Great Britain's Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees on technology's "yuck factor"
by Popular Science
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Over the past three decades, astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees has gained international renown for tackling vexing questions about the mysterious birth and structure of the universe. In his sixth book, Our Final Hour: The Threat to Humanity's Survival (Basic Books; $25/March 2003), Rees, a Royal Society research professor at Cambridge University, warns of rogue nano-machines, genetically engineered viruses and other evil spawns of advancing technology that may ultimately lead to the species' destruction.

Popular Science: In your book you predict that by the year 2020 bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event. Why?

Martin Rees: Looking ahead, the great advances in biotechnology are bound to have a downside. It will be possible for thousands—indeed, millions—of people to acquire the technology to produce something that could cause that kind of disaster. And it only takes one person to cause catastrophe! It's incumbent on scientists to be very cautious.

PS: Armageddon is a very popular topic just now. As an astronomer, what's unique about your perspective?

MR: It's important to look beyond our planet and place Earth in a cosmic context. Earth may be the only place where conscious life has evolved, so what happens here is cosmically important: We could hold responsibility for spreading life throughout the cosmos. And this makes our responsibility in this century rather daunting, since this is a time in which we could either snuff ourselves out or spread life beyond Earth.

PS: Do you think life exists elsewhere in the universe?

MR: I haven't a clue. There are so many steps involved—the right environment for life to begin, getting simple life started and so on. I genuinely don't know if the odds are one in 50 or one in a billion-billion.

PS: In your book you also suggest the possibility of a reemerging nuclear threat. Why?

MR: We've been lulled into a certain complacency about nuclear weapons because, obviously, the risk of a really massive exchange devastating Europe and America is much less than it was during the cold war. But the risk of the use of some nuclear weapons has actually gone up, especially in India, Pakistan and Korea. Indeed, I think American policies are going to continue to increase the risk. By developing advanced weapons, such as small nuclear bunkers, the United States is gaining the capability to enforce its will on any country that does not acquire its own nuclear deterrent.

PS: Is there a realistic way to protect scientific progress from being used for evil purposes?

MR: My concern is that with a much larger academic community and much greater commercial pressures, it's going to be more difficult to get a consensus on going slow in ethically problematic areas, like biotechnology and robotics. Scientists can't always predict the implications of their work, but they ought to encourage benevolent applications and warn against dangers. We have that responsibility.

 http://www.popsci.com/popsci/books/article/0,12543,451647,00.html

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REFLEX-Study
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Risk evaluation of potential environmental hazards from low-energy electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure using sensitive in vitro methods

CORDIS RTD-PROJECTS/  http://www.cordis.lu/en/src/g_021_en.htm European Communities.
Record Control Number: 51989
Quality Validation Date: 2003-04-01
Update Date: 2003-05-05
Project Acronym: REFLEX

 http://tinyurl.com/kuza

Title: Risk evaluation of potential environmental hazards from low-energy electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure using sensitive in vitro methods

Subject Index : Environmental Protection; Life Sciences; Medicine, Health; Safety
Objective: Electromagnetic field (EMF) has become a topic of Europe-wide discussion. The latter has created uncertainty regarding possible adverse health effects for both the population and industry. Current research is characterized by conflicting data from epidemiological and animal studies, especially with respect to possible risk of cancer at different sites and neurological disorders. Clearly, mere continuation or replication of research, without introducing innovative concepts, will prolong the uncertainty as to whether EMFS do, or do not, represent a health risk. The results of this joint project, which will investigate molecular and functional responses of living cells to EMFS in vitro by applying state-of-the-art methods of molecular biology and toxicology, are needed urgently for molecular epidemiological studies, which are probably the only path to a reliable risk estimate for possible effects of EMFS on human health. Start Date: 2003-09-01 End Date: 2006-08-31

Duration: 36 months Project Status: Accepted Project Cost: 3.15 million euro Project Funding: 2.06 million euro Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme) Programme Acronym: LIFE QUALITY

 http://tinyurl.com/kv00

Subprogramme Area: Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources - Key action Environment and Health
Project Reference: QLK4-CT-1999-01574
Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)
Prime Contractor

Organisation: VERUM - FOUNDATION FOR BEHAVIOUR AND ENVIRONMENT
Organisation Type: Other
Address: Pettenkoferstr. 33
Postcode: 80336
City: MUENCHEN
Region: BAYERN
OBERBAYERN
München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Country: GERMANY
Contact Person: Name: ADLKOFER, Franz (Professor)

Other Contractors
Organisation Name: FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: TAUBER, Rudolf (Professor)
Address: Kaiserswerther Strasse 16-18
City: BERLIN
Region: BERLIN
Org. Country: GERMANY
Postcode: 14195

Organisation Name: THE UNIVERSITY OF MILANO
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: GROPPETTI, Antonio (Professor)
Address: Via Festa del Perdono 7
City: MILANO
Region: LOMBARDIA
Org. Country: ITALY
Postcode: 20122

