Mobile Phones And Health
Inquiry Memorandum
By: Dr. Gerald J. Hyland
Department of Physics
University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
and
International Institute of Biophysics
Neuss-Holzheim, Germany
June 18, 1999
PERSONAL STATEMENT
Since 1985, I have been involved with the interaction of non-ionising radiation
- specifically MICROWAVES - with living organisms, actively developing the novel
ideas of H. Fröhlich, FRS, who, 30 years ago, first predicted that adequately
metabolising living systems themselves support a coherent microwave activity.
During the last 18 months, I have been applying my findings to the question of
potential health hazards posed by mobile telephones and their associated base
stations.
I am recognized as an international expert in this field, and have published
numerous articles and papers - dealing not only with the microwave sensitivity
of living systems, but also with the emission from them of coherent, ultra-weak
light (biophotons). I am regularly invited to speak at international
conferences, at meetings of Professional Bodies (such as the Institution of
Electrical Engineers), and on radio and television, both national and
international. My work is frequently reported on in the Press, and has recently
been the subject of articles and features in numerous international magazines,
including the New Scientist.
Given my vantagepoint from theoretical biophysics, I believe that I am uniquely
qualified to assess the problem in its entirety, thereby being able to offer
invaluable insights that might not otherwise be available.
SUMMARY
Attention is drawn to the inadequacy of existing safety guide-lines governing
the exposure of the public to radiation of the kind used in mobile telephony,
and to the fact that the philosophy underlying the formulation of these
guide-lines is fundamentally flawed.
This is because only established, reproducible effects are currently considered
to constitute an acceptable basis for the formulation of safety guidelines; this
restricts the effects against which some degree of protection is afforded to
intensity-based heating. For, being independent of whether the irradiated object
is dead or alive, they can be predicted with certainty.
Thereby excluded, however, are possible adverse health effects provoked by the
ability of living organisms - and only living ones - to respond in an
non-thermal way to aspects of this radiation other than its intensity -
specifically its frequency - both the microwave carrier and the lower frequency
amplitude modulations that characterise the digital signals employed by the GSM
system. The dependence of these effects on the aliveness of the organism
necessarily means that they cannot enjoy the same degree of reproducibility, as
do those that are not so dependent. This does not mean, however, that they do
not exist, or that they should be excluded from the formulation of safety
guidelines; indeed, the very real possibility that they might trigger adverse
health effects must be seriously considered. The empirical fact that such
radiation is known to have deleterious effects on both the neurological and
immunological functioning of living organisms including humans is consistent
with this possibility.
Systematic experimentation is urgently needed, not only in order to be able to
identify more precisely the parameters governing non-thermal influences of
ultra-low intensity microwave (and low frequency modulated) irradiation of
living organisms, but equally important, to ascertain the nature and severity of
any adverse effects on human health thereby provoked. Some interim measures are
identified to ameliorate the unnecessarily hazardous situation currently
prevailing in the vicinity of the base stations that service the mobile phone
network.
1. Existing safety guidelines governing exposure of the public to the radiation
employed in mobile telephony are totally inadequate, and the philosophy
underlying their formulation is fundamentally flawed.
2. Existing guidelines regulate only the intensity of the radiation in an
attempt to protect the human body from adverse health effects which are known to
be linked to intensity namely, a) the absorption of energy by biological tissue
which, in the case of microwave
irradiation, causes heating, or b) the induction in the body of circulating
electric currents, in the case of exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF)
magnetic fields. Both these effects have been well understood for almost a
hundred years, and always occur -
irrespective of whether the irradiated system is a living organism or a piece of
inanimate matter. Existing safety limits are set [1] by restricting the
intensity to ensure that the temperature rise, or induced electric currents are
kept well below the thresholds of the onset of established bio-negative effects.
Although the existing safety guidelines are clearly necessary, they are quite
inadequate. For they completely fail to consider the possibility of adverse
health effects linked to the fact that living organisms and only living ones
have the ability [2] to respond to aspects of technologically produced radiation
other than its intensity, and, accordingly, can respond at intensities well
below the limits imposed by the safety guidelines. A well-known example of this
is the ability of a stroboscope - even at quite low intensities - to induce
epileptic seizures.
