Cancer incidence vs. FM radio transmitter density.

BACKGROUND: In 2002, a strong association was highlighted between local melanoma incidence and the number of locally covering main Frequency Modulation (FM) transmitters in Sweden. This study investigated whether an association also exists between melanoma incidence and the average density of main FM transmitters in different European countries. METHODS: Twenty-three different European countries were asked to disclose the number of main transmitters used for the FM broadcasting band (87·5-108 MHz) in the respective country. Incidences of melanoma, breast cancer and all cancers together per country were correlated with their respective average density of transmitters per 10,000 km(2). FINDINGS: Both melanoma and breast cancer, as well as all cancers together, appear to be significantly associated with the density of main FM broadcasting transmitters in the European countries examined. INTERPRETATION: The findings present strong support to the earlier presented hypothesis that body-resonant broadcasting radiation emitted by horizontally polarized main FM transmitters has an immune-disturbing effect. FUNDING: This study was financed by internal funds within Hallberg Independent Research only.

Cancer versus FM radio polarization types.

In 2002, a detailed analysis of skin melanoma in 289 Swedish municipalities showed a strong association with the number of horizontally polarized main FM transmitters covering a municipality. Basic antenna theory says that body-resonance and standing waves cannot appear above a metal spring mattress unless the electric field is horizontally polarized. To test the hypothesis that body-resonant radiation can cause increased cancer risk in other European countries, I collected and analysed reported data from 24 countries, among which six were using vertical polarization. The results showed a strong association between cancer risk and the use of horizontally polarized FM broadcasting radiation, whereas vertical polarization seemed to cause no health effects. This information should form the basis for initiating relevant corrective actions by responsible authorities.

A melanoma trend forecast from 2002 - What happened then?

In 2002, a paper was published that highlighted the strong correlation noticed between melanoma incidence and the number of surrounding frequency modulation (FM) transmitters in the Nordic countries since 1955. In the report the development of future numbers of melanoma cases in Estonia were estimated since they got the FM broadcasting system rolled out not until 1992. Here, we report what happened since then in Estonia regarding melanoma cases per year. We also comment on the recent development in the Nordic countries, which is not very reassuring from a public health point of view. The last 10 years of melanoma incidence trends, increasing at an exponential rate, suggest that responsible authorities now need to consider possible influences also from other radiation sources in addition to UV radiation from the sun.

Cancer and body height.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that body-resonant radiation may explain the correlation between body height and cancer risk observed in most countries around the world. METHODS: Data on cancer incidence and body height were collected from different countries and also from different regions within Sweden. Information on local FM broadcasting transmitters was also collected in Sweden to determine whether they correlated with the cancer incidence and body heights reported in each geographical area. Because broadcasting radiation may be concentrated by metal spring mattresses, we also attempted to collect information on the use of these mattresses in different parts of the world. RESULTS: A strong association was found between melanoma incidence and body height, both in different countries and in different municipalities within Sweden. At the same time, a very strong association was found between cancer incidence, mean body height, and the effective number of FM transmitters covering a given locality. Available data on the use of metal spring mattresses in different parts of the world also correlated well with data on cancer rates and body heights. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that body-resonant radiation may affect both cancer incidence and body height was supported by the strong associations found in this study. The hypothesis was further supported by the correlation found between the incidence of cancer, body height, and the use of metal spring mattresses.

Increasing melanoma-too many skin cell damages or too few repairs?

Skin melanoma rates have been increasing for a long time in many Western countries. The object of this study was to apply modern problem-solving theory normally used to clear industrial problems to search for roots and causes of this medical question. Increasing cancer rates can be due to too many cell damage incidents or to too few repairs. So far, it has been assumed that the melanoma epidemic mainly is caused by increasing sun tanning habits. In order to explore this problem in more detail, we used cancer statistics from several countries over time and space. Detailed analysis of data obtained and a model study to evaluate the effects from increased damages or decreased repairs clearly indicate that the main reason behind the melanoma problem is a disturbed immune system. The possibility to introduce efficient corrective actions is apparent.

Comparing lung cancer risks in sweden, USA, and Japan.

Objective. To develop a conceptual model for lung cancer rates to describe and quantify observed differences between Sweden and USA contra Japan. Method. A two-parameter lognormal distribution was used to describe the lung cancer rates over time after a 1-year period of smoking. Based on that risk function in combination with smoking prevalence, the calculated age-standardized rates were adjusted to fit reported data from Japan, Sweden, and the USA by parameter variation. Results. The risk of lung cancer is less in Japan than in Sweden and in the USA at the same smoking prevalence and intensity. Calculated age-specific rates did also fit well to reported rates without further parameter adjustments. Conclusions. This new type of cancer model appears to have high degree of predictive value. It is recommended that data from more countries are studied to identify important life-style factors related to lung cancer.

Sleep on the right side-Get cancer on the left?

