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LYS E > fa WN Wo WHO DIRECTOR WARNS ON MOBILE PHONES According to the report, expo- ” sure to toxic chemicals, both man- ufactured and natural, causes about three per cent of all developmental defects, and at least 25 per cent of defects might be the result of a combination of genetic and envi- ronmental factors. The report advises that new dis- coveries in developmental biology and genetics should be used when scientists analyse chemicals for their potential to cause birth defects. Furthermore it states that, given recent advances in understanding how the process of normal devel- opment occurs, methods can now be devised to determine how chemicals disrupt it in humans. "Many manufactured chemicals, as well as chemicals that occur in nature, have not been adequately evaluated for developmental toxicity," said Elaine Faustman, chair of the committee that wrote the report and also Professor of Environmental Health and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication at the University of Washington, Seattle. The committee emphasised that all stages of human development—from con- ception to puberty—should be examined in toxicity studies, since all developmental periods are potentially susceptible to toxic agents. (Source: Report, "Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment", from the Committee on Life Sciences, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, National Research Council, USA, available for US$47.20 via website http://www4.nationalacademies.org/ news.nsffisbn/0309070864? OpenDocument, or by phoning +1 [202] 334 3313) r Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Q Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), favours a precautionary approach to the use of mobile phones and also discourages children from using them, according to an inter- view published in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet Norge on March 9. Dr Brundtland, a former Prime Minister of Norway, is also a physician with a degree in public health. She said that, although she doesn't own a mobile phone, when- ever she uses one she gets a headache that takes about half an hour to an hour to abate after the radiation exposure stops. "It's not the sound, but the waves I react to. My hypersensitivity has gone so far that I even react to mobiles closer to me than about four metres," she said. She also gets an "instant reaction" if she so much as touches a wireless phone. As for computers: "If I hold a laptop to read what's on the screen, it feels like I get an electric shock through my arms," she said. [See also Don Maisch's article on mobile phones in Science News this issue. Ed.] (Sources: Dagbladet Norge, March 9, 2002, http://www.dagbladet.no; Microwave News, vol. XXII, no. 2, March/April 2002, http:/www.microwavenews.com) TOXIC CHEMICALS EXPOSURE CAUSES BIRTH DEFECTS pproximately half of all pregnancies in the United States result in prenatal or postnatal death or an otherwise less than healthy baby. And major developmental defects, such as neural tube and heart deformities, occur in approximately 120,000 of the four million babies born in the US each year. So says a report released by the US National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in June 2000, but which has had little exposure in the public domain. US OMITTED FROM HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT COVERAGE n its January 16 broadcast, ABC's World News Tonight aired this brief item about the annual report released that day by Human Rights Watch: "The international human rights group Human Rights Watch has released its annual report, and it says that several countries are using the US-led war against terrorism as a justification to ignore human rights. "Human Rights Watch says that Russia, oe ~ s. (/ 6 ¢ NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com