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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE author in September 2001: "Already in 1996, I started to warn in public of the effects of microwave irradia- tion on children through their use of mobile telephones. The debate has also very much focussed on the responsibility regarding ads and products directly aimed for chil- dren, and here in Sweden great alarm has been raised around the propositions to develop and sell cellphones even for the ages up to five years." These results tell us that, e.g., microwave fields from mobile phones can be expected to affect children to a much higher degree than adults." delta brain-wave activities, respectively. The fact that these two particular electrical activities are constantly changing in a child until the age of about 12 years, when the delta waves disappear and the alpha rhythm is finally stabilised, means that they must both be anticipated to be particularly vulnerable to interference from the GSM pulsing. * The increased mitotic activity in the cells of developing children makes them more susceptible to genetic damage. ¢ A child's immune system, whose effi- ciency is, in any case, degraded by radia- tion of the kind used in mobile telephony, is generally less robust than that of an adult, so that the child is less able to cope with any adverse health effect provoked by (chronic) exposure to such radiation." d on the responsibility regarding 7) This statement from Dr Gerard ads and products directly aimed for chil- Hyland at the Department of Physics, dren, and here in Sweden great alarm has University of Warwick, Coventry, England, een raised around the propositions to is excerpted from his Report for the STOA develop and sell cellphones even for the Committee of the EU, specifically dealing ages up to five years." with children and mobile phone use: "The Increased Vulnerability of Pre- 6) Professor Sianette Kwee of the adolescent Children: Department of Medical Biochemistry at the "Pre-adolescent children can be expected University of Aarhus, Denmark, emailed to be (potentially) more at risk than are the following statement to the author in adults—as recognised in the recently pub- September 2001. Prof. Kwee is on the edi- lished Report of the UK Independent torial board of Bioelectrochemistry and a Expert Group on Mobile Phones—for the Danish expert representative in the following reasons: European Union's COST 281 project, * Absorption of microwaves of the fre- "Potential Health Effects from Emerging quency used in mobile telephony is greatest Wireless Communication Systems", basic in an object about the size of a child's head, research group, whose fields of research the so-called head resonance, whilst, in are bioelectrochemistry (electroporation/ consequence of the thinner skull of a child, electrochemistry of biological systems) and the penetration of the radiation into the bioelectromagnetics (biological effects of brain is greater than in an adult. environmental electromagnetic fields— * The still-developing nervous system extremely low frequency [ELF] and and associated brain-wave activity in a microwave [MW]—on cell growth in child (and particularly one that is epileptic) human amnion cells). She stated: are more vulnerable to aggression by the "Our studies showed that there was a sig- _ pulses of microwaves used in GSM than is nificant change in cell growth in these cells the case with a mature adult. This is after being exposed to EMF fields from because the multi-frame repetition both power lines (ELF) and from mobile frequency of 8.34 Hz and the 2 Hz pulsing phones (MW). These biological effects that characterises the signal from a phone were greatest in young and vigorously equipped with discontinuous transmission growing cells, but much less in old cells. (DTX) lie in the range of the alpha and 8) An article in the UK Sunday Mirror of December 27, 2001, headed "The Child Scrambler: What a mobile can do to a youngster's brain in 2 mins", said: "These are the first images that show the shocking effect that using a mobile phone as on a child's brain. "Scientists have discovered that a call lasting just two minutes can alter the natural electrical activity of a child's brain ‘or up to an hour afterwards. And they also ound for the first time how radio waves rom mobile phones penetrate deep into the rain and not just around the ear. "The study by Spanish scientists has rompted leading medical experts to ques- tion whether it is safe for children to use mobile phones at all. "Doctors fear that disturbed brain activity in children could lead to psychiatric and ehavioural problems or impair learning ability. "It was the first time that human guinea igs were used to measure the effects of mobile phone radiation on children. The tests were carried out on an 11-year-old oy and a 13-year-old girl called Jennifer. "Using a CATEEN scanner, linked to a machine measuring brain wave activity, researchers were able to create the images above. "The yellow-coloured part of the scan on the right shows how radiation spreads through the centre of the brain and out to the ear on the other side of the skull. The scans found that disturbed brain-wave activity lasted for up to an hour after the phone call ended. "Dr Gerald Hyland—a Government adviser on mobiles—says he finds the 50 ¢ NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2002 Sowrerwille www.nexusmagazine.com