Breast cancer frequently occurs in the left breast among both women and men [R. Roychoudhuri, V. Putcha, H. Møller, Cancer and laterality: a study of the five major paired organs (UK), Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 655-662; M.T. Goodman, K.H. Tung, L.R. Wilkens, Comparative epidemiology of breast cancer among men and women in the US, 1996 to 2000, Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 127-136; C.I. Perkins, J. Hotes, B.A. Kohler, H.L. Howe, Association between breast cancer laterality and tumor location, United States, 1994-1998, Cancer Causes Control 15 (2004) 637-645; H.A. Weiss, S.S. Devesa, L.A. Brinton, Laterality of breast cancer in the United States, Cancer Causes Control 7 (1996) 539-543; A. Ekbom, H.O. Adami, D. Trichopoulos, M. Lambe, C.C. Hsieh, J. Pontén, Epidemiologic correlates of breast cancer laterality (Sweden), Cancer Causes Control 5 (1994) 510-516]. Moreover, recent results showed that the left side of the body is more prone to melanoma than the right side [D.H. Brewster, M.J. Horner, S. Rowan, P. Jelfs, E. de Vries, E. Pukkala, Left-sided excess of invasive cutaneous melanoma in six countries, Eur. J. Cancer 43 (2007) 2634-2637]. Current explanations for left-sided breast cancer include handedness [L. Titus-Ernstoff, P.A. Newcomb, K.M. Egan, et al., Left-handedness in relation to breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, Epidemiology 11 (2000) 181-184; M.A. Kramer, S. Albrecht, R.A. Miller, Handedness and the laterality of breast cancer in women, Nurs. Res. 34 (1985) 333-337; M.K. Ramadhani, S.G. Elias, P.A. van Noord, D.E. Grobbee, P.H. Peeters, C.S. Uiterwaal, Innate left handedness and risk of breast cancer: case-cohort study, BMJ 331 (2005) 882-883], size difference, nursing preference, and brain structure. However, men are affected even more by left laterality than women, thus many of these explanations are unconvincing. Increasing rates of skin melanoma have been associated with immune-disruptive radiation from FM/TV transmitters [O. Hallberg, A theory and model to explain the skin melanoma epidemic, Melanoma Res. 16 (2006) 115-118; O. Hallberg, A reduced repair efficiency can explain increasing melanoma rates, Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 17 (2008) 147-152; O. Hallberg, O. Johansson, Melanoma incidence and frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting, Arch. Environ. Health 57 (2002) 32-40; O. Hallberg, O. Johansson, FM broadcasting exposure time and malignant melanoma incidence, Electromagn. Biol. Med. 24 (2005) 1-8; O. Hallberg, Radio TV towers linked to increased risk of melanoma, Report, available at: http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/C_ancer_31/120907442007_Exclusive_report_Radio_TV_towers_linked_to_increased_risk_of_melanoma.shtml, 2007 (accessed 2007)]. Geographical areas covered by several transmitters show higher incidences of melanoma than areas covered by one transmitter. Here we show that a high prevalence of breast cancer and melanoma on the left side of the body may be a logical consequence of sleeping in beds having mattresses containing wave-reflecting metal springs. We found that people tend to sleep for longer periods on their right side, apparently to avoid disturbance by the heartbeat. This puts the left side farther away from the field-attenuating influence of the metal springs in the mattress; thus the left side will spend, on average, more time exposed to stronger combined fields from incident and reflected waves. This hypothesis may also explain why body parts farthest away from the mattress (trunk and upper arms for men; lower limbs and hips for women) have higher melanoma rates than the sun-exposed face area. The implications of this study should promote a critical consideration of population exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially during the night.

Is increased mortality from Alzheimer's disease in Sweden a reflection of better diagnostics?

Mortality data were retrieved from the Swedish death registry for the years 1970-2006. This report presents updated information on mortality from Alzheimer's disease (AD) through the year 2006, as well as a statistical model of AD mortality with predictive value. This model was developed based on a mortality risk function acting after a specific time point, either step-wise on the whole population or on an increasing part of it. Data collected in recent years indicate that mortality is increasing continuously amongst the oldest patients, while younger age-groups show more stable mortality rates. After fitting the statistical model to age-standardized mortality data it also gave age-specific rates that fit well with reported data without further adjustments in model parameters. The data and the corresponding model for AD mortality suggest that the ability of the body to protect itself from AD-related neurological damage has in general became increasingly impaired since about 1985. This impairment has mainly affected people 65 years of age and older since 1985; the model predicts that in 2020, the age-standardized mortality in Sweden will be 13/100,000 person-years. The author concludes that the increasing mortality is real and not only a result of increasing use of the death classification code for AD.

Apparent decreases in Swedish public health indicators after 1997-are they due to improved diagnostics or to environmental factors?

