Philosophy with a difference and interesting stories too
I suggest in the majority of cases it does not need to. However, is it possible that some adjustments need to be made? I submit four pieces of information as to why in my opinion this should be considered.
Also see this important qualifying post
They are contained in the following links:
I have learned that this medical condition is still questioned by some members of the mental health community. This also includes the general public
Also see this important qualifying post
I present informational excerpts from the literature. This may assist readers to obtain clearer and more informed understanding of what bipolar and similar neurological mental health disorders. This includes how easy it is for these disorders to be misdiagnosed by mental health practitioners.
I notice that this document was never posted. It is a draft that was never completed. I believe that the contents are self explanatory and meaningful. I apologize for the shortcomings you will find in this presentation.
In mid 2018 I began to take an interest in the WIFI/5G debate. This is more especially so in relationship to mobile phones. I have never been interested [or competent] to talk to the technical issues pertinent to the debate. I have only ever been interested in the politics surrounding the issues involved. This is principally in Australia and the European Union.
Over time I have written a number of articles about my research efforts and conclusions. I have been widely criticised in the process. This includes by members of the medical profession. Such critics refuse to accept that my motivation to conduct research is political rather than technical! Out of frustration I ceased to attempt to explain my position. In despair I trashed many of the items that I wrote back then.
For reasons discussed in the apology I have elected to post the first paper that I wrote in late 2018. You will find it in the attachment. It is not a scholarly piece of work. Not all the links remain active. It was never intended to be published as it is today.
In my opinion the safety or otherwise of non-ionising radiation [in the radio frequencies used in 5G, wifi and similar technologies] is almost solely centred upon this subject of thermal and non-thermal effects [if non-thermal effects exist] of such radiation.
I pose the question why it is that the relevant industry regulators and manufacturers seem so determined to set aside this important question within the industry.
With these words in mind I suggest that you read my post. I also suggest that you consider the following quotation as well as this medical reference. This link might be of interest too. This link is about Understanding 5G as it will soon relate to the same topic in our lives.
Quote:
“…National Library of Medicine [USA government]…”
Abstract
The introduction of the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication will increase the number of high-frequency-powered base stations and other devices. The question is if such higher frequencies (in this review, 6–100 GHz, millimeter waves, MMW) can have a health impact. This review analyzed 94 relevant publications performing in vivo or in vitro investigations. Each study was characterized for: study type (in vivo, in vitro), biological material (species, cell type, etc.), biological endpoint, exposure (frequency, exposure duration, power density), results, and certain quality criteria. Eighty percent of the in vivo studies showed responses to exposure, while 58% of the in vitro studies demonstrated effects. The responses affected all biological endpoints studied. There was no consistent relationship between power density, exposure duration, or frequency, and exposure effects. The available studies do not provide adequate and sufficient information for a meaningful safety assessment, or for the question about non-thermal effects. There is a need for research regarding local heat developments on small surfaces, e.g., skin or the eye, and on any environmental impact. Our quality analysis shows that for future studies to be useful for safety assessment, design and implementation need to be significantly improved.”
I emboldened the above text
I care to say no more. My words today should be read in context with this latest Reuters report. There seems to be growing international interest with the allegations being made by Reuters.
I hope that I have sown a seed or two for you to consider and perhaps run with. You may also find the information contained within this 2018 document of interest. I wrote it. Although dated I believe much of the contents therein remains at least partly relevant. I have also attached a much longer document that I wrote around the same time. It has never been published. It lacks refinements. I never saw it as having been completed and for wellness reasons I now know it will probably never be completed. It seems that most of the hyperlinks are working. You may find that the information therein enhances other items that I have invited you to consider today.
This is an unfathomable story about the sadness and debilitating experiences of one of my close family members [Freeman]. This is within the Australia wide aged care beneficiary community.
It is about his relationship with his Aged Care Provider, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, the Aged Care Act 1997 [ACT] and the current Federal Member of Parliament [Wells]. Minister Wells is the legislative overseer of these various information sharing relationships.
The 2018 Royal Commission into Aged Care demonstrated that there is significant shortcomings in the relationships between Aged Care Providers, their Aged Care Beneficiaries, the Aged Care and Quality and Safety Commission and the Aged Care Act [1997]. The Aged Care Principles form a critical part of this act. The Office of the Commonwealth Ministry of Health and Aged is embraced within this wide relationship.
I believe that if you are willing to study the informational references cited below you might come to the conclusion that these alleged shortcomings are a significant understatement. I also believe that some readers may wonder how on Earth such a “messy” inter-institution relationship has been allowed to come to pass in the first place. They may also lace these words to the notion of gross incompetence and indifference into their lines of consideration.
As you reflect upon the information contained in this post it is my hope that you not only look further into the allegations that the post is referring to but also take action. This is action via your local Federal Member as well as other networks and channels that you feel is appropriate. It is the author’s opinion that the health and welfare of the wider aged care community [more especially it’s beneficiary members] deserve this. I also believe that the person i am referring to today deserves a fairer go as well. I am principally writing on his behalf. He has submitted a letter of complaint to the Disability Royal Commission.
I submit two extracts from reports that were forwarded to the Health and Aged Care Minister in respect to these matters. These are in March 2023 and October 2021 respectively.
Extract 1:
DAVID TUNE AO PSM
31 MARCH 2023
Quote:
“….Letter of Transmittal
The Hon Anika Wells MP
Minister for Aged Care
Parliament House ACT 2600
Dear Minister
Following my appointment to conduct an independent capability review of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission), I am pleased to provide you with my report and recommendations on how the Commission’s capability can be improved to better support its regulation of the aged care sector.
In undertaking this review, I have consulted with stakeholders across the aged care sector, including aged care providers and consumers, peak bodies, advocacy groups, the Commission, the Department of Health and Aged Care, other relevant Australian Government agencies and state and territory governments.
The review concludes that the Commission has achieved a great deal in seeking to establish itself as one entity and deliver on its substantively expanded roles and responsibilities. It is clear from meetings and consultation with the Commission’s senior leadership and staff that its’ people are passionate and committed to their work and the goals of the organisation.
The Commission is maturing and has been developing solid strategies across the
range of its functions aimed at strengthening its capability in a period of significant change and major challenges. While the implementation and embedding of these strategies should stand it in good stead going forward, there remain some critical capability gaps in the organisation that require urgent attention. (I emboldened)
While all review recommendations are complementary and important, I consider those recommendations that focus on the key enablers for strengthening the Commission’s strategic, regulatory, leadership, structural, cultural, governance, digital, data and ICT, communications and engagement, and people capability as the most critical and enduring and matter most. These will ensure that the Commission is best placed to deliver the future regulatory framework that will apply when the new Aged Care Act commences on 1 July 2024.
Attached is my completed report.
Yours sincerely
David Tune AO PSM
31 March 2023…”
I was asked by the Minister to assess aspects of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s (the Commission’s) capabilities and performance. I have done so in the context of assessing the Commission’s strengths, opportunities and weaknesses, and the extent to which these inhibit or enable a high-performing, contemporary, best practice regulator.
I have focussed on the future – what the Commission needs to do to ensure that it can successfully undertake its important role of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of older Australians in the context of the new Aged Care Act.
I have considered the context in which the Commission has had to perform its roles and functions since its inception in 2019, particularly the rapid expansion of Its functions, funding and staffing.
During this time the Commission has faced significant challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters in some regions.
The Commission has faced significant issues attracting and retaining staff in an environment of staff and skills shortages across the aged care sector and more broadly.
The Commission currently has a staff vacancy rate of 20 per cent which results in capability and capacity deficits. In particular, quality assessor staff are difficult to attract and retain.
In addition to staff shortages, the resourcing of corporate services such as ICT and HR have not kept pace with the growth in functions and staffing needs.
Despite these challenges, the Commission has been able to demonstrate success in a number of areas, including in its implementation of new functions.
I have also noted the additional scrutiny, functions, and challenges for the Commission as a result of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission) and the Australian Government’s aged care reform agenda.
I have consulted extensively with providers regulated by the Commission, peak bodies, consumer representatives, and other stakeholders, and staff and leadership from the Commission and the Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department).
In assessing the Commission’s capabilities, I have examined both domestic and international regulatory best practice approaches, trends and evidence.
I have also considered the new Australian Public Service Commission organisational capability framework and the Australian Government’s Regulator Performance Guide to determine what constitutes capability best practice for a modern, high-performing regulator.
I have used these and other relevant elements of best practice as the benchmarks to assess the Commission’s capability:
In my view, the Commission is taking important steps to ensure that it evolves into a high performing regulator. There is much to build from, and I commend the work of the Commissioner, her team and staff across the organisation for these steps.
However, it is clear that there is much more to be done.
I believe that the recommendations set out in this report are practical, constructive and achievable, and are essential to enable the Commission to address its capability gaps and meet the requirements and public expectations of the new Aged Care Act.
To become a trusted, high performing regulator, the Commission must as a matter of urgency take action to fix its organisational structure, senior leadership, and internal governance. It needs strategic, visible leadership, and a focus on being engaged right across the sector and community, in an open and transparent way.
The Commissioner must empower senior and executive level (EL) staff and current and emerging leaders and recruit senior executive service (SES) staff with high quality leadership capabilities.
The Commissioner needs to change the Commission’s organisational structure to reduce functional silos, bring together like functions, improve accountability, spans of control and delegation of powers, and the redesign of internal strategic governance arrangements.
Workforce and ICT systems will need a sustained focus. The Commission needs to elevate these functions structurally and recruit expertise at SES Band 1 and EL levels. A major priority will be a new set of internal governance arrangements, with oversight by a new Deputy Commissioner Corporate.
The Commission urgently needs to fix significant problems in its complaints process and Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS). This is a huge workload, and the appointment of the new Aged Care Complaints Commissioner must proceed as a high priority.
The complaints system must be urgently reviewed to ensure that complaints are triaged appropriately, that complainants have assurance that concerns are being followed up, and the wider community gain trust that matters of concern to older Australians and their families are getting priority attention. There must be regular and more detailed reporting on complaints and SIRS.
The Commission’s culture internally drives what is experienced externally. Therefore, the Commission must be more open, transparent and accountable. It must share information, engage more openly and work with providers. It must build on its recent good work engaging with consumers and providers but go much further.
The Commission must adopt a far more collaborative approach to shaping and delivering its regulatory responsibilities and work program, partnering with providers and peaks and utilising opportunities for co-design with providers and consumers.
The Commission must acquire a better understanding of the diverse needs and circumstances of aged care consumers and their communities, especially First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, people with dementia, veterans and LGBTIQ+ people, and older people living in regional and remote communities. In doing so, it must deliver more flexible and responsive consumer-centric approaches while ensuring quality and safety remains paramount.
