Friday, April 01, 2016

How independent is ICNIRP?


How independent is ICNIRP?


ICNIRP makes the following claims on its web site:

"As an independent organization, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) provides scientific advice and guidance on the health and environmental effects of non-ionizing radiation (NIR) to protect people and the environment from detrimental NIR exposure. NIR refers to electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet, light, infrared, and radiowaves, and mechanical waves such as infra- and ultrasound. In daily life, common sources of NIR include the sun, household electrical appliances, mobile phones, Wi-Fi, and microwave ovens."

"ICNIRP gives recommendations on limiting exposure for the frequencies in the different NIR subgroups. It develops and publishes Guidelines, Statements, and reviews used by regional, national, and international radiation protection bodies, such as the World Health Organization. ICNIRP is a main contributor to the international scientific NIR dialogue and the advancement of NIR protection."

"ICNIRP is independent from commercial, national and vested interests. ICNIRP’s members do not represent their country of origin nor their institute. They cannot hold a position of employment or have other interests that compromise their scientific independence. ICNIRP does not receive money from industry, its funding stems from subsidies granted by national and international public institutions. For more information on fundings and governance, read here."

http://www.icnirp.org/en/home/home-read-more.html 

"In 2014 the ICNIRP activities were supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB), the European Union Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (Safety at Work), the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA), the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the Israel Ministry of Health, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA). ICNIRP ́s annual financial reports are subject to the audit by the German Tax Authorities every three years."

http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/Annual_Report_2014.pdf

"The Commission membership consists of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and up to 12 members. Commission members are independent experts in the scientific disciplines relevant to non-ionizing radiation protection. In carrying out their voluntary work for the Commission they do not represent either their countries of origin or their institutes. ICNIRP members are required to declare any personal interests in relation to their activities for ICNIRP."


In 2015, Dr. Dariusz Leszczynski delivered a key-note presentation to the Swiss association Gigaherz in which he made the following accusations regarding ICNIRP (Leszczynski, D. "Science and Conflict of Interest in Bioelectromagnetics." Mar 7, 2015;http://bit.ly/1CMWkHq):
"ICNIRP hijacked the WHO EMF Project."
"ICNIRP, the self-appointing NGO, has no accountability at all -- nobody controls its activities (not for CoI [conflict of interest] disclosures, nor for erroneous decisions)."
"Can "private club" ICNIRP be fully trusted with the EHC [the WHO's Environmental Health Criteria] task that is certainly lobbied by the telecom" [industry]?
"Activity of WHO EMF Project and memberships of ICNIRP and SCENHIR should be overhauled ... and clear accountability rules should be set."


ICNIRP's commission members for the 2016-2020 term appear below followed by brief biographies and links to personal declarations of interest. The new term of office begins on May 13, 2016 after the end of the IRPA Congress.

You can decide for yourself whether these 14 scientists and the 29 members of ICNIRP's Scientific Expert Group should be entrusted with establishing the international EMF guidelines which form the basis for EMF regulatory standards in most nations.

Not one of these individuals was among the the 220 EMF scientists who signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal which is critical of ICNIRP's EMF guidelines:
"The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) established in 1998 the “Guidelines For Limiting Exposure To Time-Varying Electric, Magnetic, and Electromagnetic Fields (up to 300 GHz)”[1]. These guidelines are accepted by the WHO and numerous countries around the world. The WHO is calling for all nations to adopt the ICNIRP guidelines to encourage international harmonization of standards. In 2009, the ICNIRP released a statement saying that it was reaffirming its 1998 guidelines, as in their opinion, the scientific literature published since that time “has provided no evidence of any adverse effects below the basic restrictions and does not necessitate an immediate revision of its guidance on limiting exposure to high frequency electromagnetic fields[2]. ICNIRP continues to the present day to make these assertions, in spite of growing scientific evidence to the contrary. It is our opinion that, because the ICNIRP guidelines do not cover long-term exposure and low-intensity effects, they are insufficient to protect public health."

