[LINK] EMF Health problems

[Stewart Fist]

Jim Birch wrote:

> (Just about) everything we do entails risks and benefits.

Yeh.  But we normally try to reduce the risk as much as possible.  Living is
a risk, but we try to prolong it.


> Eating leafy
> greens is beneficial but leafy greens contain known carcinogens.  In fact
> virtually all plants contain toxins that the plants developed to counter
> creatures that would like to eat them.

Now you are getting scientific, and this statement is wrong.  Toxins are
often highly specific.  Some toxins kill lab rats, but don't effect mice.
What is toxic to a caterpillar, may not be toxic to a human.


> But there's a major health campaign
> at present to encourage eating of fruits and vegetables.  Why? It's not
> because there's no risks, it's the risk-benefit balance.

We can only work out the risk-benefit balance when we know what the risks
are, and can measure the benefits (the term is usually meant in the economic
sense, to me community or business benefits).  Risks aren't just associated
with immediate effects, we know from sad experience that many of those we
are trying to deal with today only act over decades, and often insidiously.



> The possibility of emf radiation
> from low level sources being a major health risk is very low, given the
> number of people exposed to date without any *obvious* epidemiological
> impact, unlike asbestos.

In fact, the first hint that asbestos was a problem was in the 1890s, yet I
was taught at school that it was the 'wonder fibre'.

> 
> I'd love to see the risks of mobile phones worked out so that people could
> potentially make an informed choice, but on the evidence I've seen I expect
> that it will turn out to be the kind of low level of risk that most people
> are more-or-less happy to live with.

I agree with your assessment, but I don't agree with your certainties.

I'm not in a position to know, and nor do I believe you are.

As with the tobacco industry, the cellphone industry has engaged for years
in a deliberate campaign of misinformation and the promotion of dubious
science. The electronics industry, which sets the standards for health, is
even more casual with the truty.

 And until that is all cleared up, even the best scientists working in the
area can't make any sort of informed judgement.


-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458