The existing aged care legislative framework is not fit for purpose and is too complicated and rules bound. The new Act and regulatory system must encourage ongoing continuous improvement, driving higher quality care, and the development of risk approaches that ensure that the safety of older Australians gets the right and timely attention that is warranted.
To do this, the Commission must have a major focus on being data driven so that the risk-based regulatory vision is able to be realised. Without the right systems and capabilities – particularly robust data analysis – the vision will not come into being. The Commission must share much more information and data – on its own performance, but also providers, and what works, and what the key issues are. This will help drive ongoing continuous improvement and enable a more trusting and empowered sector.
While the Commission has been able to fund its range of activities through internal cross-subsidisation, particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown periods, a number of terminating measures, as well as increasing demand for some activities such as complaints, means that resourcing issues from 2023-24 must be addressed with some urgency. In particular, I recommend that a resourcing model be developed that includes for some functions a funding mechanism that sees its appropriation revenue directly determined by estimated workloads, which can be adjusted throughout each year based on actual workload – a demand-driven mechanism.
The Commission must also come together with the Department to ensure priorities are better articulated and understood, better data sharing, role clarity between the two agencies and their staff, and improved coordination of messaging and engagement with the sector. This is of critical importance for matters like education and support for providers.
If the Commission does these things – and this is an important caveat – I believe it will be set up for success.
Feedback I have received from stakeholders strongly suggests that the Commission has been overloaded and that the new functions coming on-line and being transferred from the Department have created pressure and resulted in serious risks to the Commission’s business-as-usual (BAU) functions.
I consider therefore it would be ill-advised to require the Commission to take on any additional new functions, bar those already agreed upon, before the commencement of the new Aged Care Act. Rather, the Commission should be encouraged to bed down recent new functions and be given some ‘clear air’ to implement recommendations from this Review.
I also consider there are benefits to the Commission being the end-to-end aged care regulator, and do not support any of the Commission’s current functions being removed.
The Royal Commission recommended in its Final Report that a new Aged Care Safety and Quality Authority be established in place of the Commission. The former Government accepted this recommendation, noting that this should be informed by the outcomes of this Review.
There are strong arguments however, to more effectively and efficiently achieve the objectives expressed by the Royal Commission by retaining the current Commission. This approach involves a less disruptive and more efficient and cost-effective approach by building on the strengths of the current Commission and the work already underway to achieve modern, world class regulation.
Therefore, I am not convinced that the creation of a new Authority and Board is either necessary or advisable at this time. What is more critical is to successfully implement the changes I have proposed.
However, retaining the current Commission requires changes to strengthen its governance arrangements. These include substantially strengthening the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council (the Advisory Council), including refreshing the membership to address skills deficits and increase diversity of representation.
I consider that the Advisory Council requires more independence and autonomy to enable proper scrutiny of the Commission, and direct engagement with the Minister.
I further recommend that the Inspector-General of Aged Care assess progress and whether more may need to be done in two years, including further consideration of the creation of a new Authority and Board if matters are not sufficiently progressed.
A consolidated list of the report’s recommendations with timelines based on priority ratings is at Chapter 2…. “
The capability review (the Review) of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) responds to recommendations 10 and 104 of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission). Figure 1 refers. The Royal Commission delivered its final report in February 2021.
The Review was announced by the Minister for Aged Care, the Hon Anika Wells MP on 28 July 2022 and commenced on 4 October 2022.
Figure 1: Royal Commission recommendations 10 and 104
| Recommendation 10: Aged Care Safety and Quality Authority (Commissioner Briggs) The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission should be abolished by 1 July 2022 and replaced by an independent Aged Care Safety and Quality Authority, overseen by a board made up of up to five members, with a Chief Executive Officer responsible to the Authority. The Authority should have the overarching purpose of safeguarding the quality and safety of aged care through enforcing compliance with the Act and Standards. In carrying out this purpose, the Authority should actively engage with older people and their families and carers to ensure that their views are incorporated in the Authority’s compliance and decision-making, and are kept informed of the outcome of regulatory activities. The functions of the Authority are to: approve and accredit providers monitor and assess compliance with the quality and safety obligations required of providers under the new Aged Care Act address non-compliance with quality and safety obligations by taking enforcement action including: enforceable undertakings directions civil penalties on directors amending approval or accreditation conditions appointing an administrator to assume responsibility for the conduct of a service revocation of approval as an approved provider or withdrawal of accreditation of a service investigate and respond to complaints about the aged care system provide timely and accurate data as specified by the Department for inclusion in the national information service, including information on compliance and accreditation activities, serious incident reporting and complaints by provider and service publish information on the outcomes of regulatory actions, including information on system-wide regulatory activity and outcomes, and publication of enforcement action taken against individual providers do anything incidental or conducive to the performance of any of the above functions. The Authority should be fully funded from Budget appropriations. The Authority’s staff will be employed under the Public Service Act 1999 (Cth). The Authority should ensure that it maintains an appropriate regulatory capability, including regulatory and investigatory skills, clinical skills, assessment skills, and enforcement skills. Recommendation 104: By 1 May 2021, the Australian Government should commission an independent review of the capabilities of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. By 1 January 2022, the Australian Government should implement the recommendations of the review and provide the resources identified in the review that are needed for the Quality Regulator to engage and develop a skilled and dedicated compliance and enforcement workforce, with the regulatory and investigatory skills, clinical knowledge, assessment skills, and enforcement skills required for it to meet its regulatory mandate….” |
…”
I enboldened (and additionally italicised) certain sections
Copied and pasted by Freeman 31st of July 2023
Extract 2:
Quotations from the Law Council of Australia’s report to the
Department of Health on October the 27th 2021
The report is entitled “Aged Care Quality Principles”
“Royal Commission recommendations…”
Quotes:
“… 16. The Final Report recommended reform to the Standards. It found that the Standards do not:-
. define quality, or high quality, aged care – they set out the minimum acceptable
standards for accreditation;11
. set sufficiently high standards of quality and safety12 and lack of objectively
measurable standards.13
“… 48. The following comments are made in context of the KPMG evaluation of the current Standards, noting the parameters cited above.
“… 51. The Quality of Care Principles do not expressly specify how to read the consumer outcome and organisational statement against the requirements. They are all articulated to form part of the ‘standard’.44 The terms used in the Standards do not link to any particular language in section 54-1 of the Aged Care Act, which relevantly provides that an approved provider must ‘comply with the Standards’…” 51…”
Note: I randomly italicised some of the in between headings of the text.
Copied and pasted by Freeman
The following link is an extended extract of the above shorter quotation
Extended extract [there are overlaps with the above article]
It seems that this might be the case.
I will introduce you to this culturally important topic by means of the quotation immediately below. It is an investigative report into the international Psychology Community that was first published in 2012. The report broadly relates to what I feel that many people might see as being the unbecoming professional attitude and behaviour of certain sections and groups of the international Psychology fraternity. In this presentation I am not implying that all psychology practitioners are engaged in the professional shortcomings cited throughout this blog!
(Note: I have amended this blog by adding an allied article relating to psychiatry. This appears as a separate addendum a little further down)
Quote:
“Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices With Incentives for Truth Telling…”
“… We assume that the vast majority of researchers are sin-cerely motivated to conduct sound scientific research. Further-more, most of the respondents in our study believed in the integrity of their own research and judged practices they had engaged in to be acceptable. However, given publication pres-sures and professional ambitions, the inherent ambiguity of the defensibility of “questionable” research practices, and the well-documented ubiquity of motivated reasoning (Kunda, 1990), researchers may not be in the best position to judge the defensibility of their own behavior. This could in part explain why the most egregious practices in our survey (e.g., falsify-ing data) appear to be less common than the relatively less questionable ones (e.g., failing to report all of a study’s condi-tions). It is easier to generate a post hoc explanation to justify removing nuisance data points than it is to justify outright data falsification, even though both practices produce similar consequences…”.
(I emboldened and italicised the text)
I present you with ten feature stories to consider:
Note: All text within items 1-10 below is quoted from the source link immediately adjacent to it.
1. The Problem With Psychology
A brief history of the heterodox movement in psychology. What Is the Point of the Heterodox Movement in Psychology? The Heterodox Movement in Psychology serves a primary purpose: to challenge the field’s prevailing narratives, develop a truly pluralistic approach within academic psychology, and to increase viewpoint diversity in the field. This movement genuinely seeks to change the playing field.
2. Why Modern Clinical Psychology May Be in Trouble
Today’s clinical science might actually limit professionals.
3. A Revolution Is Happening in Psychology, Here’s How It’s Playing Out
In the last decade, behavioral scientists concluded that their field had taken a wrong turn. Efforts to root out false findings and bad practices spurred a crisis now poised to transform the landscape of psychology. Meet four scientists who are leading the charge.
4. Psychologists Have a Plan to Fix the Broken Science of Psychology
There was something wrong with psychology. A cascade of warning signs arrived all at once in 2011. Famous psychological experiments failed, over and over, when researchers re-did them in their own labs. Even worse, the standard methods researchers used in their labs turned out under close scrutiny to be wishy-washy enough to prove just about anything. Nonsense, ridiculous claims turned up in major journals. It was a moment of crisis.
5. How much of the psychology literature is wrong?
A replication movement is afoot in psychology. But researchers disagree about the scope and significance of its findings so far.
6. Psychology’s Credibility Crisis: the Bad, the Good and the Ugly
As more studies are called into question and researchers bicker over methodology, the field is showing a healthy willingness to face its problems 2016
7. Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research NY Times
In a survey of more than 2,000 American psychologists scheduled to be published this year, Leslie John of Harvard Business School and two colleagues found that 70 percent had acknowledged, anonymously, to cutting some corners in reporting data. About a third said they had reported an unexpected finding as predicted from the start, and about 1 percent admitted to falsifying data.
8. Psychology Rife with Inaccurate Research Findings
Latest scandal one in a series of embarrassments for psychology.
9. Willingness to Share Research Data Is Related to the Strength of the Evidence and the Quality of Reporting of Statistical Results
Our findings on the basis of psychological papers suggest that statistical results are particularly hard to verify when reanalysis is more likely to lead to contrasting conclusions. This highlights the importance of establishing mandatory data archiving policies.
10. Medical Error Interview
Author and psychologist Brian Hughes talks about how bad science and scientists can lead to harming people. Brian connects the dots between bad psychological science and how that can lead to medical error and patient harm.
