1st PROGRESS REPORT
The Mastbruch Project did start as originally planned. With a high personal effort, Mrs Ellen Zajonz, chairperson of the citizen’s group Gegenwelle, together with her co-workers took care did take care of the necessary preparations. On Sunday, March 21, 2010, we started with an informational talk at the Mastbruch parish centre. After a general overview by Mrs Zajonz, Prof. Franz Adlkofer from the VERUM Foundation in Munich, Dr. H.-Peter Neitzke from the Ecolog Institute in Hannover, and Prof. Wilhelm Mosgöller from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna explained the details of the research project to the roughly 70 local citizens who attended.
Informational talk
Prof. Adlkofer described the status of the international research. He stressed that up to now there is no evidence of a health risk for humans living in the vicinity of base stations. Since today’s knowledge of the biological effects of mobile phone radiation on humans is still very poor, it is not possible to definitely exclude such a health risk. In any case, the available scientific data recommend caution.
Dr. Neitzke explained to the attendees the planned measurements which he will carry out in order to determine how intensely each single study participant is actually exposed to radiation. Already today he can state that nearness to or – in other words – distance from the base station allows no reliable answer. Determining the individual exposure to radiation must also consider if - independent of the base station - other sources contribute.
Prof. Mosgöller informed the attendees about the investigation he will carry out in the next days and about the questions that need to be answered. He explained the organisational structure of the examinations and asks for an active participation.
During the following nearly two hours of discussion in which no question was left unanswered, Prof. Adlkofer stated once more that conclusions from this research project remain open. None of the involved scientists starts his work with prejudice. He asked the attending local citizens - nearly all of them were ready to participate in the project - to persuade others who could not join the informational talk tonight to enlist as test persons. The reason for this is that the pilot study will gain more validity and more power the higher the supporting percentage of the exposed population is. For all questions not answered up to now or any new questions, Mastbruch citizens can turn to the practitioner Dr. med. Horst Schöll, who is a member of the research consortium and who will act as the local representative.
Examinations
During the first round of examinations carried out by Prof. Mosgöller between March 22 and 24 we received more than 250 completed standardized questionnaires to determine the current subjective individual health status. In addition, we measured the activity of free radicals in the blood of 100 persons, and in case of high activity also the antioxidative reserve. From more than 250 persons we took buccal smears to examine genetic damages in cells.
These first examinations were carried out before the base station was switched on (in the meantime it is on). The results that we obtained can be compared with the ones of following examinations. Thus, we hope that at the end of the investigation we will be able to answer the question whether the state of health of the people living in the vicinity of the base station changed and whether these changes are in line with the biological findings.
The Mastbruch Project is a pilot study with which we want to test, if a full study to finally clarify the open question is feasible. Regarding the successful start of the project we assume that we can manage to reach this goal.