Organisation Name: INSTITUTE OF PLANT GENETICS AND CROP PLANT RESEARCH
Organisation Type: Research
Contact Person: WOBUS, Ulrich (Professor)
Address: Correnstrasse 3
City: GATERSLEBEN
Region: SACHSEN-ANHALT
MAGDEBURG
Aschersleben-Staßfurt
Org. Country: GERMANY
Postcode: 06466

Organisation Name: SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ZUERICH
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: WALDVOGEL, Albert (Professor)
Address: 101 Raemistrasse 101, ETH Zentrum
City: ZURICH
Region: SCHWEIZ/SUISSE/SVIZZERA
Org. Country: SWITZERLAND
Postcode: 8092

Organisation Name: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: FORINO, Attilio (Professor)
Address: Via Zamboni 33
City: BOLOGNA
Region: EMILIA-ROMAGNA
Bologna
Org. Country: ITALY
Postcode: 40126

Organisation Name: INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE LA SALUD
Organisation Type: Other
Contact Person: MARTINEZ HERNANDEZ, Joaquin (Dr)
Department: HOSPITAL RAMON Y CAJAL
Address: KM9100 Crta.de Colmenar KM 9
City: MADRID
Region: COMUNIDAD DE MADRID
Org. Country: SPAIN
Postcode: 28034

Organisation Name: UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: JAHN, Oswald (Professor)
Address: Dr Karl Lueger - Ring 1
City: WIEN
Region: OSTÖSTERREICH
WIEN
Org. Country: AUSTRIA
Postcode: 1010

Organisation Name: ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE DE CHIMIE ET DE PHYSIQUE DE BORDEAUX
Organisation Type: Research
Contact Person: CLIN, Bernard (Dr)
Department: LABORATOIRE DE PHYSIQUE DES INTERACTIONS ONDES-MATIERE
Address: Avenue Pey Berland
BP 108
City: TALENCE
Region: SUD-OUEST
AQUITAINE
Gironde
Org. Country: FRANCE
Postcode: 33402

Organisation Name: RADIATION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY AUTHORITY
Organisation Type: Research
Contact Person: SALOMAA, Sisko (Professor)
Department: LABORATORY OF RADIOBIOLOGY
RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEILLANCE
Address: Laippatie 4
P.O. Box 14
City: HELSINKI
Region: MANNER-SUOMI
UUSIMAA
Org. Country: FINLAND
Postcode: 00880

Organisation Name: UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER
Organisation Type: Education
Contact Person: KOLB, Hans-Albert (Professor)
Department: INSTITUT FUR BIOPHYSIK
Address: Herrenhauser Stra?e 2
City: Hannover
Region: NIEDERSACHSEN
HANNOVER
Hannover, Kreisfreie Stadt
Org. Country: GERMANY
Postcode: 30419

 http://tinyurl.com/kv2d

Informant: Volker Hartenstein, Member of the Bavarian Parliament

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Can you please help me with any scientific information?
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Dear friends,

My name is Andreia and I live in São Paulo, Brazil.

A multinational company installed a cellular transmission station only 5 meters from my house. The metal structure is 15 meters high and the antenna is on top of it. Is it possible that the radiation causes any kind of harm for those who stay more than 16 hours a day so close to it?

The antenna is totally illegal (the city hall did not issue an permission for the installation in a residential area, but in Brazil everything is possible when you can buy the judges and deputies).

I would like to sue that company and try to make them install the antenna in a safer place, but I would need more evidences that the radiation is bad for the health to help me in the lawsuit.

I’m trying to get pregnant and I’m really scared that the radiation could harm my family and my new baby.

Is that possible? Is radiation harmful or is it totally safe and I should just forget about it?

Can you please help me with any scientific information?

Thanks a lot,

Andreia Barion


Good morning to the Scientific Community and Audience. The situation described in this e-mail is not an isolated case in the world. This problem is found in all the world and particularly in Latin America, and in some cases in Europe.

I am trying to do the same thing in Mexico where the citizens' rights have been ignored to favour the corrupted private sectors and the politicians allowing this situation.

I would like to join efforts from an audience perspective since I am not a scientist in this area. In the face of injustice and corruption I would like to make a call to all the international scientific and audience community to join efforts and compromise with our ethics defending an asset more valuable than money and gold-"Our Families' Health".

We need to demonstrate that our knowledge and rights can not be overpowered or purchased by the interest of those that only look a commercial benefit at all means and the governments all over the world allow it turning their faces as if they did not know it or had anything to do with this political and technological unethical and corrupted practices.

I think the entire international community would be very thankful to the international scientific community about the possibility of launching a sound scientific-based report of the risks and facts, along with a very rigorous criteria to protect people's rights to have a Good Health and Clean Environment.

In my opinion if we explained this to all kids in the world they would feel disappointed about all adults and their governments that supposedly should be their protectors.

In this field I believe we stand short in putting our family as a priority, and since kids and the majority of the people do not know and do not have the power, their rights are not respected.

I certainly would appreciate very much your solidarity with People's Health and a clean Environment.

