Well, not a lot, to be honest. Like most people I have never really thought about them, despite their very wide use for diagnostic purposes in adults and in babies in the womb. But Jim West believes that we are very unwise to believe that just because ultrasound is so widely used, it is safe. Far from it.
Ultrasound ‘evolved from a type of echo-imaging, originally developed as SONAR, an acoustic technology developed for underwater navigation. This functions by pinging sound waves off ship and submarine hulls, electronically measuring echo, the duration required to reflect ultrasound from an object back to the source…. it has been employed to generate “echo images” back off the foetus in the womb.’
As long ago as 1982 the World Health Organisation looked at ultrasound technology, especially with reference to its use on unborn babies, and reported that:
‘…more than 35 published animal studies suggest that in utero ultrasound exposure can affect prenatal growth… A number of biological effects have been observed following ultrasound exposure in various experimental systems. These include reduction in immune response, change in sister chromatid exchange frequencies, cell death, change in cell membrane functions, degradation of macromolecules, free radical formation, and reduced cell reproductive potential… The data on clinical efficacy and safety do not allow a recommendation for routine screening….
The WHO criteria were published 34 years ago. Its concerns have never been refuted.’
The issue boils down to the fact that there are (or were) no human studies on the effect of ultrasound – either at the levels at which it was used when the WHO criteria were drawn up in the 1980s, or, more importantly, at the greatly increased (x8) levels at which they have been used since 1991. The few animal studies that have been carried out have shown evidence of harm, but this has not been extrapolated to humans at any stage of their development.
(These assertions, backed up by external naive research, are detailed by Jim West in his article in the Townsend Letter and in his book: 50 Human Studies, in Utero, Conducted in Modern China, Indicate Extreme Risk for Prenatal Ultrasound: A New Bibliography)
But, while there have been no human studies in the West, there have been around 50 human studies in China, involving over 100 scientists and 2,700 pregnant women all of whom were volunteering for abortion. (Before their abortions these women were exposed to carefully controlled and monitored levels of ultra sound scans and then the abortive material was analysed for any changes. Although this sounds very unattractive, placental pathology as it is known, is apparently a ‘well established discipline’.) These Chinese Human Studies (CHS) have been continuing since 1988 and their results have now been brought to the attention of western experts whose reviews are expected soon.
The Chinese studies demonstrate that DNA fragmentation occurs as a result of ultrasound exposure. If that is indeed the case, this could have huge implications for childhood diseases such a leukaemia. There is also a suggestion that the increased intensity of ultrasound scans post 1991 could possibly be connected with the massive rise in the incidence of autism over the last 25 years.
As Jim West points out, although there was widespread professional awareness that X-rays could be hazardous, it took decades for that knowledge to be acted on. He suggests that the same could now be happening with ultrasound scanning.
Click here for the full text of the article in this month’s Townsend Letter.
And in case you are wondering, as I was, who Jim West is:
Jim West is a New York based activist who has critically studied a number of medical issues, including environmental causes for Polio and West Nile Virus. More recently, for a book he is writing, he has investigated whether ultrasound is safe and effective, and has concluded that there is evidence that neither are true. The Infectious Myth.
This is what Jon Rappoport of nomorefakenews.com says about him:
“I always find it riveting to come across an independent investigator who is breaking new ground, against all odds. Jim West is such a person. His meticulous analysis of West Nile Disease [in fact caused by toxic pollution, not a virus] has turned the establishment on its head. We should all thank him for his work. If I were the king of Pulitzers, I would give him a dozen. He is what truly deep reporting is all about. In a sane world, his revelations would bring about the firing of scores of so-called medical journalists and disease researchers, and he would be sitting at the top of the heap — not in order to exercise arbitrary power, but simply because he has trumped the lazy and the incompetent and the lying professionals who are supposed to tell us what is going on.”