Another company goes for the kids

Summary:

A new mobile phone deliberately designed for use by young children under 10 years old has been launched in the UK by Teddyfone Ltd. It designed to look like a teddy bear that we believe will only really appeal to girls under 8 and boys under about 6 or 7 years old. The following statement was made by Sir William Stewart, a previous UK Chief Scientist, at a press conference early in 2005:

"If there are risks, and we think that maybe there are, then the people most likely to be affected are children, and the younger the children, the greater the danger." Sir William Stewart, Chairman of the UK Health Protection Agency, 11/Jan/2005

Sir William said that no children under the age of 9 should have a phone at all, and all children under 16 should only use phones in emergencies or for really short important calls.

The "Teddyfone" is claimed to increase "mobile parenting" and "safety" for children. The Teddyfone has no screen, 4 speed-dial buttons designed to be pre-programmed by parents, a parent activated a "child monitor" option that allows parents to listen to their child's environment, and an SOS button which automatically sends a pre-programmed text message to 3 assigned numbers.

The truth of the matter is there is simply no evidence that mobile communication makes children any safer. If someone kidnaps a child, the first thing to go would be the mobile phone, so even if the child had managed to get out an SOS signal (which could be a false alarm anyway), there is no way that anyone could get to the location of the phone before the kidnappers are long gone.

Simon Holland, co-founder of TeddyFone said in their press release:"Like many others, I was horrified by the Soham murders and saddened by the effect on parenting." It may be news to Simon that Jessica Chapman did have a working phone on her at the start of the Soham tragedy, but it did not help her. It was switched off and thrown into a field.

Don't get us wrong, the safety of your children is of paramount importance, but without any real evidence that having a phone will help, marketing a phone on this premise is extremely misleading and may put your child at greater risk if, as a result, you let them go out to places you wouldn't normally.

SAR values

The picture above was an experiment done by Dr Om Ghandhi back in 1997. He showed how radiation penetrates the skull of a adult (25%), 10 year old (50%) and a 5 year old (75%). This should of alarm people. The younger the child the deeper the penetration due to the fact their skulls are thinner and still developing.

Teddyfone explain how an average phone has a SAR value of 1.6 W/kg (which is debatable, a quick look here shows 388 different models of phones, of which the average is 0.8 W/kg, 50% of the claimed value), and that the Teddyfone has the "lowest SAR value on the market" (0.2 W/kg), despite the fact that two phones on the list (the Sony Ericsson TZ600 and the Motorola MPX200) are lower, the latter by a whole 40%. Even so, SAR values are very misleading. The SAR value represents the absorption from the phone operating at it's maximum power, whereas in reality phones (especially in areas of good signal) rarely operate anywhere near this level, and can function at as much as 1000 times lower. Far more relevant would be the "average" SAR value for the phone, but due to signal levels and other environmental constraints this is not feasibly measurable, though phones with visible external antennas (unlike the Teddyfone) seem to be better at running at lower power than those with internal antennas.

If they have reduced the SAR by means of lowering the phone's output power, then a side-effect of this will be that the phone may not work in vehicles or low signal areas. For a phone sold primarily on the merit of increased safety this is largely self-defeating.

Blood-brain barrier

There has been some extremely interesting research showing that exposure to the pulsing microwave radiation from mobile phones allows albumin and other toxins to cross the blood brain barrier and damage your brain. The following is an example from a recent study ("Nerve cell damage in mammalian brain after exposure to microwaves from GSM mobile phones.") showing brain cell death in rats who were exposed to mobile phones:

Activist chains himself to an antenna!

