Sunday, November 16, 2014

Consultation on WHO’s EHC on RF is a sham – decision of “no health effects” was made already

Consultation on WHO’s EHC on RF is a sham – decision of “no health effects” was made already


On November 11, 2014, in Wollongong, Australia, took place workshop organized by ICNIRP, ACEBR and ARPANSA. The workshop briefly presented and reviewed opinions of ICNIRP about the health hazard of RF exposures. Following the ICNIRP/ACEBR/ARPANSA workshop was the Science & Wireless (S&W) 2014 event dedicated to the EHS.
I will write more about the individual presentations later, when I return from my lecture tour of Australia.
For now, I can say that the general outcome of the workshop and the S&W2014 event can be summarized in a simple Australian Crocodile Dundee’s saying: “no worries mate”.
This worries me a lot… and here is why…
The WHO EMF Project is conducting review of research on RF and will, in due time (2016 or later?) publish an Environmental Health Criteria (EHC) monograph. The first draft of this document was uploaded, in the end of September 2014, on the WHO website and anyone can send comments to be considered by the WHO. The commenting deadline has been recently extended to mid-December 2014.
In one of my blogs, I severely complained about the EHC draft and I expressed an opinion that the consultation should be postponed until the full version of the draft will be available. The WHO, in persons of Emilie van Deventer and Eric van Rongen, considered my complaint as baseless.
I still, and strongly, disagree. The document is missing important chapters, including the preamble that should describe all procedures of the review and public consultation. The review was conducted of studies published only till the end of 2012 (with some exceptions), what means that nearly 2 years of published research are still missing from the draft. These will be later added, as specified on the WHO website, but there will be no possibility to comment on these reviews. Nearly all published chapters of the EHC are missing conclusions – no comments can be made. Even if someone sends comments, there is not known what will happen to them because all comments will be accepted or rejected at the discretion of the chair of the preparatory group of the EHC – Eric van Rongen. Summa summarum, the consultation, as it is being conducted now, is a sham.
The final blow to the “consultation” and to the ICNIRP’s caring for the others’ opinions has been delivered during the Science & Wireless 2014 in presentation by Rodney Croft, member of the Main Commission of the ICNIRP.
In his presentation, Rodney Croft said two interesting things.
  • First, the IARC classification of the cell phone radiation as possible human carcinogen is not an evidence of human health effect. I can agree that it is no proof of health effect but, what else than health effect, is an increased risk of developing glioma in long-time avid users of cell phones?
  • Second and even more interesting thing in Rodney Croft’s presentation was that; “WHO EHC (draft): No evidence of health effects”.
Hold on!
This is an opinion based on unfinished draft of EHC that is just the review of some scientific studies, the last 2 years excluded. This draft is supposed to be the basis of the evaluation by the Task Group, of yet unknown (?) experts who, in due time (end of 2016?), will render their opinion whether RF is or is not hazardous to human health.
However, Rodney Croft and represented by him ICNIRP already know/decided that there are no any health effects. And this is not just a personal opinion of Rodney Croft. As presented in his talk, the opinion of “no health effects” stems directly from the unfinished and the incomplete EHC draft.
If you are in disbelief, here is the photo, taken at the event, where Rodney Croft presents his momentous opinion – no health effects.
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