Electromagnetic Radiation and Epilepsy
http://tinyurl.com/6x76ej
Epilepsy girl will learn at home after radio mast victory
With brief comment at
http://www.tetrawatch.net/main/news.php
Not exactly a victory. What stupidity recognises that Nicola is shut out of her school for medical reasons linked to TETRA, whilst denying that there is any connection?
Epilepsy girl, 12, will learn at home after radio mast victory
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/1100education/tm_objectid=16177836&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=epilepsy-girl--12--will-learn-at-home-after-radio-mast-victory-name_page.html
... this case there was a need to establish a direct link between the Tetra mast and ... "Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations ...
Andy
Epilepsy girl, 12, will learn at home after radio mast victory. The police spokewoman said: ‘Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations affect people who are susceptible to epilepsy.’
But please take time to read this paper on masts and epilepsy:
Electromagnetic Radiation and Epilepsy
http://www.tetrawatch.net/papers/emr_epilepsy.pdf
How many people will suffer needlessly like Nicola before ‘proof’ has meaning: Proof? Or scientific proof? Or definitive scientific proof? How on earth are we going about caring for each other?
http://www.tetrawatch.net/main/news.php
--------
Eileen and all,
Please see this info with regard to epilepsy (by Dr. Santini).
Electromagnetic field and Epilepsy
http://csifcem.free.fr/epilepsy.html
28 September 2005
Iris Atzmon.
--------
Epilepsy girl given home tuition away from mast blamed for fits
Lizzie Murphy
28 September 2005
A LOCAL authority is allowing a girl aged 12 to stay away from school over fears a police radio mast may be triggering her epileptic fits.
The family of Nicola Packard in South Wales was prepared to take Pembrokeshire County Council to the High Court to get her home tuition after a Tetra mast used by police was erected by mobile phone operator O2 near her school.
Nicola has epilepsy and normally experiences one or two seizures a month but on the day the mast was turned on in May she had seven fits. Her mother, Jayne Packard, said the fits continued with alarming frequency whenever her daughter would attend the Portfield Special school, which is a little over half a mile from the mast on Haverfordwest police station.
The council has agreed to provide home tuition for Nicola, of Hakin, Milford Haven.
The family now want to take legal action against Dyfed-Powys Police to force them to remove the mast so that Nicola can return to school.
Mrs Packard, 34, said: "Nicola just didn't have any quality of life after the mast was turned on. The effects of the seizures would last for days. Now she is much better at home and I cannot fault the education department of the council for agreeing with us."
But a spokeswoman for Pembrokeshire County Council said: "This is a pragmatic response to ensure that the individual child is provided with suitable education and should not be construed as a judgment on issues surrounding the location of Tetra masts."
Mother-of-three Dr Christine Nunn, of Bardsey, near Leeds, has been battling for two years to rid her village of a mobile phone mast after a blunder by Leeds City Council meant residents' objections could not be heard and planning permission for the mast was granted automatically.
The part-time GP said: "I think it is dreadful for this young girl and her family to be in this position.
"The technology is rolled out before the safety is proven, leaving this family and others around the country in the position of not knowing what effect these masts can have.
"The Government is putting the interests of the industry before that of potentially vulnerable individuals such as children."
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1203112
This was also repeated in a different format by the Daily Mail as follows:
Fears over radio mast keep schoolgirl at home
Daily mail 28.09.05
A 12 -year old epileptic girl has been forced to have home tuition after fears a police radio mast near her school was triggering fits.
Nichola Packard, who normally has one or two seizures a month, had seven on the day the TETRA mast was switched on in May.
Her local authority has allowed her to stay home from school, but it stressed the decision was not 'a judgment on issues surrounding the location of TETRA masts'.
TETRA offers improved sound quality and security for radios. But Nichola's mother Jayne said when ever he daughter went to Portfield Special School, Pembrokeshire, she had fits with alarming frequency.
The mast erected by mobile phone operator 02, is on Haverfordwest police station less than a few miles away. Her family wants Dyfed-Powys police to remove it so Nicola can return to school.