Addendum
(Added March 16th 2021)
The Troubled History of Psychiatry
Challenges to the legitimacy of the profession have forced it to examine itself, including the fundamental question of what constitutes a mental disorder
May 20, 2019
Published in the print edition of the May 27, 2019, issue [of The New Yorker magazine], with the headline “Medicine in Mind.”
Quote:
“…Modern medicine can be seen as a quest to understand pathogenesis, the biological cause of an illness. Once pathogenesis—the word comes from the Greek pathos (suffering) and genesis (origin)—has been established by scientific experiment, accurate diagnoses can be made, and targeted therapies developed. In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, there were all kinds of theories about what was causing it: toxicity from drug use during sex, allergic reactions to semen, and so on. Only after the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus helped lay such conjectures to rest did it become possible to use specific blood tests for diagnosis and, eventually, to provide antiviral drugs to improve immune defenses.
Sometimes a disease’s pathogenesis is surprising. As a medical student, I was taught that peptic ulcers were often caused by stress; treatments included bed rest and a soothing diet rich in milk. Anyone who had suggested that ulcers were the result of bacterial infection would have been thought crazy. The prevailing view was that no bacterium could thrive in the acidic environment of the stomach. But in 1982 two Australian researchers (who later won a Nobel Prize for their work) proposed that a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori was crucial to the onset of many peptic ulcers. Although the hypothesis was met with widespread scorn, experimental evidence gradually became conclusive. Now ulcers are routinely healed with antibiotics.
But what can medicine do when pathogenesis remains elusive? That’s a question that has bedevilled the field of psychiatry for nearly a century and a half. In “Mind Fixers” (Norton), Anne Harrington, a history-of-science professor at Harvard, follows “psychiatry’s troubled search for the biology of mental illness,” deftly tracing a progression of paradigms adopted by neurologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists, as well as patients and their advocates.
Her narrative begins in the late nineteenth century, when researchers explored the brain’s anatomy in an attempt to identify the origins of mental disorders. The studies ultimately proved fruitless, and their failure produced a split in the field. Some psychiatrists sought nonbiological causes, including psychoanalytic ones, for mental disorders. Others doubled down on the biological approach and, as she writes, “increasingly pursued a hodgepodge of theories and projects, many of which, in hindsight, look both ill-considered and incautious.” The split is still evident today.
The history that Harrington relays is a series of pendulum swings. For much of the book, touted breakthroughs disappoint, discredited dogmas give rise to counter-dogmas, treatments are influenced by the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and real harm is done to patients and their loved ones. One thing that becomes apparent is that, when pathogenesis is absent, historical events and cultural shifts have an outsized influence on prevailing views on causes and treatments. By charting our fluctuating beliefs about our own minds, Harrington effectively tells a story about the twentieth century itself.
In 1885, the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal noted, “The increase in the number of the insane has been exceptionally rapid in the last decade.” Mental asylums built earlier in the century were overflowing with patients. Harrington points out that the asylum may have “created its own expanding clientele,” but it’s possible that insanity really was on the rise, in part because of the rapid spread of syphilis. What we now know to be a late stage of the disease was at the time termed “general paralysis of the insane.” Patients were afflicted by dementia and grandiose delusions and developed a wobbly gait. Toward the end of the century, as many as one in five people entering asylums had general paralysis of the insane.
Proof of a causal relationship between the condition and syphilis came in 1897, and marked the first time, Harrington writes, that “psychiatry had discovered a specific biological cause for a common mental illness.” The discovery was made by the neurologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (today best known for “Psychopathia Sexualis,” his study of sexual “perversion”) and his assistant Josef Adolf Hirschl. They devised an experiment that made use of a fact that was already known: syphilis could be contracted only once. The pair took pus from the sores of syphilitics and injected it into patients suffering from general paralysis of the insane. Then they watched to see if the test subjects became infected. Any patient who did could be said with certainty not to have had the disease before. As it turned out, though, none of the subjects became infected, leading the researchers to conclude that the condition arose from previous infection with syphilis.
This apparent validation of the biological approach was influential. “If it could be done once,” Harrington writes, “maybe it could be done again.” But the work on syphilis proved to be something of a dead end. Neurologists of the time, knowing nothing of brain chemistry, were heavily focussed on what could be observed at autopsy, but there were many mental illnesses that left no trace in the solid tissue of the brain. Harrington frames this outcome in the Cartesian terms of a mind-body dualism: “Brain anatomists had failed so miserably because they focused on the brain at the expense of the mind.”
Meanwhile, two neurologists, Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud, had been exploring a condition that affected both mind and body and that left no detectable trace in brain tissue: hysteria. The symptoms included wild swings of emotion, tremors, catatonia, and convulsions. Both men had studied under Jean-Martin Charcot, who believed that hysteria could arise from traumatic events as well as from physiological causes. Janet contended that patients “split off” memories of traumatic events and manifested them in an array of physical symptoms. He advocated hypnosis as a means of accessing these memories and discovering the causes of a patient’s malady. Freud believed that traumatic memories were repressed and consigned to the unconscious. He developed an interview method to bring them to consciousness, interpreted dreams, and argued that nearly all neuroses arose from repressed “sexual impressions.”
Freud acknowledged the fact “that the case histories I write should read like short stories and that, as one might say, they lack the serious stamp of science.” He justified the approach by pointing to the inefficacy of other methods and asserting that there was “an intimate connection between the story of the patient’s sufferings and the symptoms of his illness.” Many neurologists, responding to the demand for confessional healing, gave up on anatomy and adopted psychotherapeutics.
Soon, however, the limits of this approach, too, were exposed. During the First World War, men who returned from the trenches apparently uninjured displayed physical symptoms associated with hysteria. Clearly, they couldn’t all be manifesting neuroses caused by repressed sexual fantasies. The English physician Charles Myers coined the term “shell shock,” proposing a physiological cause: damage to the nervous system from the shock waves of artillery explosions. Yet that explanation wasn’t entirely satisfactory, either. Sufferers included soldiers who had not been in the trenches or exposed to bombing.
Harrington commends physicians who charted a middle course. Adolf Meyer, a Swiss-born physician who, in 1910, became the first director of the psychiatry clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, advocated an approach he called, variously, “psychobiology” and “common sense” psychiatry—the gathering of data without a guiding dogma. Meanwhile, in Europe, Eugen Bleuler, credited with coining the term “schizophrenia,” took a view somewhat similar to Meyer’s and incurred the wrath of Freud. In 1911, Bleuler left the International Psychoanalytical Association. “Saying ‘he who is not with us is against us’ or ‘all or nothing’ is necessary for religious communities and useful for political parties,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “All the same I find that it is harmful for science.
As the century progressed, the schism between the biological camp and the psychoanalytic camp widened. With advances in bacteriology, the biological camp embraced the idea that microbes in the intestine, the mouth, or the sinuses could release toxins that impaired brain functions. Harrington writes of schizophrenia treatments that included “removing teeth, appendixes, ovaries, testes, colons, and more.”
The most notorious mid-century surgical intervention was the lobotomy. Pioneered in the thirties, by Egas Moniz, whose work later won him the Nobel Prize, the treatment reached a grotesque apogee in America, with Walter Freeman’s popularization of the transorbital lobotomy, which involved severing connections near the prefrontal cortex with an icepick-like instrument inserted through the eye sockets. Freeman crisscrossed the country—a trip he called Operation Icepick—proselytizing for the technique in state mental hospitals.
On the nonbiological, analytic side of the discipline, world events again proved pivotal. The postwar period, dubbed “The Age of Anxiety” by W. H. Auden, was clouded by fears about the power of nuclear weapons, the Cold War arms race, and the possibility that communist spies were infiltrating society. In 1948, President Harry Truman told the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, “The greatest prerequisite for peace, which is uppermost in the minds and hearts of all of us, must be sanity—sanity in its broadest sense, which permits clear thinking on the part of all citizens.”
Accordingly, American neo-Freudians substituted anxiety for sex as the underlying cause of psychological maladies. They replaced Freudian tropes with a focus on family dynamics, especially the need for emotional security in early childhood. Mothers bore the brunt of this new diagnostic scrutiny: overprotective mothers stunted their children’s maturation and were, according to a leading American psychiatrist, “our gravest menace” in the fight against communism; excessively permissive mothers produced children who would become juvenile delinquents; a mother who smothered a son with affection risked making him homosexual, while the undemonstrative “refrigerator mother” was blamed for what is now diagnosed as autism.
In 1963, Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” denounced neo-Freudian mother blamers. She wrote, “It was suddenly discovered that the mother could be blamed for almost everything. In every case history of a troubled child . . . could be found a mother.” Her indictment was later taken up by the San Francisco Redstockings, a group of female psychotherapists who distributed literature to their A.P.A. colleagues which declared, “Mother is not public enemy number one. Start looking for the real enemy.”
Feminism furnished just one of several sweeping attacks on psychiatry that saw the enterprise as a tool of social control. In 1961, three influential critiques appeared. “Asylums,” by the sociologist Erving Goffman, compared mental hospitals to prisons and concentration camps, places where personal autonomy was stripped from “inmates.” Michel Foucault’s history of psychiatry, “Madness and Civilization,” cast the mentally ill as an oppressed group and the medical establishment as a tool for suppressing resistance. Finally, Thomas Szasz, in “The Myth of Mental Illness,” argued that psychiatric diagnoses were too vague to meet scientific medical standards and that it was a mistake to label people as being ill when they were really, as he termed it, “disabled by living”—dealing with vicissitudes that were a natural part of life.
By the early seventies, such critiques had entered the mainstream. Activists created the Insane Liberation Front, the Mental Patients’ Liberation Project, and the Network Against Psychiatric Assault. Psychiatry, they argued, labelled people disturbed in order to deprive them of freedom.
Challenges to the legitimacy of psychiatry forced the profession to examine the fundamental question of what did and did not constitute mental illness. Homosexuality, for instance, had been considered a psychiatric disorder since the time of Krafft-Ebing. But, in 1972, the annual A.P.A. meeting featured a panel discussion titled “Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to Homosexuals?” One panelist, disguised with a mask and a wig, and using a voice-distorting microphone, said, “I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist. I, like most of you in this room, am a member of the A.P.A. and am proud to be a member.” He addressed the emotional suffering caused by social attitudes, and called for the embrace of “that little piece of humanity called homosexuality.” He received a standing ovation.