3. The crucial discriminating feature of technologically produced radiation
(whatever its intensity) - which is necessary if it is to carry information - is
its coherence, the degree of which is significantly higher than that
characterising radiation of natural origin, such as sunlight, to which Mankind
has evolved a certain immunity. This immunity does not, however, extend to the
much more coherent radiation of technological origin, to which we have only
relatively recently been exposed. Coherence is a concept that is, of course,
familiar in the context of lasers, whose light, due to its coherence, is in-step
(in phase) with itself, and thus particularly pure in frequency (colour), and
hence far more potent than that from an ordinary lamp. This potency still
obtains in the case of the much less intense radiation emitted by other devices,
in particular, those employed in mobile telephony whose coherency greatly
facilitates its discernment by the living organism against the level of the
ever-present (incoherent) thermal background emission appropriate to its own
physiological temperature i.e. the coherence of the radiation significantly
increases its potency to affect living organisms.
4. The ability of living organisms to respond to external coherent radiation
arises because they are electromagnetic instruments of great and exquisite
sensitivity, that themselves support a variety of highly organised, coherent
electrical activities, each characterised by a specific frequency, which play
important roles in maintaining the organisation and control of the living
organism [3]. This natural (endogenous) coherent electrical activity
preconditions the living organism to be highly sensitive to external, coherent
electromagnetic radiation in a non-thermal way that is not primarily dependent
on its intensity (brightness), but rather, on its frequency (colour) which, as
already noted, is sharply defined.
5. The reality of adverse bioeffects not primarily dependent on intensity is
well illustrated by the ability (already mentioned) of a light flashing at a
certain frequency (between 15 and 20 times per second) to induce epileptic
seizures in certain susceptible people. It is the digitisation into regular
pulses that effectively makes the light (which is naturally incoherent) coherent
the regularity of the pulses evidently being close to that of an important
brainwave activity, interference with which provokes the seizure. It is not so
much a question of the amount of energy absorbed from the irradiating field
(which is determined by its intensity, or brightness) but rather the information
transmitted by the (coherent) regularity of its flashing - at a frequency that
the brain recognises, because it matches, or is close to one utilised by the
brain itself.
6. Somewhat less well known is the fact that the microwave signals used in the
digital GSM system of mobile telephony similarly flash 217 times per second, and
that this flashing is punctuated at the much slower rate of 8.34 per second - a
frequency that happens to lie in the range of the important alpha brainwaves!
Given that both light and microwaves belong to the same electromagnetic
spectrum, differing only in their frequency and degree of coherence, there is no
reason to suppose that the deleterious effect of a flashing visible light does
not extend to microwave radiation flashing at an equally low frequency, since
this can easily penetrate the skull. (The effect of this punctuated flashing can
easily be detected as a crackling sound when a turned-on mobile phone handset is
held near a switched-on radio receiver). That it is surely unreasonable to
suppose that our brains should somehow be immune to this electromagnetic
aggression is pointedly emphasised by the prohibition on the use of mobile
phones in aircraft, on the grounds that their signals might interfere with the
planes control systems. Given the infinitely greater electromagnetic sensitivity
of the alive human organism, it would be paradoxical if the same radiation did
not similarly interfere with our own neural processes, whether we are in the
(far) field of a base station mast, or the (near) field of a phone antenna.*
*In this connection, it should
be pointed out that when a handset equipped with discontinuous transmission (DTX)
is in listening mode, there is an even lower frequency pulsation at 2Hz. This is
of particular concern since it falls in the range of the so-called delta
brain-waves which, if present in the EEG of awake adults, are symptomatic of
neural pathology, and therefore should not be promoted by exposure to radiation
of this frequency. On the other hand, brain activity at this frequency also
characterises deep sleep, so that reports of tiredness experienced during the
day are perhaps not surprising. In children, by contrast, delta waves are
normal, and thus, again, should not be disturbed by external interference.
Current safety guidelines thus fail to take into account the most discriminating
feature of all namely the aliveness of the organism being irradiated!
