Wereldwijde verontwaardiging en steun Prof. Olle Johansson

Wereldwijd groeit de verontwaardiging over de behandeling die Prof. Olle Johansson bij het Karolinska Insstitutet ten deel valt maar tegelijkertijd is er steun van collega wetenschappers en organisaties vanuit de hele wereld. Ook de redactie van Stopumts heeft een adhesiebetuiging gestuurd voor Prof. Johansson aan het bestuur van de vermaarde Zweedse universiteit, die pal zou moeten staan voor de vrijdheid van wetenschappelijke meningsuiting en onafhankelijk onderzoek. (Het werk van Johansson wordt voornamelijk betaalt door particuliere fondsen en niet door de industrie).
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Bron: EMFfacts 21 juli 2010

Auteur: John Weigel

Support for EMF researcher goes global, puts Karolinska
Pres. Wallberg-Henriksson in spotlight to respond

Controversy surrounding research into the effects of microwave
radiation has accelerated with doctors and researchers from both sides
of the Atlantic calling for Harriet Wallberg- Henriksson, president of
the Karolinka Institute in Stockholm, to intervene and protect the
institute's reputation for academic freedom.

More than usual jockeying for coveted space in an academic
environment, the attempt to convert a noted professor's microwave
research offices and lab into a microscopic imaging facility is seen
by professionals and activists alike as interference and timed to
block crucial research that could damage the lucrative $153 billion
wireless communications industry.

At the centre of the controversy is Olle Johansson, associate
professor, head of the Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of
Neuroscience, at the Karolinska Institute (famous for it's Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine) in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a world-leading
authority in the field of EMF radiation and health effects. Johansson
also occupies the position of Professor at the Swedish Royal Institute
of Technology.

Last Autumn Johansson was notified that his offices and lab were to be
converted to ''an animal house for ferrets.'' Following a point-blank
refusal the proposal was dropped and Johansson prepared for an
independently-funded experiment to replicate the science of a Canadian
professor whose work led to the cancellation of wi-fi and the labeling
of cell phones in San Francisco. These experiments were to commence in
August.

Replication of original scientific research is a standard procedure of
verification of the original and leads to the establishment of
official public health / industry standards. The wireless industry is
largely unregulated and relies on standards that are 10 years old and
widely regarded as hopelessly out of date.

Earlier this month, Prof. Staffan Cullheim, chair of the Department of
Neuroscience, informed Johansson that his premises were required for
construction of an imaging centre effective July 31, immediately
before Johansson was to begin a potentially industry changing set of
tests.

Opposition of the industry to what is seen as any interference came
last month when the industry threatened to cancel it's annual
conference which attracts 68,000 visitors in San Francisco. Loss of
the conference would cost the city an estimated $80 million in
economic activity generated by the three-day Enterprise and
Applications Show. (CTIA, The Wireless Association, continues to
promote the Oct. 6-8 show on it's web site www.ctia.org/.)

Cullheim claims that the replacement of Johansson's work space is
standard procedure in a move to ''optimise the effectivity of the
organisation''. In what he calls a ''correction'', Prof. Cullheim noted
that ''other researchers at the department have started to question the
special support given to Olle Johansson by the department.''

Against objections that the new facility should be located in vacant
space elsewhere in the building, Cullheim noted, Johansson ''will be
offered alternative premises as those he is currently using. A certain
degree of down-sizing the area will be necessary.''

Cullheim failed to address the issue of the timing of the demand for
Johansson to leave his offices and immediately after posting his
comments, explained that he is on holiday and that e-mails would be
checked on an irregular basis only.

Predictably, Dr. Magda Havas, the Canadian researcher whose work
Johansson plans to replicate, has issued an impassioned public
statement proclaiming the Karolinska Institute's action as an assault
on academic enquiry. ''Without academic freedom we are doomed to be
corporate pawns,'' she claims.

Havas, with Camilla Rees is co-author of Public Health SOS: The Shadow
Side of the Wireless Revolution. She is Associate Professor of
Environmental  Resource Studies at Trent University, teaching and
conducting research on the biological effects of environmental
contamination. Havas holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, did
Post-Doctoral research at Cornell University and taught at the
University of Toronto before going to Trent University in
Peterborough, Canada.

