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JohnDownend

Listed below are comments made by JohnDownend between Thursday, 2nd October 2008 and Friday, 3rd October 2008.

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Are mobile phones safe? 10:26am on 03 Oct 2008 Zoe

Thank you for responding to my posting. I do I think your comments prove my point that your report on mobile phones was biased. You said, “We aim to give a balanced view of the current state of scientific thinking, and the information in Martys film is all accurate”. That is not correct. There was no balance whatsoever. Where was an opposing view eg a comment from an organisation such as Powerwatch or Mast Sanity? You then go on to say, “But as mobile phones are a relatively new technology, there isnt much known of the long-term effects”. How on earth then can your reporter categorically state that mobile phones do not cause brain tumours and other cancers, especially when it relied on flawed research and completely ignored peer reviewed research showing serious health concerns from mobile phone use, such as the following:

Mobile Phones and Other Tumours
- Parotid / Salivary Gland Tumours
- Other Tumours
Mobile Phone Radiation and Fertility
- Sperm Motility and Testicular Cancer
Mobile Phone Radiation and EEG or Neurological Effects
- Neurological Effects
- EEG and rCBF Effects
- Other Effects
Mobile Phone Radiation and DNA Strand Breaks / Cellular Damage
- DNA Strand Breaks and Cell Mutation / Death
- Heat Shock Protein Type Effects
- Nerve Damage and Signalling Effects
Mobile / Cordless Phones and Brain Cancer
- Lennart Hardell and Swedish Research
- Flaws, Recall Bias and Selection Bias
- The Interphone Project
- Other Research
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/rf/phones.asp#tumours

This proves the serious bias and inaccuracy of your report and highlights the obvious huge influence that the mobile operators have on the BBC.

As previously mentioned the latest studies show children who use a phone are 5 times more likely to develop cancers. Indeed the Health Protection Agency’s guidance on mobile phones is that they should only be used in an emergency by children. Yet your irresponsible report, by a presenter who treated the issue as one big joke, denied any health concerns. Many enlightened parents do not want their children to use a mobile phone. Your report is on at a time when children are watching. For those of us who are aware of the serious health issues with mobile phones your report sent out completely the wrong message. I wonder how many parents, having seen your show, will now think that it is safe for their child to use a mobile.
Are mobile phones safe? 10:24am on 02 Oct 2008 Last nights One Show’s item on mobile phone health risks was probably one of the most shameful, irresponsible piece of “investigative” journalism I have ever seen. Only last week the national newspapers reported the very latest research from Sweden showing that children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancers/tumours in the future if they use mobile phones. The study, experts say, raises fears that today's young people may suffer an "epidemic" of the disease in later life. Please see the following link:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mobile-phone-use-raises-childrens-risk-of-brain-cancer-fivefold-937005.html

Yet the BBC chose to rely on a seriously flawed, outdated piece of research from 1995 which the Powerwatch research organisation described as, “an extremely flawed piece of research, that either by design, incompetence or unavailability of data seemed destined to find no effect from the very beginning”. Please see the following link:

http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20061206_danish_phones_cancer.asp

It is very noticeable that the BBC never mentions the thousands of independent, peer reviewed, research studies that regularly prove that this technology is unsafe. (Please see Mast Sanity/Radiation Research Trust/Powerwatch Websites). Indeed despite last week’s report by all the national newspapers on the above research from Sweden, which proved a serious health problem with mobile phones, the BBC chose to ignore the story! Instead of bothering to properly investigate this serious issue properly the One Show’s Marty Jopson decided to rely on a piece of outdated, flawed research to try and dupe viewers into thinking that using a mobile phone is harmless.

The BBC’s continual support of the mobile phone operators leads one to assume that it is driven by the £multi millions they have tied up in wireless technology and their mobile links. This will be seen as a serious mistake when the serious health risks of this dangerous technology is eventually proved beyond all doubt. May I suggest that in future this BBC bias is balanced by contacting either Mast Sanity’s press office, Powerwatch or the Radiation Research Trust for an alternative view point.

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