Wetenschappelijk onderzoek en de industrie

Net zoals bij o.a. de tabaksindustrie zien we het volgende gebeuren. Door het creëeren van wetenschappelijke twijfel (‘meer onderzoek is nodig’) kan het nemen van actie tientallen jaren uitgesteld worden, zodat de industrie kan doorgaan met geld verdienen. Deze strategie van de grote industrieen wordt treffend beschreven in het boek ‘Doubt is Their Product’ van David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Energy bij Clinton, over industriële manipulatie van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. (Link naar boek van Michaels.)

Leest u het commentaar van Lloyd Morgan (Director of the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States), over hoe de industrie de frontale aanval inzet op de wetenschap (klik op de titel voor het originele artikel):

Estimating the risk of brain tumors from cellphone use: Published case–control studies
L. Lloyd Morgan

The long history of corporate funded “science” delaying effective action against toxic agents, in some cases up to 100 years, argues convincingly for application of the Precautionary Principle. This is especially true in light of the potentially enormous public health impact should cellphones be shown to cause brain tumors.

The Precautionary Principle clearly applies in this case, since the problem is possible but not certain, and low cost ameliorating actions are easily implemented by industry. With over 3 billion people using cellphones, and with children among the heaviest users, it is time for governments to mandate precautionary measures to protect their citizens.

Public health implications of wireless technologies

Cindy Sage

Global exposures to emerging wireless technologies from applications including mobile phones, cordless phones, DECT phones, WI-FI, WLAN, WiMAX, wireless internet, baby monitors, and others may present serious public health consequences. Evidence supporting a public health risk is documented in the BioInitiative Report. New, biologically based public exposure standards for chronic exposure to low-intensity exposures are warranted. ixisting safety standards are obsolete because they are based solely on thermal effects from acute exposures. The rapidly expanding development of new wireless technologies and the long latency for the development of such serious diseases as brain cancers means that failure to take immediate action to reduce risks may result in an epidemic of potentially fatal diseases in the future. Regardless of whether or not the associations are causal, the strengths of the associations are sufficiently strong that in the opinion of the authors, taking action to reduce exposures is imperative, especially for the fetus and children. Such action is fully compatible with the precautionary principle, as enunciated by the Rio Declaration, the European Constitution Principle on Health (Section 3.1) and the European Union Treaties Article 174.