Roger Coghill rides yet again

[JamesM]

Our dear friend Roger Coghill is back, and this time he's on the front page of the Sunday Express:

Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a Government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast.

If you are unaware of the Cogster, join me on a journey through time and search for Roger Coghill, or even better, 'bioelectromagnetics' into the google search box for the forum.

 

[GoodGuysEatPie]

Egad, I can't stand this kind of newspaper reporting.

From the article:

Research shows young people’s brains are more susceptible to radio wave energy.

More susceptible than older people's brains? Than other kinds of energy?

But Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, dismissed Dr Coghill’s research. “This is an insensitive and outrageous piece of speculation which has no basis in established science,” he said.


The Government’s Health Protection Agency insisted that fields from mobile masts – even modern powerful masts – were well within international agreed safety limits. “There is no evidence that masts do you harm. The levels of radio waves are very low.”

I also can't stand it when the "skeptical" part of the article is a quote from an industrial/government official. The quote is at the end, with no real discussion of it. The woo-sayer gets all sorts of discussion, but the skeptics get none. These journalists should interview some actual physicists and biologists who study this kind of stuff, and who do not have a vested interest in the outcome of the studies. When people read that the Mobile Operators Association Representative said "This is an insensitive and outrageous piece of speculation which has no basis in established science," they are justified in thinking "Well, of course he would say that!". Sheesh.

~ggep~