Beyond Radiation

Insurance companies do not cover health damage caused by mobile technologies + Disconnect

Update: 7th February 2015: The Lloyd's of London and it's underwriter CFC Underwriting Limited excludes any liability coverage for claims, “Directly or indirectly arising out of, resulting from or contributed to by electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetism, radio waves or noise.” (Exclusion 32, page 7)

Update 30th March 2014:  Swiss Re Insurance Company Warns of Significant Losses as a Result of EMF Radiation.

Update 15th November 2010: The Lloyd's of London Insurance Company: Electromagnetic Fields from Mobile Phones: Recent Developments - Emerging Risks Report. November 2010. 

We-ll, the report did not include all items mentioned below. So, I sent a request/question to Lloyds.

Update: On 31st January 2011 I had an interesting telephone discussion with a Lloyds London representative. About The Bigger Picture. See below:

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CBC National, Canada, 22nd September 2010: Cell Phones and Insurance Companies

 

Two of the world's largest insurance companies, Lloyds and Swiss Re, have recommended to other insurance companies to write in exclusion clauses against paying compensation for illnesses caused by continuous long-term non-ionising radiation exposure.[1,2] . The recent Austrian insurance company AUVA report confirms DNA-breaks caused by non-ionising radiation, but the report leaves many issues open. Remember what Swiss Re wrote in 2005?

"For the insurance industry, this standoff gives rise to an extremely dangerous risk of change composed of two parts: the classical development risk, that is, the possibility tha new research findings will demonstrate electromagnetic fields to be more dangerous than has hitherto been assumed; and the sociopolitical risk of change, in other words, the possibility that changing social values could result in scientific findigs being evaluated differently than they have been thus far. "

Update 24th September: This is bad news for those employers who expose their workers heavily to non-ionising radiation. Precedents: There are already several cases where the worker got compensation because their tumours etc were caused by mobile phone & other occupational EMF exposure [1,2,3,4,5] . And the amount of cases will most likely increase.

BTW, I had an interesting Skype with Devra (Davis) yesterday.

Her new book 'Disconnect' talks about this insurance dilemma and many other interesting topics.

The book is worth reading. Please, get your copy.

 

Speaking In the Wireless Humanity conference, Oslo, Norway

Wireless Humanity - El Symposium Conference, in Oslo, Norway 16th-19th September 2010 .

Special focus on: Brain Research, Building Biology, Power Quality and Electrosensitivity.

Full program: http://www.elsymposium.org/ --> Click 'Program' and select a day. 

 

Update: I was there. Talked about power quality + base stations. (Please, check my previous postings). It was be a nice gathering near Oslo, in relaxed atmosphere :-) Thanks to Ralph-Raphael och Marianne Kleimann (organisers). Norway is fantastic:

My favourite presentations were:

Günther Haffelder: Optimising learning, preventing learning problems

Alexander Popp: Biophotons

 

Perhaps in Autumn 2011 I will again partipate the El Symposium?! Let's see.

Any other similar events in Central, Eastern or Nordic Europe?

Chronic Exposure - New Service about Basestations and Health Effects

Mikko And Friends Proudly Present:

 

The Chronic Exposure service - http://www.chronicexposure.org

It contains possibly the most comprehensive research overview about base stations, masts and health effects.

If all this sounds too academic, please, check the News-section, videos and doctor initiatives.

Why did we build this service? To show how risky the current and future mobile phone base station infrastructure is. Especially, when siting decisions are not based on science and public health. Together with my friends we just can not understand why base stations are built on top of schools and kindergartens.

Please, inform rectors and headmasters about the Chronic Exposure service. Similarly, let your friends know about this and tweet/blog/digg about Chronic Exposure. Thank you kindly. 

Khurana et al. (2010) Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations

A new journal paper is out by Vini Khurana,  Lennart Hardell, Joris Everaert, Alicja Bortkiewicz, Michael Carlberg and Mikko Ahonen. This paper was published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. Update 25th August 2010: The PDF.

We looked at epidemiological studies of mobile phone base stations and found out that 8 out of 10 studies indicate increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations.

"While the mechanism(s) by which base station EMFs might cause neurobehavioural symptoms remain(s) conjectural, it is notable that Science Magazine has recently acknowledged that there are several peer-reviewed papers from laboratories in at least seven countries showing that cell phone or similar LEMFs can, contrary to the expectations of such “non-ionizing” sources, damage or structurally modify DNA" [1].

Definitely, comprehensive epidemiological studies of longterm mobile phone base station exposure are urgently required to more definitively understand its health impact.

I would personally hope that independent research of base stations would be supported and not hindered by corruption, narrow-mindedness or political games. 

Research Inspiration From Russia - Voltage Transients and Health Effects

In April 2010 I had a priviledge to visit Moscow State University. The МГУ campus (picture), excellent medical library (ЦНМБ), RNCNIRP-colleagues and professors at the university inspired me to write a short paper. 

