Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2007-02-27 16:35:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Prof. Daniel Krewski (Professor and Director, McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa)",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"491140\" data-originallang=\"fr\">I would like to begin by thanking the Committee for giving me the opportunity to make a few comments with regard to frequencies.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491141\" data-originallang=\"en\"> Our program at the University of Ottawa focuses on potential health risk issues associated with radio frequency fields, including those from wireless telecommunications devices. These would be mobile phones, base station transmitters, and other sources of exposure to radio frequency fields.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491142\" data-originallang=\"en\">We've been working in this area for more than a decade. One of our major contributions is that we maintain a comprehensive website--www.rfcom.ca, if you're interested in checking us out--that summarizes the world's literature on potential health risk issues associated with radio frequency fields.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491143\" data-originallang=\"en\"> We also are participants in the ongoing World Health Organization study of potential cancer risks associated with mobile phone use. This is an area that is of concern to many members of the public, and it's an area that's not well understood. It will be the largest study of its kind ever undertaken. It has been under way for almost 10 years now. It involves 13 countries, 5,000 cancer cases, and 10,000 other participants. We have about 60 investigators working on the interpretation of those results. We expect those results to be available some time in the middle of 2007. This will be a very important contribution, perhaps the single most important contribution, to the literature on potential health issues surrounding mobile phone use.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491144\" data-originallang=\"en\">I also participated a number of years ago as chair of the Royal Society of Canada's panel on potential health risks of radio frequency fields. The panel did an exhaustive review of the literature. It reviewed more than 1,000 scientific articles. At that time, in 1999, we reached the conclusion that there were no clear adverse health effects associated with radio frequency fields. There were some biological effects of no known clinical significance, which did require clarification. We recommended additional research be done, and part of that was a large-scale epidemiologic study of the type that the World Health Organization is currently undertaking. We do periodic updates of the literature on the Royal Society's original report, and we continue to work in that area.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491145\" data-originallang=\"en\">That's an overview of the program. We like to serve as a resource for industry, for government, and the public. We have involvement with virtually all those sectors in terms of providing health advice on radio frequency field risk issues.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491146\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"491140\" data-originallang=\"fr\">Je voudrais commencer par remercier le comit\u00e9 de me donner l'occasion de faire quelques commentaires au sujet des fr\u00e9quences. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491141\" data-originallang=\"en\">Notre programme \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 d'Ottawa porte sur les risques potentiels pour la sant\u00e9 li\u00e9s aux champs de radiofr\u00e9quences, y compris ceux en provenance de dispositifs de t\u00e9l\u00e9communications sans fil. On parle donc de t\u00e9l\u00e9phones mobiles, de transmetteurs de station de base et d'autres sources d'exposition aux champs de radiofr\u00e9quences.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491142\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nous oeuvrons dans ce domaine depuis plus d'une d\u00e9cennie. L'une de nos principales contributions est que nous maintenons un site Web exhaustif \u2014 www.frcom.ca, si cela vous int\u00e9resse d'aller y faire un tour \u2014 qui r\u00e9sume la documentation publi\u00e9e dans le monde au sujet des risques de sant\u00e9 potentiels li\u00e9s aux champs de radiofr\u00e9quences.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491143\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nous participons \u00e9galement \u00e0 l'\u00e9tude en cours de l'Organisation mondiale de la Sant\u00e9 sur les risques de cancer potentiel li\u00e9s \u00e0 l'utilisation des t\u00e9l\u00e9phones mobiles. Il s'agit l\u00e0 d'une question qui pr\u00e9occupe beaucoup de gens et qui n'est pas tr\u00e8s bien comprise. Ce sera la plus vaste \u00e9tude du genre jamais entreprise. Elle dure depuis pr\u00e8s de dix ans d\u00e9j\u00e0. Elle recouvre 13 pays, 5 000 cas de cancer et 10 000 autres participants. Nous avons quelque 60 enqu\u00eateurs qui oeuvrent \u00e0 l'interpr\u00e9tation de ces r\u00e9sultats. Nous nous attendons \u00e0 ce que ces r\u00e9sultats soient disponibles vers le milieu de l'ann\u00e9e 2007. Ce sera une contribution fort importante, peut-\u00eatre la plus importante, \u00e0 la documentation sur les risques de sant\u00e9 potentiels li\u00e9s \u00e0 l'utilisation de t\u00e9l\u00e9phones mobiles.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491144\" data-originallang=\"en\">J'ai \u00e9galement particip\u00e9, il y a de cela plusieurs ann\u00e9es, en ma qualit\u00e9 de pr\u00e9sident d'un panel de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 royale du Canada, \u00e0 une \u00e9tude sur les risques de sant\u00e9 potentiels des champs de radiofr\u00e9quences. Ce panel a fait un examen exhaustif de la documentation existante. Il a pass\u00e9 en revue plus de 1 000 articles scientifiques. \u00c0 l'\u00e9poque, soit en 1999, notre conclusion avait \u00e9t\u00e9 qu'il n'y avait aucun effet n\u00e9faste pour la sant\u00e9 qui soit clairement li\u00e9 aux champs de radiofr\u00e9quences. Il y avait certains effets biologiques d'importance clinique ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e et qui m\u00e9ritaient d'\u00eatre tir\u00e9s au clair. Nous avions recommand\u00e9 que soient entreprises des recherches suppl\u00e9mentaires, et il s'en est justement fait, dont cette \u00e9tude, et c'est ainsi qu'a vu le jour une \u00e9tude \u00e9pid\u00e9miologique \u00e0 grande \u00e9chelle du type de celle que m\u00e8ne \u00e0 l'heure actuelle l'Organisation mondiale de la Sant\u00e9. Nous faisons des mises \u00e0 jour p\u00e9riodiques de tout ce qui est publi\u00e9, et cela vient s'ajouter au rapport original de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 royale, et nous poursuivons notre travail dans ce domaine.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491145\" data-originallang=\"en\">Voil\u00e0 un aper\u00e7u g\u00e9n\u00e9ral du programme. Nous servons de ressource pour l'industrie, le gouvernement et le public. Nous intervenons aupr\u00e8s de presque tous ces secteurs en vue de fournir des conseils sanitaires au sujet des questions li\u00e9es aux risques des champs de radiofr\u00e9quences.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"491146\" data-originallang=\"en\">Merci.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/industry/39-1/48/prof-daniel-krewski-1/",
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