Nexus - 0703 - New Times Magazine-pages

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deBriefings thermal effects only has become a paradigm in the West. Force paper on the EPA report stated: "If published, the [EPA] Today, the ICNIRP exposure guidelines (thermal only) are __report will contribute to public anxiety and have serious impacts being promoted as "the best that science has to offer" for an —_ on capabilities and costs of air force programs." "international" standard, and many countries are now being urged ¢ The absence of large, capitalist, private corporations which to incorporate them as their national standard. were investing in microwave technology purely for future corpo- In Russia, however, a vastly different political, economic and rate profit, and would view research into low-level hazards as social situation resulted paradoxically in their scientists being _ itself a risk for "the bottom line". An example of this was in given far more democratic and aca- Australia, where the possible health demic freedom (and funding) than risks from mobile phone use were their Western counterparts in choos- In Russia. a vastly different considered serious enough to men- ) ing the focus of their research tion in the Telstra 2 share offer doc- efforts, without interference from political, economic and social ument. The document says there vested interests. This has resulted situation resulted paradoxically in have been allegations but no proof, in a Russian RF/MW exposure stan- their scientists being given far more and warns "there is a risk that a per- dard with a different viewpoint on ceived or actual risk could lead to what "protection" should mean in | @emocratic and academic freedom litigation against Telstra". regards to ensuring people's health. i i Now that East and West are talk- While thermal effects are accept- (and funding) than their Western ing about the standard-setting ed by both Western and Russian sci- counterparts...without interference process, it is only rational that the entists, it was only the Russians from vested interests. large body of Russian medical who expanded their research to research into non-thermal biological include extensive studies with effects should now be included in human workers who were exposed standard-setting. Unfortunately, to non-thermal electromagnetic fields. The reasons why Eastern however, it appears that the current attitude of ICNIRP is that the scientists had more freedom in this regard are as follows: process of harmonisation means total acceptance of the existing * The socialist philosophy about protecting "the worker". ICNIRP guidelines (thermal effects only) without alteration. * The military was exempt from the public/occupational stan- This was very much the case in the 1999 Australian Standards dards and could go about its business unfettered by these limits. | TE/7 Committee: Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, As such, Russian (USSR) research into developing a non-thermal _ where an alliance of government/industry/military representatives standard that considered low-level, prolonged exposures was not — would consider no changes to ICNIRP guidelines, despite seen as a possible threat to the military's developing and deploy-_ concrete evidence being submitted that these guidelines were ing new technology, the way it was in the USA, for instance. An incorrect and biased in their interpretation of the Western example of this was the suppression of the US Environmental __ scientific literature. Protection Agency's (EPA) 1990 report, "Evaluation of the Now that the large body of Russian literature is becoming Potential Carcinogenicity of Electromagnetic Fields", which was _ available to the West—literature which convincingly shows that a review of the scientific literature up to that date. AUS Air — ICNIRP voluntary standards do not provide adequate protection for workers and the public—how will our standard-setting bodies handle that? If it turns out that ICNIRP still insists that only high-level thermal effects can be considered in standard-setting, then the question must be raised: Exactly for whom does ICNIRP provide protection? About the Author: Don Maisch established EMFacts Consultancy in 1994, and has pro- duced over 21 publications/papers on various health issues related to human exposure to electromagnetic radiation. He is a scheduled speaker at the May 2000 NEXUS Conference. He can be contacted at PO Box 96, North Hobart, Tasmania 7002, Australia, tel +61 (0)3 6243 0195, fax +61 (0)3 6243 0340, e-mail emfacts@trump. net.au, ICQ 30814841, website www.tassie.net.au/ emfacts/. 14 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2000