"We are very concerned about this discussion…”
Mobile phone risks? Telefónica CEO Markus Haas' statement on the wireless study situation is downright classic:
- "We are very concerned about this discussion because it is fact-free. There are no studies that even see a health risk of any kind."[1]
In order to turn this opinion into public opinion, especially to justify the rapid expansion of 5G, the Federal Government's campaign "Germany talks about 5G" was launched in 2020.[2] A second all-clear wave was staged in the first half of 2022 as a media-campaign based on four studies (see above 1-4) with the message: mobile phone radiation is harmless to health. There is no risk of cancer. This all-clear wave was carried by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), the Federal government, the ICNIRP, the dpa (German press agency), conceived by the advertising agency Scholz & Friends.
Reaction to the current study situation
This campaign was obviously a reaction on two factors:
1. The first factor in this all-clear campaign is the pressure to justify new study results. In the year 2021, the Technology Assessment Committee of the European Parliament published the STOA study "Health impact of 5G", a 198-page report as a basis for decision-making for politicians.[3] 270 studies on cancer and fertility were qualitatively evaluated according to internationally defined criteria, with the result: mobile phone radiation is harmful to health, which makes a protection and precautionary policy absolutely necessary.
Mobile phone radiation (= non-ionising radiation) was already classified by the WHO as "possibly carcinogenic" (2B) as early as 2011. The results of the latest individual studies, namely the US-American study NTP, the Italian Ramazzini and the Austrian AUVA studies are clear: mobile phone radiation can cause cancer. The meta-analysis by Choi et al. (2020) confirms that there is significant evidence of an increased tumour risk for heavy users (=17 minutes of daily mobile phone use over 10 years).[4] Regarding the possible effects of mobile phones on sperm quality, a team of researchers led by Professor Yun Hak Kim of Pusan National University, an elite university in South Korea, conducted a meta-analysis that demonstrates sperm damage.[5] The systematic review by Balmori (2022) in the journal Environmental Research concluded that the majority of studies show adverse health effects in people living near a mobile phone base station (cell-towers).[6]
In the conclusion of the largest review to date on oxidative cell stress / ROS (free radicals, reactive oxygen species) by Schürmann/Mevissen (2021), the authors conclude that this mechanism of damage can be proven and thus the radiation can be the cause of inflammatory diseases.[7]
diagnose:funk documents the study situation on the database www.Emfdata.org, the ElectrosmogReport, with a list of more than 120 reviews. The BioInitiative Group also documents the risks in its summaries (13). This calls into question the BfS's sovereignty of interpretation.
The fact that EU boards have been calling for a radiation protection policy since 2020 caused to particular nervousness in the industry and the BfS (German Federal Office for Radiation Protection). In March 2022, the Economic and Social Committee of the European Union (EESC) published an opinion in the Official Journal of the EU (04.03.2022) in which consequences for a radiation protection policy and new limit values are drawn from the study situation and the corresponding debate.[8]
In February 2022, the German Bundestag published the 300-page report on the technology assessment of non-ionising radiation, which lists 66 studies with significant results of biological risks. diagnose:funk has published three analyses of this report so far.
The ICBE-EMF (International Commission on the Biological Effects of EMF) points out in its critique critique of limit values "Scientific evidence invalidate the health assumptions made by the FCC (Federal Communication Commission, USA) and ICNIRP limit values for radiofrequency radiation: Implications for 5G" demonstrates that the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) limit values are scientifically untenable and have no protective function. diagnose:funk summarised the current study situation in a keynote speech.
2. The second factor: This situation has also led to Citizens' initiatives have sprung up all over the country, using well-founded arguments to oppose the erection of mobile phone masts. Surveys by Bitkom (Industry association of the German information and telecommunications sector) and the BfS (German Federal Office for Radiation Protection) have shown that the public is still very concerned about the risks of radiation.
In response to these two factors - increasingly conclusive study results and public protest - a German media offensive was launched in early 2022 to influence the target groups of parents, doctors and politicians. The all-clear messages were picked up by almost all media, including major medical portals.
This reaction shows the important role of diagnose:funk through its documentation of research and its confrontation with attempts to ignore or misrepresent research findings. diagnose:funk dealt with this wave of propaganda in detail. The entire confrontation is documented on our homepage: www.diagnose-funk.org/1866.