''We have a history of this type of activity that delayed policy and
cost millions of people their health and their lives. It happened with
asbestos, with tobacco, with pesticides and is happening now with
electrosmog,'' claims Havas.

In a pointed response to Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, president of the
Karolinska Institute, Havas warned, ''Sweden has had a reputation for
caring about the environment and about human health and many of your
guidelines are among the best in the world. It would be a shame if you
allowed the work of Dr. Olle Johansson to be compromised by taking
away his lab and office. He is among a handful of truly great
scientists in Sweden doing this type of work and we cannot afford to
lose him.''

Support for Johansson has spread across the North American continent
and Europe. In Canada and the
United States, Christine Hoch, executive director of the group Moms
for Safer Wireless based in Gainesville Virginia, is circulating a
letter to Wallberg-Henriksson which states in part, ''Please ensure
that Dr. Johansson's independent work continues in his current lab and
office. With over 4,000,000,000 (four billion) cell phone users
globally, including children, his research could prevent cancer's
silent growth in millions of people.''

Signatories to the letter include groups such as the American
Association for Cell Phone Safety of Los Angeles, Citizens for Safe
Technology Society and Citizens Against UnSafe Emissions (CAUSE) in
Canada and The People's Initiative Foundation of Los Angeles,
California. In her letter to President Wallberg-Henriksson, Hoch,
executive director for the Moms group said, 'We do not want history
repeated as with neglected awareness of health outcomes associated
with tobacco, pesticides, lead poisoning, and asbestos. It is
important that the Karolinska Institute maintain its world-renowned
reputation.''

Christine Hoch of Moms for Safer Wireless Other signatories to the
letter ot Wallberg-Henriksson include Prof. Elihu D Richter MD MPH, of
the Hebrew University-Hadassah in Jerusalem.

In Ireland where the government is promoting the use of frequencies
for manufacturers to test new technologies, Dr. Philip Michael,
founder of the Irish Doctors Environmental Association, expressed
dismay at Prof. Johansson's situation. Prof. Johansson has a
particular interest in Ireland and has visited the country numerous
times on invitation of community groups in the Republic and Northern
Ireland. ''I'm very disappointed his premises are being removed as I
see him as one of the key researchers into electrosensitivity and the
effects of EMR on a global scale.''

The Royal College of Physicians in Ireland has predicted that one in
two Irish residents will have some form of cancer by 2025. Johansson
is not the only Swede to be welcomed to Ireland. Ericsson a
world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related
services to mobile and fixed
network operators around the world located it first research and
development facility in Ireland at Athlone, Co. Westmeath. The company
has has more than 1,000 networks in more than 175 countries using
network equipment and 40 percent of all mobile calls are made through
Ericsson systems.

The Swedish part of the Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (COSMOS)
study is conducted by the Karolinska Institute. Ericsson is a
co-sponsor of the longitudinal study which could take 20-30 years
years to complete. As with the previous Interphone study, proponents
claim a firewall has been established to ensure scientific
independence.

COSMOS differs from previous attempts to examine links between
cellphone use and diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders,
organisers claim, because it will follow the behavior of users in real
time.

Curiously, Johansson, 56, has not been asked to participate in the
COSMOS project although he has published more than 500 original
articles, reviews, book chapters and conference reports within the
field of basic and applied neuroscience. He has worked with Nobel
Laureates including professors Andrew V. Schally and Roger Guillemin.
The source of funding for his work is primarily from private sources
including the Swedish Cancer and Allergy Foundation and Stiftelsen
Tornspiran.

Prof. Wallberg-Henriksson is also a member of Stockholm-Uppsala Life
Science, a group which promotes the development of the life-science
sector the region itself on the international arena to attract new
resources and investment.

Prof. Wallberg-Henriksson has failed to comment on the controversy.

Contacts:

Harriet.Wallberg-Henriksson@ki.se

''Olle Johansson''

''Staffan Cullheim'' staffan.cullheim@ki.se,

Voor het oorspronkelijk artikel zie:
www.emfacts.com/weblog/?p=1329 .

Over hetzelfde onderwerp zie ook:
www.mast-victims.org/index.php?content=news&action=view&type=newsitem&id=4847 .

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