Örjan Hallberg

The Urban Decline of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus): A Possible Link with Electromagnetic Radiation

During recent decades, there has been a marked decline of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) population in the United Kingdom and in several western European countries. The aims of this study were to determine whether the population is also declining in Spain and to evaluate the hypothesis that electromagnetic radiation (microwaves) from phone antennae is correlated with the decline in the sparrow population. Between October 2002 and May 2006, point transect sampling was performed at 30 points during 40 visits to Valladolid, Spain. At each point, we carried out counts of sparrows and measured the mean electric field strength (radiofrequencies and microwaves: 1 MHz–3 GHz range). Significant declines (P = 0.0037) were observed in the mean bird density over time, and significantly low bird density was observed in areas with high electric field strength. The logarithmic regression of the mean bird density vs. field strength groups (considering field strength in 0.1 V/m increments) was R = −0.87 (P = 0.0001). The results of this article support the hypothesis that electromagnetic signals are associated with the observed decline in the sparrow population. We conclude that electromagnetic pollution may be responsible, either by itself or in combination with other factors, for the observed decline of the species in European cities during recent years. The appearently strong dependence between bird density and field strength according to this work could be used for a more controlled study to test the hypothesis.

Melanoma incidence and frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting.

Abstract The incidence of melanoma has been increasing steadily in many countries since 1960, but the underlying mechanism causing this increase remains elusive. The incidence of melanoma has been linked to the distance to frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting towers. In the current study, the authors sought to determine if there was also a related link on a larger scale for entire countries. Exposure-time-specific incidence was extracted from exposure and incidence data from 4 different countries, and this was compared with reported age-specific incidence of melanoma. Geographic differences in melanoma incidence were compared with the magnitude of this environmental stress. The exposure-time-specific incidence from all 4 countries became almost identical, and they were approximately equal to the reported age-specific incidence of melanoma. A correlation between melanoma incidence and the number of locally receivable FM transmitters was found. The authors concluded that melanoma is associated with exposure to FM broadcasting.

Letter to the Editor: Will We All Become Electrosensitive?

Dear Editor, Each year an increasing number of people claim to suffer from electrosensitivity (see, e.g., compilation of references given in Table 1), also known as being electrically hypersensitive (EHS). There are also other diseases, such as fibromyalgia and burn-out syndrome, that have symptoms similar to those exhibited by people suffering from electrosensitivity. In Sweden, electrosensitivity is recognized as a handicap, but there is still controversy surrounding the diagnosis of the disease. The mainstream view by governmental and medical authorities is that this handicap is a psychological phenomenon with no basis in physical or medical mechanisms (Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, SNBHW, 1995), whereby perpetuating the misconception that only a small fraction of the population is concerned about electrosensitivity or the proximity of new radio transmission masts. The number of reported cases of electrosensitivity has been steadily increasing since it was first documented in 1991. Data presented here are estimates and are based on large sample inquiries where different sets of questions have been used. To determine whether the statistics indicate a sub-population of electrosensitivity or if the total population is at stake, we plotted reported prevalence estimates over time in a normal distribution diagram (Table 1 and Figure 1). Contrary to the views of mainstream medical authorities, Figure 1 shows that the group of electrosensitive people around the world, including Sweden, is not just a small fraction that deviates from the rest of the healthy population. Instead, it points at the possibility that electrosensitivity will be more widespread in the near future. The extrapolated trend indicates that 50% of the population can be expected to become electrosensitive by the year 2017. Data presented here were collected in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Sleep on the right side-Get cancer on the left?

Breast cancer frequently occurs in the left breast among both women and men [R. Roychoudhuri, V. Putcha, H. Møller, Cancer and laterality: a study of the five major paired organs (UK), Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 655-662; M.T. Goodman, K.H. Tung, L.R. Wilkens, Comparative epidemiology of breast cancer among men and women in the US, 1996 to 2000, Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 127-136; C.I. Perkins, J. Hotes, B.A. Kohler, H.L. Howe, Association between breast cancer laterality and tumor location, United States, 1994-1998, Cancer Causes Control 15 (2004) 637-645; H.A. Weiss, S.S. Devesa, L.A. Brinton, Laterality of breast cancer in the United States, Cancer Causes Control 7 (1996) 539-543; A. Ekbom, H.O. Adami, D. Trichopoulos, M. Lambe, C.C. Hsieh, J. Pontén, Epidemiologic correlates of breast cancer laterality (Sweden), Cancer Causes Control 5 (1994) 510-516]. Moreover, recent results showed that the left side of the body is more prone to melanoma than the right side [D.H. Brewster, M.J. Horner, S. Rowan, P. Jelfs, E. de Vries, E. Pukkala, Left-sided excess of invasive cutaneous melanoma in six countries, Eur. J. Cancer 43 (2007) 2634-2637]. Current explanations for left-sided breast cancer include handedness [L. Titus-Ernstoff, P.A. Newcomb, K.M. Egan, et al., Left-handedness in relation to breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, Epidemiology 11 (2000) 181-184; M.A. Kramer, S. Albrecht, R.A. Miller, Handedness and the laterality of breast cancer in women, Nurs. Res. 34 (1985) 333-337; M.K. Ramadhani, S.G. Elias, P.A. van Noord, D.E. Grobbee, P.H. Peeters, C.S. Uiterwaal, Innate left handedness and risk of breast cancer: case-cohort study, BMJ 331 (2005) 882-883], size difference, nursing preference, and brain structure. However, men are affected even more by left laterality than women, thus many of these explanations are unconvincing. Increasing rates of skin melanoma have been associated with immune-disruptive radiation from FM/TV transmitters [O. Hallberg, A theory and model to explain the skin melanoma epidemic, Melanoma Res. 16 (2006) 115-118; O. Hallberg, A reduced repair efficiency can explain increasing melanoma rates, Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 17 (2008) 147-152; O. Hallberg, O. Johansson, Melanoma incidence and frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting, Arch. Environ. Health 57 (2002) 32-40; O. Hallberg, O. Johansson, FM broadcasting exposure time and malignant melanoma incidence, Electromagn. Biol. Med. 24 (2005) 1-8; O. Hallberg, Radio TV towers linked to increased risk of melanoma, Report, available at: http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/C_ancer_31/120907442007_Exclusive_report_Radio_TV_towers_linked_to_increased_risk_of_melanoma.shtml, 2007 (accessed 2007)]. Geographical areas covered by several transmitters show higher incidences of melanoma than areas covered by one transmitter. Here we show that a high prevalence of breast cancer and melanoma on the left side of the body may be a logical consequence of sleeping in beds having mattresses containing wave-reflecting metal springs. We found that people tend to sleep for longer periods on their right side, apparently to avoid disturbance by the heartbeat. This puts the left side farther away from the field-attenuating influence of the metal springs in the mattress; thus the left side will spend, on average, more time exposed to stronger combined fields from incident and reflected waves. This hypothesis may also explain why body parts farthest away from the mattress (trunk and upper arms for men; lower limbs and hips for women) have higher melanoma rates than the sun-exposed face area. The implications of this study should promote a critical consideration of population exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially during the night.

A reduced repair efficiency can explain increasing melanoma rates

In an earlier study, the author found that the melanoma incidence stayed fairly constant after 30 years of age during the first part of the 20th century in several countries. All birth cohorts, however, continued to show increasing incidence from 1957 onwards, and also after the age of 30 years. Before 1957, cell damage in skin older than about 30 years thus did not seem to be able to generate melanoma, whereas cell damage sustained later could pose a melanoma risk for much longer durations. The objective of this study was to determine whether a suddenly reduced efficiency of the cell-repair system could mathematically explain the reported increase of melanoma incidence in Sweden since 1957. A statistical distribution was used to describe the probability of cell damage developing into melanoma vs. time. Also, the probability that such damaged cells would either be repaired or killed was described as a function of time. The total probability of acquiring melanoma over time was then modelled and compared with reported data to determine the distribution parameters. The model was able to mirror the reported data both before and after the point in time at which the skin-repair system was assumed to have been impaired. This study shows that a reduced efficiency of the cell-repairing mechanisms is capable of explaining the increasing trends of melanoma incidence that we have been noticing since the mid-20th century. Other cancer types also seem to have been affected.

FM Broadcasting Exposure Time and Malignant Melanoma Incidence

Object: To analyze the age-specific incidence of malignant melanoma in Sweden since 1958 in order to see if the reported general increase in incidence would be explained by a sudden exposure to an environmental stress to the population. Methods: Incidence data for all age groups was collected from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare databases for each year between 1958 and 2002. The incidence in all 288 municipalities of Sweden was correlated to the number of FM transmitters covering each municipality. Results: The age-specific incidence was found to be constant over the last 20–30 years for people younger than 50 years while the incidence for older age groups still are constantly increasing. The total incidence in different municipalities was found to be a strong function of the number of covering FM transmitters. Conclusions: The age-specific incidence of malignant melanoma of the skin appears to be following a pattern of response to an imposed environmental change in 1955. We believe that the frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting radiation at whole-body resonant frequencies is such an environmental stress.

Mobile Handset Output Power and Health

The public health situation in Sweden has become drastically worse since the Autumn of 1997. A massive roll-out of GSM main transmitter towers and roof-mounted transmitters that became allowed after mid-1997 led to a booming sale of GSM handsets all over Sweden. The authorities in Sweden have issued a brochure on ‘Radiation from Mobile Systems’ [1] stating that good transmitter coverage leads to low handset output power that can vary from 2 W down to 0.001 W [2]. Thus, we examined health statistics data and GSM coverage in all counties in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Here, we show that there is a very strong correlation between health degradation and weak GSM coverage, while there is no such relation noticed for the time period 1981–1991 when no handset power regulation was applied. The immediate implications from this study are the needs for: 1) a deeper analysis of handset power levels and health statistics and, 2) reconsideration of the planned massive roll-out of yet another mobile system (3G).

Increasing Melanoma—Too Many Skin Cell Damages or Too Few Repairs?

Skin melanoma rates have been increasing for a long time in many Western countries. The object of this study was to apply modern problem-solving theory normally used to clear industrial problems to search for roots and causes of this medical question. Increasing cancer rates can be due to too many cell damage incidents or to too few repairs. So far, it has been assumed that the melanoma epidemic mainly is caused by increasing sun tanning habits. In order to explore this problem in more detail, we used cancer statistics from several countries over time and space. Detailed analysis of data obtained and a model study to evaluate the effects from increased damages or decreased repairs clearly indicate that the main reason behind the melanoma problem is a disturbed immune system. The possibility to introduce efficient corrective actions is apparent.

Apparent decreases in Swedish public health indicators after 1997—Are they due to improved diagnostics or to environmental factors?

The object of this work was to review recent trends in public health in Sweden. Data on different adverse health indicators were collected from official Swedish registries. We found that population health generally improved during the early 1990s but suddenly started to deteriorate from 1997 onwards. This quite dramatic change is not likely to be explained only by improved diagnostics but physical causes need immediately to be searched for. A connection with the increasing exposure of the population to GHz radiation from mobile phones, base stations and other communication technologies cannot be ruled out.

Cancer and body height

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that body-resonant radiation may explain the correlation between body height and cancer risk observed in most countries around the world. METHODS Data on cancer incidence and body height were collected from different countries and also from different regions within Sweden. Information on local FM broadcasting transmitters was also collected in Sweden to determine whether they correlated with the cancer incidence and body heights reported in each geographical area. Because broadcasting radiation may be concentrated by metal spring mattresses, we also attempted to collect information on the use of these mattresses in different parts of the world. RESULTS A strong association was found between melanoma incidence and body height, both in different countries and in different municipalities within Sweden. At the same time, a very strong association was found between cancer incidence, mean body height, and the effective number of FM transmitters covering a given locality. Available data on the use of metal spring mattresses in different parts of the world also correlated well with data on cancer rates and body heights. CONCLUSIONS The hypothesis that body-resonant radiation may affect both cancer incidence and body height was supported by the strong associations found in this study. The hypothesis was further supported by the correlation found between the incidence of cancer, body height, and the use of metal spring mattresses.