Mrs Packard, 34, of Hakin, Milford Haven, said 'Nicola just didn't have any quality of life after the mast was turned on. The effects of the seizures would last for days. Now she is much better at home and I cannot fault the education department of the council for agreeing with us.'
She added 'We have got what we wanted from the local authority. Now I want the mast out of the way so Nicola can go back to school. Until authorities know they are 100% sure about TETRA masts, they shouldn't be anywhere near schools. All I am saying is I have a child who, when she is in the vicinity of a mast, her epilepsy is worse.
Mike Charles, the families' solicitor, said: 'I cannot say for definite there is an adverse health reaction to TETRA masts. When you are dealing with children and with the jury on the body of scientific evidence being out on the issue, it is not wise to take risks.'
He added:' The child is desperate to go back to school.'
A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said:' In accordance with normal practice for children - and following comprehensive discussions with her mother - we have sought to offer a range of provision, which in this instance includes an element of home tuition.'
'This is a pragmatic response to ensure that the individual child is provided with suitable education.'
A spokesman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: 'Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations affect people who are susceptible to epilepsy.'
02 was unavailable for comment.
The digital sets were introduced earlier this year under a 2.9 billion programme.
But 173 officers in Lancashire and nother 20 in North Yorkshire - forces chosen to test them - were said to have fallen ill after they were introduced.
Some scientists are concerned they pulse at 17.6Hz, close to the 16Hz at which brain signals work.
--------
From Eileen O'Connor
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:45 PM
Subject: Check out Implementation Programme
Take a look at the enclosed information from Catherine and pay close attention to number three concerns about epilepsy and tetra, how can they be allowed to continue with this system?
Implementation Programme
http://www.policereform.gov.uk/implementation/tetra/tetra4.html
As you can see they know there is a connection with epilepsy.
--------
Epilepsy and RF/MW exposure
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=253
--------
Mast concern over epileptic pupil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4285938.stm
Firstly, let us address O2's comments: We've said it before, but the only international guidelines that exist to cover emissions from TETRA masts in this country are ICNIRP guidelines, which are designed purely to prevent "microwave oven" effects (i.e. actual physical heating effects). These will naturally be orders of magnitude higher than TETRA masts, otherwise local people would be slowly cooked on a daily basis. All the evidence with other microwave radiation of a similar frequency and pulsed modularity (e.g. GSM phones and phone masts) are at far lower levels of power, and the effects are very different in nature. ICNIRP guidelines are simply not designed to assess the possibility of other effects, and so being within guidelines is effectively meaningless.
Secondly, to address the comments by the Police, it would be very hard to conduct a study of specifically epileptic people in the vicinity of TETRA masts because of the difficulties in getting a sample size big enough to be meaningful, and as such no one has put the money in to fund such research yet - this does not mean there is no effect.
Finally, surely in cases like this some level of common sense should prevail: The girl is well enough to go to school, the TETRA mast gets turned on and suddenly the girl is too ill to attend any more. The timing, combined with the research in health effects from other similar technologies, is surely enough to warrant further investigation, and not just hide behind a guideline never designed to protect people from these effects?
(See links on our masts information page showing research of health effects below ICNIRP guidelines, albeit on GSM technology, including this one directly relating to epilepsy)
--------
How can Anyone ACCEPT, that a little girl gets her life and health ruined.
Cut off from her school and her friends by an alien radiating thing like a mast by her school?
ACCEPT that she will be totally isolated because of the pollution these things emit.
WHY do we accept for anyone to be treated like this, by the same persons who have undertaken to be responsible for our wellbeing as citizens?
But who have sold us short!
And for what?
Greed!!
And they still want our VOTES?
Agnes.
http://www.mast-victims.org
--------
After today's programme on BBC Radio 4 featuring the case of Nicola Packard, whose epilepsy appears to be triggered by a local TETRA mast after a similar experience with a mobile phone mast, I felt compelled to take issue with Mike Clark (HPA) for his comments. This is an open letter and has been sent direct to him. It features on Tetrawatch at http://www.tetrawatch.net/letters/clark_hpa1.php
Any points in the letter you need explanation for, please ask, or look it up on Tetrawatch.
