Carlo admonished one panel, "This would be just a scientific issue -- but for the 200 million people around the world using this technology."

Wired News Report

26.Oct.98

"The mere fact these companies are producing modifications with a reduced risk must mean there was an increased risk with the product they were marketing at the time," an attorney at the firm told the Independent.

 That Cell-Phone Jolt
Wired News Report

8.Apr.99

Could your cell phone give you a coffee-like lift, making your reactions speedier?
That seems to be the conclusion of the first official study into the effect of cell phones on humans, reported on in a British science journal. But it's just another clue in the mystery surrounding cell phones.

The New Scientist poured cold water on widespread fears that cell phones could cause cancer, but said Wednesday that recent studies showed the emissions from such phones did appear to have strange effects on living tissue.

Using a headset device that mimicked the microwave emissions of analog or digital mobile phones, researchers found that people reacted quicker to words flashed on a screen when the device was on. The effect could be due to a slight warming of the brain leading to increased blood flow, or a change in protein synthesis caused by a reaction of the body's defense mechanisms, the researchers added.

More grist to the cell-phone rumor mill was provided by David de Pomerai and a group of nematode worms at Nottingham University. They found that larvae exposed to an overnight dose of microwaves wriggled less but grew five percent faster.


A Call for Public Cell Studies
by Chris Oakes

13.Apr.99
TIBURON, California -- It's time to stop squabbling about the possible health risks of wireless communication and to start doing credible public research, health advocates say.
"We are stuck in a rut," said Gordon Miller, one of the speakers at a weekend forum on the effects of microwave radiation on humans. "Fifteen years ago, we were saying the research is inconclusive, we need more research.... We're still saying that."

Pockets of researchers worldwide have been examining the health effects of "nonionizing radiation," the kind generated by signals from cell phones and wireless transmitters. But, so far, no publicly funded studies have produced definitive results.

"Research, and their regulation, are heavily influenced by 'mission agencies,'" said Miller, who is chairman of the California EMF Stakeholders' Group. "So long as that continues, people are going to doubt the research, they're going to doubt the regulations, and this controversy will go on indefinitely."

As the market for cell phones has grown in the United States, wireless providers have targeted schools and churches as sites for wireless antennae. Annual payments to churches -- attractive for their high steeples -- can reach US$100,000 per year.

Saturday's forum was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, where plans had been made to allow the installation of a wireless transmitter in its steeple. Church member Libby Kelley approached church leaders suggesting research to demonstrate the potential health effects. Her questions prompted the church to reverse its decision, and an activist was born.

Kelley sits on the steering committee of the California Council on Wireless Technology Impacts, which sponsored the forum. She is also trying to pressure the Federal Communications Commission into researching the public health effects of wireless phones and transmitters.

Miller said that after years of alarming findings and counterfindings by the wireless industry, it's time for research that will enable government bodies to address wireless issues at the national level.

Publicly funded research and oversight are key, according to Miller, "so the researchers and their agencies can understand where the money is coming from."

Last week, England's Minister for Public Health ordered an inquiry into health effects of mobile phones. The move followed a report in Britain's New Scientist, which detailed the wide-ranging effects that cell-phone signals have on living tissue.

At Saturday's forum, researchers from the United States and New Zealand summarized current findings regarding the neurological effects of wireless communications, which have prompted worldwide initiatives supporting more research.

Neil Cherry, a biophysicist who is a member of New Zealand's parliament, said studies showed that nonionizing radiation causes everything from cancer in lab rats to neurological changes in humans.

Ideally, for Cherry, telephone users would rely on land-line communications alone.

"We [humans] are very good conductors [of cellular transmissions], so most of the cell-phone signal goes through us, and very little actually goes to the cell site," Cherry said. "That's why we should design cell phones not to radiate into us, but to radiate toward the cell site."

Forum moderator Linda Evans said it's regrettable that, unlike Europe, the United States has no system for informing consumers about the risks inherent in cell-phone use.

