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So cautious is Dr Teo, the subject of his 12-year-old daughter having
a mobile phone in their family, he confesses, is a sore point.
"The argument for her having a mobile phone was there are some
benefits of it and that is in emergency situations, but she has promised me she is a very sensible girl she will
use a loudspeaker facility all the time," he says.
Dr Teo has every right to be nervous; it is his personal belief that
there may be an association between EMR and the development of brain cancer.
And while he is not seeking to be alarmist, he does want people to be
more aware, especially with children.
It's a belief backed up by Senator Lyn Allison, who spent a year
listening to the scientists to find out what the risks are. She discovered there is very good reason to
worry.
"We're all a bit awash now in radio frequency and radio waves
generally and we are not altogether sure what effect that has on us,' she says.
Senator Allison says that the fact that brain
tumour is now the number one life-threatening disease for children above leukemia is consistent with
studies in Europe and the UK.
"[These studies show] there has been a 40 per cent
across-the-board increase in the number of brain tumours in the past 20 years," she explains, "Now, that
20 years has coincided with the use of mobile phone and many other radio frequencies ..."
And the thickness of a person's skull, according to scientific studies
read by Senator Allison, can also distinguish levels of vulnerability.
"Scientists say that the thickness of the skull in children makes
a difference, it is quite thin compared with adults and there is more brain fluid which means that the radio
frequencies can travel through the brain more easily," she says.
Dr Teo offers more specific evidence of patients whose tumours
correspond with their use of mobile phones.
"When patients come in with a brain
cancer, I often say to them, "your cancer was on the right side of the brain, it is in the area just above
your ear, can you tell me if you feel that you have had more exposure than most people to mobile phones," and
I am surprised that most people say, "yes I have used my phone continuously for the last seven years and it
is always stuck to my ear on this side ..." well that is where the cancer is.
Canberra parents Geoff and Denise O'Connell have had their own
personal experience of these statistics. They lost their seven-year-old daughter Kessia to a brain
tumour. Their own research has made them aware of the risks associated with exposure to EMR.
"I wouldn't move in next to a telecom tower or mobile phone tower
and certainly if there were heavy duty electrical wires I would be very uncomfortable," says Geoff. |
