‘Cancer and Stroke  Houses’ and RF fields by Dr Chris Barnes, Bangor Scientific Consultants email doctor.barnes@yahoo.co.uk, Released into public Domain without complete reference list September 2013.

Dr Barnes' Homepage Link  http://drchrisbarnes.co.uk

E-mail doctor.barnes@yahoo.co.uk

 

Abstract

On balance it would appear that some 65% of studies seen in the academic and popular scientific literature on the effects of RF on living systems, from bulk to sub-molecular level,   reach the conclusion that there is some of bio-effect, usually adverse. Despite this no regulatory body in the UK   has tightened exposure limits for RF.  Only the former USSR has tighter exposure limits for RF, particularly microwave energy than does the UK, Europe and USA, for instance.    Traditional radial based geographic epidemiology studies may, for various technical reasons, underestimate RF risks.  Here and perhaps uniquely an 'egg and chicken' approach has been employed where the RF fields have been evaluated adjacent to the premises of  some known Cancer and Stroke victims as reported either directly or by reliable Third Party contact to the author.    The logic in this is based on a recent hypothesis of the author that the main unified effect of RF on both animal and plant systems is to perturb existing free radical pathways and bring about oxidative stress.  Although the sample size is presently small and doubtless thus some statisticians and epidemiologists would argue irrelevance on that basis alone, they are, nevertheless, analysed for various types of cancer and for ischemic stroke which has shown a recent unexplained increase in 15-44 year olds.   Strong associations of RF with Brain and Breast Cancers, Lymphoma, Melanoma and Stroke are shown by the present study. No association      is shown for Bowel Cancer and only a possible very weak association for lung cancer.  The cancers which are here show association with RF have also been discovered by others to do the same. These associations as is the association with young age Stroke both new and disturbing particularly given the young are the age group who most engage with wireless technologies. 

              

Introduction

There has been much interest in recent years on the possible health implications of RF technologies spurned by the massive increase in mobile phone and WIFI use. 

 

 Studies can be broken down into three main categories, namely; epidemiological, in -vivo application, cause and effect and in vitro using biomaterials and phantoms.  On balance at least 65% of all these types of studies conclude that RF has some kinds of bio-effect, usually adverse, see for example bioinitiative.org [1].  

 

Geographic epidemiological studies usually treat a known environmental emission source of a carcinogen as a central isotropic emitter and place radial rings there around.  Actual cases of cancer are then sought which are expected to be located randomly within each specific radius of study to see if they exceed any expected numbers.  Since RF radiation is usually expected to fall as the inverse square of distance this is factored into excess risk calculations.  Occasionally, in such studies so called cancer clusters are found and then explanation is sought often on the basis of an industrial, radiation or even household construction material source such as asbestos, for example.   

 

Such epidemiological studies have short comings and may be flawed for a number of ways. Firstly, when applied specifically to Radio Frequency Radiation (RF) they do not take into account of the effect of antenna main beams and side lobes.  Secondly, they do not take into account multi-path propagation and multiple reflection effects. Thirdly, they do not take into account near field and transition zone effects, although to be fair it would be very unusual, at least for mobile phone base stations, for people to be living directly in such zones with respect to base station antennas although they may often be in such zones due to emissions from laptops, WIFIS and mobile phone handsets.  Finally, they do not take into account the total RF field in any one location will be a complex frequency multiplexed conjugate of signals usually from several sources and directions.  Additionally besides myself, no one has raised the possibility of quantum mechanical effects such as the electromagnetic Aharonov Bohm effect being potentially relevant. 

 

This present paper describes an alternative ‘egg and chicken’ approach to the          RF cause and effect problem. The reason for this approach is to attempt to directly verify an important spin off hypothesis arising from recent new model of the present   author; namely that people living or working or sleeping for long periods in raised RF field strengths of greater than average ought to more at risk of certain cancers and young age strokes.  

 

Method and Apparatus

 

Freshly diagnosed and recent (within 1-2 years) cases of cancer and young age stroke were sought out by personal enquiry via reliable Third Party contacts such as friends and relatives.  Due to the ‘local’ nature of this approach, their addresses all lie in the county of Gwynedd Wales, mainly in the city of Bangor but also in the villages of Rhiwlas and Bethesda.            These  addresses were logged down and the RF field adjacent to each address was logged and recorded as was the type of cancer/stroke.   RF fields were also measured at the same number of addresses where there was known to be no diagnosed cancer.  RF fields at a number of random locations were then measured.  The apparatus was a Cornet RF field meter type .......... . The RF fields arising at these premises will be a complex frequency multiplexed conjugate of signals usually from several sources and directions.  The most likely RF sources are nearby pulsed digital communications and television towers at 390MHz TETRA, 900 and 1800 MHz GSM/CDMA; 137/153MHz POCSAG/HERMES and  600-700 MHz DVB.  The field strength meter used was sensitive to all frequencies from 100 MHz to 6 GHz and does not differentiate between them.

 

Data Handling and Manipulation

The average field outside cancer/stroke houses   and its standard deviation was calculated.

The average field outside houses with no illness and its standard deviation was calculated.

The average field at random locations was calculated and its standard deviation recorded. The results are shown table 1.