Homosexuality was still listed as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, even as many psychiatrists clearly held a different view. Robert Spitzer, an eminent psychiatrist and a key architect of the DSM, was put in charge of considering the issue, and devised what has become a working criterion for mental illness: “For a behavior to be termed a psychiatric disorder it had to be regularly accompanied by subjective distress and/or ‘some generalized impairment in social effectiveness of functioning.’ ” Spitzer noted that plenty of homosexuals didn’t suffer distress (except as a result of stigma and discrimination) and had no difficulty functioning socially. In December, 1973, the A.P.A. removed homosexuality from the DSM.
Today, around one in six Americans takes a psychotropic drug of some kind. The medication era stretches back more than sixty years and is the most significant legacy of the biological approach to psychiatry. It has its roots in the thirties, when experiments on rodents suggested that paranoid behavior was caused by high dopamine levels in the brain. The idea that brain chemistry could offer a pathogenesis for mental illness led researchers to hunt for chemical imbalances, and for medications to treat them.
In 1954, the F.D.A., for the first time, approved a drug as a treatment for a mental disorder: the antipsychotic chlorpromazine (marketed with the brand name Thorazine). The pharmaceutical industry vigorously promoted it as a biological solution to a chemical problem. One ad claimed that Thorazine “reduces or eliminates the need for restraint and seclusion; improves ward morale; speeds release of hospitalized patients; reduces destruction of personal and hospital property.” By 1964, some fifty million prescriptions had been filled. The income of its maker—Smith, Kline & French—increased eightfold in a period of fifteen years.
Next came sedatives. Approved in 1955, meprobamate (marketed as Miltown and Equanil) was hailed as a “peace pill” and an “emotional aspirin.” Within a year, it was the best-selling drug in America, and by the close of the fifties one in every three prescriptions written in the United States was for meprobamate. An alternative, Valium, introduced in 1963, became the most commonly prescribed drug in the country the next year and remained so until 1982.
One of the first drugs to target depression was Elavil, introduced in 1961, which boosted available levels of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter related to adrenaline. Again there was a marketing blitz. Harrington mentions “Symposium in Blues,” a promotional record featuring Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Artie Shaw. Released by RCA Victor, it was paid for by Merck and distributed to doctors. The liner notes included claims about the benefits that patients would experience if the drug was prescribed for them.
Focus shifted from norepinephrine to the neurotransmitter serotonin, and, in 1988, Prozac appeared, soon followed by other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Promotional material from GlaxoSmithKline couched the benefits of its SSRI Paxil in cozy terms: “Just as a cake recipe requires you to use flour, sugar, and baking powder in the right amounts, your brain needs a fine chemical balance.”
Yet, despite the phenomenal success of Prozac, and of other SSRIs, no one has been able to produce definitive experimental proof establishing neurochemical imbalances as the pathogenesis of mental illness. Indeed, quite a lot of evidence calls the assumption into question. Clinical trials have stirred up intense controversy about whether antidepressants greatly outperform the placebo effect. And, while SSRIs do boost serotonin, it doesn’t appear that people with depression have unusually low serotonin levels. What’s more, advances in psychopharmacology have been incremental at best; Harrington quotes the eminent psychiatrist Steven Hyman’s assessment that “no new drug targets or therapeutic mechanisms of real significance have been developed for more than four decades.” This doesn’t mean that the available psychiatric medication isn’t beneficial. But some drugs seem to work well for some people and not others, and a patient who gets no benefit from one may do well on another. For a psychiatrist, writing a prescription remains as much an art as a science.
Harrington’s book closes on a sombre note. In America, the final decade of the twentieth century was declared the Decade of the Brain. But, in 2010, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health reflected that the initiative hadn’t produced any marked increase in rates of recovery from mental illness. Harrington calls for an end to triumphalist claims and urges a willingness to acknowledge what we don’t know.
Although psychiatry has yet to find the pathogenesis of most mental illness, it’s important to remember that medical treatment is often beneficial even when pathogenesis remains unknown. After all, what I was taught about peptic ulcers and stress wasn’t entirely useless; though we now know that stress doesn’t cause ulcers, it can exacerbate their symptoms. Even in instances where the discovery of pathogenesis has produced medical successes, it has often worked in tandem with other factors. Without the discovery of H.I.V. we would not have antiretroviral drugs, and yet the halt in the spread of the disease owes much to simple innovations, such as safe-sex education and the distribution of free needles and condoms.
Still, the search for pathogenesis in psychiatry continues. Genetic analysis may one day shed light on the causes of schizophrenia, although, even if current hypotheses are borne out, it would likely take years for therapies to be developed. Recent interest in the body’s microbiome has renewed scrutiny of gut bacteria; it’s possible that bacterial imbalance alters the body’s metabolism of dopamine and other molecules that may contribute to depression. Meanwhile, Edward Bullmore, the chief of psychiatry at Cambridge University, argues that the pathogenesis of mental disorders will be deciphered by linking the workings of the mind to that of the immune system. Bullmore’s evidence, presented in his recent book, “The Inflamed Mind” (Picador), is largely epidemiological: inflammatory illness in childhood is associated with adult depression, and people with inflammatory autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis are often depressed.
It’s too early to say whether any of these hypotheses could hold the key to mental illness. More important, we’d do better not to set so much store by the idea of a single key. It’s more useful to think in terms of cumulative advances in the field. Many people have been helped, and the stigma both of severe mental illness and of fleeting depressive episodes has been vastly reduced. Practitioners and potential patients are more knowledgeable than ever about the range of treatments available. In addition to medication and talk therapy, there have been other approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, which was propounded in the seventies by the psychiatrist Aaron Beck. He posited that depressed individuals habitually felt unworthy and helpless, and that their beliefs could be “unlearned” with training. An experiment in 1977 showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy outperformed one of the leading antidepressants of the time. Thanks to neuroscience, we can demonstrate that cognitive-behavioral therapy causes neuronal changes in the brain. (This is also true of learning a new language or a musical instrument.) It may be that the more we discover about the brain the easier it will be to disregard the apparent divide between mind and body.
In the late nineties, as an oncologist, I treated a teacher in her fifties suffering from metastatic melanoma. It had spread from her upper arm to lymph nodes in one of her armpits and her neck. The surgeon had removed as much of the disease as he could, and referred her to me because I had previously conducted early clinical trials of an agent called interferon. Interferon is a naturally occurring protein that our bodies produce as part of the immune response to infection. Initially hailed as a possible panacea for all cancers, interferon eventually proved beneficial for some twenty per cent of patients with metastatic melanoma. But the treatment required high doses, which sometimes caused considerable side effects, including depression.
My patient had been widowed and she had no children. “My pupils are my kids,” she said. Unable to teach, she missed the uplift of the classroom. She told me that she was anxious and had been unable to sleep well; she knew that the treatment might not help, and would make her feel sick. In the past, she had experienced depression, and, before I administered interferon, I wanted her to consult a psychiatrist at the hospital who served as a liaison between his department and the oncology unit. He was in his early sixties, with a graying beard and a wry sense of humor: the staff often remarked that he reminded them of Freud. But, unlike Freud, he was not dogmatic. He treated his patients, variously, with medications, talk therapy, hypnosis, and relaxation techniques, often combining several of these.
It was a pragmatic, empirical approach, trying to find what worked for each patient. I admired his humility and reflected that his field was not so unlike my own, where, despite a growing knowledge of the pathogenesis of cancer, one could not precisely predict whether a patient would benefit from a treatment or suffer pointlessly from its side effects. In some sense, everything my colleague and I did for the patient was in the end biological. Words can alter, for better or worse, the chemical transmitters and circuits of our brain, just as drugs or electroconvulsive therapy can. We still don’t fully understand how this occurs. But we do know that all these treatments are given with a common purpose based on hope, a feeling that surely has its own therapeutic biology. ♦”
References relating to bi polar disorder
Australian General Practice of Psychiatry
“…While 10 years ago there was concern that bipolar disorder was being under-diagnosed, there is now growing evidence that the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction of overdiagnosis, particularly for bipolar II disorder.6
The first evidence for this came from two US centres in 2008,7,8 which reported that a high proportion of patients presenting to clinical services with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder were unable to have that diagnosis verified by formal structured interviews.
It appeared that the diagnosis was being made in many people with transient mood instability. The formal interviews demonstrated that many of these patients had other conditions such as borderline personality disorder, unipolar depression and impulse control disorders”
2. Medical Journal of Australia
“There is no definitive diagnostic system for bipolar disorder. Significant in the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV17 and the World Health Organization’s ICD-1018 disease classifications mean that some patients will be diagnosed with bipolar disorder under one system but not the other. There are also a number of controversial areas within the DSM system (Box 2). Additionally, inability to confirm a diagnosis of bipolar disorder may be unavoidable, as neither diagnostic system allows the diagnosis of bipolar disorder until a full episode of mania or hypomania has occurred, yet many patients will commence their illness with an episode of depression, and may have had hypomanic symptoms that, for example, did not meet criteria for duration of symptoms. Therefore, there is intrinsic diagnostic delay…”
3. The existential crisis of bipolar II disorder
“The issue of categorical vs. dimensional classification of bipolar disorder continues to generate controversy as it has for generations. Despite the evidence that no psychiatric disorder has discrete boundaries separating pathological and nonpathological states, and within a disorder, no clear differences separate subtypes-which would suggest a more dimensional approach-there are valid reasons to continue with our current categorical system, which distinguishes bipolar I from bipolar II disorder. Complicating the issue, a number of interested constituencies, including patients and their families, clinicians, scientists/researchers, and governmental agencies and insurance companies have different interests and needs in this controversy. This paper reviews both the advantages and disadvantages of continuing the bipolar I/bipolar II split vs. redefining bipolar disorder as one unified diagnosis. Even with one unified diagnosis, other aspects of psychopathology can be used to further describe and classify the disorder. These include both predominant polarity and categorizing symptoms by ACE-activity, cognition and energy. As a field, we must decide whether changing our current classification before we have a defining biology and genetic profile of bipolar disorder is worth the disruption in our current diagnostic system.”*
I emboldened the text.
*If the words in this presentation seem to you to have a degree of validity I introduce you to this David Bohm documentary trailer to the full Infinite Potential video. In doing this try to understand the philosophical commentary thereto rather than the physics debate therein. Some of the science is complicated and not designed to be fully understood by lay persons, including me. The information herein can also be linked to this Infinite Potential post.
I feel that you will find this article from the 2018 Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure article is a compelling article to read and perhaps worthy of your further investigation.
