In These New Times

Mast Sanity

March 2011

Repacholi:

– Admits Industry Funding – for the WHO EMF Project

– Employed by the Industry before and after the WHO EMF Project

– Emeritus Chairman of ICNIRP since 1996 – the body charged with setting ‘Safe’ International Exposure limits. [here]

– Now Promoting Wireless/Microwave emitting Devices to Children – at the Handheld Learning Conference 10-12 October 2007 in London (despite the UK’s Health Protection Agency’s own advice that under 16’s should only use Mobile Phones etc. as little as possible because they are more prone to harm from them)

Repacholi headed the Project into ElectroMagneticFields (EMFs) by the World Health Organisation (WHO) until July 2007.

For years, the WHO have declared Mobile Telephone Masts and the microwave radiation (the EMFs) emitted by them and other such devices not to be dangerous.

Campaigners have, for years, argued that Repacholi has not been independent, since this ‘research’ was at least partially funded by the Industry.

Repacholi , via the WHO-EMF Project, has for years always strongly denied this.

However, Repacholi has now admitted that a large proportion of the WHO-EMF Project funding was sourced via donations sent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital from where Repacholi was seconded. It is strongly believed that this was Industry money.

“In 1996 the World Health Organization [WHO] began what it said was a program “to assess the scientific evidence of possible health effects of EMF in the frequency range from 0 to 300 GHz” (EMF Project). The person placed in charge of the program … was Michael Repacholi, who had been known for more than 6 years to be a paid consultant and spokesman for the companies responsible for producing EMF pollution” [here]. Professor Andrew Marino, Louisiana State University. [here]

It would appear that not only did Repacholi control the WHO EMF project from its inception, but its main source of funding was Industry.

“Repacholi states that he always followed the WHO rules on funding and that, “NO funds were EVER sent to me.” [His emphasis.]

This is financial legerdemain. As Microwave News has previously reported, Repacholi arranged for the industry money to be sent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, where he used to work. The funds were then transferred to the WHO. Seven years ago, Norm Sandler, a Motorola spokesman, told us that, “This is the process for all the supporters of the WHO program.” At the

time, Motorola was sending Repacholi $50,000 each year. That money is now bundled with other industry contributions and sent to Australia by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF), which gives the project $150,000 a year.

“What is the difference between sending money directly to the WHO and sending it via Australia?,” we asked Repacholi last December. He never responded. We don’t think there is any difference. We don’t understand how the WHO can see this as anything other than money laundering. On numerous occasions we have asked Repacholi to reveal all the sources of the funding of the WHO EMF project. He has consistently refused.” Microwave News November 17th 2006 [here]

The indirect funding arrangement was terminated after Repacholi’s recent departure from the WHO, as follows:-

“The project is currently funded solely through extra-budgetary contributions from participating countries and other agencies. All contributions and accounting are audited by WHO.

• Several governments provide either periodic or ad-hoc direct contributions to the WHO EMF Project, while others support financially specific activities.

• Through an agreement set up in 1995 between WHO and the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) in Australia, RAH provided financial management of funds received from contributions of non-governmental entities [ i.e. presumed to be Industry – companies with vested interests in maintaining the discredited illusion that Mobile Phones, wireless devices and Powerlines are safe ] on behalf of the Project. Dr Repacholi was seconded from RAH to WHO from the time of the agreement until his retirement from WHO in June 2006. Following Dr Repacholi’s departure, the agreement was terminated in early 2007. New funding sources are now being sought.” WHO Progress Report June 2006-2007 [here]

Repacholi was interviewed in July 2007 about the funding of the WHO EMF Project. He admitted the link of funding to industry, although he claimed that Industry funding made up less than half of the total amount. See Gateway RF Project interview at [here]

The same WHO Progress Report goes on to list its funding as follows:-

“A summary of funds received and spent is given in Table 3 below.

Table 3 – Funding summary for the International EMF Project (July 2006 – June 2007)

INCOME

$249,682 Governments

$529,820 Others

USD 779,502 TOTAL INCOME”

WHO Progress Report June 2006-2007 [here ]

If the “Others” listed above is almost entirely sourced from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and hence from Industry, the figures show that only less than 1/3^rd of the WHO EMF funding comes from Governments around the world.

With the source of WHO EMF Project funding exposed, Repacholi’s role in the WHO EMF Project explained and his continuing role of roving ambassador for Industry – including in the UK at the forthcoming “Handheld Learning 2007” event to promote Wi-fi and wireless devices to children and schools (see here) isn’t it about time that people ignore Repacholi and the WHO EMF Project reports that Industry often quote?

If you are concerned that Repacholi is being used to promote wireless (microwave emitting) devices to children, OR that microwave emitting devices are being promoted anyway, please send your concerns to the main sponsors of Handheld Learning 2007, namely BECTA Chief Executive Stephen Crowne (becta@becta.org.uk ), Carolyn McCall Chief Executive of The Guardian Media Group ( contact@gmgplc.co.uk ) and Jim Knight, UK Minister for Schools and Learning ( dcsf.ministers@csf.gsi.gov.uk