In These New Times

Since apparently nobody saw it coming, the surprise looks more like panic, judging by the comments made this Wednesday by Martin Bouygues, head of Bouygues Telecom, who exclaimed: “The government has got to make a choice: do they want us to go on using mobile phones or not?” 

Is he exaggerating? Not necessarily. If Martin Bouygues can see anything of the future, he must have grasped that the whole issue might soon shift to another register; in fact it may soon be the criminal law that takes the place of civil law, as was clearly hinted in the grounds for the decision in the Nanterre case. [judgement extract]

It seems that the regulations issued by the WHO and by their in-house fixer Repacholi are also beginning to come apart at the seams, and that the whole system set up to present these network-friendly standards as adequate is crumbling in the face of the evidence.

Might not these WHO recommendations, which are always quoted by the politicians and by the phone companies, one day come back to hit them in the face like a boomerang? In spite of the shameless efforts to prevent them from being tampered with, which do no credit to the WHO, and to deny everything, as always in the face of real evidence the truth will eventually triumph. [Scandalous WHO meeting in Melbourne with Bernard Veyret, a French Repacholi henchman, in the line-up.]

So it’s the Prime Minister who has donned the fireman’s helmet in order to deal with the emergency and with the public’s anxiety about the hazards of relay antennas, and has sent a letter to the Minister of Health with instructions to organize a “citizens’ forum” (round table) as soon as possible. However he makes its limits clear: “to make a distinction between mobile telephones and relay antennas”.  

Even more explicitly, on the health effects of radiation from relay antennas he declares: “the hypothesis of a health hazard for people living near mobile phone antennas cannot be upheld” in the present state of knowledge and “considering the low levels of exposure around these installations”.

He adds: “A precautionary approach seems justified” regarding the use of mobiles phones, even though “the expert opinions currently available do not make it possible to reach a definite conclusion on the potential link between the use of a mobile phone and the risk of cancer.”