The You and Yours programme remains on the BBC website (Radio, Listen again) for one week.
Andy
Dear Mike
This is intended to be an open letter, just as the programme on BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" was public.
I was saddened to hear your comments on the case of Nicola Packard, her epilepsy and masts, not because they were predictable, nor because you have stopped thinking about the issues, preferring "campaigners" to see the problem as political.
This is not a political issue at all. If it was, MTHR would never have existed. But above all, with a government determined that we should have 11 national mobile infrastructures (4 x GSM, 5 x UMTS, Airwave and NetRail), and that these must be established with some 90% coverage each, the political consequence is that masts MUST be embedded in residential areas irrespective of any consequence at all, for purely commercial reasons. Missing masts means broken networks. This is a function of the short range of 3G transmitters. There is therefore no political solution, and mast campaigners are beginning to realise this.
What do you mean by saying " impartial groups all come to the same conclusion: there is no convincing evidence, ie no scientific or medical issue". No issue? Is it not the role of the HPA to investigate? If all these common problems attributed to masts and phones has nothing to do with EMFs, calling it idiopathic ("without known cause") environmental intolerance is an evasion of the HPA's role to secure public health.
The issue IS one of public health. This is what people want to know about; not "designer masts" in trees or chimney pots, that we do not know are there. The issue is profoundly one of science: not science at a distance, but science in the community.
You said on the programme that "there is a l arge research programme funded by the Home Office going on into TETRA". This really is not true. The amount of work on TETRA is pitifully small. In fact I was somewhat surprised that you majored on TETRA, knowing that Nicola's condition was first manifest with an Orange mobile phone mast.
I continue to be surprised that you see no difference in biological interaction between radiowaves in general and modulated microwaves. You know as well as I do that modulated microwaves are used for medical purposes, that pulsed radiation has greater effect, and that some of the healing properties at least have to do with electrical, not thermal, interaction.
You also know as well as I that EM radiation has military purposes, that it has been used in theatre, and not only for its thermal effects. Maybe you don't read Jane's Defence Weekly, but applications exist and are used, based on frequency, not power to heat.
And what, for pity's sake is the content of: "radiowaves have been produced since the 1890s"? Are you seriously suggesting that our EMF environment has remained unchanged since Marconi sent a message across the Atlantic?? Was the case against Vatican radio a spurious knee-jerk reaction without foundation? I hear you dismiss case after case like this, with no offer of cooperative investigation to improve the data or the analysis.
I was equally surprised that you said: "There isn't evidence to do with epilepsy that I'm aware of." My written summation of peer reviewed studies demonstrating how and why EMR precisely could cause interaction connected with epilepsy is abroad in the HPA, and I would be surprised if you had not taken any time at all to acquaint yourself with a direction of such profound importance. Published on the Tetrawatch site, this paper is open to scrutiny and comment, and all the scientists to whom I have sent it recognise that there is a real issue here. Of course I know, as you do, that because I, with qualifications outside your field, put the papers together, it has no credence with HPA at all. But the content stands by itself. I am as intelligent a researcher at this level as someone with equivalent degrees in relevant sciences. If you stop listening to anyone but yourselves, if you exclude Russian studies because they are Russian, or German studies because they are German, or my literature survey because I have arts degrees ... you will only ever hear yourself talking.
One of the most interesting directions of research right now has to be the effect of chronic exposure of mitochondrial DNA to low level microwaves, and the potential effects on key enzyme activity. We both know this, because published peer-reviewed studies have indicated that this might indeed be the case. Taking just one: the nitric oxide synthases, leads inevitably to very serious misgivings indeed.