"The European Parliament has said we need to carry a warning label [of health risks on cell phones] because it's part of the process of informed consent," Evans said. "If you don't know the risks, that's not informed consent."


Cell Phones Get Your Blood Up
Reuters

19.Jun.98
Mobile phones, an essential accessory for millions of business people and trendy techies, can significantly increase blood pressure, German researchers say.
In a letter to be published in Friday's edition of The Lancet medical journal, Dr. Stephan Braune of the University Neurology Clinic in Freiburg, Germany, said radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by the telephones pumped up the blood pressure of 10 young volunteers who took part in a study.

Braune and his team attached the phones to the right side of the volunteers' heads and switched them on by remote control at various intervals.

They measured their heart function and blood pressure while they were standing and lying down. There was no sound so the volunteers did not know when they were exposed to the EMF.

The researchers found that 35 minutes of radio-frequency EMF caused "increases in resting [blood pressure] between five and 10 mm."

The finding could have adverse effects on people suffering from high blood pressure or hypertension, an important risk factor for heart disease and stroke which are leading causes of death in most developed countries.

The researchers said the increase in blood pressure probably resulted from constriction of the arteries by the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields.

Cellular telephones have been linked to a variety of health problems ranging from fatigue, headaches, and burning skin to brain tumors, but there is still no proof that the devices pose any serious health risks.

Chip Blocks Cell-Phone Emissions
by Polly Sprenger

11.May.99
A new chip claiming to neutralize the effects of cell-phone radiation emissions could, if proven effective, alleviate fears of long-term health problems.
The chip, conceived by a professor at Catholic University of America, designed by Onchip Systems, and manufactured by EMX Group, entered production in April and will be available to the public in June.

"The fact that cell-phone radiation can cause neurologic effects has been studied now for some years," said inventor Theodore Litovitz, professor emeritus at the bio-electromagnetics research group at Catholic University. "You can't get a health effect, but you can show a biologic effect."

Litovitz, who began research in 1992 on the effects of electro-magnetic frequency radiation, concluded that the long-term effects of radiation could be mitigated by introducing noise to a cell phone's electromagnetic signal.

Since the brain was no longer exposed to a steady signal, Litovitz reasoned that the long-term biologic impact of the radiation would be reduced.

In 1997, Litovitz published his findings, suggesting the development of a chip that would cause an electromagnetic signal to fluctuate.

Although some experts are quick to say that there's still no conclusive evidence that electromagnetic radiation causes damage in humans, 10 years of research shows patterns of neurological disturbance.

"Right now, there's quite a lot of data to show that exposure to EMF can cause biological effects, but we still have a long way to go before we can concur that there's a health effect," said Henry Lai, a biophysics professor at the University of Washington.

Researchers have found EMF radiation damage in DNA cells, as well as evidence that radiation causes memory loss and changes the chemical makeup of the brain. But biological changes don't necessarily equate to a health risk.

The chip was originally conceived to be incorporated directly into the cell phone, but it is now being manufactured for cell-phone batteries alone. Anxious to avoid any hint of liability, phone manufacturers quickly squashed the idea that the chip be put into their phones.

"The [phone manufacturers] have been in contact with us, and their lawyers recommend that they don't do anything about this product," said Thomas Magnussen, CEO of the British-based EMX Group. "They have been selling phones for many years and they might be afraid of potential lawsuits."

Magnussen said he has been careful to point out that no one has yet proven the health risks of cell phones, and in the company's literature, they only point out the evidence of a biological effect.

Incorporating the chip into cell-phone batteries has the same effect Magnussen said. The company is producing about 10,000 batteries per month, the first of which will be available to the public by June. Mass distribution of the new batteries will begin in July. The chip will add about $37 to the price of cell-phone batteries.

The batteries will be compatible with about 80 percent of cell phones initially, but Magnussen says the company plans to service all phones eventually.

"You can take an attitude that for a few dollars you can forget about the problem and not think about potential effects."

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