Quote:
“…Abstract
Computer simulation using MRI scans of children is the only possible way to determine the microwave radiation (MWR) absorbed in specific tissues in children. Children absorb more MWR than adults because their brain tissues are more absorbent, their skulls are thinner and their relative size is smaller. MWR from wireless devices has been declared a possible human carcinogen. Children are at greater risk than adults when exposed to any carcinogen. Because the average latency time between first exposure and diagnosis of a tumor can be decades, tumors induced in children may not be diagnosed until well into adulthood. The fetus is particularly vulnerable to MWR. MWR exposure can result in degeneration of the protective myelin sheath that surrounds brain neurons. MWR-emitting toys are being sold for use by young infants and toddlers. Digital dementia has been reported in school age children. A case study has shown when cellphones are placed in teenage girls’ bras multiple primary breast cancer develop beneath where the phones are placed. MWR exposure limits have remained unchanged for 19 years. All manufacturers of smartphones have warnings which describe the minimum distance at which phone must be kept away from users in order to not exceed the present legal limits for exposure to MWR. The exposure limit for laptop computers and tablets is set when devices are tested 20 cm away from the body. Belgium, France, India and other technologically sophisticated governments are passing laws and/or issuing warnings about children’s use of wireless devices…” (I emboldened the text) End of Quote
To continue to read this science link click here
If you find this article interesting you may care to further consider the information on this short video. I believe that the presenter is sincere and knows what he is talking about.
I belatedly submit the following extract from an unpublished draft paper that I wrote several years ago. It warns of the radiation damage to children that is the theme of this blog.
Quote:
” “From the International EMF Alliance:
Professor Yury Grigoriev calls for order and the world needs to listen:
“Man conquered the Black Plague, but he has created new problems – EMF pollution”
The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection has agreed to provide a detailed report for the world containing clear information on the most important Russian research results in RF/EMF radiation over the past 50 years.
RF/EMF researchers and environmental activists, Eileen O’Connor, Director for the UK Radiation Research Trust charity and Sissel Halmøy, Chairman for the International EMF Alliance and Secretary General for the Citizens ́ Radiation Protection in Norway recently returned from a trip to meet with top scientists at the Russian Federation.
Halmøy said: “According to the RNCNIRP, the following health hazards are likely to be faced by children who use mobile phones in the near future: disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability, sleep problems, increase in sensitivity to the stress, increased epileptic readiness. Action must be taken immediately to adopt biologically based guidelines to protect children.” Current standards are based more on engineering needs than biological studies.
O’Connor said “The Russian report is a gift to the world. The UK Radiation Research Trust will present the report in the Autumn to the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP and will be forwarded to the UK Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies.” She added “Russian scientists are advanced in their knowledge on RF/EMF radiation and have extended the hand of friendship and are willing to share their expertise and knowledge. I hope decision makers from the western world accept this great honour and work together.”
Russian research offers crucial and important aspects of developmental relevance that conveys a sense of urgency for the global RF/EMF framework. Without it, national governments may not be able to ensure the health of future generations are protected, especially that of our children.
Russian warnings exists urging pregnant women to avoid using mobile phones entirely along with children under eighteen. Likewise, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Israel, Finland, Belgium and Toronto, Canada, have issued health warnings for children to not use mobile phones, or for emergency use only. Unfortunately, most children, parents, doctors and teachers are not aware of this important information.
Furthermore, in May 2011 the World Health Organisation and IARC issued a classification stating that radio frequency – electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic to humans (group 2B). This warning is issued not only for mobile phones and phone masts, but for Wi-Fi, smart meters, wireless computers and all applications of technology on the RF/EMF Spectrum (radio-frequency radiation to electromagnetic radiation.)
Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, member of International Advisory Committee of WHO “EMF and Health” Professor Yury Grigoriev said: “The brain is a critical organ. Vital brain structures are under EMF exposure daily when using a mobile phone. The brain is made up of permanent complex biophysical processes and vital functions. We need to take care with mobile phones and use distance and reduce time. Children should use mobile phones for emergencies only and also use hands free.”
Deputy Chairman, Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, Professor Oleg Grigoriev said: “We need correct control and assessment of electromagnetic pollution. There are currently a lot of new frequencies containing modulation and no one knows the results which could be a serious problem.”
Russian scientists are also warning countries throughout the world including ministries of health and other organizations, responsible for the population safety (including children), to pay attention to the regulation of mobile phones and Wi-Fi use in kindergardens and are recommending the usage of wired networks in schools and educational institutions, rather than a network using wireless broadband systems, including Wi-Fi.
The Russians stand by their solid research which has consistently shown that prolonged exposure to RF/EMF radiation disturbs cognitive function.
For protection from RF/EMF non-ionizing radiation, many countries have adopted a set of guidelines provided by private group of industry-friendly scientists known as ICNIRP. The ICNIRP guidelines are for short-term, acute thermal RF/EMF exposure. The current ICNIRP, IEEE standards are based on the preconceived and outdated view of government authorities that the only possible established biological effect of RF/EMF exposure is tissue heating.
The Russian standards are supported by science as a result of extensive research and take into account the dangers of non-thermal exposure. The standards are also backed by the Russian Ministry of Health and are a small fraction of what is allowed by ICNIRP and the IEEE which is currently adopted in many counties.
Research clearly underlines the need for action on mobile phones and wireless technology. We need to launch global government backed hard-hitting advertising campaign especially for children, and large health warnings should be clearly visible on all RF/EMF emitting= equipment. Mass media campaigns can also create awareness.
O’Connor said: “I am grateful to the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith for offering to submit the Russian report to the UK Chief Medical Officer and hope that Government and health agencies worldwide listen to concerns raised by Russian and independent scientists and urgently adopt health based RF/EMF standards to protect human health. We need to provide as swift solution to this problem as soon as possible. We simply cannot afford to wait.”
Russian scientists recognise the value of non-Government groups in discussion and research. Deputy Chairman, Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, Professor Oleg
Grigoriev said: “We need to include non-Government groups in discussion and research. Non- Government groups play an equal importance to Government and the scientific community. NGO’s are a new power and are representing people with electrosensitivity (ES) and should be an equal player.” He added that “If the decisions are not made together with the NGOs, then decisions may have no value.”
The UK Radiation Research Trust, Citizens ́ Radiation Protection in Norway and International EMF Alliance are calling for the Governments to engage with NGO’s and Independent (non- telecommunications funded) scientists.
It’s time for action!
Professor Oleg Grigoriev, Head of Department of Non-Ionizing Radiation, Federal Medical Biophysical Center of Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russia and Deputy Chairman, Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and Director, Center for Electromagnetic Safety
Professor Yury Grigoriev, Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, a member of Int. Advisory Committee of WHO “EMF and Health”
Sissel Halmøy, Secretary General for the Citizens’ Radiation Protection in Norway www.stralevern.org and founder and Chair of the International EMF Alliance http://www.iemfa.orgEileen O’Connor, Founder and Board member for the International EMF Alliance and Director of UK EM Radiation Research Trust. Source
You may find that the last item in this blog in past entitled “The Third International Conference ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS…” is an interesting item that complements this quotation.
(I emboldened and italicised the text above)
Wi-Fi and other EMF’s may be particularly damaging to young people
See section 4 of this comprehensive Sciencedirect article
Research studies demonstrating the link between wireless radiation and body damage. Most of them relate to animals in a lab setting.
If you are not interested in the contents of this section you will find more general information and references relating to the topic in the addendum section further below.
Topic
Papers finding adverse biological effects or damage to health from Wi-Fi signals, Wi-Fi-enabled devices or Wi-Fi frequencies (2.4 or 5 GHz).
Note. Many of the links shown below are at least ten years old! For this reason I believe that you should treat them as being indicative only.
I suggest that before you proceed to examine the article list below that you open the following two links. One two
Quote:
“…Papers listed are those where exposures are below the current ICNIRP guideline values (I linked ICNIRP)
If the ICNIRP values were protective, we would not be seeing the damaging effects reported in the studies below. Children are exposed to Wi-Fi/2.45GHz in schools every day, around the world. Children are sitting with Wi-Fi-enabled tablet computers on their laps and up against their bodies for prolonged periods of time. The studies below support the claim that schools giving children wireless devices to use, or exposing them to Wi-Fi signals, are failing to safeguard the health, development or well being of the young people for whom they are responsible.