"Voltage transients and possible effects on health  through cell membrane functionality disturbance" (PDF)

Update: This paper was be presented in the 4th International HYVITE Symposium on Wellbeing Technology, 9th June 2010, in Tampere, Finland.

(See also a related slide show).

 

Update 2nd February 2011:

In October 2010 I once again headed to Moscow, to the 6th Radiation Research Conference (VI СЪезд по радиационным исследованиям). This time I was financed by the Finnish Work Environment Fund.  The conference paper & presentation was called:"Voltage Transients and Effect on Health" ("Переходное напряжение и его эффекты на здоровье").

I wrote the paper together with professors Maksim Trushin and Roman Muhin (Kazan State University). It was fascinating, my first research paper in Russian and additionally I presented it in Russian :-)

Professor Yuri Grigoriev (RNCNIRP) was in the audience and provided (again) very valuable comments. I am also thankful to professor Igor Belyaev for raising important questions.

 

Any comments about the research paper or generally about this voltage transients / power quality topic?

Interphone Results - Children’s Risks Underestimated?

The long-waited Interphone Final Report about mobile phones and brain tumours is finally out.

"There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma, and much less so meningioma, at the highest exposure levels, for ipsilateral exposures and, for glioma, for tumours in the temporal lobe. However, biases and errors limit the strength of the conclusions we can draw from these analyses and prevent a causal interpretation." (pp. 14)

Wait a second! Interphone study has at least 15 design flaws that make its results indicate smaller risk. Our international concortium listed them in the "Cell phones and Brain Tumours - 15 Reasons for Concern"-document. Same design flaws we announced here in Finland, in Finnish, in the following press release "_{WHO: KÄNNYKÄN PITKÄAIKAISKÄYTTÖ LISÄÄ KASVAINRISKIÄ} ".

Interestingly, the Interphone Final Report has an Appendix 2 that describes those risk levels (ORs) in detail and  indicates increased, up to 1,82 x risks for the most heavily exposed users.

Now: Nordic countries have allowed service providers to cut down telephone lines in vast rural areas. Children especially in the countryside are forced to use A) mobile phone B) 3G/GPRS/WiMAX modem often in very bad coverage situations = heavy exposure situations.  Once again I ask: How ethical is mobile business?  (and ... How sponsored and narrow-minded are Nordic politicians ?)

 

Radiation gets absorbed into children’s heads really deep, reaching even the pineal gland. My friends, medical doctor, professor in physiology Osmo Hänninen and medical doctor Seppo Kinnunen are very concerned about this.  (Please, take a look at this important article about children's risks ).

Similarly, Director, surgeon Santosh Kesari expresses his concern in the following video:

In Educational Technology Conference - Koulusta turvallisempi työympäristö lapsille ja opettajille

Koulusta turvallisempi työympäristö lapsille ja opettajille

View more presentations from Mikko Ahonen.

A presentation in Finnish in the ITK Educational Technology conference. Topic: Schools, children, health risks and mobile technologies.

Power Quality and Health - Is There a Connection?

Power Quality and Health - Is There a Connection?

View more presentations from Mikko Ahonen.

Russian EMF & Health Classics - Important Findings already 40 Years Ago

Yuri Novitskiy, Zinaida Gordon, Presman & Yuri Kholodov (1970)

"The researchers all arrive at a unanimous conclusion about the functional changes in the sexual system of irradiated animals, expressed in a disturbed estrous cycle in females and disturbed reproductive functions in males and females, a decrease in the number of offspring and a lag in their development in the embryonic and postnatal period. ... Somatic defects, disturbed functions of higher sections of the CNS (Central Nervous System) in prenatally irradiated animals, functionally inadequate activity of the pituitary gland, pronounced changes in nuclein exchange in sexual organs, delayed results (in 2 - 3 generations) of the effect of MCW and UHF, disturbed ernbrogenesis -- these all suggest possible genetic effects.

This places before researchers the definite and complex practical task of protecting female labor, especially, and teenagers from the possible effect of radio-frequency EMF. In relation to this, in the USSR health rules have been amended which forbid women during pregnancy and teen-agers from working with sources of electromagnetic fields in the radio-frequency range." (pp. 38-40)

Next I will demonstrate the important work of Dr Zinaida Gordon and Dr Zorach Glaser.

International Scientific Union of Electromagnetic Biology

With our Swedish and US partners we felt, that there should be more research focus and emphasis on biological effects of EMFs.

So, a new union and society was established near Turku, Finland on the 4th of March in 2010. This union is called: "International Scientific Union of Electromagnetic Biology" and the Finnish part is called "Suomen Sähkö- ja Biotieteellinen Yhdistys ry. "

The website: http://www.isueb.org .

Professor in physiology, Osmo Hänninen was the initiator and together with a group of researchers he established this union.

The first press release is in Finnish, but within coming weeks there will be more information in English. I will update the website and this blog posting soon!