Sincerely,

Javier Holguin C.


Andreia,

I first tried to send my response to you at your private Email address, but it was returned. Since this message is rather long, it may be truncated before appearing on the Bioelectromagnetics List.

I think your concern is justified. My primary advice is for you to look at the web site of the EMR Network www.emrnetwork.org. I am one of the cofounders of the EMR Network, and we have tried hard to put useful and accurate information on our site. Dr. Henry Lai (of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington) has compiled a group of published abstracts that deal with low level radiation effects on biological systems. These abstracts are available by downloading PDF files from our site at no cost.

Undoubtedly, the company that has erected the cell tower will say that the amount of radiation is below the international standards. Those standards protect only against heating of biological tissue. There is now abundant evidence in the published literature that absorbed radiation levels far below the international standards can cause biological damage without heating the tissues, in my opinion.

One example is the article by L.G. Salford (of Lund University in Sweden) and several co-authors about RF radiation induced damage to rat brain cells in experiments involving radiation from GSM cell phones. You can get the abstract of this article from the web site of Environmental Health Perspectives. This is a journal that is published by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Use a search engine such as Google to find the site for Environmental Health Perspectives.

The article was published online in January, 2003. The print edition of that journal article should be out soon, but I don't think it has appeared yet. The article shows that damaged brain cells occurred when rats were irradiated with RF radiation from GSM phones. The level of absorbed radiation in the rats was about 800 times less than what the U.S. government says is "safe."

I got the full article by an email request to the marketing director of Environmental Health Perspectives. The damaged brain cells are quite apparent in microphotographs shown in the article - even to a person such as I, whose background is in electromagnetics and doesn't include training or experience in biology.

The article I quoted concerns radiation from cell phones themselves, not from the base stations, such as the antennae near you. The connection to your problem has to be the fact that the damage was observed even when the absorbed radiation level was almost a thousand times lower than the "safe" level imposed by international standards. (U.S. standards and international standards ICNRP are very similar.)

Living as close to the base station antennae as you do, it is vital to find out the type of antennae that are used and the resulting radiation pattern. The GSM phone system is used worldwide, so I suspect that is the technology to which you are being subjected, but you need to know the antennae characteristics and output power in order to be able to estimate how much radiation density will occur where you live.

If you can find out the manufacturer and model number of the antennae used in this installation, and the power put by the transmitter into the antennae or the power output from the antennae (expressed as either ERP or EIRP), I can get the gain characteristics of the antennae from the internet and calculate an estimate of the radiation level where you live. Base station antennae act to focus the radiation in some directions, at the expense of radiation in other directions.

This is why we need to know the characteristics of the antennae near you. Try to get a copy of whatever application was submitted to get the approval for the antennae. You may have to ask an attorney to get this information If you can get this information, I will calculate the maximum radiation density for you at no cost.

The calculated radiation density can then be compared with tables of published biological effects versus radiation density and specific absorbed radiation (SAR) level.

Cindy Sage of Sage Associates in Santa Barbara, California has compiled such tables and I have a copy of the tables she released in 2001. She is working on an upgrade to these tables, but she has not yet released it, as far as I know.

Good luck in your efforts to protect your family!

Bill P. Curry, Ph.D. Physics is fun
(630) 858-9377 Fax (630) 858-9159
EMSciTeck Consulting Company

From the email list of bioelectromagnetics.org

Informant: Reinhard Rueckemann

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Day Seven of the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health
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Hi Klaus: I am forwarding you an update on the fast protest in Pasadenea, CA, as of the seventh day. As seen below, it seems to be having considerable success in meeting its objectives. Thumbs up for those very hungry determined demonstrators. Not too many of us would relish a liquid only fast to meet our goals!

Best, Imelda, Cork. (excerpt)

 http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/hungerstrike20.shtml

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ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMB - A WEAPON OF ELECTRONIC MASS DESTRUCTION
 http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/ebomb.html

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Kelly foretold "death in the woods"
 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1027033,00.html

Security may not be safe issue for Bush in '04
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28971-2003Aug21?language=printer

Something about 09/11
 http://www.sierratimes.com/03/08/21/gaddy.htm

Gluttons for punishment
 http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j082203.html

What did Halliburton know and when did it know it?
 http://tinyurl.com/ktga

Canberra lied about Saddam weapons threat, inquiry told
 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/08/23/2003064921

Quagmire or expensive mud
 http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030822/index.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Behind the Blackout
 http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/082103_blackout_summary.html

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'Victory Act' Designed To Expand Powers Of Patriot Act
 http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030822~to.asp

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CNN Survey: 94% Say Bush's Iraq War a "Quagmire"
 http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1011

Pentagon Conceals Experimental Vaccine-Related Deaths
 http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1012

Gulf War Veteran Goal: "Getting Bush Out of Office" in 2004
 http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1014

America Two Years After 9/11: 25 Things We Know
 http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1015

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Investigate US Motive for Invading Iraq!
 http://www.care2.com/go/z/6783

Informant: EarthForceUnited