Article references
Akar A. et al., 2013. Effects of low level electromagnetic field exposure at 2.45 GHz on rat cornea.Int J Radiat Biol. 89(4): 243-249. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23206266
Atasoy H.I. et al., 2013. Immunohistopathologic demonstration of deleterious effects on growing rat testes of radiofrequency waves emitted from conventional Wi-Fi devices. Journal of Pediatric Urology 9(2): 223-229. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22465825
Avendaño C. et al., 2012. Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation. Fertility and Sterility 97(1): 39-45. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22112647
Aynali G. et al., 2013. Modulation of wireless (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative toxicity in laryngotracheal mucosa of rat by melatonin. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 270(5): 1695-1700. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23479077
Ceyhan A.M. 2012. Protective effects of β-glucan against oxidative injury induced by 2.45-GHz electromagnetic radiation in the skin tissue of rats. Arch Dermatol Res 304(7): 521-527. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22237725
Chaturvedi C.M. et al., 2011. 2.45GHz (CW) microwave irradiation alters circadian organization, spatial memory, DNA structure in the brain cells and blood cell counts of male mice, Mus musculus. Prog Electromag Res B 29: 23-42. http://www.jpier.org/PIERB/pierb29/02.11011205.pdf
Chou C.K. et al., 1992. Long-term, low-level microwave irradiation of rats. Bioelectromagnetics 13(6): 469–496. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1482413
Ciftci Z.Z. et al., 2015. Effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure of Wi-Fi on development of teeth and changes in teeth element concentration in rats : Wi-Fi (2.45 GHz) and teeth element concentrations. Biol Trace Elem Res. 163(1-2): 193-201. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25395122
Cig B. and Naziroglu M. 2015. Investigation of the effects of distance from sources on apoptosis, oxidative stress and cytosolic calcium accumulation via TRPV1 channels induced by mobile phones and Wi-Fi in breast cancer cells. Biochem Biophys Acta. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25703814
Dasdag S. et al., 2014. Effect of long-term exposure of 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from Wi-Fi equipment on testes functions. Electromagn Biol Med. 34(1): 37-42. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24460421
Dasdag S. et al 2015. Effects of 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from Wi-Fi equipment on microRNA expression in brain tissue. Int J Radiat Biol. Epub ahead of print. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25775055
Desmunkh P.S. et al., 2013. Detection of Low Level Microwave Radiation Induced Deoxyribonucleic Acid Damage Vis-a-vis Genotoxicity in Brain of Fischer Rats. Toxicol Int. 20(1): 19-24. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23833433
Deshmukh P.S. et al., 2015. Cognitive impairment and neurogenotoxic effects in rats exposed to low-intensity microwave radiation. Int J. Toxicol. Epub ahead of print. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25749756
Eser O., 2013. The effect of electromagnetic radiation on the rat brain: an experimental study. Turk Neurosurg. 23(6): 707-715. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24310452
Ghazizadeh V. and Naziroglu M. 2014. Electromagnetic radiation (Wi-Fi) and epilepsy induce calcium entry and apoptosis through activation of TRPV1 channel in hippocampus and dorsal root ganglion of rats. Metab Brain Dis. 29(3): 787-799. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24792079
Grigoriev Y.G. et al., 2010. Confirmation studies of Soviet research on immunological effects of microwaves: Russian immunology results. Bioelectromagnetics 31(8):589-602. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20857454
Gumral N. et al., 2009. Effects of selenium and L-carnitine on oxidative stress in blood of rat induced by 2.45-GHz radiation from wireless devices. Biol Trace Elem Res. 132(1-3): 153-163. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19396408
Gürler H.S. et al, 2014. Increased DNA oxidation (8-OHdG) and protein oxidation (AOPP) by Low level electromagnetic field (2.45 GHz) in rat brain and protective effect of garlic. Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 90(10): 892-896. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24844368
Havas M. et al., 2010. Provocation study using heart rate variability shows microwave radiation from 2.4GHz cordless phone affects autonomic nervous system. European Journal of Oncology Library Vol. 5: 273-300. http://www.icems.eu/papers.htm?f=/c/a/2009/12/15/MNHJ1B49KH.DTL
Kesari K.K. et al., 2010. Mutagenic response of 2.45 GHz radiation exposure on rat brain. Int J Radiat Biol. 86(4): 334-343. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20353343
Kesari K.K. et al., 2012. Pathophysiology of microwave radiation: effect on rat brain. Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 166(2): 379-388. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22134878
Kumar S. et al., 2011. The therapeutic effect of a pulsed electromagnetic field on the reproductive patterns of male Wistar rats exposed to a 2.45-GHz microwave field. Clinics (Sao Paulo) 66(7): 1237-1245. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21876981
Maganioti A. E. et al., 2010. Wi-Fi electromagnetic fields exert gender related alterations on EEG. 6th International Workshop on Biological Effects of Electromagnetic fields. http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/6internatwshopbioeffemf/cd/pdf/poster/WI-FI%20ELECTROMAGNETIC%20FIELDS%20EXERT%20GENDER.pdf
Margaritis L.H. et al., 2014. Drosophila oogenesis as a bio-marker responding to EMF sources. Electromagn Biol Med. 33(3): 165-189. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23915130
Meena R. et al., 2014. Therapeutic approaches of melatonin in microwave radiations-induced oxidative stress-mediated toxicity on male fertility pattern of Wistar rats. Electromagn Biol Med. 33(2): 81-91. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23676079
Misa-Augustiño M.J. et al., 2012. Electromagnetic fields at 2.45 GHz trigger changes in heat shock proteins 90 and 70 without altering apoptotic activity in rat thyroid gland. Biol Open 1(9): 831-839. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23213477
Naziroğlu M. and Gumral N. 2009. Modulator effects of L-carnitine and selenium on wireless devices (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative stress and electroencephalography records in brain of rat. Int J Radiat Biol. 85(8): 680-689. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19637079
Nazıroğlu M. et al., 2012. 2.45-Gz wireless devices induce oxidative stress and proliferation through cytosolic Ca2+ influx in human leukemia cancer cells. International Journal of Radiation Biology 88(6): 449–456. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22489926
Nazıroğlu M. et al., 2012b. Melatonin modulates wireless (2.45 GHz)-induced oxidative injury through TRPM2 and voltage gated Ca(2+) channels in brain and dorsal root ganglion in rat. Physiol Behav. 105(3): 683-92. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22019785
Ozorak A. et al., 2013. Wi-Fi (2.45 GHz)- and mobile phone (900 and 1800 MHz)- induced risks on oxidative stress and elements in kidney and testis of rats during pregnancy and the development of offspring. Biol. Trace Elem. Res. 156(103): 221-29. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24101576
Oksay T. et al., 2012. Protective effects of melatonin against oxidative injury in rat testis induced by wireless (2.45 GHz) devices. Andrologia doi: 10.1111/and.12044, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145464
Papageorgiou C. C. et al., 2011. Effects of Wi-Fi signals on the p300 component of event-related potentials during an auditory hayling task. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 10(2): 189-202. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21714138
Paulraj R. and Behari J. 2006. Single strand DNA breaks in rat brain cells exposed to microwave radiation. Mutat Res. 596(1-2): 76-80. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16458332
Paulraj R. and Behari J. 2006b. Protein kinase C activity in developing rat brain cells exposed to 2.45 GHz radiation. Electromagn Biol Med. 25(1): 61-70. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16595335
Salah M.B. et al., 2013. Effects of olive leave extract on metabolic disorders and oxidative stress induced by 2.45 GHz WIFI signals. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol 36(3): 826-834. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23994945
Saili L. et al., 2015 Effects of acute exposure to WIFI signals (2.45 GHz) on heart variability and blood pressure in Albinos rabbit. Environ Toxicol and Pharmacology 40 (2): 600–605. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26356390/
Sangun O. et al., 2015. The effects of long-term exposure to a 2450 MHz electromagnetic field on growth and pubertal development in female Wistar rats. Electromagn. Biol. Med. 34(1): 63-67. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24460416
Senavirathna M.D., et al., 2014. Nanometer-scale elongation rate fluctuations in the Myriophyllum aquaticum (Parrot feather) stem were altered by radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation. Plant Signal Behav. 9(4): e28590. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25764433
Shahin S. et al., 2013. 2.45 GHz Microwave Irradiation-Induced Oxidative Stress Affects Implantation or Pregnancy in Mice, Mus musculus. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 169: 1727–1751. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23334843
Shahin S. et al., 2014. Microwave irradiation adversely affects reproductive function in male mouse, Mus musculus, by inducing oxidative and nitrosative stress. Free Radic Res. 48(5): 511- 525. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24490664
Sinha R.K. 2008. Chronic non-thermal exposure of modulated 2450 MHz microwave radiation alters thyroid hormones and behavior of male rats. Int J Radiat Biol. 84(6): 505-513. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18470749
Somosy Z. et al., 1991. Effects of modulated and continuous microwave irradiation on the morphology and cell surface negative charge of 3T3 fibroblasts. Scanning Microsc. 5(4): 1145-1155.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1822036
Soran M.-L. et al., 2014. Influence of microwave frequency electromagnetic radiation on terpene emission and content in aromatic plants. J Plant Physiol. 171(15): 1436-1443. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4410321/pdf/emss-61504.pdf
Tök L. et al., 2014. Effects of melatonin on Wi-Fi-induced oxidative stress in lens of rats. Indian Journal of Opthalmology 62(1): 12-15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24492496
Türker Y. et al., 2011. Selenium and L-carnitine reduce oxidative stress in the heart of rat induced by 2.45-GHz radiation from wireless devices. Biol Trace Elem Res. 143(3): 1640-1650. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21360060
Also see this link
The safe use of mobile phones from a Russian historical perspective.
You will notice the significant caution that the Russian scientists took in 2002 in respect to their recommendations to the Russian Government for the safe use of mobile phones (also compare it with the earlier Russian quote. Over a fourteen year time space between both reports their high degree of precaution remains)
Quote:
“…The Third International Conference ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND HUMAN HEALTH – FUNDAMENTAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH Held in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, September 17-25, 2002.
OPINION OF THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NON-IONIZING RADIATION PROTECTION ABOUT THE QUESTION OF BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS OF CELL PHONES
At the session on September 19, 2001, the Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (RNCNIRP) discussed and for the first time approved the recommendations for the population and organizations of the cellular communications industry:
1. Supporting the Precautionary Principle of the World Health Organization, relying on the published data of foreign studies, scientific generalizations, opinions of the international scientific organizations, and expert opinions of members of the RNCNIRP, to distribute on behalf of the RNCNIRP the following information for the population about the key safety and hygienic rules regarding use of cell phones:
1.1. Non-use of cell phones by children under the age of 16.
1.2.
1.2 Non-use of cell phones by pregnant women.
1.3. Non-use of cell phones by persons suffering from neurological conditions or diseases, including neurasthenia or dysthymic disorders, mental disorders, neuroses, intellectual and memory impairment, sleep disorders, epilepsy, and epileptic predisposition.
1.4. Limiting the duration of phone calls to a maximum of three minutes, and allowing a period between calls of a minimum of 15 minutes. Preferred use of headsets and hands-free systems.
2. The cell phone manufacturers and retailers should include the following information to accompany engineering specifications:
2.1. All of the above recommendations regarding use.
2.2. Data and conclusions on relevant health and epidemiological testing of the name of the test lab.”
(I emboldened the text)
[Today it is in German]
Addendum:
A general discussion.
1. The principal issue with respect to the safety of mobile phones (including WiFi and other similar domestic appliances such as cordless phones) or otherwise surrounds the issue of whether the thermal and non effects of wireless radiation are harmful to human beings or not. ICNERP and its international associates claim that provided their recommended safety precautions are followed that thermal radiation effects are mostly ‘safe’ (there is always exceptions). However, with regard to the non-thermal effects of wireless radiation it says that there is no conclusive scientific evidence that it is harmful to human beings. The sceptics say that this is not the case and point to animal studies to demonstrate otherwise. The sceptics also say that the international wireless technology industry has vested financial interests in ensuring that this safety policy does not change (it is a massive scientific and political debate that would have huge implications for both the industry and consumers alike if this existing international safety policy ever changed). International scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of 5G technology and other safety advocates are saying that the international Precautionary Principle should apply to the industry worldwide.
2. If you are interested in knowing a little more about this thermal and non-thermal safety debate the following links may be of assistance to you: one two three (with respect to item three see chapter 4 on page 155).
3. With respect to matters relating to everyday user safety with mobile phones these three links might be of assistance to you: one…two…three…
4. Matters relating to medical issues. If you elect to conduct your own medical investigation in respect to the contents in this blog you will generally find as follows:-
4.1 In conventional wider radiation danger reports (principally conducted by pro industry entities) they often do not include children in their their statistics presentations. Also they do not segregate brain tumor/cancer types such as non malignant meningioma’s or on the other hand the far more serious and rapidly rising of Gliobastoma’s Multiforme cancers that can kill people in a matter of just a few months after its initial diagnosis. The industry says that the incidence of all tumor/cancer incidents have not changed over time which is true because it has been medically established that the incidence of more traditional cancer/tumor types have declined over time. This is true because it has been medically established that the incidence of more traditional cancer/tumor types have declined over time, probably because of more improved medical treatment that has created an evening-out effect of the data. I will support these words with the following quote from a British source:
Quote:
“Objective
To investigate detailed trends in malignant brain tumour incidence over a recent time period.
