Australia: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

“Whole-Body Exposures to RF-EMF Energy Can Cause DNA Damage in Mouse Spermatozoa via an Oxidative Mechanism,” Scientific Reports, November 25, 2019.

In summary, our evidence supports the hypothesis that sustained whole-body RF-EME is capable of inducing a state of oxidative stress in the male germ line, a cell vulnerable to the effects of ROS. … Furthermore, our data further implicate the mitochondria as the target for RF-EME biophysical interaction, with a consequential elevation of mitochondrial ROS generation being linked to reduced motility and elevated oxidative DNA damage and DNA fragmentation in the spermatozoa of exposed male.” From Australia. Open access.

“Mobile Phone Use and Incidence of Brain Tumour Histological Types, Grading or Anatomical Location: A Population-Based Ecological Study,” BMJ Open, posted December 9, 2018.

“We found no evidence that mobile phone use increased any brain tumour histological types or subtypes.” See also the press release. Open access.

A follow-up to our "Scams Galore" piece: Today, the Australian TV show MediaWatch ran an item on the Q-Link scam —"Q Are the Missing Link." Well worth a look. The piece was prompted in part by an item in the Sydney Daily Telegraph promoting the bogus shield (it has now been thankfully removed from the Web). See also ...

Shows on cell phone radiation are all over the TV news —at least in Australia and Europe, if not the U.S.

One theme that runs through many of these programs is impatience over the delays in the publication of the Interphone results. In a Swiss documentary, aired on March 31, Christopher Wild, the new head of IARC, expresses his concern over the reputation of IARC and says that he looks forward to its completion "in the coming months." Elisabeth Cardis, the head of Interphone, concedes to that same Swiss TV reporter that Interphone is indeed taking a long time to finish (see "Interphone Project: The Cracks Begin To Show"). A few days earlier in an unrelated e-mail, Cardis stated that the results would be submitted for publication "in the coming weeks."

Another Interphone researcher is expressing concern over the tumor risks associated with the long-term use of mobile phones. "I think the evidence that is accumulating is pointing towards an effect of mobile phones on tumors," Professor Bruce Armstrong of the University of Sydney School of Public Health told "TodayTonight," an Australian current affairs show on Channel 7, a national network.

The incidence of malignant tumors on the two top floors of a high-rise buildingat RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, are within the expected range, according to reports released today.

When benign tumors are included, however, the total tumor count is statistically higher than expected. Southern Medical Services, which carried out the occupational health and safety assessment for RMIT, attributes the "apparent increase" to incomplete collection of benign tumor data by the cancer registry.

The reports, together with RMIT public statements, are available from the RMIT Web site. (See also our posts of June 1 and before.) Southern Medical Services, found that "there is no correlation between tumor case office locations and ELF magnetic fields greater than 4 mG." 

As the investigation of the RMIT University brain tumor cluster continues in Melbourne (see our May 13 post), we are reminded of another cancer cluster, which was also much in the news down under about this time last year. In this earlier case, some ten women working in the Australian Broadcasting Co.'s (ABC) offices in Brisbane developed breast cancer and, as at RMIT, power-frequency EMFs and RF radiation were under suspicion because there were antennas on the roof of the ABC building.

EMC Technologies, a test and measurement consulting company, was called in to survey the entire ABC site. Soon afterwards, ABC Queensland director Chris Wordsworth told the Sydney Morning Herald that testing had shown "nothing adverse." That April, Chris Zombolas, the technical director of EMC Technologies, confirmed to us what Wordsworth had already told the local newspapers: He had not found high levels of any electromagnetic signals. But, Zombolas added, he was not in a position to release the report —that would be up to ABC. Figuring there was nothing much more to the story, we moved on and did not give it much thought until the RMIT cluster became news.