Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels

Pockett, Susan

doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5020031

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Retraction published on 4 September 2019, see Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(3), 51.

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Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels

Susan Pockett

School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(2), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/magnetochemistry5020031

Received: 29 March 2019 / Revised: 23 April 2019 / Accepted: 25 April 2019 / Published: 5 May 2019

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Abstract

Official reports to governments throughout the Western world attempt to allay public concern about the increasing inescapability of the microwaves (also known as radiofrequency radiation or RF) emitted by “smart” technologies, by repeating the dogma that the only proven biological effect of RF is acute tissue heating, and assuring us that the levels of radiation to which the public are exposed are significantly less than those needed to cause acute tissue heating. The present paper first shows the origin of this “thermal-only” dogma in the military paranoia of the 1950s. It then reveals how financial conflict of interest and intentionally misleading statements have been powerful factors in preserving that dogma in the face of now overwhelming evidence that it is false, using one 2018 report to ministers of the New Zealand government as an example. Lastly, some new pilot measurements of ambient RF power densities in Auckland city are reported and compared with levels reported in other cities, various international exposure limits, and levels shown scientifically to cause biological harm. It is concluded that politicians in the Western world should stop accepting soothing reports from individuals with blatant conflicts of interest and start taking the health and safety of their communities seriously. View Full-Text

Keywords: radiofrequency radiation; RF; microwave; cellphone; smart technology; public health; cancer; diabetes; depression; dementia

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Pockett, S. Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels. Magnetochemistry 2019, 5, 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/magnetochemistry5020031

AMA Style

Pockett S. Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels. Magnetochemistry. 2019; 5(2):31. https://doi.org/10.3390/magnetochemistry5020031

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pockett, Susan. 2019. "Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels" Magnetochemistry 5, no. 2: 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/magnetochemistry5020031

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Conflicts of Interest and Misleading Statements in Official Reports about the Health Consequences of Radiofrequency Radiation and Some New Measurements of Exposure Levels

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