CANCER AND THE DIRTY ELECTRICITY PLAGUE"... the 20th century epidemic of the so called diseases of civilization including cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes and suicide was caused by electrification not by lifestyle. A large proportion of these diseases may therefore be preventable."(i) History has shown that the western world with its vested interests is slow to inform citizens about toxic agents and help protect them. The ‘dirty electricity’ pandemic is no stranger to inaction, as were the asbestos, lead, acid rain, DDT, PCB and tobacco-smoking public health issues before it. Illness from asbestos was first seen around 1900, recognised as an occupational hazard in 1936 yet it was not until 1995 that its production, use, and import was banned in Australia. Prevalent even more so in our personal environments since the oil embargo of 1973 - which changed the way our electrical equipment operated - and the rise of the computer age, the latest research indicates that dirty electricity is the underlying cancer menace and has been since the beginning of the electrical distribution system. The contention that the fields from electricity can harm has a history replete particularly in the area of breast cancer with destroyed careers and tarnished reputations involving scientists who have sought to help the people, and with so-called experts who have colluded with the forces going against the precautionary principle of public health: first, do no harm. In his assessment for the journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health in the UK, Dr Stephen J. Genuis reported that vested interests have been effective in delaying restrictive EMF legislation. He also noted that claims of environmental harm have been challenged by researchers who fail to disclose covert ties to industry, that economic interests exert undue influence on medical journals, and that some editors and journal staff have suppressed publication of scientific results that are adverse to the interests of industry.(viii) Today it is quite widely accepted that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from electricity(ix) can cause childhood leukaemia. (The reason why childhood leukaemia has been studied is because the strongest evidence for a cancer is that the same cancer is significantly elevated in children). The WHO conservatively classified these EMFs as a Class 2b carcinogen in 2001 based on 6 epidemiological studies for childhood leukaemia. Why is it though, that authorities continue to resist so heavily the contention that EMFs can cause breast cancer? There are 18 epidemiological studies (not 6 as in the case of leukaemia), showing an increased risk of breast cancer with occupational EMF exposure and unlike for childhood leukaemia where experimental studies neither support nor refute the association the magnetic fields, for breast cancer experimental studies (both in vivo and in vitro) show a cause and effect relationship and point to possible mechanisations of action which leukaemia does not.(x) Any study into breast cancer has significant ramifications for all of us. Louis Slesin comments that the important papers documenting the effect these EMFs have on the hormone melatonin and the drug Tamoxifen were left out in the WHO EMF Project – a 365-page document with over 1000 references.(xi) The outcome of the report on the current breast cancer cluster at the University of California, San Diego will be of interest as Louis Slesin, editor of 'Microwave News' comments that Leeka Kheifets - professor-in-residence, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, who has a position at the University of California, Los Angeles - has spent most of her professional career either directly or indirectly working for the Electric Power Research Institute, an arm of the electric utility industry. There is no doubt dirty electricity is taking away our breasts. All females should be informed about the different types of radiation. All females should be informed about why we should not voluntarily irradiate our breast and how not to remain an unsuspecting recipient. All females should be informed how to protect themselves in their workplace and in their homes. All females taking the drug Tamoxifen should be informed on the EMF research. All females should be informed as to the importance of moving to a lower voltage area in their workplace to prevent breast cancer, if they already have breast cancer or are recovering from breast cancer. Two of the three women who developed breast cancer in the Bell Canada workplace court case died on returning to the workplace. The one who refused to return to work survived. All females should be informed as to why working at computers puts them more at risk of breast cancer. Little did women realise that burning their underwire bras in the 1970s women’s movement could have saved many breasts from being removed. Was this an instinctive move as the rise of the computer age has coincided with the dramatic increase in breast cancer? ~ Donna Fisher Editor's Note: This article comprises edited extracts from Donna Fisher's two books, "Silent Fields: The Growing Cancer Cluster Story When Electricity Kills..." and "More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague The Missing Link..." available from the publisher Joshua Books Footnotes: (ii) Lichtenstein P, Holm NV, Verkasalo PK, Iliadou A, Kaprio J, Koskenvuo M et al., "Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer: Analyses of cohorts of twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland", N Engl J Med 2000; 343:78-85 (iii) Professor Bruce Armstrong, interviewed on 9am with David & Kim, Channel 10, Australia, August 7, 2007 (iv) Slesin L, News & Comment, Microwave News, July 22, 2004, ; also see Milham S, MD, MPH, "A cluster of male breast cancer in office workers", Am J Indust Med 2004 Jun10; 46(1):86-87 (v) Erren T, MD, MPH, "Epidemiological Studies of EMF and Breast Cancer Risk: A Biologically Based Overview", in: Stevens, Wilson and Anderson, The Melatonin Hypothesis, op. cit., p. 731 (vi) Milham S, Historical evidence that electrification caused the 20th century epidemic of “diseases of civilization” Med Hypotheses (2009), doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.08.032 (vii) Erren, in: Stevens, Wilson and Anderson, The Melatonin Hypothesis, op. cit., p. 729 (viii) Genuis SJ, "Fielding a current idea: exploring the public health impact of electromagnetic radiation", Public Health 2007, doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2007.04.008 (ix) Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields – ELF EMF (x) Havas M, Report to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, Breast Cancer and Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, Expert Testimony: Breast Cancer and EMF November 18, 2008 Pages 4-7 (xi) “When Enough is Never Enough: A Reproducible Effect at 2mG-12mG |