Do you seriously not recognise the significance of disturbing the balance of nitric oxide in the body? Actually, you do know. I have to assume that you have read Prof. Martin Pall on multiple chemical sensitivity and concluded that he also is entirely mistaken. So where are the studies on enzyme responses in real people who claim to react to EMF, taken in the field with real EM sources? Nitric oxide levels help explain ALL the reported EHS symptoms of exposure to microwaves from masts and phones, AND the fibromyalgia, thyroid problems and so on down to MND and cancer. I am convinced you know this too. And yet you say:
"There is a whole list of things that are being suggested. ... this can't all be true because radio waves have been around so long and radio engineers don't have particular problems from working near radio waves."
Firstly radio engineers have been reporting problems for a long time: cancers, behavioural changes, mood etc. The same dismissal of their attributions as to cause simply means that proper investigation has not been made, keeping all incidences apart and thereby preventing a coherent picture.
Secondly, as I say, if even only iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) is influenced by EMR, the wide range of symptoms become explicable, even inevitable.
Once again, both you and I realise that permitting this interpretation is profound. If even the range of EHS symptoms have a common cause, then that cause must be investigated for its wider implications: what else might happen over time? And we both know that if EMR + iNOS = EHS, then EMR + iNOS + time = cancer
Maybe this is a dead end line of enquiry, maybe it explains too much but is nevertheless incorrect. I accept that. But in order to find out there must be a serious attempt to show this is not happening, and proposals for NO research were dropped (what did happen to the Babraham Institute MTHR study?) while hundreds of thousands were spent on "communicating uncertain science" and risk (to allay people's fears).
You appear to be determined to continue to inform the public from an expert standpoint that this effect cannot possibly be true, despite all the indicators to the contrary and the absence of effort to find out. Just as you insist that the only cause of cancer is photonic energy breaking covalent DNA bonds, when it is well established that free radical damage to mitochondrial DNA does just that. Cancer is not all caused by ionising radiation! So why can you not accept that EMR can cause the same prerequisite chemical changes? With iNOS we are staring it in the face.
"No definitive scientific proof" is a pretty shoddy response in matters of public health. Not your words, I appreciate on this occasion, but certainly consistent with your sentiments. John Snow, cholera and the Broad Street pump may be a popular analogy, but if he had waited for definitive scientific proof of something as absurd as the notion of a biological agent in the water supply, how many more would have died? He set a principle: if in doubt, remove the potential cause and see what happens.
I am sorry if you find this long and tedious, and that radio programmes are short and inadequate, but you are publicly excluding and denying science directions and perpetuating people's suffering, whether or not it is finally, definitively, scientifically proven to be from EMR or not.
Best regards
Andy Davidson
Tetrawatch
--------
Many thanks Andy for all the work you've put into this letter. I've read it and it is superb.
I think we also need to use the media as much as possible - letters pages, friendly journos, "alternative" publications (remember I gave the details of mag The Green Parent a while ago which would definitely do something - perhaps we should write a piece on the Gov'ts plans for WLANs in schools?) including ABC, TV etc.
Best wishes to you
Gary
--------
Dear All,
I have been sent the link to "listen again" to BBC You and Yours Radio 4 Programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml
Best wishes,
Yasmin Skelt,
Chorleywood,
England
--------
The Israeli army soldiers started using TETRA since 2004, and there is a high increase in suicides only in the last year in the army, 8 soldiers committed suicides only this month. 30 committed suicides since the beginning of this year. It is not clear what the reason/s is/are, but nothing has changed in the army apart from the new TETRA system and wireless equipment. I don't know other details with regard to diseases among TETRA users in Israel, of course it's just a matter of time till things will raise on the surface.
Iris Atzmon.
--------
I am always cautious about using personal stories, because they have a habit of becoming folklore and even becoming exaggerated in the telling.
"Nicola's Story" is now on Tetrawatch http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/nicolastory.php as told by her mother, because it stands in stark contrast to the complacency of "consensus science" as related in the exchange between Tetrawatch and Mike Clark of the UK's Health Protection Agency http://www.tetrawatch.net/letters/indexradiation.php .
Many people will ask "what more proof do we need?"
We do not need proof, we just need to heed warning signs before many more people are harmed by lack of due diligence in those appointed to attend to public health.