Specific field values were also recorded and averaged   and tabulated against type of cancer and/or stroke and shown in table 2.

Results

Field v/m

SD

Cancer+stroke

0.11

0.06

No illness

0.019

0.008

Random locations

0.065

0.062

 

Above: Table 1

 

 

Type of Cancer observed by proportion.

 

 

 

Type of Cancer /Stroke

RF field V/m

Association

(av)

Bowel

0.027

None

Brain

0.135

Strong

Breast

0.115

Strong

Lung

0.055

Weak

Lymphoma

0.1

Strong

Melonoma

0.13

Strong

Stroke

0.115

Strong

 

Above: Table 2

 

Discussion

 

The results table 1 are incredibly clear cut. The average field strengths  where there is Cancer or Stroke are on average some 5 times greater than at premises where there is no recorded illness.   A more detailed breakdown is shown  in Table 2.  According to the initial hypothesis there should be an association of RF field with cancer at levels of field greater than average. It can be clearly see that Bowel Cancer has no association with RF field.  Lung cancer has either no association   or  very little association.  Bowel  cancer is generally highly correlated with fat and animal protein and less so with environmental factors (refs) yet asbestos can feature (refs).  It is also strongly correlated with lack of physical activity.  The victims were all elderly and fit both brackets.   One study shows an association of lung cancer with PEMF but is not considered detailed enough to be relevant here(ref)..

 

However, Brain and Breast Cancers, Lymphoma, Melanoma and Stroke have all been shown here experimentally to have a strong association with RF field strength.

 

A number of studies have cited  long term mobile phone handsets as a risk for brain cancer, see for example Stefan et al [2], M J Schoemaker et al (2005) [3] and the WHO has recently graded handsets a ‘possible carcinogen’.   Nevertheless my present study is perhaps one of the first studies which appears to have shown a similar association with externally applied RF at significant distance.

 

Excess risk o/e ratios have previously been reported   for male occupational exposure to EMR for male breast cancer of 2.9 and o/e of 1.5 for female radio operators. Again, the present work seems to confirm previous findings. 

Szmigielski 1996 has reported an o/e in the region of 6 for non Hodgkin Lymphoma [4].     This present study again supports their findings.

 

The incidence of melanoma has been increasing steadily in many countries since 1960, but the underlying mechanism causing this increase remains elusive. The incidence of melanoma has been linked to the distance to frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting towers. In the  study of Hallberg and Johanssen (2001) [5]   the authors sought to determine if there was also a related link on a larger scale for entire countries. Exposure-time-specific incidence was extracted from exposure and incidence data from 4 different countries, and this was compared with reported age-specific incidence of melanoma. Geographic differences in melanoma incidence were compared with the magnitude of this environmental stress. The exposure-time-specific incidence from all 4 countries became almost identical, and they were approximately equal to the reported age-specific incidence of melanoma. A correlation between melanoma incidence and the number of locally receivable FM transmitters was found. The authors concluded that melanoma is associated with exposure to FM broadcasting, i.e. RF energy.  This present study strongly confirms their findings.

 

Although there is no direct reference to stroke risk in the literature, exposure to 1800 MHz radiofrequency radiation induces oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA in primary cultured neurons, see Xu et al (2010) [6].   I have recently predicted that oxidative stress should be induced by RF radiation [7] i.e. exactly in   accordance with  his new model and thus further that it may account for very recently observed stroke rates in the 15-44 age group.  The victims in this study were aged in their 30’s.  Thus this present study reveals a new and potentially very important finding and supports the author’s previous work and hypothesis.

 

Conclusion

My present study has strongly supported my hypothesis that when susceptible people live/work/sleep in RF fields greater than their average background exposure cancers may develop.  The mechanism is thought to be via oxidative stress. The very types of cancers involved are confirmed as those highlighted/suspected in mine and other’s previous studies. People with genetic aberrations, particularly in the P53 tumour suppressor gene are not only susceptible to more types of cancer but possibly also according to this study of having that susceptibility promoted or enhanced by relatively low amounts of pulsed RF radiation [7].        The previous hypothesis also suggested young age stroke could also occur and this too has been confirmed. The sample sizes are presently very small and much more work will need to be done.  But yet again a cautionary tale regarding the use and risk of RF technologies has arisen. 

Because free radical mechanisms are involved, RF can be either a carcinogen in its own right or a cancer promoter [7]. In the estates in North Wales where these studies have been made at least 2 or 3 other potential carcinogens /co promoters could also be involved, particularly asbestos.  It is hoped to comment on this in a future piece of work. 

 

  References

1.      http://www.bioinitiative.org/report/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/section_1_table_1_2012.pdf

2.      http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2004/11000/Mobile_Phone_Use_and_the_Risk_of_Acoustic_Neuroma.3.aspx

3.      http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v93/n7/abs/6602764a.html

4.      http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048969795049150

5.      http://media.withtank.com/eec46e2c2f.pdf

6.      http://www.researchgate.net/publication/38058120_Exposure_to_1800_MHz_radiofrequency_radiation_induces_oxidative_damage_to_mitochondrial_DNA_in_primary_cultured_neurons

7.      http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk

8.