Everyone needs to read this.
Brief summary: in 1984, FDA allowed cell phones to be marketed w/o any premarket testing. In 1993, when woman died of brain tumor exactly underneath where cell phone antenna was located while she used cell phone, her husband and doctor told about the tragedy on national TV. This led to worldwide panic.
Tom Wheeler, president and chief lobbyist of wireless trade assoc (CTIA) made an offer to the FDA. The industry would agree to fund and conduct a large, postmarket study on the safety of cell phones, if the FDA would agree not to regulate cell phones until this research was complete. Not having done its job back in 1984 before allowing cell phones to be marketed, the FDA potentially had as big a problem as the industry. Putting its own self interest before that of the public, the FDA accepted Wheeler’s offer.
Tom Wheeler hired an epidemiologist and public health scientist named George Carlo to head the industry’s $25 million dollar research program intended to reassure the public that cell phones are safe.
Carlo hired close to 200 leading scientists from around the world to perform the research that he would oversee. In addition, he created a peer-review board chaired by Harvard University School of Public Health’s well-respected Dr. John Graham.
In 1995, Carlo discovered that his projected costs for the year were more than $6 million dollars over what the industry said was available. Eventually Carlo would learn that the $6+ million dollars had been spent on public relations by Wheeler.
By 1996, Carlo’s research program was running a deficit. The financial crisis triggered a dispute between Carlo and Wheeler that became known throughout the industry, government, and among trade press journalists.
That same year, the FCC began auctioning off radiofrequency bands in the microwave portion of the RF spectrum. The FCC agreed to finance a major part of the costs in exchange for a portion of the revenues from cell phones – and later Wi-Fi, which in 2000, would begin to be rolled-out on a massive scale.
This extremely profitable arrangement, which cost the government nothing, secured the infrastructure for wireless technology, rather than fiber optic – which is almost 900,000X faster than wireless and has no health risks.
On December 21, 1998, Carlo had his first alarming finding: 2.4GHz microwave radiation (used with cell phones, Wi-Fi, and other devices) appeared to cause micronuclei in human blood samples.
This was particularly alarming in view of the strong correlation between micronuclei and cancer. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the presence of micronuclei in the blood was used to identify children at high risk for developing cancer.
Not long after the startling results came in, Dr. Carlo’s house burned down. The authorities concluded that it was arson, but were never able to solve who did it.
The following month, the micronuclei results were reproduced, providing conclusive evidence that radiation from a cell phone’s antenna causes cancer.
At the February 9, 1999, wireless trade show, Carlo reported his findings, and urged the industry to take appropriate steps to protect the public. Although a voice vote was taken pledging to do the right thing, the vote was never recorded.
In late October, Carlo shared the results of his research with the American public on national TV. He also informed viewers that, if they used a cell phone, they were twice as likely to suffer from brain cancer and rare tumors as non-users.
Wheeler, who was given an opportunity to express his view, told 20/20:
Our industry has gone out and aggressively asked the question, ‘Can we find a problem?’ And the answer that has come back is that there is nothing that has come up in the research that suggests that there is a linkage between the use of a wireless phone and health effects.
The industry’s response to what it viewed as “Carlo’s betrayal” was to try to discredit the scientist – no small task, given that the actual research had been conducted by close to 200 leading scientists from around the world, and peer-reviewed by a board that was chaired by Harvard University’s Dr. John Graham.
Two things the industry still had in its favor, however, were (1) the support of the US federal government, and (2) a lot of money.
Despite accusations that the health effects of cellular phone radiation were being withheld from consumers by the wireless industry and the US government, the FDA proposed a collaborative project with the wireless industry to investigate the issue of whether cell phones presented a danger to the public.
The “Cooperative Research and Development Agreement” (or CRADA agreement) that was subsequently signed had been rejected by the FDA back in 1993 as a “conflict of interest.”
POST SCRIPT
On May 13, 2013, President Barack Obama – apparently having forgotten about his 2008 presidential campaign promise “to close the revolving door that brings major industry players into positions in government that regulate those industries” – nominated Tom Wheeler to head the FCC.
This is the same man who, in 1993, hired Dr. Carlo to conduct research to investigate the safety of cell phones— and then, in 1999, lied to the American people about the results of Dr. Carlo’s research.
You can watch Dr. Carlo's videos on youtube.
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