Andy
--------
Mobilfunk und Epilepsie
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/298071/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=epilepsy
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic
Epilepsy girl will learn at home after radio mast victory
With brief comment at
http://www.tetrawatch.net/main/news.php
Not exactly a victory. What stupidity recognises that Nicola is shut out of her school for medical reasons linked to TETRA, whilst denying that there is any connection?
Epilepsy girl, 12, will learn at home after radio mast victory
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/1100education/tm_objectid=16177836&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=epilepsy-girl--12--will-learn-at-home-after-radio-mast-victory-name_page.html
... this case there was a need to establish a direct link between the Tetra mast and ... "Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations ...
Andy
Epilepsy girl, 12, will learn at home after radio mast victory. The police spokewoman said: ‘Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations affect people who are susceptible to epilepsy.’
But please take time to read this paper on masts and epilepsy:
Electromagnetic Radiation and Epilepsy
http://www.tetrawatch.net/papers/emr_epilepsy.pdf
How many people will suffer needlessly like Nicola before ‘proof’ has meaning: Proof? Or scientific proof? Or definitive scientific proof? How on earth are we going about caring for each other?
http://www.tetrawatch.net/main/news.php
--------
Eileen and all,
Please see this info with regard to epilepsy (by Dr. Santini).
Electromagnetic field and Epilepsy
http://csifcem.free.fr/epilepsy.html
28 September 2005
Iris Atzmon.
--------
Epilepsy girl given home tuition away from mast blamed for fits
Lizzie Murphy
28 September 2005
A LOCAL authority is allowing a girl aged 12 to stay away from school over fears a police radio mast may be triggering her epileptic fits.
The family of Nicola Packard in South Wales was prepared to take Pembrokeshire County Council to the High Court to get her home tuition after a Tetra mast used by police was erected by mobile phone operator O2 near her school.
Nicola has epilepsy and normally experiences one or two seizures a month but on the day the mast was turned on in May she had seven fits. Her mother, Jayne Packard, said the fits continued with alarming frequency whenever her daughter would attend the Portfield Special school, which is a little over half a mile from the mast on Haverfordwest police station.
The council has agreed to provide home tuition for Nicola, of Hakin, Milford Haven.
The family now want to take legal action against Dyfed-Powys Police to force them to remove the mast so that Nicola can return to school.
Mrs Packard, 34, said: "Nicola just didn't have any quality of life after the mast was turned on. The effects of the seizures would last for days. Now she is much better at home and I cannot fault the education department of the council for agreeing with us."
But a spokeswoman for Pembrokeshire County Council said: "This is a pragmatic response to ensure that the individual child is provided with suitable education and should not be construed as a judgment on issues surrounding the location of Tetra masts."
Mother-of-three Dr Christine Nunn, of Bardsey, near Leeds, has been battling for two years to rid her village of a mobile phone mast after a blunder by Leeds City Council meant residents' objections could not be heard and planning permission for the mast was granted automatically.
The part-time GP said: "I think it is dreadful for this young girl and her family to be in this position.
"The technology is rolled out before the safety is proven, leaving this family and others around the country in the position of not knowing what effect these masts can have.
"The Government is putting the interests of the industry before that of potentially vulnerable individuals such as children."
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1203112
This was also repeated in a different format by the Daily Mail as follows:
Fears over radio mast keep schoolgirl at home
Daily mail 28.09.05
A 12 -year old epileptic girl has been forced to have home tuition after fears a police radio mast near her school was triggering fits.
Nichola Packard, who normally has one or two seizures a month, had seven on the day the TETRA mast was switched on in May.
Her local authority has allowed her to stay home from school, but it stressed the decision was not 'a judgment on issues surrounding the location of TETRA masts'.
TETRA offers improved sound quality and security for radios. But Nichola's mother Jayne said when ever he daughter went to Portfield Special School, Pembrokeshire, she had fits with alarming frequency.
The mast erected by mobile phone operator 02, is on Haverfordwest police station less than a few miles away. Her family wants Dyfed-Powys police to remove it so Nicola can return to school.
