more RF antennas. The proposed solution is to bring it in line with ICNIRP and follow its 61 V/m guideline.

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Rich Rewards for Bad Behavior

February 8, 2021

Alexander Lerchl’s bogus campaign against the REFLEX project and members of Hugo Rüdiger’s lab did nothing to harm his career. Just the opposite, Lerchl thrived as he gained stature and a succession of rich research grants from the German government.

Over the last 20 years, Germany’s Federal Office of Radiation Protection —the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, or BfS for short— has given Lerchl $5 million in contracts. Lerchl has been the best-funded RF lab researcher in Germany, Europe, and, most likely, the world.

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Physicist Robert Adair Dead at 96

January 6, 2021

Last updated January 7, 2021

Robert K. Adair, the former chairman of the physics department at Yale University and a leading critic of any and all claims that weak EMFs can have biological effects, died on September 28. He was 96.

A particle physicist, Adair held one of Yale’s prestigious Sterling professorships. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Continues

Dutch Advisory Panel Calls for Caution on 5G

November 11, 2020

An advisory panel to the Health Council of the Netherlands is recommending a “cautious approach” to 5G radiation exposures.

The committee is also advising that the 26 GHz frequency band (millimeter waves) not be used “for as long as the potential health risks have not been investigated.”

Continues

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Hot new papers & articles

“Neurological Effects of Static and ELF EMFs,” by Henry Lai, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, April 15, 2022. “Depending on the conditions of exposure, either harmful or beneficial effects could result.”
“Exposure to Magnetic Fields and Childhood Leukemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Case-Control and Cohort Studies,” Reviews on Environmental Health, March 15, 2022. A systematic review of 38 studies, which comes 43 years after Nancy Wertheimer and Ed Leeper first made the link. For years, they were largely ignored and ridiculed. “Our results suggest that ELF-MF higher than 0.4 μT can increase the risk of developing leukemia in children, probably acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Prolonged exposure to electric appliances that generate magnetic fields higher than 0.4 μT like electric blankets is associated with a greater risk of childhood leukemia.” From Christian Brabant’s group at the University of Liège, Belgium.
“Changes in the Excitability of Primary Hippocampal Neurons Following Exposure to 3.0 GHz RF EMFs,” Scientific Reports, March 3, 2022. The results show that RF-EMF exposure can alter neuronal activity after a 60-minute exposure to 3.0 GHz at a low dose (SAR <1 W/Kg). From the U.S. Air Force. Open access.
“Associations Between a Polymorphism in the Rat 5-HT1A Receptor Gene Promoter Region (rs198585630) and Cognitive Alterations Induced by Microwave Exposure,” Frontiers in Public Health, February 2022. “Rats carrying rs198585630 C allele…were more susceptible to 30 mW/cm² MW exposure, showing cognitive deficits and inhibition of brain electrical activity. These findings suggest SNP rs198585630…is an important target for further research exploring the mechanisms of hypersensitivity to MW exposure.”
“Assessment of Cortisol Secretory Pattern in Workers Chronically Exposed to ELF-EMF Generated by High-Voltage Transmission Lines and Substation,” Environment International, February 1, 2022. “This study strongly suggests that chronic exposure to ELF-EMFs alters the peak-time serum cortisol levels.” From France.
“Possible Health Effects on the Human Brain by Various Generations of Mobile Telecommunication: A Review Based Estimation of 5G Impact,” International Journal of Radiation Biology, posted January 7, 2022. By Hiie Hinrikus’s group at the Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). “Urgent need for theoretical and experimental investigations of health effects by 5G.”
“Wireless Phone Use in Childhood and Adolescence and Neuroepithelial Brain Tumors: Results from the International MOBI-Kids Study,” Environment International, February 2022. It “provides no evidence of a causal association between wireless phone use and brain tumors in young people.” However, sources of bias prevent “ruling out a small increased risk.” Open access. May 2022: Critique of the study by Lennart Hardell and Joel Moskowitz.
“Radiofrequency Radiation and Cancer: A Review,” by David Grimes, JAMA Onclology, December 9, 2021. Incomplete and inaccurate. Astonishing that this was published by an AMA journal. [More here]
“Health Safety Guidelines and 5G Wireless Radiation” by James Lin, IEEE Microwave Magazine, January 2022. “Some of the updated [IEEE and ICNIRP] safety recommendations are marginal, questionable, and lack scientific justification from the perspective of safety protection.”
“The Ecology of Electricity and Electroreception,” Biological Reviews, October 12, 2021. A major effort, 31 pages. Open access.

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

U.S. & European Research Societies Set To Join and Become BioEM

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer RiskTrends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved

Stressed the Importance of Modulations and Strict StandardsFounder of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection

Alexander Lerchl’s Unfounded Claims of Fabricated Data from Vienna Lab13-Year Campaign of Disinformation

A Chance To Vote on RF–Cancer LinkBut Disqualified for Having Ties to Industry

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Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

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Microwave News Reading

Microwave News is...

U.S. & European Research Societies Set
To Join and Become BioEM

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer Risk
Trends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved

Stressed the Importance of Modulations and Strict Standards
Founder of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection

Alexander Lerchl’s Unfounded Claims of Fabricated Data from Vienna Lab
13-Year Campaign of Disinformation

A Chance To Vote on RF–Cancer Link
But Disqualified for Having Ties to Industry