A word in your ear may be no worse than peck on the cheek
Firstly, as a doctor she should know that physiological changes are not equivalent to negative health effects.
Trying to make people confuse the two is wrong.
Music, food, sunlight and the presence of a loved one (and a million other things) can produce physiological changes in humans. We’re extraordinarily sensitive creatures. As far as I know, it is not true that hugging a loved one is bad for your health, even though the physiological changes caused momentarily by doing so can be quite significant.
Dr Cullen also seems to imply that the evidence from the literature points to a likelihood that the ill effects of mobile phone systems will emerge in the long term.
On the contrary, the evidence points to the fact that there are no negative health effects from mobile phone systems.
The authors of the various reports do say - quite correctly - that evidence might emerge in the long term, which is a very different thing.
However, at the moment there is just no evidence of negative health effects in any major study - let alone “ample evidence” of it.
Since Dr Cullen still gives no references to support her claims, let me quote the conclusion of the official Swedish report from September 2004:
“There is no scientific evidence for any adverse health effects from mobile telecommunications, neither from the base stations nor from the handsets, below the basic restrictions and reference values recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).”
Whatever about trusting a British report, those Swedes take their health very seriously.
The same study also pointed out that exposure from base stations is typically 100 to 10,000 times less than the ICNIRP limits and, in any case, is always less than exposure from handsets themselves.
Dr Cullen says she has written to the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to ask that she take a precautionary approach to the siting of mobile masts.
That’s her right, but I hope she was able to provide some back-up for her fears.
So far, neither on these pages nor on the association’s own website has she appeared able to do so.
Hugh Sheehy
Marina 48
08005 Barcelona
Spain