Mrs Packard, 34, of Hakin, Milford Haven, said 'Nicola just didn't have any quality of life after the mast was turned on. The effects of the seizures would last for days. Now she is much better at home and I cannot fault the education department of the council for agreeing with us.'
She added 'We have got what we wanted from the local authority. Now I want the mast out of the way so Nicola can go back to school. Until authorities know they are 100% sure about TETRA masts, they shouldn't be anywhere near schools. All I am saying is I have a child who, when she is in the vicinity of a mast, her epilepsy is worse.
Mike Charles, the families' solicitor, said: 'I cannot say for definite there is an adverse health reaction to TETRA masts. When you are dealing with children and with the jury on the body of scientific evidence being out on the issue, it is not wise to take risks.'
He added:' The child is desperate to go back to school.'
A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said:' In accordance with normal practice for children - and following comprehensive discussions with her mother - we have sought to offer a range of provision, which in this instance includes an element of home tuition.'
'This is a pragmatic response to ensure that the individual child is provided with suitable education.'
A spokesman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: 'Currently, there is no definitive scientific proof that airwave base stations affect people who are susceptible to epilepsy.'
02 was unavailable for comment.
The digital sets were introduced earlier this year under a 2.9 billion programme.
But 173 officers in Lancashire and nother 20 in North Yorkshire - forces chosen to test them - were said to have fallen ill after they were introduced.
Some scientists are concerned they pulse at 17.6Hz, close to the 16Hz at which brain signals work.
--------
From Eileen O'Connor
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:45 PM
Subject: Check out Implementation Programme
Take a look at the enclosed information from Catherine and pay close attention to number three concerns about epilepsy and tetra, how can they be allowed to continue with this system?
Implementation Programme
http://www.policereform.gov.uk/implementation/tetra/tetra4.html
As you can see they know there is a connection with epilepsy.
--------
Epilepsy and RF/MW exposure
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=253
--------
Mast concern over epileptic pupil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4285938.stm
Firstly, let us address O2's comments: We've said it before, but the only international guidelines that exist to cover emissions from TETRA masts in this country are ICNIRP guidelines, which are designed purely to prevent "microwave oven" effects (i.e. actual physical heating effects). These will naturally be orders of magnitude higher than TETRA masts, otherwise local people would be slowly cooked on a daily basis. All the evidence with other microwave radiation of a similar frequency and pulsed modularity (e.g. GSM phones and phone masts) are at far lower levels of power, and the effects are very different in nature. ICNIRP guidelines are simply not designed to assess the possibility of other effects, and so being within guidelines is effectively meaningless.
Secondly, to address the comments by the Police, it would be very hard to conduct a study of specifically epileptic people in the vicinity of TETRA masts because of the difficulties in getting a sample size big enough to be meaningful, and as such no one has put the money in to fund such research yet - this does not mean there is no effect.
Finally, surely in cases like this some level of common sense should prevail: The girl is well enough to go to school, the TETRA mast gets turned on and suddenly the girl is too ill to attend any more. The timing, combined with the research in health effects from other similar technologies, is surely enough to warrant further investigation, and not just hide behind a guideline never designed to protect people from these effects?
(See links on our masts information page showing research of health effects below ICNIRP guidelines, albeit on GSM technology, including this one directly relating to epilepsy)
--------
How can Anyone ACCEPT, that a little girl gets her life and health ruined.
Cut off from her school and her friends by an alien radiating thing like a mast by her school?
ACCEPT that she will be totally isolated because of the pollution these things emit.
WHY do we accept for anyone to be treated like this, by the same persons who have undertaken to be responsible for our wellbeing as citizens?
But who have sold us short!
And for what?
Greed!!
And they still want our VOTES?
Agnes.
http://www.mast-victims.org
--------
After today's programme on BBC Radio 4 featuring the case of Nicola Packard, whose epilepsy appears to be triggered by a local TETRA mast after a similar experience with a mobile phone mast, I felt compelled to take issue with Mike Clark (HPA) for his comments. This is an open letter and has been sent direct to him. It features on Tetrawatch at http://www.tetrawatch.net/letters/clark_hpa1.php
Any points in the letter you need explanation for, please ask, or look it up on Tetrawatch.
