11/1/2007
For different protection of mankind, environment and democracy
Preamble by the publishers at the launch of the series of papers: Effects of Mobile Radio and Wireless Communication
The bio-scientist Ulrich Warnke is more familiar with nature’s electromagnetic housekeeping than most. In this paper, he shows how wise and sensitive nature was about using electrical and magnetic fields in the creation of life. But he can for this reason also convincingly criticise the present foolish and irresponsible interference in nature’s housekeeping. It is clear from his paper that the powers that be in politics, the economy and science are in the process of destroying what nature has built up over millions of years. The traces of this destruction have long been evident in our living environment. The paper shows, however, how short-sightedly we are treating not only our health and the economy, but especially also future generations’ right to life.1 All of the above is documented not as probabilities but based on reproducible effects. This should give pause also to those who regularly justify their actions with the argument that they are unaware of any proof of
damage.
Under the term “radio communication”, we combine all wireless communication technology, increasingly flooding our residential zones and the environment with electromagnetic fields. A recent, comprehensive research report by the BioInitiative Working Group, a consortium of renowned international scientists, shows how many of the damaging effects of such fields have already been proven (www.bioinitiative.org). The report evaluates the present limiting values as a useless edifice, protecting nobody. Based on this, the European Environment Agency (EEA), the top scientific environment authority of the EU, has warned of the possibility of looming environmental disasters following the increasing density of electromagnetic fields. And the coordinator of the European Reflex project, Prof. Franz Adlkofer, has informed the public on the new research results, proving the high degree of gene-toxicity of UMTS radiation.
The public is little aware of these risks because they are hardly addressed in the “enlightenment” provided by officialdom and industry. The public is given the assurance that they are well-protected by the limits and the compliance-assuring measurements and that UMTS radiation is as harmless as GSM radiation – more antennae in residential areas are recommended in principle.2 And whilst Ulrich Warnke demonstrates how vulnerable man and environment are, we are told that we are more robustly organised than our machines.3 The original “radiation protection” has deteriorated to the protection of commercial interests.
The involvement of government in industry and the high percentage of industry-financed research and industry-beholden panels and consultants, have spawned a questionable system of environment and consumer protection. Only that which does not seriously endanger common commercial interests is noted and supported. The rights of the citizen to protection and the suffering of the people are flatly ignored. Those with political responsibility have apparently still not realised that their negligent handling of the obligation to take precautions has long since been proven to be one of the main causes of past environmental disasters and scandals.4
As a result of their quarrel with politics of carelessness, an interdisciplinary association of scientists and physicians founded the Competence Initiative for the Protection of Mankind, Environment and Democracy in May 2007 (www.kompetenzinitiative.de). This paper is the first in a new scientific series. The reported results are intended as a correction to trivialising “enlightenment” that does not protect, but endangers. The series intends to maintain a high level of technical information, without being unreadable to the interested layman.
Placing economic interests above culture and morality has contributed significantly to turning Germany into a country of declining education. As the journalist Hans Leyendecker so tellingly describes in his book Die große Gier5, it started Germany too on a new career on the ladder of corruption. There is nothing that the business location Germany needs more, he concludes, than “new ethics”. But this also requires a different perception of progress. Whether we can watch TV via our mobile telephone, is irrelevant to our future. Our future will depend on whether we can return to more human, social and ethical values again in the shaping of our lives and our relationship with nature.
Everyone who thinks beyond today and who inquires about what it means to be human is, in our opinion, called upon to contribute to this future: politicians guided by values rather than economical and tactical election issues; scientists and doctors more often remembering their obligation to the wellbeing of society and mankind; companies understanding, also in Germany, that profit and morality must be in harmony if they wish to remain successful in the long term. But what we need above all is critical citizens, who can spot the difference between technical progress and consumer foolishness: Citizens who, in both their roles as voters and consumers, remember that democracy once meant rule of the people, not ruling the people.
The dramatic escalation of recorded degradation challenges those with political responsibility to take to heart the protection directives of the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. To base your actions affecting millions of your protégés on a half truth, at best, appears to us a political crime affecting health and the future – considering the state of our knowledge. Religious and ethical cultures still profess to the mandate of conserving creation. But its actual treatment is guided by the pseudo culture of a new class of masters who ruthlessly exploit and manipulate the organisation, finally destroying it.
Prof. Dr. Karl Hecht
Dr. med. Markus Kern
Prof. Dr. Karl Richter
Dr. med. Hans-Christoph Scheiner