Author: Frans van Velden Information about this press article: fransp@dds.nl Activist will chain himself to UMTS (3G) antenna installation fence 27 november 2005 - An activist against UMTS (3G) is ready to chain himself to an antenna installation fence tomorrow morning. He says his group will be satisfied only when UMTS is absolutely banned from the town of Spijkenisse near Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Monday morning operator Orange plans to install three UMTS antennas in a power pylon, about 75 metres from the nearest dwellings. The workers will meet with a crowd of people. "We call them by flyers throughout the neighbourhood", says Bertus van Drongelen. "To help and prevent the installation of these antennas. If the workers do not leave, one of us will chain himself to the fence." The activists prevented the installation before, in October. Alex Swinkels, Bertus van Drongelen and Gerard de Kimpe are not just worried about the UMTS-antennas. They know the permanent radiation of mobile communication can have terrifying health effects. Some time ago they visited the occupants of the top floor of the Marrewijkflat, an apartment building in Spijkenisse. "80 Percent of them have severe health complaints, from insomnia to cancer", says Van Drongelen. On top of the Marrewijkflat are several antennas for mobile communication. The same problems were found at the 5th and 6th floor elswehere. Opposite are antennas for mobile communication, on top of a four story apartment building. "Insomnia, headache, nausea and a general feeling of sickness", the occupants report. Some of them are urinating blood. The physicians and specialists can not find any known disease or abnormality. When the occupants leave the premises, they feel better. Back home the sickness returns. Therefore, the three activists are convinced of the health effects of the radiation. "It is impossible to have a radiation-free town. The problem of radiation pollution is too complex and it is too late to stop the other antennas", says Van Drongelen. "But at least we want a town without UMTS. The citizens have to be made aware of the radiation hazard." According to scientists, the radiation of mobile communication causes toxic effects. The activists concentrate on all UMTS-antennas in Spijkenisse. The town council is behind them. The council decided two weeks ago not to grant new antenna mast permits anymore. Councillor Gerrit van Buuren asked operator Orange to respect the wish of the people and cancel the installation. "We have the right permit and documents, we don't see any reason to stop", says an Orange spokesman. Sources: http://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/voorneputten/article69465.ece (Algemeen Dagblad, newspaper) interview by telephone with Bertus van Drongelen article in local newspaper The Botlek, November 2, 2005 http://www.stopumts.nl/pdf/motie2_spijkenisse.pdf and http://www.stopumts.nl/pdf/motie1_spijkenisse.pdf (council decisions) Author: Frans van Velden Information about this press article: fransp@dds.nl

Crime of your employee towards the World Health Organization

For: Director-General Lee Jong-wook World Health Organization Headquarters Avenue Appia 20 1211 Geneva 27 Switzerland Subject: Your urgent interference is needed to investigate a crime of your employee towards the world health Dear Sir, On the 5th of July 2005, it was publically published that your employee, Dr. Michael Repacholi - the person who is responsible for the subject of Cellular Technology health effects evaluation in the world health organization - receives 150,000 dollar a year directly from the cellular phone industry for meetings and travels, this means he broke the rules of the WHO which bar to receive money directly from the industry. In addition Dr. Repacholi is documented to invite power industry representatives in order to review scienctific work and participate actively in evaluating health standards of electromagnetic fields emitted by powerlines. The names of the powerline industry representatives are all documented and all the details described above are attached for you to review. Dr. Repacholi systematically ignored for years many scientific studies with one common ground: all of the studies he ignores are studies of which findings show that the cellular technology is not safe and cannot be freely distributed without a health price for the world population. Dr. Repacholi’s ignoring this, threatens the whole world health as no enemy has ever threatened the world. Dr. Repacholi takes care of the industry’s interests and make the public asleep about the dangers of the technology, proven dangers that were documented in peer reviewed scientific studies. Repacholi’s refusal to guide governments to take the appropriate safety measures cost human lives. Dr. Repacholi was asked to respond to the publication of the money he receives from the industry directly and he did not deny that he receives 150,000 dollars directly from the cellular phone industry- every year. Is it the WHO’s formal policy to cooperate with industry at the public’s expense? If not, why is this case not investigated? You were sent an international petition to remove Dr. Repacholi because he does not serve the public interest. We never received any response from you. Karolinska Institute is one of the key referral institutions for the WHO. That is the reason why we would like to bring to your attention that prof Olle Johansson reported that in Prague conference on electromagnetic sensitivity, Dr. Repacholi distributed disinformation about the acknowledgement of Swedish government in electrosensitivity, and it is not a coincidence that from this conference emerged a recommendation to governments to discourage the public from measuring radiation in their house, this is an active harm to the public because people with high radiation levels in the house are put at risk if they are not taught how to detect it. This is a crime against the public to keep the public ignorant and passive, in order to give the full control to the industry, and to define it is a “scientific” approach. Dr. Repacholi’s connection with industry goes back in years, it is not something new, But it is getting more and more extreme with time at the public expense. The fact that Dr. Repacholi recommends government to DISCOURAGE people from measureing radiation in their house is a good example to the growing extremity. We genuinly hope that the industry’s money doesn’t make other WHO employees blind to public interest, in light of documents that were published lately, which show that tobacco industry and asbestos industry both were very much involved with WHO and managed to prevent stricter actions to protect the public. (documents attached). We are not ready to let it happen again. We are concerned by your lack of response to the published data, because Dr. Repacholi’s evaluation of science is biased. We ask for your urgent interference to investigate conflict of interests of Dr. Repacholi. If we don’t receive your response within the next 2 weeks, we will consider seriously to approach higher or legal channels. Respectfully Robert Rieldlinger Prof Olle Johansson Iris Atzmon Klaus Rodulph BI-OMEGA CI-OMEGA – citizens against radiation imposed on them. Copies: Parliament members of our represented countries and chosen scientists.