Swedish professor removed from scientific panel before voting on cell phone cancer connection
Conflicts of interest at the World Health Organization
The International Agency
for Research on Cancer (IARC) is tasked by the World Health Organization to
monitor research on health effects from low levels of electromagnetic
radiation, such as from cell phones, Wi-Fi, smart meters and other wireless
devices. The IARC panelÕs
recommendations are usually adopted as official WHO policy.
Professor Anders Ahlbom
of Karolinska Institute was chairman of the IARC panel, until he was asked to
leave following allegations of conflicts of interest. Anders Ahlbom is part owner and board member of a lobbying
firm, which lobbies European Parliament politicians on behalf of the
telecommunications industry.
The other owner of the
lobbying firm is Anders AhlbomÕs brother, Gunnar Ahlbom. In a 1999 interview with the Swedish
daily Aftonbladet, Gunnar Ahlbom is
quoted as representing the telecom giant Telia, which he was still working for
in 2011.
According to the Swedish
newsletter Ljusglimten, professor
Ahlbom has on many occasions publicly supported telecom industry points of
view. He has actively talked
against accepting electrical hypersensitivity (EHS) as a real illness, instead
suggesting it is a psychological problem.
AhlbomÕs downfall was
caused by the Swedish investigative journalist Mona Nilsson, who documented
Anders AhlbomÕs conflicts of interest.
Shortly after Ahlbom left
IARC, the panel voted that low (non-thermal) levels of microwave radiation are
to be considered a Class 2B possible carcinogen, which is now the official
position of the World Health Organization. For something to be classified as Class 2B, there must be
substantial evidence to support that it can cause cancer, but not enough to
prove it. Proving that something
causes cancer is extremely difficult.
The IARC decision was made despite heavy industry lobbying.
Ahlbom was also asked to
leave an advisory board of the Swedish radiation protection agency, SSM.
Dr. Ahlbom was a member
of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, ICNIRP,
from 1998 to 2008, where he participated in setting radiation recommendations
for cell phone use. These were
adopted by many countries. He presently
serves ICNIRP in an advisory role, which he has not vacated.
Conflicts of interest are
common in the question of health effects from cell phones and other sources.
Dr. Samuel Milham
mentions specific examples of it in his book Dirty Electricity (pages 34 and 59), as does Dr. Devra Davis
throughout her book Disconnect.
Dr. Lennart Hardell
mentions other cases in his March 2007 article in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
In an article
investigating how industry funding affects the outcome of health studies in
general, a research group examined 1140 studies and found that
industry-sponsored research had a significant pro-industry bias (Journal of the American Medical Association,
January 22/29, 2003).
A review of experimental
studies of cell phone health effects found that only 33% of industry-sponsored
studies found any effects.
Meanwhile, fully 82% of non-industry funded studies found effects (Source of Funding and Results of Health
Effects of Mobile Phone Use, Environmental Health Perspectives, January
2007).
Sources in English
IARC Drops Anders Ahlbom from RF-Cancer Panel, Microwave News, May 22, 2011, www.microwavenews.com.
Conflict of Interest at the WHO, press release by Mona Nilsson, May 23, 2011, www.monanilsson.se.
Sources in Swedish
Svensk mobilexpert utreds, Henrik Ennart, Svenska Dagbladet, May 29, 2011 (www.svd.se).
Om fornuft och ofornuft, Mona Nilsson, Ljusglimten 1/2011.
Prisad Mona fr energi att fortstta, (interview with Mona Nilsson), Daniel Atterbom, Ljusglimten 2/2011.
Svenska lobbyister satser p EU-valet, Emily von Sydow, Aftonbladet, May 21, 1999, (www.aftonbladet.se).
Samlat angrepp-Varfr? Eiwy Kronholm, Ljusglimten 4/2010.
Ljusglimten is a publication of FEB, the Swedish support group for people with electrohypersensitivity (EHS). www.feb.se.
Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet are Swedish daily newspapers.
October 2011