The object of this work was to review recent trends in public health in Sweden. Data on different adverse health indicators were collected from official Swedish registries. We found that population health generally improved during the early 1990s but suddenly started to deteriorate from 1997 onwards. This quite dramatic change is not likely to be explained only by improved diagnostics but physical causes need immediately to be searched for. A connection with the increasing exposure of the population to GHz radiation from mobile phones, base stations and other communication technologies cannot be ruled out.

A reduced repair efficiency can explain increasing melanoma rates.

In an earlier study, the author found that the melanoma incidence stayed fairly constant after 30 years of age during the first part of the 20th century in several countries. All birth cohorts, however, continued to show increasing incidence from 1957 onwards, and also after the age of 30 years. Before 1957, cell damage in skin older than about 30 years thus did not seem to be able to generate melanoma, whereas cell damage sustained later could pose a melanoma risk for much longer durations. The objective of this study was to determine whether a suddenly reduced efficiency of the cell-repair system could mathematically explain the reported increase of melanoma incidence in Sweden since 1957. A statistical distribution was used to describe the probability of cell damage developing into melanoma vs. time. Also, the probability that such damaged cells would either be repaired or killed was described as a function of time. The total probability of acquiring melanoma over time was then modelled and compared with reported data to determine the distribution parameters. The model was able to mirror the reported data both before and after the point in time at which the skin-repair system was assumed to have been impaired. This study shows that a reduced efficiency of the cell-repairing mechanisms is capable of explaining the increasing trends of melanoma incidence that we have been noticing since the mid-20th century. Other cancer types also seem to have been affected.

The urban decline of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus): a possible link with electromagnetic radiation.

During recent decades, there has been a marked decline of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) population in the United Kingdom and in several western European countries. The aims of this study were to determine whether the population is also declining in Spain and to evaluate the hypothesis that electromagnetic radiation (microwaves) from phone antennae is correlated with the decline in the sparrow population. Between October 2002 and May 2006, point transect sampling was performed at 30 points during 40 visits to Valladolid, Spain. At each point, we carried out counts of sparrows and measured the mean electric field strength (radiofrequencies and microwaves: 1 MHz-3 GHz range). Significant declines (P = 0.0037) were observed in the mean bird density over time, and significantly low bird density was observed in areas with high electric field strength. The logarithmic regression of the mean bird density vs. field strength groups (considering field strength in 0.1 V/m increments) was R = -0.87 (P = 0.0001). The results of this article support the hypothesis that electromagnetic signals are associated with the observed decline in the sparrow population. We conclude that electromagnetic pollution may be responsible, either by itself or in combination with other factors, for the observed decline of the species in European cities during recent years. The appearently strong dependence between bird density and field strength according to this work could be used for a more controlled study to test the hypothesis.

Adverse health indicators correlating with sparsely populated areas in Sweden.

Earlier studies on health characteristics in Sweden have pointed at a sudden trend change in general health indicators around 1997. The decline was worse in areas with less estimated coverage by the mobile phone system; that is, areas where the average output power from mobile phone handsets is expected to be higher. In this study, health parameters were related to the population density, which is a well defined, rather than an estimated variable. Statistics were obtained from different authorities in Sweden. Data were correlated to the population densities in the 21 different counties of Sweden as well as to estimates of average mobile phone output power. Several health quality measures showed that people in sparsely populated counties in Sweden (as well as in Denmark and Norway) have suffered more illness, and lengthier recovery than people in more densely populated areas since 1997. This is in strong contrast to the situation 20 years ago, when the countryside was the healthiest place in which to live. The indicators strongly correlated with estimated mobile phone area coverage and estimated power output. The indicator statistics suggest that the decline in health in Sweden is not a primary consequence of low population density by itself, but that other factors related to population density are causative. The two factors having the strongest correlation with decreased health quality were the estimated average power output from mobile phones (positive correlation) and the reported coverage from the global system for mobile communication base stations (negative correlation) in each county.

A theory and model to explain the skin melanoma epidemic.

Before 1955, the incidence of malignant melanoma in Nordic countries increased from birth to approximately 30 years of age, when it levelled off to around five cases per 100,000 person-years. From 1957 onwards, the incidence no longer stabilized at the age of 30 years, but continued to increase with age to at least 100 cases per 100,000 person-years. The aims of this study were to examine this sudden change in melanoma trends and to develop an explanatory model. The Nordic Cancer Registries and the American Cancer Society provided age-specific incidence data. Birth cohorts of melanoma incidence for men were plotted against calendar year and age. A theory and a corresponding mathematical model were developed to explain the time trends in all cohorts, as well as the reported age-specific incidence and age-standardized incidence over time. A statistical distribution of time to sickness fitted all the post-1957 data. Earlier studies have indicated that body-resonant frequency modulation broadcasting radiation from 1955 onwards may affect melanoma incidence. The proposed model may shed light on the melanoma epidemic and may be useful in predicting future melanoma trends based on known birth cohort data and possible effects from policy changes with regard to population exposure to electromagnetic radiation.