The You and Yours programme remains on the BBC website (Radio, Listen again) for one week.
Andy
Dear Mike
This is intended to be an open letter, just as the programme on BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" was public.
I was saddened to hear your comments on the case of Nicola Packard, her epilepsy and masts, not because they were predictable, nor because you have stopped thinking about the issues, preferring "campaigners" to see the problem as political.
This is not a political issue at all. If it was, MTHR would never have existed. But above all, with a government determined that we should have 11 national mobile infrastructures (4 x GSM, 5 x UMTS, Airwave and NetRail), and that these must be established with some 90% coverage each, the political consequence is that masts MUST be embedded in residential areas irrespective of any consequence at all, for purely commercial reasons. Missing masts means broken networks. This is a function of the short range of 3G transmitters. There is therefore no political solution, and mast campaigners are beginning to realise this.
What do you mean by saying " impartial groups all come to the same conclusion: there is no convincing evidence, ie no scientific or medical issue". No issue? Is it not the role of the HPA to investigate? If all these common problems attributed to masts and phones has nothing to do with EMFs, calling it idiopathic ("without known cause") environmental intolerance is an evasion of the HPA's role to secure public health.
The issue IS one of public health. This is what people want to know about; not "designer masts" in trees or chimney pots, that we do not know are there. The issue is profoundly one of science: not science at a distance, but science in the community.
You said on the programme that "there is a l arge research programme funded by the Home Office going on into TETRA". This really is not true. The amount of work on TETRA is pitifully small. In fact I was somewhat surprised that you majored on TETRA, knowing that Nicola's condition was first manifest with an Orange mobile phone mast.
I continue to be surprised that you see no difference in biological interaction between radiowaves in general and modulated microwaves. You know as well as I do that modulated microwaves are used for medical purposes, that pulsed radiation has greater effect, and that some of the healing properties at least have to do with electrical, not thermal, interaction.
You also know as well as I that EM radiation has military purposes, that it has been used in theatre, and not only for its thermal effects. Maybe you don't read Jane's Defence Weekly, but applications exist and are used, based on frequency, not power to heat.
And what, for pity's sake is the content of: "radiowaves have been produced since the 1890s"? Are you seriously suggesting that our EMF environment has remained unchanged since Marconi sent a message across the Atlantic?? Was the case against Vatican radio a spurious knee-jerk reaction without foundation? I hear you dismiss case after case like this, with no offer of cooperative investigation to improve the data or the analysis.
I was equally surprised that you said: "There isn't evidence to do with epilepsy that I'm aware of." My written summation of peer reviewed studies demonstrating how and why EMR precisely could cause interaction connected with epilepsy is abroad in the HPA, and I would be surprised if you had not taken any time at all to acquaint yourself with a direction of such profound importance. Published on the Tetrawatch site, this paper is open to scrutiny and comment, and all the scientists to whom I have sent it recognise that there is a real issue here. Of course I know, as you do, that because I, with qualifications outside your field, put the papers together, it has no credence with HPA at all. But the content stands by itself. I am as intelligent a researcher at this level as someone with equivalent degrees in relevant sciences. If you stop listening to anyone but yourselves, if you exclude Russian studies because they are Russian, or German studies because they are German, or my literature survey because I have arts degrees ... you will only ever hear yourself talking.
One of the most interesting directions of research right now has to be the effect of chronic exposure of mitochondrial DNA to low level microwaves, and the potential effects on key enzyme activity. We both know this, because published peer-reviewed studies have indicated that this might indeed be the case. Taking just one: the nitric oxide synthases, leads inevitably to very serious misgivings indeed.
Do you seriously not recognise the significance of disturbing the balance of nitric oxide in the body? Actually, you do know. I have to assume that you have read Prof. Martin Pall on multiple chemical sensitivity and concluded that he also is entirely mistaken. So where are the studies on enzyme responses in real people who claim to react to EMF, taken in the field with real EM sources? Nitric oxide levels help explain ALL the reported EHS symptoms of exposure to microwaves from masts and phones, AND the fibromyalgia, thyroid problems and so on down to MND and cancer. I am convinced you know this too. And yet you say:
"There is a whole list of things that are being suggested. ... this can't all be true because radio waves have been around so long and radio engineers don't have particular problems from working near radio waves."