As I mentioned in my previous message ... ICNIRP should be composed of members (including its scientific expert group) who possess a comprehensive and deep understanding of the scientific literature regarding chronic, low intensity exposure to non-ionizing radiation and biology or health. In addition, these experts should be unbiased and should not possess even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

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ICNIRP Commissioners
Eric van Rongen (Chair), Netherlands
Maria Feychting (Vice Chair), Sweden
Rodney Croft, Australia
Guglielmo d'Inzeo, Italy
Adele Green, Australia
Akimasa Hirata, Japan
Brian Lund, USA
Carmela Marino, Italy
Sharon Miller, USA
Gunnhild Oftedal, Norway
Tsutomu Okuno, Japan
Martin Röösli, Switzerland
Zenon Sienkiewicz, United Kingdom
Soichi Watanabe, Japan

http://www.icnirp.org/en/activities/news/news-article/membership-2016-2020.html

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Eric van Rongen graduated in biology at the State University of Leyden, the Netherlands in 1980. Subsequently he performed research on tumour and normal tissue radiobiology at the Radiobiological Institute of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO and received his PhD in 1989. Since 1992 he is senior scientific staff member with the Health Council of the Netherlands and primarily involved with non-ionizing radiation. As Scientific Secretary of several Expert Committees he has written many advisory reports on the health effects of low and high frequency electromagnetic fields, UV and ionizing radiation, but also on non-radiation subjects. He is member of the International Advisory Committee of the WHO International EMF Project and cooperates closely with WHO on the development of Environmental Health Criteria monographs on EMF, currently the one on radiofrequency fields. He is member of several national and international organizations and committees in the field of non-ionizing radiation and President of the European Bioelectromagnetics Association (EBEA). He has been serving ICNIRP as Consulting Member since May 2001, as member of the former Standing Committee II Biology since November 2006 and has been elected in the Commission in May 2010.

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported. 
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/VanRongenDoI_2015.pdf
Also see: http://microwavenews.com/news-tags/eric-van-rongen

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Maria Feychting is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Her research is focused on environmental risk factors for chronic diseases, primarily cancer but also neurodegenerative diseases. She has been involved in epidemiologic research on non-ionising radiation since 1987, covering both ELF and RF electromagnetic fields. She has a specific interest in adult and childhood brain tumour aetiology, both environmental and genetic factors, as well as gene-environment interactions. She participates in the work of the WHO EMF programme, as well as other national and international scientific committees. She is scientific secretary of the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority’s independent scientific expert group on electromagnetic fields. She joined the Main Commission in 2008 and was elected to serve the Commission as its Vice Chair in 2012.

Potential conflicts of interest:
 COSMOS (contract ensures independent research) – Swedish Research Council, AFA Insurance, VINNOVA (TeliaSonera, Ericsson AB, Telenor).
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/FeychtingDoI_2015.pdf

Also see:
 http://microwavenews.com/news-tags/maria-feychting

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Rodney Croft
 is Professor of Health Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Australia. He obtained degrees in Philosophy and Psychology before completing his PhD in Psychology at the University of Wollongong in 2000, and then worked in the area of cognitive neuroscience as a postdoc at Imperial College, London, and then at Swinburne University, Australia. His research focuses on the delineation of human brain function, particularly as it relates to agents that might affect it (e.g. electromagnetic fields, illicit and medicinal drugs), as well as psychiatry more generally. He has been involved in research on ELF and RF non-ionising radiation since 2000, primarily utilising the electroencephalogram as a means of observing subtle alterations in brain function. He participates in a variety of national and international scientific and government committees, was Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (2004-2011) and is currently Director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research. Croft was appointed in 2014 an Associate Editor of the BEMS journal, and joined the ICNIRP Biology Standing Committee in 2008 and Main Commission in 2012.

