WiFi Woo & Wibble
In response to last night's deeply unscientific credulous scaremongering fair and balanced Panorama report into the health concerns associated with WiFi and other RF radiation (won't somebody please think of the children!) comes this marvellous rebuttal from the ever dependable The Register:
"No such scientific evidence exists for the damage caused by wireless transmissions. Oh, sure; there's evidence of odd effects: for example, chromosomal cluster fragmentation; your DNA breaks. But broken DNA doesn't cause the symptoms that Dr Gro or Sylvia complain of. You can have your DNA shredded to such a degree - by actual radioactivity - that you will die, and you will still not get the instant headache or other symptoms which electrosensitives suffer. There's tons of research, some dubious, some less dubious, all showing biological effects - but none of the effects explain the symptoms.
As with the MMR 'debate' of a few years ago, a loud hysterical shitstorm is being brewed on the back of some pretty flimsy and often subjective and anecdotal evidence. Again, there seems to be this suggestion that the scientific community is 'split 50:50', which even a casual trawl on PubMed will negate. Complex scientific debate and procedure is once again being reduced to simplistic soundbite pronouncements by unqualified journalists who simply do not understand science and therefore cannot accurately gauge the validity of any given argument (particularly those given by vested interest groups).
It may indeed turn out that long-term exposure to RF EMR does have some degree of deleterious health effect (100 years of radio and 60 years of TV transmission however, suggest not), but until properly designed, double-blind randomised in vivo studies of sufficient power are conducted, we're not going to know (and I'm sorry, but blasting RF at a flask of CHO cells and then counting chromosomal 'abnormalities' doesn't quite cut it).
Those of you who might still be worried about the health effects of (cue scary music) electromagnetic smog can rest assured that help is at hand thanks to a new generation of snake-oil salesmen quantum biofield technicians who produce such marvels as the amazing Qlink pendant, a snip at only £69.99 - a small price for peace of mind, I'm sure you'll agree...
"No such scientific evidence exists for the damage caused by wireless transmissions. Oh, sure; there's evidence of odd effects: for example, chromosomal cluster fragmentation; your DNA breaks. But broken DNA doesn't cause the symptoms that Dr Gro or Sylvia complain of. You can have your DNA shredded to such a degree - by actual radioactivity - that you will die, and you will still not get the instant headache or other symptoms which electrosensitives suffer. There's tons of research, some dubious, some less dubious, all showing biological effects - but none of the effects explain the symptoms.
As with the MMR 'debate' of a few years ago, a loud hysterical shitstorm is being brewed on the back of some pretty flimsy and often subjective and anecdotal evidence. Again, there seems to be this suggestion that the scientific community is 'split 50:50', which even a casual trawl on PubMed will negate. Complex scientific debate and procedure is once again being reduced to simplistic soundbite pronouncements by unqualified journalists who simply do not understand science and therefore cannot accurately gauge the validity of any given argument (particularly those given by vested interest groups).
It may indeed turn out that long-term exposure to RF EMR does have some degree of deleterious health effect (100 years of radio and 60 years of TV transmission however, suggest not), but until properly designed, double-blind randomised in vivo studies of sufficient power are conducted, we're not going to know (and I'm sorry, but blasting RF at a flask of CHO cells and then counting chromosomal 'abnormalities' doesn't quite cut it).
Those of you who might still be worried about the health effects of (cue scary music) electromagnetic smog can rest assured that help is at hand thanks to a new generation of snake-oil salesmen quantum biofield technicians who produce such marvels as the amazing Qlink pendant, a snip at only £69.99 - a small price for peace of mind, I'm sure you'll agree...