Firstly radio engineers have been reporting problems for a long time: cancers, behavioural changes, mood etc. The same dismissal of their attributions as to cause simply means that proper investigation has not been made, keeping all incidences apart and thereby preventing a coherent picture.
Secondly, as I say, if even only iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) is influenced by EMR, the wide range of symptoms become explicable, even inevitable.
Once again, both you and I realise that permitting this interpretation is profound. If even the range of EHS symptoms have a common cause, then that cause must be investigated for its wider implications: what else might happen over time? And we both know that if EMR + iNOS = EHS, then EMR + iNOS + time = cancer
Maybe this is a dead end line of enquiry, maybe it explains too much but is nevertheless incorrect. I accept that. But in order to find out there must be a serious attempt to show this is not happening, and proposals for NO research were dropped (what did happen to the Babraham Institute MTHR study?) while hundreds of thousands were spent on "communicating uncertain science" and risk (to allay people's fears).
You appear to be determined to continue to inform the public from an expert standpoint that this effect cannot possibly be true, despite all the indicators to the contrary and the absence of effort to find out. Just as you insist that the only cause of cancer is photonic energy breaking covalent DNA bonds, when it is well established that free radical damage to mitochondrial DNA does just that. Cancer is not all caused by ionising radiation! So why can you not accept that EMR can cause the same prerequisite chemical changes? With iNOS we are staring it in the face.
"No definitive scientific proof" is a pretty shoddy response in matters of public health. Not your words, I appreciate on this occasion, but certainly consistent with your sentiments. John Snow, cholera and the Broad Street pump may be a popular analogy, but if he had waited for definitive scientific proof of something as absurd as the notion of a biological agent in the water supply, how many more would have died? He set a principle: if in doubt, remove the potential cause and see what happens.
I am sorry if you find this long and tedious, and that radio programmes are short and inadequate, but you are publicly excluding and denying science directions and perpetuating people's suffering, whether or not it is finally, definitively, scientifically proven to be from EMR or not.
Best regards
Andy Davidson
Tetrawatch
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Many thanks Andy for all the work you've put into this letter. I've read it and it is superb.
I think we also need to use the media as much as possible - letters pages, friendly journos, "alternative" publications (remember I gave the details of mag The Green Parent a while ago which would definitely do something - perhaps we should write a piece on the Gov'ts plans for WLANs in schools?) including ABC, TV etc.
Best wishes to you
Gary
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Dear All,
I have been sent the link to "listen again" to BBC You and Yours Radio 4 Programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml
Best wishes,
Yasmin Skelt,
Chorleywood,
England
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The Israeli army soldiers started using TETRA since 2004, and there is a high increase in suicides only in the last year in the army, 8 soldiers committed suicides only this month. 30 committed suicides since the beginning of this year. It is not clear what the reason/s is/are, but nothing has changed in the army apart from the new TETRA system and wireless equipment. I don't know other details with regard to diseases among TETRA users in Israel, of course it's just a matter of time till things will raise on the surface.
Iris Atzmon.
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I am always cautious about using personal stories, because they have a habit of becoming folklore and even becoming exaggerated in the telling.
"Nicola's Story" is now on Tetrawatch http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/nicolastory.php as told by her mother, because it stands in stark contrast to the complacency of "consensus science" as related in the exchange between Tetrawatch and Mike Clark of the UK's Health Protection Agency http://www.tetrawatch.net/letters/indexradiation.php .
Many people will ask "what more proof do we need?"
We do not need proof, we just need to heed warning signs before many more people are harmed by lack of due diligence in those appointed to attend to public health.
Andy
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Mobilfunk und Epilepsie
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/298071/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=epilepsy
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic
Starmail - 27. Sep, 10:14