Potential conflicts of interest:
  Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (contract ensures independent research).
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/CroftDoI_2015.pdf
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Guglielmo d'Inzeo received the degree as Electronic Engineer at the University of Rome in 1975. In 1976 he joined the Department of Electronics at the same University with a fellowship from the National Research Council (CNR). From the 1979 to 1985 he was "Professore Incaricato" at the University of Calabria (1979-81) and at the University of Ancona (1980-85). From 1986 to 1990 he was Associate Professor of Microwaves Measurements at "La Sapienza" University of Rome, where he became Full Professor of "Bioelectromagnetic Interaction" in 1990. His research activities have been concerned with active and passive microwaves components' design and with bioelectromagnetism. In microwaves circuits design he focused his activities on planar circuit characterisation using numerical techniques and on the design of monolithic amplifier circuits using new topologies. In the bioelectromagnetic area his fields of interest are the interaction of electromagnetic fields with biological tissues, the effects of microwaves and ELF fields on biological samples and humans, and the modelling of the interaction mechanisms. He is author or co-author of over seventy papers on international refereed journals and books. Since 1981 he his member of IEEE. Appointed member of EBEA (European Bioelectromagnetics Association) council in 1989, he was President of EBEA from 1993 to 1998. From 1992 to 2000 he was Italian representative of the COST 244 and COST 244Bis projects on "Biomedical Effects of Electromagnetic Fields" and Chairman of Working Group 3 (System Application and Engineering). In 1993 he acted as Chairman of the Second International Meeting "Microwaves in Medicine" organised by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and by Commission K (Electromagnetism in Biology and Medicine) of URSI (Union Radio Scientifique International). From 1997 he is Chairman of the Electronic Engineering Department at "La Sapienza" University. From 1998 to 2004 he chaired ICEmB (Inter-University Centre Electromagnetic Fields and Biosystems), during his direction the centre was involved in seven European projects. From1998 to 2010 he was Elettra 2000 scientific director. From 2001 to 2006 he was Italian National representative in COST 281 project “Potential Health Effects from Emerging Wireless Communication Systems” and from 2007 in COST BM0704 related project. He was member of the Steering Committee and of the Fast Response Team of the EU VI-FP co-ordination action EMF-NET. From 2008 to 2011 he chaired the Commission K “Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine” of URSI “Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale”. Currently he is member of the long term program commission of URSI, and Chair of Commission K in the Italian URSI Commission. He acted as a consultant for several European countries (France, Spain, UK, etc) and as advisor for the National Academies of Sciences (USA). He is author or coauthor of more of 60 paper on reviewed journal and 160 contribution to international and national congresses.
http://gomppublic.uniroma1.it/Docenti/Render.aspx?UID=5799b844-ba11-401c-a379-bad7b1b6cb87

Potential conflicts of interest:  new member -- declaration of personal interest not yet available. 

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Adèle Green received her medical degree and her PhD respectively in 1976, 1984 from the University of Queensland, Australia and her MSc in Epidemiology in 1985 from the London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. She is now working as Senior Scientist at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia and is a Conjoint Professor at the Australian Centre for International Tropical Health and Nutrition, at the University of Queensland. Dr. Green has served ICNIRP SCI since May 2000 and was elected to serve on the Main Commission in 2008.

Potential conflicts of interest:  none reported.
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/GreenDoI_2015.pdf
Also see: http://microwavenews.com/news/two-reviews-icnirp
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Akimasa Hirata received the B.E., M.E., Ph.D degrees in communications engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan, in 1996, 1998, and 2000, respectively. In 2001, he joined the Department of Communications Engineering, Osaka University as an Assistant Professor. In 2004, he joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor. His research interests are in computational dosimetry for electromagnetic fields (from extremely low frequency to millimeter waves). Dr. Hirata won several awards including Young Scientists’ Prize (2006) and Prize for Science and Technology (2011) by the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. He is a member of international advisory board of Physics in Medicine and Biology from 2011 and was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering from 2007-2012. Akimasa Hirata was appointed a Member of the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) in March 2013.
Potential conflicts of  interest: 
NTT DOCOMO, MIC (contract ensures independent research)

