Environmental Health Trust Says Danish Study Finding No Health Risks From Cell Phones Was Designed to Fail
EHT Says Research Study Incorporated Flawed Data
A newly published Danish study that found no link between cellphone use and acoustic neuroma was designed to fail and cannot address potential threats from contemporary phones, according to Devra Davis, President of Environmental Health Trust. Sponsored in part by the cellphone industry, the study began with 700,000 persons who began using cellphones in the 1980s until 1995, and threw out those who had phones for business reasons—likely to have been the heaviest users—and added additional subscribers up to 2006.
This study considered a person a “cellphone user” if they made a single call a week for six months. An earlier report from the same research team noted that cellphone radiation can penetrate more than two inches into the adult brain.
“Based on Interphone and other studies, it is not surprising that this particular study did not find any association between cellphone use and brain injury,” commented Dr. Santosh Kesari, Director of Neuro-oncology, University of California, San Diego. “When you are looking at a large population, generally the more people you study, the better your chance of finding something. But if you include many folks with little exposure along with others with very great exposure, you lower your chances of finding any effect at all. We clearly need better-designed research on contemporary phones, including experimental and human studies.”
Davis added, “Lumping all these various users together is like looking all over a city for a stolen car, when you know it’s within a five-block radius. Perhaps you’ll find what you’re looking for, but the chances are much greater that you won’t.”
In reviewing all published studies on the subject to date, the World Health Organization noted that studies that use cellphone subscriptions as an indication of exposure—as did the Danish study—can underestimate true exposure. In its own comprehensive review of experimental and epidemiological studies on the topic, WHO advised that cellphone radiation be considered a possible human carcinogen, like engine exhausts and some pesticides.
In its recent Istanbul Conference with the Gazi Biophysics Department of Ankara, Turkey, Environmental Health Trust highlighted a growing body of experimental studies—conducted outside of the US—that report that cellphone radiation limits the number and health of brain cells in rats and rabbits exposed prenatally, and that similar damage occurs in their mothers. “It is vital that we incorporate this experimental work into our public policy on cellphones today,” Davis added.
About Environmental Health Trust
Environmental Health Trust (EHT) educates individuals, health professionals and communities about controllable environmental health risks and policy changes needed to reduce those risks. Current multi-media projects include: local and national campaigns to ban smoking and asbestos; working with international physician and worker safety groups to warn about the risks of inappropriate use of diagnostic radiation and cell phones, promoting research and awareness of environmental causes of breast cancer, and building environmental wellness programs in Wyoming and Pennsylvania to address the environmental impacts of energy development, the built environment and radon. EHT was created with the goal of promoting health and preventing disease one person, one community and one nation at a time. Capitalizing on growing public interest in Dr. Devra Lee Davis’s three popular books, When Smoke Ran Like Water, a National Book Award Finalist, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, and Disconnect--The Truth about Cell Phone Radiation, What Industry Has Done to Hide It and How to Protect Your Family, as well as recent documentary films, the foundation’s website offers clear, science-based information to prevent environmentally based disease and promote health, for the general public, children, and health professionals. For more information about getting involved in the numerous special projects spearheaded by the EHT, please log on to www.ehtrust.org.
Contact:
Janet Vasquez
The Investor Relations Group
(212) 825-3210
jvasquez@investorrelationsgroup.com
Janet Vasquez
The Investor Relations Group
212-825-3210
jvasquez@investorrelationsgroup.com
Environmental Health Trust
www.saferphonezone.com
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