Dorothy – 5/2/99
Part 1 in the last issue of NZine reported on an interview with Dr Neil Cherry about the international scientific workshop on mobile phones and health which he attended in Vienna. He advised caution in the use of mobile phones.
Part 2 presents further scientific findings and the resolutions of the conference.
Biological effects Dr Cherry then moved to discussing the biological effects. Central to this is calcium ion efflux.
Calcium ion efflux The subject of the paper presented at the workshop by Dr Carl Blackman was calcium ion efflux – calcium ions flowing out of cells when exposed to pulsed and modulated EMR. This was first identified in about 1974 by American researchers, Susan Bawin and Ross Adey. Under some conditions the RF induces a flow of calcium ions into the cell. Dr Blackman has conducted far more experiments in his laboratory on this influx/efflux than anyone else. They have shown that calcium ion alteration occurs at particular carrier frequencies, particular signal strengths, particular modulation frequencies and in particular temperature ranges, but not in others which lie between them. After summarising these hundreds of experiments Carl Blackman stated that EMR must be treated as chemicals (plural) because we have made the mistake of treating it as a single chemical looking for single effects across the whole spectrum, when it is clear that the effects are very significant and occur at particular combinations of variables, but do not occur at a nearby different combination.
He finished by stating that it is very well established that there is a biological effect called calcium ion efflux and influx that can be caused by EMR at levels that are not involving heating but involving a frequency which has nothing to do with the energy levels. This is therefore a true biological effect, not a consequence of heat but produced by particular combinations of EMR and thus is a separate biological change. Dr Repacholi accepted that this is a biological effect at low level exposure, but claimed that there was not a health effect. Dr Blackman’s response was that such a statement meant that Dr Repacholi was re-writing history. The history of the research is that it began because of the concern that workers working with microwaves had a changed response time and changed behaviour which was identified with an altered EEG (brain scan).
Work of Bawin and Adey Bawin and Adey were brought into the research because of the effect on people, and they first experimented with monkeys and found that they had changed behaviour and changed reaction times and altered EEG. They found the same effect in rats, rabbits and cats. With some of the cats they also removed the top of the skull and directly monitored the electrical signals in the brain and found there were changes in the calcium ions. The move to chick brains was occasioned by the cost of doing hundreds of experiments, but the same calcium ion effects were found in chick brains. The evidence trail leads historically from people to monkeys, to rabbits, to rats , to cats and to chicks.
Human health effect Calcium ion influx/efflux is a mechanism for brain change which affects behaviour and reaction times in people and is therefore indicative of a human health effect.
Calcium ions in cells play a role in the growth and development of cells in DNA synthesis and in the life and death of cells. Therefore calcium ion alteration of cells by EMR is a biological mechanism linking to neurological degeneration such as Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases of age, to cancer and many other health effects. The scary aspect of this is that calcium ion efflux occurs at intensities and field strengths that are extremely low.
Research into link between Alzheimer’s disease and EMR Dr Cherry commented on two recent papers, both in the journal “Neurology”. The first paper, originally published in December 1996, had the title, “Elevated risk of Alzheimer’s disease amongst workers with likely electromagnetic field exposure”. Researchers, Sobel et al, writing this paper have found that when they adjusted for many other compensating factors there is close to a five times increased risk of Alzheimer’s for workers working in electromagnetic radiation fields in electrical industries. In a later paper in the journal they present a hypothesis about the mechanism through which there is increased production of a substance called amyloid beta, a fact known to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease. They investigated how electromagnetic fields might well enhance the production of that substance. The first step in this process is calcium ion efflux from the cells. This means that there is a mechanism and epidemiology – which is true of so many health effects in this area.
Research in Belgium In 1998 Belgian researcher Dr Luc Verschaeve used various genetic tests like DNA breakage and chromosome damage tests to test the safety of cellphones and find out whether they can produce genetic damage. In Europe there are several cellphones using different frequencies and different modulation.
The results he termed ‘inconsistent’ because some cellphones consistently showed DNA breakage and chromosome damage, and other cellphones consistently showed no damage. His initial conclusion was that he could not therefore say that the cellphones damaged genetic material. His DNA assay technique is not as sensitive as that used at the University of Washington laboratory, which may explain some of the negative results. However, he does pick up consistent DNA and chromosome damage from some particular cellphones. It is a common conclusion to say that some results are up and some are down which means that it is not possible to say whether or not cellphones are dangerous.
