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JANUARY 1, 2009

"How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA"

A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared.

Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and “frisk” people at distance.

The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material.

And even though they don’t travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumors near the surface of the skin.

With all that potential, it’s no wonder that research on terahertz waves has exploded in the last ten years or so.

But what of the health effects of terahertz waves?

At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging.

Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us.

But could there be another mechanism at work?

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed.

“Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none,” say Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a few buddies.

Now these guys think they know why.

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they’ve found is remarkable.

They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.

That’s a jaw dropping conclusion. And it also explains why the evidence has been so hard to garner.

Ordinary resonant effects are not powerful enough to do do this kind of damage but nonlinear resonances can.

These nonlinear instabilities are much less likely to form which explains why the character of THz genotoxic effects are probabilistic rather than deterministic, say the team.

This should set the cat among the pigeons.

Of course, terahertz waves are a natural part of environment, just like visible and infrared light.

But a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record terahertz waves but also bombard us with them.

And if our exposure is set to increase, the question that urgently needs answering is,

what level of terahertz exposure is safe.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0910.5294: DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field



OCTOBER 30, 2009

"Mobile Use Is Linked To Brain Tumors"

LONG-term mobile phone users could face a higher risk of developing cancer in later life, according to a decade-long study. The report, to be published later this year, has reportedly found that heavy mobile use is linked to brain tumors. The survey of 12,800 people in 13 countries has been overseen by the World Health Organization.

Preliminary results of the inquiry, which is looking at whether mobile phone exposure is linked to three types of brain tumor and a tumor of the salivary gland, have been sent to a scientific journal. The findings are expected to put pressure on the Government – which has insisted that mobile phones are safe – to issue stronger warnings to users.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/135974/Mobile-use-is-linked-to-brain-tumors



October 31, 2009

“Power Paths”
PBS National Broadcast on Nov. 3
Posted by: Toby McLeod

"POWER PATHS", a one-hour film directed by Bo Boudart, written by SLFP’s Jessica Abbe and narrated by Peter Coyote, will be nationally broadcast Nov. 3 on the PBS series Independent Lens. SLFP Project Director Toby McLeod contributed advice and archival footage to this timely documentary on renewable energy development in Indian Country.

POWER PATHS offers a unique glimpse into the global energy crisis from the perspective of a culture pledged to protect the planet, historically exploited by corporate interests and neglected by public policymakers. As Anishinaabe activist Winona LaDuke says in the film, “We need to create a way of life where a community is not forced to cannibalize their mother in order to live.”

The film follows an intertribal coalition as they fight to transform their local economies by replacing coal mines and smog-belching power plants with renewable energy technologies.

POWER PATHS follows the Just Transition Coalition in its attempts to balance Navajo and Hopi losses from the 2006 closure of the Mohave Generating Station and Peabody Energy’s Black Mesa mine by creating green jobs.

This transition would honor their heritage, protect their sacred land, and provide electricity to their homes. At a time when the planet as a whole hungers for alternatives to fossil fuels, POWER PATHS offers proof that going green is not only possible—it’s the only choice we have. In the Bay Area. POWER PATHS is scheduled to air at 10 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Check local listings for your PBS station, or visit the PBS website. www.sacredland.org/index.php/power-paths/



OCTOBER 14, 2009

"Study charts links between mobile phones, tumors"

Study charts links between mobile phones, tumors High-quality studies often show potential cancer link Industry-funded studies most likely to show no link.
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters)
– Studies on whether mobile phones can cause cancer, especially brain tumors, vary widely in quality and there may be some bias in those showing the least risk, researchers reported on Tuesday.

So far it is difficult to demonstrate any link, although the best studies do suggest some association between mobile phone use and cancer, the team led by Dr. Seung-Kwon Myung of South Korea’s National Cancer Center found. Myung and colleagues at Ewha Womans University and Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul and the University of California, Berkeley, examined 23 published studies of more than 37,000 people in what is called a meta-analysis.

