Radiation and Health Interest Group

[Fallingwaffle]

Dear Colleagues,

Is there anyone here who would be interest in sharing articles, data, theories, and discussions on risks of EMF, RF, radiation emission from devices and man made structures and health consequences and epidemiology. Please contact or send a follow up post here.

I am specifically interested in learning of the effect it has on cancer spread as well as math models to precisely measure or predict the amount emitted and from there have some sort of clinical/epidemiology application.

Its just one of those things that I ponder every once a year or so.

Respectfully yours

 

[meintesla]

There has been a lot of research in this area as far back as the 1960ies. Please read the work by Robert O. Becker who started to summarize the existing research as early as 40 years ago. He and his colleague Andrew A. Marino subsequently discovered beneficial aspects of certain low intensity magnetic fields and direct electrical stimulation. All of these effects are highly non-linear and there is no direct "dose" relationship. It is a very complex subject as certain frequencies show an effect (e.g. check FDA website regarding magnetic fields effects on bacteria for purposes of developing new disinfection methods) and others do not. If one could model it that would be great but there is insufficient public information to do so.

R.O. Becker concluded that magnetic fields of certain frequency bands interfere with the human (and animal) immune system. That means for example that testing cells in a Petri dish will not predict what is going to happen to a person exposed to the same field.

More recent research shows the modulation of melatonin levels in the brain when exposed to certain ultra low frequency and low strength magnetic field levels. See Dr. Sandyk's research. Since melatonin is a cancer inhibitor this could be relevant to your research as well.

Research on how RF emission may increase the risk of cancer is very limited as there are huge liabilities associated with that. Who wants to go down the road of the tobacco companies and determine that their own product may be a health hazard? If your model would show a risk for certain frequencies or power levels it would be very easy to "discredit" you by just running a few tests under slightly different test parameters (change waveform, repetition rates, peak amplitude vs average etc) that would escape the attention of most people.
Good luck.

 

[Fallingwaffle]

I will be reviewing the above mentioned authors and their works. Perhaps I will be able to post some highlights from their research on PF for further analysis.

Regarding harmful effects of EMF, I heed the cautions of research into frequency/dose specific effects and how such research is easily refutable. That being said a number of article seem to pop up on Pubmed regarding this concern and associations to childhood cancers. None of these are particularly landmark to my knowledge and some are critical or provide evidence against the idea of EMF associated cancer incidence. I am providing the links or article information as food for thought:

1.
A pooled analysis of extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and childhood brain tumors.
Kheifets L, Ahlbom A, Crespi CM, Feychting M, Johansen C, Monroe J, Murphy MF, Oksuzyan S, Preston-Martin S, Roman E, Saito T, Savitz D, Schüz J, Simpson J, Swanson J, Tynes T, Verkasalo P, Mezei G.
Am J Epidemiol. 2010 Oct 1;172(7):752-61. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwq181. Epub 2010 Aug 9. Review.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 20696650 PMCID: PMC2984256

2.
Exposure to electromagnetic fields (non-ionizing radiation) and its relationship with childhood leukemia: a systematic review.
Calvente I, Fernandez MF, Villalba J, Olea N, Nuñez MI.
Sci Total Environ. 2010 Jul 15;408(16):3062-9. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.03.039. Epub 2010 May 7. Review.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 20451240

3.
Living near overhead high voltage transmission power lines as a risk factor for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a case-control study.
Sohrabi MR, Tarjoman T, Abadi A, Yavari P.
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2010;11(2):423-7.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 20843128

4.
Electromagnetic fields (EMF): do they play a role in children's environmental health (CEH)?
Otto M, von Mühlendahl KE.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2007 Oct;210(5):635-44. Epub 2007 Aug 31. Review.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 17765660

5.
Childhood leukemia and EMF: review of the epidemiologic evidence.
Kheifets L, Shimkhada R.
Bioelectromagnetics. 2005;Suppl 7:S51-9. Review.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 16059924

6.
Risk of childhood leukemia in areas passed by high power lines.
Lin RS, Lee WC.
Rev Environ Health. 1994 Apr-Jun;10(2):97-103. Review.
PubMed [citation]PMID: 8047676

Respectfully yours

 

[Evo]

First, welcome to the forum. Some friendly advice. The consensus is that there is no corelation. A thread needs to have a direction, the only mainstream discussion would be against such a relationship, as you have already pointed out.

Other analyses employing alternate cutpoints, further adjustment for confounders, exclusion of particular studies, stratification by type of measurement or type of residence, and a nonparametric estimate of the exposure-response relation did not reveal consistent evidence of increased childhood brain tumor risk associated with ELF-MF exposure. These results provide little evidence for an association between ELF-MF exposure and childhood brain tumors.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20696650

And please, as you can see by other posts in this forum, out of courtesy, we ask that you give the actual link, like this one, to the first paper you listed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20696650

That way people don't have to hunt for it. Also, I would only post a few significant papers, not the entire roster, quoting the conclusion of the paper, as I did above. That way people can judge whether it's worth their time reading.