7. Even less well known is the fact that adequately metabolising living
organisms can themselves support another kind of organised (coherent) electrical
activity, the frequency of which happens to fall in the microwave band [2], to
which the carrier frequencies used in mobile telephony belong. Again, just as a
relatively slowly flashing (visible) light can affect certain (electro-chemical)
neurological processes characterised by the same frequency, so living systems
have a preconditioned sensitivity also to ultra-weak microwave radiation; thus,
in addition to a sensitivity to the low frequency (8Hz) punctuation of the
microwave flashes used in mobile telephony, the human organism could well be
sensitive also to the colour of these flashes (i.e. to the microwave carrier
frequency). Accordingly, there is the possibility [4] of either a resonant
amplification (perhaps to a dangerously high level) of an internal biological
electrical activity, or interference with it, resulting in its degradation. It
is also possible for external radiation to augment the naturally prevailing
level of metabolism, and, after a sufficient time, to thereby effectively switch
on an internal microwave activity that Nature did not intend to be on; this
requires a certain minimum threshold intensity that is, however, well below
thermal levels.
8. It is thus apparent that existing safety guidelines (which address only
thermal effects dependent on the intensity of the field) do not, and cannot
protect against any adverse health effects that might be allied specifically to
the wave nature of the radiation, such as its frequency (colour), coherence
(purity of colour), amplitude modulations, etc. Clearly there is another side of
the coin to be taken into account just as, in addition to photography (an
intensity dependent process), there is also holography (a process intimately
related to the wave nature of light, specifically its phase). It must be
stressed, however, that these other possibilities depend on the organism being
alive; for it is through its vitality that it is sensitised just as a radio has
to be switched on before it can respond to a signal. Effects due solely to
intensity, by contrast, do not require the organism to be alive i.e. are not
specific to living systems; for example, a microwave oven will cook a piece of
(dead) meat, just as it will a (living) animal.
9. In turn, whilst the
aliveness opens the system to certain features to which it would not otherwise
be sensitive, it also means, however, that any particular non-thermal effect
cannot be predicted to occur with the same absolute certainty as that with which
thermal effects dependent solely on intensity can - against which existing
safety guidelines attempt to protect. In the case of these non-thermal effects
of microwave radiation, even the occurrence of the primary, initiating
interaction cannot be predicted with certainty, since unlike the intensity-based
heating effect, it depends on the aliveness (e.g. metabolic rate) of the
irradiated subject, which, in general, varies from person to person. The
situation can be likened to the difference between putting ones hand in a fire
(which can be definitively predicted to cause burning), and having contact with
a flu virus, the consequence of which cannot be uniquely predicted - whether one
catches the flu depending, amongst other things, on the robustness of ones
immune system, which, of course, varies from person to person; similarly, in the
case of an epidemic, not everyone succumbs.
This, of course, has serious implications on the acceptibility of the philosophy
underlying the current formulation of safety guidelines by the National
Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) and other regulatory bodies - namely, that
they can be based only on established, reproducible effects. The intensity-based
heating effect of microwave radiation, of course, conforms to this criterion,
since being independent of whether the irradiated organism is alive or dead, it
can be predicted to occur with certainty. Necessarily excluded, however, are
effects contingent on the aliveness of the human organism - in particular, the
non-thermal effects discussed above, that, in principle, cannot enjoy the same
degree of reproducibility; this does not mean, however, that they do not exist!
Accordingly, the prevailing philosophy must be considered to be fundamentally
flawed!
The same is true of statements to the effect that there are no established
health hazards of radiation of sub-thermal intensity, since, unlike thermal
effects, only the possibility of any initiating non-thermal influence can be
meaningfully spoken of. The traditional understanding of cause and effect is
thus no longer appropriate here, and must be replaced [5] by the more modern
idea of signals and responses - a concept familiar in sociological contexts,
where the response of different people to the same signal can vary enormously,
particularly if in one person it strikes a raw nerve, that is absent in another.
It is thus clear that effects not allied to intensity inevitably slip through
the net of existing safety guidelines, which, of course, raises the question as
to how a more comprehensive level of safety might be ensured. Before considering
this, it is necessary to assess the status of evidence - both theoretical and
experimental - consistent with the potentiality of living organisms to be
adversely affected by ultra-low intensity radiation.
10. Firstly, it is to be noted that the preconditioned hypersensitivity of
adequately metabolising living organisms to ultra-weak microwave radiation of a
particular frequency is a quite general prediction of modern biophysics [2],
reflecting the self-organising ability of open, dissipative systems in the
non-linear regime far from thermodynamic equilibrium, whereby once the rate of
metabolic energy supply exceeds the rate at which the system can turn it into
heat, a certain fraction of this energy is (non-thermally) channelled into a
highly organised (coherent) collective vibration of the whole system, wherein it
is stored and effectively protected against dissipation - the frequency of this
vibration being in the microwave band.
