The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) says goodbye to a scientist, who valued ethics and morals more highly than his scientific career

The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) closed down Professor Dariusz Leszczynski’s research division in 2012. The obvious reason of this decision is to make clear to the public that mobile phone radiation does not harm human health and that, therefore, the further investigation of its biological effects can be stopped.

This opinion stands not only in contrast to the decision of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that classified radiofrequency radiation in 2011 as ‘possibly carcinogenic’ – while ‘probably carcinogenic’ would have been more appropriate – but also to the judgment of the highest Italian court that awarded a long-term mobile phone user a lifetime compensation because of a benign brain tumor caused by mobile phone radiation. The STUK decision, which most probably has been enforced by intervention from the out-side, is obviously intended 1) to deny the fact – just like the tobacco industry did in the last century – that the telecommunication technology bears a health risk, and 2) to prevent further progress in radiation research that would confirm the need of precautionary measures. In a comment to Leszczynski’s scientific blog “Mobile Phone Radiation and Health” Franz Adlkofer criticizes the STUK decision as being absolutely irresponsible (http://betweenrockandhardplace. wordpress.com/2012/12/21/recently-in-finnish-newsmedia/#comments).

The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) says goodbye to a scientist, who valued ethics and morals more highly than his scientific career
Franz Adlkofer | Pandora Foundation