Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 19 November 2007, 12:18 PM
Wi-Fi causes autism! Or not.
From their press release:
"The autistic children followed specific detoxification protocols in an environment that was mitigated with regard to sources of EMR including mobile phones and WiFi 3. Heavy metal excretions were monitored from hair, urine and feces over periods ranging from several weeks to several months. The researchers found that with protocols administered in the mitigated environment, heavy metals were cleared from the children's bodies in a pattern dependent on time and molecular weight. The heaviest metals, such as mercury and uranium, cleared last. In many of the children, the decrease in metals was concomitant with symptom amelioration.
Tamara Mariea, said: "These findings give us very important clues to solving some of the enigmas we see in the autism literature regarding the efficacy of detoxification. And, we are extremely pleased with the results we are now seeing in these children. Our protocols are working."
Dr. Carlo said, "These findings tie in with other studies showing adverse cell-membrane responses and disruptions of normal cell physiology. The EMR apparently causes the metals to be trapped in cells, slowing clearance and accelerating the onset of symptoms... Our data offer a reasonable mechanistic explanation for a connection between autism and wireless technology."
Apparently this groundbreaking paper was "published this week in the peer-reviewed Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine". Now, I'm no Ben Goldacre, but I do know how to use Google, and I can see no evidence of any "Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine". Correct me if I'm wrong. Someone? Anyone?
Why do I get the feeling that we have so been here before?
PreviousComments on this post
I have found the web site of the journal and the paper itself.
Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine
http://www.acnem.org/
Wireless Radiation in the Etiology and Treatment of Autism: Clinical Observations and Mechanisms
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/emr_autism_acnem_final_1.pdf
I'm really glad that these children have improved his health.
Thanks for that, wsunj, though I have to say that my confidence in the research is not bolstered by the fact that Mariea & Carlo's press release says it was published in the "Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine", when it was in fact the "Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine". Which is quite different, if a little less impressive-sounding.
If they really have improved children's health, then great. However, I would love to see how truly "peer-reviewed" this piece was. A telling extract:
... the study was a retrospective observation based on subjects with severe Autism whose parents chose to pursue alternative metal detoxification methods after other traditional approaches had failed. There is a likelihood that the parents and the subjects alike were vested in a positive outcome and it is possible that those strong desires had an impact on the favorable metal clearance through placebo mechanisms.
Unfortunately, some people will be desperate enough to try - and believe - anything. Especially in a field such as autism, which is so poorly understood.
Have you ever really considered the amount of radiation that WiFi gives off? 802.11b and 802.11g utilize 2.4 GHz of frequency. I myself have wondered what this could do to young minds. Also, just think about what the advent of wireless communications technologies and the prevalence of mobile phones, wireless routers, and cordless phones in the home have done to the cumulative amount of electromagnetic radiation in a home. Do you really think governments or industry itself have done proper environmental impact analysis on the rise of EMR? Can you trust anyone who makes their money from the wireless industry or tech business as whole to be objective when considering the impact of wireless emissions?
I'm not sure why the use of the 2.4GHz band is relevant (your microwave oven gives off a lot more radiation at that frequency than your Wi-Fi router does, by the way), but my attitude is this: real scientists really are investigating this stuff, and until some actual scientific, properly peer-reviewed link is found between wireless activity and people's health, there is no reason to worry. The prospect of World War III makes me worry. Wi-Fi does not.
It doesn't surprise me that there is no scientific evidence of this as most studies have been done on the long term effects, and specifically cancer, that would take 10, 15 or more years to show up. What is worse is that they tend to use people/tissue that are/is known not to be affected, and work to a strictly limited agenda determined by those that have a vested interest in nothing being shown. No wonder they don't get any bad results.
Fact: people do get affected by wi-fi (how do I know? because I and a number of other people I know do get affected. I myself get affected quite badly!)
With the prevalence of wi-fi based equipment, what we now need urgently is a collation of information about those that have been affected, a list of effects they have shown (headaches, giddyness, sickness, confusion, chest pains...), how much exposure it has needed (30 seconds upwards depending upon strength), and whether this accumulates over time (like with x-ray exposure).
What is also needed is for people to realise that just because you have disabled your wi-fi, it does not actually mean that it is off. It IS actually still transmitting just as well as before, but just ignores your attempts to talk to it! These 2 things are VERY different!.