Secondly, much experimental evidence has accumulated over the past 25 years that
is consistent not only with the existence [6] of this endogenous microwave
activity, and with associated non-thermal, highly frequency-dependent influences
[4] - such as, for example, alterations in the growth rate of E.coli [7] and
yeast [8], synchronisation of cell division [9], the switch-on of certain
genetic processes [10], alteration in the activity of important enzymes [11],
etc. - but also with the fact that other organised electrical activities in
quite different frequency ranges, such as brainwaves [12], can likewise be
influenced in a non-thermal way by external fields, (amplitude) modulated to a
similar frequency; in addition, there are numerous reports of other non-thermal
influences of the radiation of the kind used in mobile telephony, such as
effects on human blood pressure [13], depression of the immune efficiency of
human leukocytes (white blood cells) [14], increases in the permeability of the
blood-brain barrier [15], increases in calcium efflux from brain tissue [16],
and most dramatically, a significant increase in the mortality of chick embryos
[17].
Finally, there are the numerous reports (that display a remarkable consistency
(world-wide) of adverse health effects experienced both by users of mobile
phones and by people resident in the vicinity of the associated base stations,
the most common complaints being those of a neurological nature, such as effects
on short-term memory, concentration, learning, sleeping disorders and anxiety
states [18], as well as increases in the incidence of leukemia [19].
It is clear that the laboratory findings* referred to above are, in general,
consistent with the reported adverse health problems. Given this degree of
circumstantial evidence, research effort must now be directed towards
understanding the extent to which the reported adverse health effects can be
considered to be actually initiated by some primary non-thermal influence of an
ultra-low intensity external electromagnetic field on the human organism, and,
further, to consider whether adverse health effects other than those already
reported might also be provoked.
The present situation is summarised in the attached Figure.
11. Taken individually, the evidence from each of the four sectors might well be
considered less than compelling, but when considered together, a rather
interconsistent picture emerges from which it is clear that the issue of
non-thermal effects can no longer be responsibly dismissed as an epiphenomenom,
but is indeed a reality which cannot be reasonably denied a reality which
mandates firstly its recognition by regulatory bodies, and secondly, that
serious and urgent attention be given to how the public might be better
protected against any associated adverse health effects, so that the benefits of
modern telecommunication technology can be enjoyed with a higher degree of
safety than is currently the case. Before this can be done, however, much more
research into these subtle effects is required specifically:
A. Further studies at the level of the primary interaction of ultra-low
intensity microwaves (including pulsed ones) with living organisms - along the
lines already persued in the laboratory, using lower forms of life for
experimentation [7-11] - aimed at obtaining a much better understanding of the
ability of such radiation (of sub-thermal intensity) to influence,
non-thermally, biological processes both at a cellular and sub-cellular level,
addressing, for example, the magnitude of the (sub-thermal) threshold intensity
and duration of irradiation necessary to achieve the switch-on of various
processes, and the dependence of these processes on the frequency of the
radiation.
B. Much needed physiological studies, to establish the nature and extent of any
adverse effects on human health provoked by the primary non-thermal influence of
ultra-low intensity radiation on the living organism [12-17].
*It should be stressed that experimental difficulties encountered in independent
attempts to reproduce these findings are not unexpected, but indeed reflect the
non-uniqueness in the response of living organisms mentioned above. It must be
appreciated that not only are these experiments extremely difficult in
themselves, but also that the relatively large numbers of variables involved in
the full characterisation of the living organism (not to mention deterministic
chaos [20]) militates against the realisation of the identical conditions
necessary to ensure reproducibility. In many cases, positive results were only
obtained, with considerable patience and effort, after many initial failures.
Since the odds are so stacked against a positive result, the realisation of one
must be considered to be rather significant.
12. Meanwhile, several courses of action can be identified that would go some
way to ameliorating the (unnecessarily) hazardous situation currently obtaining
in the case of base stations:
(i) Ensure that the field strengths to which the public is so indiscriminately
and involuntarily exposed are kept well below the threshold values referred to
above, which are 1000 times lower than thermal levels, being of the order of
microwatts/cm2 ( = (W/cm2)
This will, of course, also lower the energy in each pulse, and can be achieved
either by locating the antennae on much higher masts, or by introducing an
exclusion zone, such as the one of 500 metres recommended (but not legally
enforceable) by the Association of Local Governments of New South Wales (NSW),
Australia; clearly, mast height can be traded against the extent of any
exclusion zone.
