Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Belgian researcher finds doubled mortality rate caused by mobile phone radiation

'Limit the Radiation, Belgium' | 31.08.2008 21:29 | Health | World

On Monday 23th June, Dirk Adang, a researcher working at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, presented a Ph.D. study which ought to set many a mobile phone and wireless internet user thinking.

Adang studied the impact of long-term exposure to pulsed electromagnetic radiation (mobile phones, antennas, WiFi, …) on the health of rats. The results? A doubled mortality rate, effects on the immune system, impaired memory and tumours. Add to this the suspicion of early ageing and it is clear that this study is bound to be unpopular with wireless communication companies.

The jury of international experts who had to judge the Ph.D. thesis, praised the rigorous methodology of the study. Moreover, the goal of the study was pretty unique. Most studies done so far, only looked at (very) short-term results. The current exposure standards are based on these short-term effects. Adang however was interested in what happens after a long-term exposure.

In his experiment, rats, whose genetic makeup is very similar to humans, were exposed to pulsed electromagnetic radiation for a period of 18 months (= 70% of their lives - 18 months for a rat equals more or less 60 years for a human being). Seven days a week, the rats spent two hours a day in an environment where the radiation level was as high as is allowed by the current international exposure standards (i.e. an average of 27 volts per metre). At various times, the health of these rats was compared with the health of a control group of rats that was not radiated.


The main findings from this research are the following:

1. Effects on the immune system

White blood cells eliminate foreign substances and play an important role in the immune system. Blood samples show that the rats that have been exposed to the radiation, have significantly higher levels (+30%) of various types of white blood cells. Some types of white blood cells showed an increase only after a period of 11 to 18 months of exposure, which indicates that some effects only become visible after a long period of exposure.

These findings indicate a reaction and a potential damaging of the immune system: “It is as if the living organism reacts to an attack or invasion of foreign substances,” says the researcher.


2. Doubled mortality rate

The most striking result of the study is probably the fact that the mortality rate among exposed rats was twice as high as in the control group. According to Adang this could be a consequence of the reaction of and the changes in the immune system.


INCLUDEPICTURE " http://www.next-up.org/images/RTL%20Info%20le%20Journal%20Etude%20Be%2024%2006%202008%20copie.jpg" \* MERGEFORMATINET


3. Impaired memory

Various scientific studies suggest that EM radiation influences cognitive functioning. One aspect of this, memory, was also studied by Adang, but the researcher had not expected such an important influence. 15 months of radiation was found to lead to a significant loss of memory.

When rats are faced with a new object for the first time, they will investigate it for a while by sniffing it. As they are repeatedly confronted with the object and become familiar with it, they spend less time sniffing. However, this wasn’t the case with the radiated rats; they didn’t seem to remember the object.

4. Tumours

An autopsy was performed on 19 rats, of which 17 belonged to the exposed group. It turned out that the cause of death of 16 of the 17 radiated rats were different kinds of tumours.

These rather worrying effects, that occur at a radiation level considered ‘safe’ today by official authorities, lead to the question whether current exposure standards are sufficient. These standards have been the subject of heavy criticism for a while now, because they only consider short-term exposure. Moreover, they are based upon the dated and faulty assumption that damage can only be caused by tissue heating, the so-called thermal effects. By now, plenty of studies have indicated that very weak radiation, too weak to cause tissue heating, produces significant biological effects, such as damage to the DNA and the immune system.

For many scientists, it is incomprehensible and unacceptable that these studies are being neglected by official authorities. Prof. André Vander Vorst, member of Belgium’s Health Council, says in the newspaper Le Soir that according to him, the current exposure standards are not stringent enough, partly due to lobbying by the telecom industry.





Source:
Le Soir, 24/06/2008
" http://www.next-up.org/pdf/LeSoirOndesGsmLetudeQuiInquiete24062008.pdf" www.next-up.org/pdf/LeSoirOndesGsmLetudeQuiInquiete24062008.pdf

'Limit the Radiation, Belgium'
- e-mail: beperkdestraling@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.beperkdestraling.be

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Reliability — Ratfinkle

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech