Richard Laster

Cancer in radar technicians exposed to radiofrequency/microwave radiation: sentinel episodes.

Abstract Controversy exists concerning the health risks from exposures to radiofrequency/microwave irradiation (RF/MW). The authors report exposure-effect relationships in sentinel patients and their co-workers, who were technicians with high levels of exposure to RF/MW radiation. Information about exposures of patients with sentinel tumors was obtained from interviews, medical records, and technical sources. One patient was a member of a cohort of 25 workers with six tumors. The authors estimated relative risks for cancer in this group and latency periods for a larger group of self-reported individuals. Index patients with melanoma of the eye, testicular cancer, nasopharyngioma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and breast cancer were in the 20–37-year age group. Information about work conditions suggested prolonged exposures to high levels of RF/MW radiation that, produced risks for the entire body. Clusters involved many different types of tumors. Latency periods were extremely brief in index patients and a larger self reported group. The findings suggest that young persons exposed to high levels of RF/MW radiation for long periods in settings where preventive measures were lax were at increased risk for cancer. Very short latency periods suggest high risks from high-level exposures. Calculations derived from a linear model of dose-response suggest the need to prevent exposures in the range of 10-100 μw/cm2.

The Precautionary Principle, Epidemiology and the Ethics of Delay

Abstract Ethics tells us: do good and do no harm and invokes the norms of justice, equity and respect for autonomy in protecting and promoting health and well-being. The Precautionary Principle, a contemporary re-definition of Bradford Hills case for action, gives us a common sense rule for doing good by preventing harm to public health from delay: when in doubt about the presence of a hazard, there should be no doubt about its prevention or removal. It shifts the burden of proof from showing presence of risk to showing absence of risk, aims to do good by preventing harm, and subsumes the upstream strategies of the DPSEEA (Driving Forces Pressure Stress Exposure Effect Action) model and downstream strategies from molecular epidemiology for detection and prevention of risk. The Precautionary Principle has emerged because of the ethical import of delays in detection of risks to human health and the environment. Ethical principles, the Precautionary Principle, the DPSEEA model and molecular epidemiology all imply re-emphasizing epidemiologys classic rôle for early detection and prevention. Delays in recognizing risks from past exposures and acting on the findings (e.g., cigarette smoking and lung cancer, asbestos, organochlorines and endocrine disruption, radiofrequency, raised travel speeds) were examples of failures that were not only scientific, but ethical, since they resulted in preventable harm to exposed populations. These may delay results from, among other things, external and internal determinants of epidemiologic investigations of hazard and risk, including misuse of tests of statistical significance. Furthermore, applying the Precautionary Principle to ensure justice, equity, and respect for autonomy raises questions concerning the short-term costs of implementation to achieve long-term goals and the principles that guide compensation.

Water in the Jewish Legal Tradition

The Torah—the five books of Moses—is the basis for Jewish law. To this day, all judgements handed down by the Jewish rabbinic courts derive their legitimacy by tracing their origins back to the Torah. In Jewish Law, water is symbolic of life. The importance of water quality and the dangers of drinking polluted water appear from the earliest period of Jewish history. While Jewish law allows private ownership of wells, a spring that flows beyond the area of the spring itself is considered, like rivers and the sea, to be in the public domain. The Talmud—Rabbinical commentaries on the Torah—generally adopts a system of water management that gives parties closer to a water source priority over those further away, and upstream riparians priority over lower riparians. Modern Israeli water law has little relation to Jewish water law. But because both have their roots in the same land, with the same dry climate and limited water sources, both developed laws in an attempt to ensure proper protection of water sources.

Catchment Basin Management of Water

With the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, Israel inherited the Ottoman law for water and not the English Rule of Riparian Rights. The Ottoman law allowed the State to control the water sources and, in fact, did not allow private ownership of water sources. In its early years, Israel promulgated some of the most forward looking legislation in the world concerning protection of water sources. But as time went on, Israel lost its preeminence in the water protection field, while other countries revised their water laws in light of the environmental revolution. It is now time for Israel to redesign its water system along catchment basin lines.

Basin Management in the Context of Israel and the Palestine Authority

Preparation of a master plan for a transboundary watercourse serves as a touchstone for cooperation between two conflicting entities. It enables decision making under any scenario: coexistence, cooperation, or partnership. It weighs the value of each scenario and allows policy makers to make decisions based on value judgments. It improves tools for grassroots democracy, stakeholder involvement, and collaborative decision making (heterarchy). In the worse case, it serves as a platform for discussion instead of acrimony; in the best case, a platform for cooperative river restoration, improved planning, and increased biological diversity. In this chapter we demonstrate implementation of such master plan for such a trans boundary river in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Reuse of effluent: Israel as a model

Moses had the uncanny ability to transform sweet water into brackish, and brackish into sweet. Generations of people have tried to repeat this trick, with little success. Yet with all his ability, Moses never reached the land of milk and honey. It’s too bad; the world could certainly have gained from his expertise.