A couple of weeks ago the Australian investigative programme, Catalyst, aired a half hour programme questioning the safety of wifi which unleashed a storm of controversy on Twitter and elsewhere. During the programme, reporter Dr Maryanne Demasi talked to a number of campaigners as well as ARPANSA, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. While both the programme and the speakers did warn of the possible risks of our ubiquitous use of wifi, they were certainly not against connectivity, the internet or the use of mobile phones – they merely suggested that we need to be aware of the possible long term risks, especially to children. Certainly nothing to justify the ‘shock horror’ claims that the programme should ‘never have been aired’.
If you would like to see the programme (it is actually well worth the watch, especially for Dr Devra Davies’ contribution) you can do so here; if you would like to read Maryanne Demasi’s comments on the furore, they are here in the Huffington Post.
Meanwhile, across the other side of the word, the TED talks have also been taking on the electromagnetic radiation issue.
Silicon Valley high flyer Jeremy Johnson had his life changed by the installation of bank of Smart Meters in his building – and he too now believes that we need to find a safer way of delivering our digital world. To listen to Jeremy’s talk, go here.
5th March – The fury continues…. See here for ABC’s Media Watch’s attempted hatchet job on Dr Demasi’s programme – but then spool through the many, MANY, comments below, ALL of which, as far as I can see, support Dr Demasi.
And in a totally separate and unrelated report, amputees are reported to experience heightened levels of pain at injury sites around cellphone towers and other technologies that produce radio-frequency electromagnetic fields. A team at The university of Texas at Dallas hypothesized that the formation of neuromas – inflamed peripheral nerve bundles that often form due to injury – created an environment that may be sensitive to EMF-tissue interactions – a theory that would appear to be supported by work they have done on rats. See here for the research.
Tiny electrical charges form a fundamental part of the cellular communication system that is essential to to the health of the human body. There is no doubt that higher levels of electromagnetic radiation can disrupt this communication system with consequences that are still far from clear.
Until things are clearer it seems sensible for people who are concerned about their health to follow the precautionary principal and avoid excesses of electromagnetic radiation as far as they can.