http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/HirataDoI_2015.PDF
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Brian Lund received his BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology, and his PhD in Physics from Yale University. He is currently a research physicist with the Ocular Trauma Research Task Area of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR).  His research efforts include the study of the effects of optical radiation on the eye for the purposes of establishing exposure limits and guidelines for the safe use of lasers.  He also established the shock tube laboratory at the USAISR to study the effects of blast exposure on the eye and visual system.  He served on the ICNIRP SC IV - Optical Radiation, and is a member of the Biological Effects and Medical Surveillance Technical Subcommittee of the American National Standards Institute’s Accredited Standards Committee Z136 Standard for the Safe Use of Lasers. He joined the Commission in November 2014.

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/LundDoI_2015.pdf
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Carmela Marino studied Biological sciences in Faculty of Sciences of "La Sapienza" University of Rome. She was a Scientific Research Fellow at the Gray Laboratory, Cancer Research Campaign, Mount Vernon Hospital, Nothwood, U.K where she was involved in experimental studies on radiobiology applied to radiotherapy. On behalf of ENEA she coordinated the research activity Subprogram 3 Interaction between sources and biosystems (MURST/ENEA-CNR Italian National Program "Human and Environmental Protection from  Electromagnetic Emissions”) and was involved in several projects of the 5° and 6°FP, as member of steering Committee and Coordinator of research unit. Since 1990 Carmela Marino is Contract Professor of Radiobiology and Thermobiology and Biological Effects of EM fields with the Post-Graduate School of Health Physics, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Italy. She is currently Head of the Unit of Radiation Biology and Human Health, at Casaccia Research Center of Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA). She joined the Commission in 2012.

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/MarinoDoI_2015.pdf

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Sharon Miller works as a Senior Optical Engineer in the Magnetic Resonance and Electronic Products Branch, Division of Radiological Health, Office of In vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, part of the US Food and Drug Administration. This group has responsibility for developing,  maintaining and enforcing standards related to radiation-emitting electronic products. In addition, this group serves as a technical resource for FDA field and State inspectors that routinely inspect both manufacturers and user facilities of radiation-emitting electronic products. In particular, Ms. Miller’s expertise is in the field of optical radiation measurements, bioeffects and standards development. Ms. Miller graduated from the George Washington University in Washington, DC with a Master’s Degree in Electrophysics and is currently working on her PhD at Leiden University in The Netherlands. Ms. Miller has conducted research over the past 30 years regarding the potential hazards from optical radiation-emitting medical devices and consumer products. In addition, she has served as the Principal Investigator of two human studies that examined the effects of UV radiation on human skin. Ms. Miller serves on numerous IEC and  ISO standard committees and acted as co-Chair of a CIE, Division 6 committee tasked with generating a Technical Report about Minimal Erythemal Doses in different skin types. Ms. Miller has authored over 100 scientific peer-reviewed publications and presentations and six book chapters. Sharon Miller was elected Member of the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) in November 2014.

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.

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Gunnhild Oftedal is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Technology, Sor-Trondelag University College, Trondheim, Norway. She is also an Associate Investigator at the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research. She has a degree in biophysics and in 1985 completed her PhD in the area of Psycho-Physio Acoustics at Norwegian University of Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, during which time she was also employed as a scientist at the Norwegian Research Institution, SINTEF. From the early 1990s, in this position and later at NTNU in her current position, she has conducted research on the health effects of electromagnetic fields. Her primary research focus has been on symptoms attributed to electromagnetic exposure and has mainly involved human experimental and epidemiological studies. Gunnhild was the Norwegian MC member in two COST Actions (281 and BM0704), member of the steering committee of Action 281, co-chair of a COST BM0704 working group, member of the Norwegian Electrotechnical Committee (NK 211 CLC Electromagnetic Field Exposure), member of the Council of European BioElectromagnetics Association, and a member of other Norwegian expert groups concerning health effects and electromagnetic fields. She is currently a member of international bioelectromagnetics organisations, a core group member and working group leader (volunteer studies) for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the preparation of an Environmental Health Criteria monograph on radiofrequency fields. http://acebr.uow.edu.au/our-people/UOW165419.html

Potential conflicts of interest: new member -- declaration of personal interest not yet available.

