The University of Washington Alumni Magazine
In 1995 Dr Henry Lai and Dr NP Singh published a study in Bioelectromagnetics which found an increase in damaged DNA in the brain cells of rats after a single two-hour exposure to microwave radiation at levels considered “safe” by government standards.The idea behind that study was relatively simple: expose rats to microwave radiation similar to that emitted by cell phones, then examine their brain cells to see if any DNA damage resulted. Such damage is worrisome because DNA carries the body’s genetic code and breaks, if not repaired properly, could lead to mutations and even cancer.
Singh is one of the world’s foremost experts on a DNA analysis called the “comet assay.” The assay gets its name from the appearance of a damaged cell. First, the cell is set in a gel and “lysed” or punctured. Then an electric current is run across the cell. When strands of DNA break, the broken pieces are charged. The electric current causes those pieces to migrate through the gel. As a result, a damaged cell takes on the appearance of a comet, with the bits of damaged DNA forming the tail. The longer the tail, the more damage has resulted. With Singh’s expertise now at hand, Lai decided to look at how microwaves affect DNA. Lai and Singh compared rats exposed to a low dose of microwave radiation for two hours to a control group of rats that spent the same amount of time in the exposure device, but didn’t receive any radiation. The exposed rats showed about a 30 percent increase in single-strand breaks in brain cell DNA compared to the control group. As Lai and Singh sought funding to conduct follow-up studies, word of the research began to get out. According to internal documents that later came to light, Motorola started working behind the scenes to minimize any damage Lai’s research might cause. In a memo and a draft position paper dated Dec. 13, 1994, officials talked about how they had “war-gamed the Lai-Singh issue” and were in the process of lining up experts who would be willing to point out weaknesses in Lai’s study and reassure the public.This was before the study was published in 1995.
A couple of years later, Lai got money from Wireless Technology Research (WTR), a group organized by CTIA to administer $25 million in industry research funding, to do some follow-up studies. But the conditions that came with the funding were restrictive. So much so that Lai and Singh wrote an open letter to Microwave News recounting their experience. The letter, published in 1999, cited irregularities in processes and procedures that the two called “highly suspicious.” “In the 20 years or so that we have conducted experiments, for a variety of funding agencies, we have never encountered anything like this in the management of a scientific contract,” the two wrote. WTR leader George Carlo responded with a six-page letter to then-UW President Richard McCormick, complaining of the “libelous” letter to Microwave News and “a pattern of slanderous conduct by these men over the past several years.” The letter closed with a threat of legal action and stated that Lai and Singh should be fired from the project. An answering letter from Vice Provost Steven Olswang stated that the University “encourages legitimate academic discourse” and would not intervene in the dispute.
While Lai and Singh were attempting to do their industry-funded follow-up study, the industry was looking for another opinion. Motorola approached Jerry Phillips, a researcher who worked in a lab at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. He was investigating electromagnetic fields and their biological effects. The lab had done work with Motorola before, and Phillips was interested. He made a proposal and was funded. He sent people to Seattle to learn how to do the comet assay. And he decided to expose the animals in his experiment to actual cell phone frequencies. What they found were increases in DNA damage at some levels of exposure and decreases at others. “That’s not unusual,” Phillips says. “It happens with chemicals. One dose can do one thing, while a higher or lower dose does the opposite. In this case, if you produce a little bit of DNA damage, you are stimulating the repair mechanisms and you could actually see a net decrease because the repair will be done. However, if you overwhelm the repair mechanism, then you could see an increase. “Based on the data, I told them that we need to start looking at repair mechanisms,” Phillips recalls. Motorola disagreed. Phillips says he was told the results were not ready for publication, was encouraged to do more work, and was offered additional money to continue the experiment.”I said as much as I would like the money, this part of the study is done,” he recalls. “I said it’s time to move on.” The study was published in Nov. 1998. Once the findings were released, Phillips’ source of funding dried up.
Since then, another group, working out of Washington University in St. Louis with industry funding, has tried to replicate the experiment, but without success. According to Lai and Phillips, that group is doing the study differently, including using a different technique to gauge DNA damage. “They haven’t properly replicated the work that Henry did, or that I did,” Phillips says. In the meantime, recent findings from overseas, more than 10 years after Lai’s work, seem to finally be providing support for a closer look at cell phone radiation. Last fall, the journal Epidemiology published research results from a Swedish group that showed an increase in a rare type of non-cancerous brain tumor among cell phone users on the side of the head where the phone was most often held. In December, a pan-European organization released results from an extensive four-year study carried out by 12 research groups in seven countries. Known as the REFLEX study, that research found significant increases in DNA damage in human and animal cells exposed to cell phone radiation in the laboratory. While not a cause for alarm, the results, which have yet to be published, underline the need for further study, scientists said. A spokeswoman for the UK-based Mobile Operators Association called the results “preliminary,”adding that, “It is not possible to draw conclusions from this preliminary data.”
In 2000, Sir William Stewart, former chair of a British group that looked into the cell phone debate issued a report urging “a precautionary stance” while scientific data is gathered. This January he repeated that warning, adding that children should not use the devices for the time being. Industry spokesman Farren says his organization sticks to its position. “Any official precautionary measures need to be based on the science,” he says. “The majority of studies have shown there are no health effects.”It’s a point well taken, Lai says. However, what the science seems to say depends on how you quantify it.
Lai says there have been about 200 studies on the biological effects of cell-phone-related radiation. If you put all the ones that say there is a biological effect on one side and those that say there is no effect on the other, you’d have two piles roughly equal in size. The research splits about 50-50. “That, in and of itself, is alarming,” Lai says. But it’s not the whole story. If you divide up the same 200 studies by who sponsored the research, the numbers change. “When you look at the non-industry sponsored research, it’s about three to one – three out of every four papers shows an effect,” Lai says. “Then, if you look at the industry-funded research, it’s almost opposite – only one out of every four papers shows an effect.” The problem, he adds, is that there is no longer funding available in the United States that isn’t attached to the industry. Lai, for one, refuses to take any more industry money.
“There are too many strings attached,” he maintains. “Everyone uses the analogy of the tobacco industry and what happened there. It’s like letting the fox watch the henhouse.” While the FDA administers cell phone radiation studies, the money comes from the industry, he adds…
more here: http://media.withtank.com/902377633f.pdf
In this leaked Motorola memo in the words of Motorola executives, they claimed to have succeeded in “War-Gaming ” the Lai-Singh Experiments demonstrating DNA damage at below so-called safe exposure levels – the smoking-gun reveals itself as legitimate researchers are constantly countered by wireless industry propagandist: war-gaming-memo
more: http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall01.html