THE CURRENT guidelines to protect people from the adverse health effects of mobile-phone radiation are based on outdated science and there is an urgent need to develop safer technologies, an electromagnetic radiation expert has claimed.
Dr Grahame Blackwell, a British-based independent consultant in telecommunication health issues, said it was time to take seriously the massive body of research showing the link between mobile-phone use and health problems.
"The so-called health guidelines we have pushed upon us by official bodies at the moment, I believe, are based on outdated science and do not take into account the new research. The guidelines used by authorities and governments from the International Committee on non-ionising Radiation Protection are based specifically on thermal [ heat] based radiation," he said.
Dr Blackwell is referring not only to mobile phones but to wifi (wireless technology) and the digital cordless phones that have become so popular in our homes. Each cordless phone base, he says, is like a mini mobile phone base station emitting all the time.
"The various forms of technology all use the same principles, a form of pulse microwave. The hazardous effects have been clearly documented by a lot of research which has not been taken into account by the guidelines," he said.
He referred in particular to a recently published Russian paper which makes it clear that the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation are occurring at sub-thermal levels.
"This report is highlighting the urgent need to identify new types and frequencies which do not affect human cells. A high priority is for the development of safe mobile telecommunications. There is quite a lot of research around the world showing adverse health effects at sub-thermal levels," he said.
Dr Blackwell claimed that the health risks include headaches, nausea, dizziness, an increased risk of Alzheimer's and even cancer.
"The Reflex study of seven countries published three years ago identified very clearly replicated cases of this electromagnetic radiation actually breaking DNA chains, which leads to cancer," he said.
He said there was a need to try and find a frequency or type of emission not harmful to human cells, rather than hotly denying that the problem.
Dr Blackwell was the keynote speaker at the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association's annual seminar, which was held in Cork at the weekend. The title of his talk was "Mobile phones and wifi - are outdated views putting public health at risk?".
Consultant physician and co-chair of the Climate and Health Council Dr Robin Stott told the conference that if they were to fulfil their obligations, health professionals must play a prominent role in addressing the problems of global climate change and the prevalent gap in resources between rich and poor.
Speaking on the topic of "Climate change and health, what can we do?", he highlighted the need for people to measure and reduce their personal CO2 emissions and to ensure the organisations they were associated with did likewise.
He outlined the need to set a globally agreed carbon budget aimed at keeping atmospheric levels down.
This could be reduced over an agreed timescale (probably 50 years) until the amount being emitted equalled the amount the world could cope with.
A global agreement to tackle climate change is imperative for our global good health, according to Dr Stott, and the health profession have a crucial advocacy role here.
He explained that health benefits would arise from the mitigation of climate change and the related transfer of resources to narrow the gap between rich and poor and from the facilitation of other virtuous cycles moving the rich to more physically active societies in which obesity-related disease would be less prevalent.