If Dr Verschaeve used the most sensitive methods he might find that some cellphones produced low levels of DNA changes and others moderate or high.
Research into calcium ion changes According to Dr Blackman’s data on calcium ion changes it would be more accurate to say that one cellphone damages DNA while another does no damage.
The damage appears to depend on a particular choice of the nature of the signal in the carrier frequency, the modulation characteristic, and the intensity of the signal. One interesting result was that a carrier frequency which seemed invariably to produce DNA damage was 954 megahertz carrier frequency.
This could be one of the reasons why experiments on animals using different variables gave different results. Many researchers in the military and industrial laboratories take the attitude that if there is going to be an effect then it must be visible when high levels of energy are really pumped in. The science says that with EMR it is not necessarily an effect that occurs at a higher level and a higher energy.
Effect of low level electromagnetic fields The ability of very low level electromagnetic fields to affect human beings and animals has been observed and accepted by biometeorologists for several decades. While Adey and Bawin were finding calcium ion changes in the brains of animals as a mechanism to explain behaviour and reaction time changes in people and animals, German researchers were finding that human reaction time variations and daily sleep rhythms correlated with very subtle changes in atmospheric ELF and ELF modulated RF changes. Radiofrequency fields penetrate tissue and so they carry their modulation signals deep into brain and muscle tissue. Here the signals can alter the electrical signals between the cells and alter the calcium ion flows into and out of the cells. The changed voltage gradient on the membrane of the cells also changes the efficiency with which the electrically charged neurotransmitters and other cell messengers find and enter their receptors on the cell membrane surface.
Importance of low levels of exposure This workshop made it clear why some important biological effects are found at very low levels of exposure, which are not observed at very high levels of exposure. This explains why it is wrong to dismiss the existence of adverse health effects caused by low level exposures simply because at high levels of exposure only heat-related effects are seen. It is impossible to have an intelligent, thoughtful conversation in front of the speakers at a rock concert, but you can interrupt a conversation in a quiet room. At low levels EMR can interrupt the intercellular communication and subtly and vitally change the cell growth control factors. Many thousands of papers have been published based on determining the thermal threshold. Almost all of them did not look for any effects other than heat. Some attempted to determine the threshold for behavioural effects such as avoidance of the signal. All of these studies are irrelevant to the questions of chronic low level exposure and its effects.
Research published in January 1999 Calcium ions as mediators of intracellular signalling are crucial for development of apoptosis. Apoptosis is programmed cell death that removes damaged cells. A January 1999 paper (FESEB J. 13, 95-102) concludes: “The rescue of damaged cells may be the mechanism explaining why magnetic fields that are not mutagenic per se are often able to increase mutation and tumour frequencies”. This was after they had shown that calcium ion influx induced by the magnetic field reduces the apoptosis and thus allows damaged cells to survive.
Calcium ion influx/efflux has not been seen at high exposure intensities but it has been measured to significantly occur down to 0.00015 W/kg or 0.08mW/cm2 . Thus adverse health effects such as brain changes, sleep disruption, impaired immune systems, cancer and neurological diseases, all of which are able to be initiated by altering cellular calcium, can be caused by pulsed and modulated electromagnetic radiation. What were the resolutions of the workshop on Mobile Phones and Health The resolutions were prefaced with a note on terminology. The preferred terminology to be used in public communication: Instead of using the terms “athermal”, “nonthermal” or “microthermal” effects, the term”low intensity biological effects” is more appropriate.
Resolutions
Preamble The participants agreed that biological effects from low-intensity exposures are scientifically established. However, the current state of scientific consensus is inadequate to derive reliable exposure standards. The existing evidence demands an increase in the research efforts on the possible health impact and on an adequate exposure and dose assessment.
Base stations How could satisfactory Public Participation be ensured? The public should be given timely participation in the process. This should include information on technical and exposure data as well as information on the status of the health debate. Public participation in the decision (limits, siting, etc) should be enabled.
Cellular phones How could the situation of the users be improved? Technical data should be made available to the users to allow comparison with respect to EMF-exposure. In order to promote prudent usage, sufficient information on the health debate should be provided. This procedure should offer opportunities for the users to manage reduction in EMF-exposure. In addition, this process could stimulate further developments of low-intensity emission devices.