It may be noted, in connection with NSW, that the safety limits there
recommended (but again not legally enforceable) are the most stringent in the
world - being 1000 times lower than 1(W/cm2. By comparison, the NRPB value of
3300(W/cm2 is one million times higher! Furthermore, the NRPB value is more than
7 times higher than that (450(W/cm2) of the International Commission on Non-Ionising
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP [1]) who advise the World Health Organisation,
whilst the EU has recently recommended a value of 10 (W/cm2).
(ii) Prevent localised areas of unnecessarily high fields by prohibiting the
future erection of clusters of masts in the same vicinity, and requiring that
existing clusters be replaced by a single tall mast serving the various
companies. In considering Planning Applications, attention should be given to
the proposed site of a mast in relation to the local topography, so as to ensure
that in hilly terrain, for example, there are no homes, schools, hospitals or
any other public buildings that are occupied for any appreciable period of time
on a level with the emitting antennae. Furthermore, the antennae distribution on
the mast should be such that the highest possible emission in any direction
(taking into account the maximum call traffic) is, in publicly accessible areas,
well below the 1 microwatt/cm2 threshold value.
(iii) Remove from the digital signal any low frequency (amplitude) modulations
that fall in the range of the human brainwaves.
18 June 1999
REFERENCES
1. Health Physics, 74(4), 494-522 (1998)
2. H. Fröhlich, Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics, 53, 85-152 (1980)
3. C.W. Smith & S. Best, Electromagnetic Man, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd,
London, 1989
4. G.J. Hyland, Engineering Science and Education Journal, 7(6), 261-269 (1998)
5. C. Brauner, Electrosmog a Phantom Risk, Swiss Reinsurance Company, 1996
6. S.J. Webb et al., Phys. Letts, 60A, 267-268 (1977); ibid., 63A, 407-408
(1977); ibid., 69A, 65-67 (1978); Physics Report, 60(4), 201-224 (1980); V.S.
Bannikov et al., Doklady Akad. Nauk. 253(2), 479-480 (1980); F. Drissler &
L. Santo, in Coherent Excitations in Biological Systems, (Eds. H. Fröhlich
& F. Kremer), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1983, pp.6-9.
7. S.J. Webb & A.D. Booth, Nature, 222, 1199-1200 (1969); A.J. Berteaud et
al., C.R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. Ser. D, 281, 843-846 (1975)
8. W. Grundler & F. Kaiser, Nanobiology, 1, 163-176 (1992)
9. M.B. Golant et al., Radiophys. Quantum Electron. 37, 82-84 (1994); I.Ya. Be
lyaev et al., Electro-and Magnetobiology, 13(1), 53-65 (1994)
10. S.J. Webb, Phys. Lett. 73A, 145-148 (1979); K. Lukashevsky & I.Ya.
Belyaev, Med. Sci. Res. 18, 955-957 (1990)
11. L. Miguel Penafiel et al., Bioelectromagnetics 18, 132-141 (1997)
12. L von Klitzing, Phys. Medica XI(2), 77-80 (1995); K. Mann & J. Roschke,
Neuropsychobiology, 33, 41-47 (1996)
13. S. Braune et al., The Lancet 351, Saturday 20 June 1998
14. R. Coghill, accepted for publication in Bioelectrochemistry and
Bioenergetics, 1999
15. L.G. Salford et al., Microsc. Res. Tech., 27, 535-542 (1994)
16. S.K. Dutta et al., Bioelectromagnetics, 5, 71-78 (1984)
17. M. Bastide et al., submitted to Bioelectromagnetics, 1999; see also B.J.
Youbicier-Simo et al., ibid., 18(7), 514-523 (1997)
18. A.A. Kolodynski & V.V. Kolodynski, The Science of the Total Environment,
180, 87-93 (1996)
19. B. Hocking et al., Medical J. Australia, 165, 601-605 (1996); H. Dolk et
al., American J. of Epidemiology, 145(1), 1-9 (1997); ibid., 10-17 (1997)
20. F. Kaiser, in Energy Transfer Dynamics, (Eds. T.W. Barrett & H.A. Pohl),
Springer-Verlag, Berlin,1987, Ch.21, pp.224-236 SEITE
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