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Tsutomu Okuno received his B.S. and M.S. in Physics and his Ph.D in Applied Physics from Tohoku University. He is now the director of Human Engineering and Risk Management Research Group, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan. His research interests focus on optical radiation hazards. He is an editor of the journal "Industrial Health", a member of Safety, Health and Environment Committee, Japan Welding Engineering Society and a drafting member of Committee for Recommendation of Occupational Exposure Limits, Japan Society for Occupational Health. He has been serving ICNIRP SCIV from 1998 until 2004. Tsutomu Okuno was appointed a Member of the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) in March 2013.

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.

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Martin Röösli is Assistant Professor, Group Leader and Head of Unit of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. His research deals with environmental epidemiology and includes exposure assessment studies, aetiological research and health risk assessments in the area of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, passive smoking, noise exposure and ambient air pollution.  For more information see his curriculum vitae: http://www.ssphplus.ch/IMG/pdf/CV_roosli_ssph_.pdf.

Potential conflicts of  interest: new member -- declaration of personal interest not yet available. 


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Zenon Sienkiewicz graduated from Chelsea College, University of London with a BSc in Physiology and then received a PhD from Queen Mary College, University of London, for research into learning and memory mechanisms in goldfish. Subsequently, he studied the neurophysiology of feeding and satiety in non-human primates in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. He has studied electromagnetic fields since 1985 and is now Senior Scientific Group Leader of the Physiology and Neurobiology Group at the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards which is part of Public Health England. His particular research interests include the physiological and behavioural effects of power frequency and radiofrequency fields, and the effects of prenatal exposure to ionising radiation or ultrasound on behaviour. Zenon has been appointed to several expert advisory committees, including the Programme Management Committee of the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Programme. He joined the Commission in January 2011.

Potential conflicts of  interest: none reported.
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/SienkiewiczDoI_2015.pdf

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Soichi Watanabe received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1996 from the Tokyo Metropolitan University and joined the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL), Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. He is currently a Research Manager responsible for leading RF safety in the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), which was established from CRL and another institution since 2004. Dr. Watanabe has been engaging on various topics related with NIR, especially RF fields. One of the most important researches is to develop voxel human models which include the world’s first adult female whole-body model and pregnant woman whole-body model. Another his contribution to NIR is international standardizations, such as ITU, IEC, and IEEE. His research has mainly been dedicated to increasing scientific reliability of compliance procedures to NIR guidelines, e.g., uncertainty evaluation, calibration, and validation, which are responsible functions for national standard institutes such as NICT. His contribution to NIR is comprehensive, effective and neutral for developing adequate NIR environment for general public and occupational situations. He is a secretary of Japanese National Committee of K-Commission, Internal Union of Radio Science (URSI) from 2008, a secretary of Japanese National Committee of IEC/TC106 from 2006, and a member of the Committee for Radio-Wave Use Environment of Information and Communications Council and a member of the Committee to Promote Research on the Possible Biological Effect of Electromagnetic Fields, Ministry of Internal Affair and Communications of Japan. He has served the ICNIRP Standing Committee III since 2004 and was elected to join the Commission in 2012.

Potential conflicts of interest: Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA).
http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/doc/WatanabeDoI_2015.pdf

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Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Electromagnetic Radiation Safety

Website:               http://www.saferemr.com
Facebook:             http://www.facebook.com/SaferEMR
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