Methods
UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) data covering 81,135 ICD10 C71 brain tumours diagnosed in England (1995–2015) were used to calculate incidence rates (ASR) per 100k person–years, age–standardised to the European Standard Population (ESP–2013).
Results
We report a sustained and highly statistically significant ASR rise in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) across all ages. The ASR for GBM more than doubled from 2.4 to 5.0, with annual case numbers rising from 983 to 2531. Overall, this rise is mostly hidden in the overall data by a reduced incidence of lower-grade tumours.
Conclusions
The rise is of importance for clinical resources and brain tumour aetiology. The rise cannot be fully accounted for by promotion of lower–grade tumours, random chance or improvement in diagnostic techniques as it affects specific areas of the brain and only one type of brain tumour. Despite the large variation in case numbers by age, the percentage rise is similar across the age groups, which suggests widespread environmental or lifestyle factors may be responsible. This article reports incidence data trends and does not provide additional evidence for the role of any particular risk factor…” (I emboldened the text)
4.2 If you wish to conduct your own research you will find data from The Australain Bureau of Statistics suggests that the incidence of brain cancer has not significantly changed in Australia since mobile phones were introduced in the late 1980’s. Whilst this might be true (also keep in mind my words relating to tumor types above) Australalian Bureau of statistics data shows that brain cancer incidence rate in the 1965 to 1970 period was 3.5% per 100,000 and by the late 1980’s it had grown to 5.5% per 100,000 and has hovered around this number ever since. These figures are not reliable because medical treatment types over the years might have changed and the method of collecting data might have changed too. However, and perhaps more importantly, if you visit the Australian Bureau of Statistics website you will find that the incidence of brain cancer in children under the age of five has shown an upward trend over recent years, but the individual child numbers themselves are not significant. The trend of the data, however, suggests that between the ages of birth and four years, two children per 100,000 suffer from brain cancer, and this percentage progressively declines to one per 100,000 around the time they turn fourteen years, and none by adults between the ages of twenty to twenty five
5. If you care to learn more about this important topic this link to the Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Ass ociation (ORSAA) might be of value to you. The sceptics in Australia say that the Australalian Govt. supported the early formation of Arpansa. ORSAA appears to be saying that Arpansa is a pro-industry and controlled entity.
6. Finally, this amateur “About radio-frequency radiation” presentation may assist you to decide whether wireless radiation might be of danger to children or not. I am not suggesting that it is conclusive information!
Supplement 3rd of August 2020
You may find the contents of this 2012 debate of value too
“…XIV. Health Protection Agency (Formerly the NRPB -UnitedKingdom)The National Radiation Protection Board or NRPB (2004) concluded, based on a review of the scientific evidence, that the most coherent and plausible basis from which guidance could be developed on exposures to ELF concerned weak electric field interactions in the brain and CNS (NRPB, 2004). A cautious approach was used to indicate thresholds for possible adverse health effects.“Health Effects -It was concluded from the review of scientific evidence (NRPB, 2004b) that the most coherent and plausible basis from which guidance could be developed on exposures to ELF EMFs concerned weak electric field interactions in the brain and CNS (NRPB, 2004). A cautious approach was used to indicate thresholds for possible adverse health effects.”“The brain and nervous system operate using highly complex patterns of \electrical signals. Therefore, the basic restrictions are designed to limit the 22electric fields and current densities in these tissues so as to not adversely affect their normal functioning. The adverse effects that might occur cannot easily be characterized according to presenting signs or symptoms of disease or injury. They represent potential changes to mental processes such as attention and memory, as well as to regulatory functions with in the body. Thus, the basic restrictions should not be regarded as precisely determined values below which no adverse health effects can occurand above which clearly discernible effects will happen. The do, however, indicate an increasing likelihood of effects occurring as exposure increases above the basic restriction values.”“From the results of the epidemiological investigations, there remain concerns about a possible increased risk of child leukaemia associated with exposure to magnetic fields above about 0.4 uT (4 mG). In this regard, it is important to consider the possible need for further precautionary measures.”This recent statement by the UK Health Protection Agency clearly indicates that the current guidelines may not be protective of public health. Yet, the reference levels used in the United Kingdom remain at 5000 mG for 50 Hz power frequency fields for occupational exposure and 1000 mG for public exposure.XV. US Government Radiofrequency Interagency Working Group GuidelinesStatement The United States Radiofrequency Interagency Working Group (RFIAWG) cited concerns about current federal standards for public exposure to radiofrequency radiation in 1999 (Lotz, 1999 for the Radiofrequency Interagency Working Group)“Studies continue to be published describing biological responses to nonthermal ELF-modulated RF radiation exposures that are not produced by CW (unmodulated) radiation. These studies have resulted in concern that ‘exposure guidelines based on thermal effects, andusing information and concepts (time-averaged dosimetry, uncertainty factors) that mask any differences between intensity-modulated RF radiation exposure and CW exposure, do not directly address public exposures, and therefore may not adequately protect the public.”The United States government Federal Radiofrequency Interagency Working Group has reviewed the existing ANSI/IEEE RF thermal-based exposure standard upon which the FCC limit is based. This Working Group was made up of representatives from theUS government’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the
23Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On June 17, 1999, the RFIAWG issued a Guidelines Statement that concluded the present RF standard “may not adequately protect the public”. The RFIAWG identified fourteen (14) issues that they believe are needed in the planned revisions of ANSI/IEEE RF exposure guidelines including “to provide a strong and credible rationale to support RF exposure guidelines”.In particular, the RFIAWG criticized the existing standards as not taking into account chronic, as opposed to acute exposures, modulated or pulsed radiation (digital or pulsed RF is proposed at this site), time-averaged measurements that may erase the unique characteristics of an intensity-modulated RF radiation that may be responsible for reported biologic effects, and stated the need for a comprehensive review of long-term, low-level exposure studies, neurological-behavioral effects and micronucleus assay studies (showing genetic damage from low-level RF).The existingfederal standards may not be protective of public health in critical areas. The areas of improvement where changes are needed include: a) selection of an adverse effect level for chronic exposures not based on tissue heating and considering modulation effects; b) recognition of different safety criteria for acute and chronic exposures at non-thermal or low-intensity levels; c) recognition of deficiencies in using time-averaged measurements of RF that does not differentiate between intensity-modulated RF and continuous wave (CW) exposure, and therefore may not adequately protect the public.As of 2007, requests to the RFIAWG on whether these issues have been satisfactorily resolved in the new 2006 IEEE recommendations for RF public safety limits have gone unanswered (BioInitiative Working Group, 2007).
24XVI. United Kingdom -Parliament Independent Expert Group Report (Stewart Report)The Parliament of the United Kingdom commissioned a scientific study group to evaluate the evidence for RF health and public safety concerns. In May of 2000, the United Kingdom Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones issued a report underscoring concern that standards are not protective of public health related to both mobile phone use and exposure to wireless communication antennas.Conclusions and recommendations from the Stewart Report (for Sir William Stewart) indicated that the Group has some reservation about continued wireless technology expansion without more consideration of planning, zoning and potential public health concerns. Further, the Report acknowledges significant public concern over community siting of mobile phone and other communication antennas in residential areas and near schools and hospitals.“Children may be more vulnerable because of their developing nervous system, the greater absorption of energy in the tissue of the head and a longer lifetime of exposure.” “The siting of base stations in residential areas can cause considerable concern and distress. These include schools, residential areas and hospitals.”“ There may be indirect health risks from living near base stations with a need for mobile phone operators to consult the public when installing base stations.”“Monitoring should be especially strict near schools, and that emissions of greatest intensity should not fall within school grounds.”“The report recommends “a register of occupationally exposed workers be established and that cancer risks and mortality should be examined to determine whether there are any harmful effects.” (IEGMP, 2000)…” (I emboldened the text)
I think that there is sound scientific evidence to suggest that death is reversible
I will introduce you to two reputable articles that seem to support my statement. They are dated but I do not feel that this matters too much with respect to this subject.
Article 1.
I quote this article from the National Geographic magazine dated April 2016
“Can death be reversible? And what are we learning about the gray zone between here and the other side?…”
“…Pérez had landed at the ragged border between life and death, with a brain that had ceased functioning and would never recover—in other words, it was dead—and a body that could be sustained mechanically, in this case for one reason only: to nurture her 22-week-old fetus until he was big enough to manage on his own. This borderland is becoming increasingly populated, as scientists explore how our existence is not a toggle—“on” for alive, “off” for dead—but a dimmer switch that can move through various shades between white and black. In the gray zone, death isn’t necessarily permanent, life can be hard to define, and some people cross over that great divide and return—sometimes describing in precise detail what they saw on the other side.
Death is “a process, not a moment,” writes critical-care physician Sam Parnia in his book Erasing Death. It’s a whole-body stroke, in which the heart stops beating but the organs don’t die immediately. In fact, he writes, they might hang on intact for quite a while, which means that “for a significant period of time after death, death is in fact fully reversible.”
How can death, the very essence of forever, be reversible? What is the nature of consciousness during that transition through the gray zone? A growing number of scientists are wrestling with such vexing questions…”
The quotation above was originally sourced from this article.
Article 2.
This AWAreness during REsuscitation medical study seems to generally support the National Geographic feature story.
Quote:
“… The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is the first launched by the Human Consciousness Project, a multidisciplinary collaboration of international scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the relationship between mind and brain during clinical death, and is led by Dr. Sam Parnia, a world-renowned expert on the study of the human mind and consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. The team will be working in collaboration with more than 25 major medical centers throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States.
Although the study of death has traditionally been considered a subject for theology or philosophy, recent advances in medicine have finally enabled a scientific approach to understanding the ultimate mystery facing humankind. “Contrary to popular perception,” Dr. Parnia explains, “death is not a specific moment. It is actually a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and the brain ceases functioning – a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death…” (I emboldened the text)
See the full Aware study article here
The Aware study results
It is now alleged in the science community that one in ten people suffer near death experiences.
You may find this item of information is a valuable adjunct to this blog as well.
A review of the 2006 book publication ‘Irreducible mind: Towards a Psychology for the 21st Century’ written by Ulrich Mohrloff
Because I believe that Mohrloff’s words are ageless I do not see the fourteen year time gap between when he wrote his review and today as being relevant.
