Scientists Add Kidney Damage To The List of Mobile Phone Ills

From mainly The Daily Mail. By Sarah Harris
12/13/99

Kidney damage from mobiles

Mobile phones were at the centre of a new health scare last night after claims they can seriously damage the heart and kidneys.

Earlier reports have already linked their use to brain tumours, headaches and premature ageing. Now scientists say exposure to the phones' low-level radiation causes red blood cells to leak haemoglobin. The build-up of haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body, can lead to heart disease and kidney stones.

The findings will heighten alarm over the safety of mobile phones which are used by more than 13 million people in Britain. In the latest research, scientists exposed samples of blood to varying degrees of microwave radiation for periods between ten to 60 hours.

Even at lower levels than those emitted by mobile phones, the cells leaked haemoglobin. Professor Edward Tuddenham, a haemotologist at the Imperial College Medical School based in Hammersmith Hospital, West London, said the findings were worrying and he wanted to see the study followed up. 'The accumulation of haemoglobin in the body could result in heart disease or kidney stones,' he warned.

The Department of Health said yesterday that the new study - carried out at the European Research Institute for Electronic Components in Bucharest - would be examined by a Government-appointed committee due to report on phone safety next year.

However, the Cambridge based consumer group Powerwatch head of research Alasdair Philips said with evidence of the risks growing the government needed to do more.

"We are still very much investigating the biological consequences of mobile phones. But there certainly seems to be enough laboratory studies now saying there are effects, to be very concerned,".

Last month, scientists at Sweden's Lund University found that two minutes of exposure to emissions from mobile phones can disable a safety barrier in the blood causing proteins and toxins to leak into the brain.

This can increase the chances of developing diseases such as Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's. The Federation of the Electronics Industry yesterday repeated its claim that there was no conclusive proof that the phones were a health hazard. A spokesman said mobiles operated within strict guidelines on radiation emissions. "The consensus of scientific opinion is that there is no consistent evidence that mobile phones operating within these guidelines have any adverse health effects," he said.

I say notice the qualifications gradually creepuing in their utterances as we keep the pressure on, it is now 'consensus' and 'consistent' evidence needed. Well leaving aside the unhappy fact there is this type of evidence! No longer dare the 'deniers' claim "there is no evidence" as they used to a couple of years ago. We claim there is consistent evidence of damage at the cellular level with membranes and systemic level too: cardiac, neurological, hormonal (of the immune system), respiratory and gastric. If mobiles were food or medicines they would never have been allowed untested.

William Rea, MD
Past President, American Academy of Environmental Medicine Founder & Director of the Environmental Health Center, Dallas says:


“Sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation is the emerging health problem of the 21st century. It is imperative health practitioners, governments, schools and parents learn more about it. The human health stakes are significant”.

Martin Blank, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons; Researcher in Bioelectromagnetics; Author of the BioInitiative Report’s section on Stress Proteins. makes clear:

“Cells in the body react to EMFs as potentially harmful, just like to other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals. The DNA in living cells recognizes electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure; and produces a biochemical stress response. The scientific evidence tells us that our safety standards are inadequate, and that we must protect ourselves from exposure to EMF due to power lines, cell phones and the like, or risk the known consequences. The science is very strong and we should sit up and pay attention.”

From Paul Doyon we get:

"The greatest challenge to the development of knowledge is the comfort of dogmatism - the security provided by unquestioned confidence in a statement of truth, or in a method of achieving truth - or even the shadow dogmatism of utter skepticism (for to be utterly skeptical is to dogmatically affirm that nothing can be known)..." David C. Kolb, Experiential Learning