They found results often depended on who conducted the study and how well they controlled for bias and other errors. “We found a large discrepancy in the association between mobile phone use and tumor risk by research group, which is confounded with the methodological quality of the research,” they wrote in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The use of mobile and cordless phones has exploded in the past 10 years to an estimated 4.6 billion subscribers worldwide, according to the U.N. International Telecommunication Union. Research has failed to establish any clear link between use of the devices and several kinds of cancer. The latest study, supported in part by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, examined cases involving brain tumors and others including tumors of the facial nerves, salivary glands and testicles as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.

It found no significant association between the risk of tumors and overall use of mobile phones, including cellular and cordless phones. MILD RISK Myung’s team said eight studies that employed “high quality” methods to blind participants against bias found a mild increased risk of tumors among people who used mobile phones compared with those who never or rarely did. An increased risk of benign, not malignant, tumors was also found among people who used the phones for a decade or longer. The “high quality” studies were funded by the Swedish Work Environment Fund, the Orebro Cancer Fund and the Orebro University Hospital Cancer Fund, Myung’s team said.

By contrast, studies that used “low quality” methods to weed out bias found mobile users were at lower risk for tumors than people who rarely used the devices. Myung’s team suggested those results could be marred by random errors and bias because of the quality of the methods. Funding for some of the lower-quality studies included two industry groups, the Mobile Manufacturers Forum and the Global System for Mobile Communication Association, the researchers said. Overall, the studies examined were not broad enough to shed light on whether mobile phone use could cause tumors.

Myung’s team said larger studies of a type called cohort studies are needed to answer that question. Such studies follow a group of people who share a characteristic, in this case cellphone use, and compare them with other groups over time. The only cohort study published to date showed no association between mobile phone use and tumors. But the study, conducted in Denmark, relied on telephone subscriptions and did not evaluate actual exposure to mobile phones.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and John O’Callaghan) Reuters AlertNet – Study charts links between mobile phones, tumors



SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

"Cellphone-Cancer link"

Senator promises look into cellphone-cancer link U.S.
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor - WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Mon Sep 14, 7:46 pm ET Iowa senator Tom Harkin, newly empowered to investigate health matters as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, promised on Monday to probe deeply into any potential links between cellphone use and cancer.

Harkin, who took over the committee earlier this month after the death of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, said he was concerned no one has been able to prove cellphones do not cause cancer. “I’m reminded of this nation’s experience with cigarettes.

Decades passed between the first warnings about smoking tobacco and the final definitive conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer,” Harkin said.

Cell phones, used by an estimated 275 million people in the United States and 4 billion worldwide, use radio waves. Years of research have failed to establish any clear link between their use and several kinds of cancer, including brain tumors.

Recent worries have been raised by the Environmental Working Group, an activist group, and epidemiologist Devra Lee Davis of the University of Pittsburgh, who has written a book alleging the government has overlooked many potential sources of cancer. Harkin called a hearing of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to look into the questions on Monday. “I will pursue this beyond this panel, with NIH (the National Institutes of Health),” Harkin said after the hearing.

He noted the appropriations committee did not have jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Communications Commission, but said the Health committee he now chairs does. A staffer said the senator became concerned by a report from the Environmental Working Group showing that radio wave emissions vary from one cellphone brand and model to another; as well as some reports suggesting there might be a link. PROVING A NEGATIVE Linda Erdreich of science and engineering firm Exponent in New York said 50 years worth of evidence had failed to show that cellular phones can cause cancer.

“This part of the spectrum is known as non-ionizing radiation,” she told the hearing, explaining that this means radio waves cannot damage the DNA in cells. But Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter pressed her on this, asking her repeatedly whether science had conclusively proved there was no connection.

“Your statement that it is hard to prove a negative is right on,” Erdreich replied. “What comes through to me is that we just don’t know what the answer is,” said Specter, a cancer survivor who said he avoids white flour and sugar in case it might feed tumors.

(Editing by Todd Eastham;
additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090914/hl_nm/us_cellphones_cancer