In my opinion this book review by Mohrloff is a must read for readers who seek to better understand and appreciate the original corner stones of contemporary psychology and psychiatry. Mohrloff talks at great length about what he sees are the two founding ‘fathers’ of these two mental health disciplines of medicine. These persons are Myers and James.
For the purposes of this blog I have linked psychology and psychiatry in the manner that I have as a matter of convenience. In my opinion they are much the same. I say this in the sense that neither of these disciplines accept the fact that the real world, together with our presence in it are by nature ‘flippant’ and unpredictable. In other words what is the ‘normal’ yard stick upon which we may observe and measure our every day life attitudes and subsequent behavior? This is whether they be socially correct (moral) or otherwise.
I think that it is this unpredictability surrounding our lives that Mohrloff is drawing our attention to. He seems to be saying that life should be considered to exist in the continuum of some sort of wider holistic whole that we have minimal control over yet at the same time this whole is like the grand concert master of every aspect of our lives. For example I will quote a few lines from chapter 2 of Mohrloff’s review…
Quote:
“The second chapter (by Emily Williams Kelly) summarizes the theoretical and empirical contributions of Myers to the investigation of the mind-body relation. His huge body of published writings is essentially an elaboration of the view that certain phenomena of psychology, particularly of abnormal psychology and psychical research, demonstrate that human personality is far more extensive than we ordinarily realize. According to Myers, our normal waking consciousness (which he calls the supraliminal consciousness) amounts to a relatively small selection of psychological elements and processes from a more extensive consciousness (which he calls the Subliminal Self), and the biological or-ganism, instead of producing consciousness, limits and shapes ordinary waking con-sciousness out of this larger, mostly latent, Self. In Myers’s view, evolution has a subjective element from the start. It began with an un-differentiated sensory capacity,… (now quoting Myers)
“… which possessed the power of responding in an indefinite number of ways to an indefinite num-ber of stimuli. It was only the accident of its exposure to certain stimuli and not to others which has made it what it now is. And having shown itself so far modifiable as to acquire these highly specialised senses which I possess, it is doubtless still modifiable in direc-tions as unthinkable to me as my eyesight would have been unthinkable to the oyster. (Myers, 1889, p. 190) …”
Myers believed in the metaphysical elements existing in the wider world around us. James paid tribute to Myers in his eulogy to Myers in 1901.
Although this science document is now somewhat outdated I feel that this does not detract from the interesting and seeming compelling nature of its contents. From my life experience I can identify with the conclusions of the article. You will also find that this replicable physics experiment conducted on behalf of the United States Navy supports this theory.*
*If the words in this presentation seem to you to have a degree of validity I introduce you to this David Bohm documentary trailer to the full Infinite Potential video. In doing this try to understand the philosophical commentary thereto rather than the physics debate therein. Some of the science is complicated and not designed to be fully understood by lay persons, including me. The information herein can also be linked to this Infinite Potential post.
I look at the four descriptive zones that broadly constitute the human mind and brain nexus. This is in relationship to our informational decision making processes.
This blog is in two sections. Section one that follows depicts the illustrative processes pertinent to the systematisation of random ontological information. This is information into packets and patterns of mechanical [logical] information. This system-process is the means by which decisions and types of decisions are made. Section two, immediately thereafter, provides elementary information as to how the system works as an integrated process.*
Notes with respect to the workings and meaning of the “Four Dimensional Mind-Brain Operating Function”
A. What the illustrative process seeks to do is:-
1. Bring together the four descriptive ‘zones’ that largely constitute the human mind and brain nexus and how they might connect with each other with respect to our normal daily lives. These four zones are the Logical, Analytical, Fact Based Quantitive Zone (top left), The Organised Sequential Planned Detail Zone (bottom left), the Holistic Intuitive Integration Synthesising zone (top right) and the Interpersonal Feelings Based Kinestetic Emotional Zone (bottom right). All of these zones are packets of information that are interconnected as though they are somehow attached to a stochastic neural network (NN). This is akin to the human mind-brain operational nexus system (process).
2. Broadly demonstrate how the NN and process system works and how it might be a useful tool in the understanding of how human thought construction might take place in the manner that it does. This includes human behaviour types that may emanate therefrom.
B. How the NN and Process system works:-
1. The square box represents the complete system. The system is informational, indicative and fluid. It is a system that works by means of the process of collating, integrating and assimilating information on behalf of its owner with respect to their condition, activities and aspirations at any given time or location in their lives including when they are sleeping.
The upper left A, lower left B, Lower right C and upper right D represent the inherent learned knowledge and experiential experiences of the system as has been and is lived by its owner. This includes ontologically. One may assume from this that the Cerebral Mode Thinking Processes, Right Mode Thinking Processes , Limbic Mind Thinking Processess and Left Mode Thinking Processes are potential mind-brain informational tendencies and influences on standby, to be ‘absorbed’ by the informational system as shown in the illustration. This is information that might be useful for its owner in deciding to do this or that at any given time with respect to his/her hopes, expectations and desires in life.
The outer circle represents the symbolic separation of these described tendencies and influences. These tendencies and influences are like short-lived informational fluctuations within the system that are waiting to be called upon by the wider system to do something on behalf of its owner. All decisions to do something by the NN system process can be seen as being packages of diversified information of subtle tendencies and influences (these tendencies and influences can also be seen as either energy or potential energy).
The lower dotted line under the circle represents the presence of the human mind (M) within the NN system. The M draws upon the random information between itself and the subtle tendencies and influences of the wider NN system as described beyond the outer line. The mind then packages them into bundles of patterns of information that might be useful for the benefit of its owner. These respective bundles might also be seen as packages and patterns of information on standby to do something. They also contain ontological information that might include any hidden hopes, dreams and desires its owner might have.
Below this dotted line are the four zones as described in section A. All of these have separate informational tendencies or influences to think and behave in some way that can be brought to bear on behalf of its owner. All of these four informational tendencies and influences are broadly scattered across the whole of the NN process. They exist as small informational nodes that can collectively bundle themselves into patterns of information (something meaningful and specific) on behalf of their owner. This can also mean collectively potentially waiting to do something on behalf of their owner. Patterns of tendencies and influences are stronger and more meaningful than single informational nodes ( a single node might be an idea whereas a pattern of nodes is more likely to be a collection of ideas).
The closed circle of the illustration is divided into four equal zones across the horizontal and vertical plane. You will notice that the Holistic Intuitive Integrating Synthesising zone and the Interpersonal Feeling Kinesthetic Emotional zones are jointly adjacent to the Right Mode Thinking Processes tendencies and influences on the right perimeter of the square.
From this example you might see how the influences and tendencies relating to the other two zones, from an anti-clockwise perspective, align themselves with the Left Mode Thinking Processes and the Cerebral Mode Thinking Processes respectively.
By considering the alignment of each of these four zone quantities (blocks of specific NN influences and tendencies) with each of their adjacent modes of thinking processes you will probably notice how the whole of the NN processes (also embracing M) provide a descriptive snapshot of the wider system. It also appears to show how and why the Four Dimensional Brain-Mind Operating Function seems to provide sound insight into the wider human NN condition.**
**If the words in this presentation seem to you to have a degree of validity I introduce you to this David Bohm documentary trailer to the full Infinite Potential video. In doing this try to understand the philosophical commentary thereto rather than the physics debate therein. Some of the science is complicated and not designed to be fully understood by lay persons, including me.
C. How decisions are made to do something:-
This is the operational (mechanical) aspect of the hypothesis. Upper left section A and lower left section B should be considered as being mechanically static. The moving part of the NN process system is represented by the three-pointed star depicted in the illustration. You will note how I have separated it from the mind area of the nexus (system and process). This is because at this point the M only contains random information that has no specific (without time) meaning. This three pointed star ‘plucks’ loose information from M. It is also representative of the workings of the human brain (not the brain itself) that is perpetually operating within the wider NN process system.
The star is attached to an axle as illustrated in the diagram. In this sense, the axle is the heart of the human brain setup. Subtle informational fluctuations exist within and between the four zones areas that send and receive tendency and influence impulses from one or more of the zones. This could significantly include them all if any given set of adverse circumstances that its owner is experiencing deems this as being instinctively necessary. This includes the degree of power of these tendencies and influences as well. For example if its owner’s life or family were being threatened that severely agitated the NN system process somehow. The brain (the axle) has three primary tendency and influence impulses. These are the reptilian impulse (the dominant implicit impulse of the system), the Neocortex and the Limbic impulses.
The star is not rigid, but is subtly, and sometimes violently, swaying and flexing back and forth throughout the four-zone NN process system. However, this is not in the mind zone, which remains mechanically static at all times. This movement relates to the hopes, desires and expectations, (whether emotionally ontological or not) of its owner at any given time or circumstance. It is the primary tendencies and influences of the human brain that always move and process packages and patterns of raw information from within the system, including M. This collated information is to address the expectations of its owner. This includes to merely think about something in some type of way or another.
I briefly summarise the key contents of this document as follows:-
1. The complete illustration relates to information contained within it that represents its owner’s normal daily circumstances. It also illustrates the diverse range of operational tendencies and influences that might apply with any given owner who makes a decision to do something in their lives.
2. I have shown how the moving three pointed star representing the human brain operates with respect to the wider NN process system. This is in relation to the axle of the stars that I refer to as being informationally representative of the human brain. I have briefly cited the three primary tendencies and influences of this brain as they are represented with the rest of the system by means of the star.
3. I have shown how the symbolic axle brain and its attached stars moves backwards and forwards as its owner feels the need to do something in their daily lives. This is in respect to the four informational zones as discussed in section A as well as the associated brain axis. This combined arrangement, including the three influences and tendencies of each arm of the star (Reptilian, Limbic and Neocortex) is also representative of the complete mind, brain and decision making process nexus of the illustration.
4. Allied comments:-
It is my belief that the Logical, Analytical and Fact Based Quantitative and the Organised Sequential Planned Detailed zones of the NN process system are the explicit [rational] influences, tendencies and effects of the system. I include the Neocortex and Limbic system sections in this as well. I consider that the remainder of the NN system process as illustrated and describe as being the implicit (ontological) influences and tendencies of the system. These are influences and tendencies that cannot be scientifically measured but they can be informationally demonstrated. This includes what I consider to be the primary influence and tendency of the NN process system that is the reptilian influence and tendency.
5. I have decided that it is not appropriate for me to attempt to describe the wider workings of MacLean’s Triune mind/brain model. It is far too detailed to do so within this short discussion document. This video and this presentation may help you to better understand MacLean’s theory.
*I have not explained in detail all operating functions of the system, nor their wider operating potential.
The information herein can also be linked to this Infinite Potential post.