WORLD HEALTH Urgently Needs lower EMF Standards

PRESS RELEASE of the International EMF Alliance, 3 Feb 2011

New International EMF Alliance Announces far-reaching Acientific Consensus Statement, Published Today:
WORLD HEALTH Urgently Needs lower EMF Standards

Oslo, Norway, February 3, 2011. The International EMF Alliance (IEMFA) today announces a new published report and scientific Consensus Statement concerning health hazards of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Led by Olle Johansson, PhD of the Karolinska Institute, the report published by a consortium of international scientists urges global governments to adopt significantly lower human exposure standards for electromagnetic fields. The recommendations are based on the latest body of evidence in biological sciences, and the public-health implications of the unprecedented global exposures to electromagnetic fields from telecommunications and electric power technologies. The scientists recommend specific exposure limits for different frequency fields, including microwaves, used in wireless communications, and ELF electric fields and magnetic fields.

According to the international scientists, called the Seletun Scientific Panel, it has become obvious that new, biologically-based public exposure standards are urgently needed to protect long-term public health worldwide. Current public-safety EMF-exposure guidelines used world wide, based on physics models and calculations, currently only protect for damage generated by a heating effect. With respect to prolonged, low-intensity exposures that nowadays frequently occur, but do not have a heating effect, the guidelines, say the scientists, are inadequate and obsolete.

An 18 minutes video of Olle Johansson, PhD of the Karolinska Institute, Chair of IEMFA’s Seletun Scientific Panel that issued the report is available here: http://vimeo.com/18018440

The report and consensus statement, published in the journal Reviews on Environmental Health http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21268443 include ten Key Points:

1. The global Populations are insufficiently protected, thus currently at Risk;

2. Sensitive Populations are extra vulnerable;

3. Government Actions are urgently warranted now, based on Evidence of serious Disruption to Biological Systems;

4. The Burden of Proof for the Safety of radiation-emitting Technologies should fall on Producers and Providers, not Consumers;

5. EMF Exposures should be reduced in advance of complete Understanding of Mechanisms of Action;

6. The current operative measure of Radiation Risk - the specific absorption rate (SAR) - is inadequate, and misguides on Safety and Health Risks;

7. An international Disease Registry is needed to track Time Trends of the incidence of Illnesses to correlate the Illnesses with Exposures;

8. Pre-market health Testing and Safety Demonstration is needed for all radiation-emitting Technologies;

9. Parity is needed for occupational Exposure Standards, compared to those for the General Public;

10. Persons with Electrohypersensitivity need the classification Functionally Impaired.

The International EMF Alliance has rapidly grown in 2010 into a global collaboration of over fifty health advocacy groups focused on electromagnetic fields (www.iemfa.org). Its principle aim is to disseminate coherent, health-oriented information and advice to the public worldwide on the ever-expanding body of knowledge on biological disruptions observed in living tissues after acute and long-term exposure to non-ionizing electromagnetic fields. The Alliance benefits from the support of a large number of life scientists and medical experts from fifteen countries who collaborate worldwide to address emerging threats to public health.

For more information:

Alex Swinkels, Spokesperson and Board member IEMFA, info@iemfa.org (Netherlands)
Brian Stein, Board Member IEMFA, brian.stein@SamworthBrothers.co.uk (United Kingdom)
Camilla Rees, Board Member IEMFA, crgr@aol.com (United States)
Don Maisch, PhD, Board Member IEMFA, dmaisch@emfacts.com (Australia)
Daniel Oberhausen, Board Member IEMFA, danobe68@aol.fr (France)
Eileen O'Connor, Board Member IEMFA, eileen@radiationresearch.org (United Kingdom)
Sissel Halmoy, Chairwoman IEMFA, sissel@stralevern.no (Norway)

Links:

Read the summary on PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21268443
To read the full recommendations of IEMFA's Scientific Seletun Panel, please go to: http://iemfa.org/index.php/publications/seletun-resolution