PHIRE Scientists

Devra Lee Davis

BS MA PhD MPH

Visiting Professor of the Hebrew University Medical Center of Jerusalem, and Ondokuz Mayis University School of Medicine of Samsun, Turkey (2015 – ongoing), Devra Davis was Founding Director, Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Graduate School of Public Health (2004-2010) and Founding Director, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the U.S. National Research Council (1983-1993), where she also served as Scholar in Residence.

She has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Visiting Professor at Mt.Sinai School of Medicine, Oberlin College and Carnegie Mellon University.

Davis is Founder and President of Environmental Health Trust, a non-profit research and public education organization that is part of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. She is also the author of more than 200 scientific publications, 10 edited monographs, and three popular books, as well as numerous opeds and blogs for Huffington Post, Drudge Report, Alternet.com, Oxford University Press and other sources.

Dr. Davis holds a B.S. and M.A.from the University of Pittsburgh, both received in 1967. She completed a Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1972 and a M.P.H. in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University as a SeniorNational Cancer Institute Post Doctoral Fellow, 1982. President Clinton appointed the Honorable Dr. Davis to the newly established Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, (1994-99) an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the United States, United Nations, European Environment Agency, Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, and World Bank and served as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the U.S. National Toxicology Program, 1983-86 and various advisory committees to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Davis has been a Fellow of both the American Colleges of Toxicology and of Epidemiology. The Betty Ford Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society gave her the Breast Cancer Awareness Award. She was commended by the Director of the National Cancer Institute for Outstanding Service, appointed a Global Environmental advisor to Newsweek Magazine, and Awarded the Woman of Distinction Award from The Lemelson Center for Invention and Innovation of the Smithsonian Institution honored her as an innovator on the environment and invited her to give a distinguished lecture in 1998. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations Climate Convention tapped her to serve as a Lead Author on their assessment of climate mitigation policies. She received the Woman of Distinction Award from the Conservative Judaism’s Women’s League. She was a member of a team of scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with the Honorable Al Gore.

Davis is currently working with senior officials from the governments of India, Israel, Brazil, Australia, Turkey and the United Arab Republic to promote the creation of an independent research and training program in bioelectromagnetics. Her work has been featured on CNN, Forbes.com, CSPAN, CBC, BBC, and public radio, and numerous blogs.

She formally transitioned from clinical medicine to full time research in 2015, and continues advise where appropriate and necessary. Given that the task of providing such support for ever growing numbers is escalating, she founded PHIRE (Physicians’ Health Initiative for Radiation and Environment) to facilitate education on a larger scale. The group already has international affiliations with medical doctors’ groups abroad and we are currently constructing best practice guidelines for Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) health for multiple settings.

Declarations:

Dr. Mallery-Blythe is also a trustee for the Radiation Research Trust and Medical Advisor for Electrosensitivity UK (ES-UK)

Magda Havas

B.Sc., Ph.D.

Magda Havas is Associate Professor at Trent School of the Environment and Centre for Health Studies at Trent University, where she teaches and does research on the biological effects of electromagnetic pollution and the beneficial effects of electrotherapies. Dr. Havas received her PhD at the University of Toronto and did postdoctoral research at Cornell before returning to Canada. She works with diabetics, people with multiple sclerosis, tinnitus, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and those who are electrically hypersensitive. Her latest research links microwave radiation from wireless phones to heart irregularities including arrhythmia and tachycardia. Dr. Havas serves (served) as a science advisor to various government and non-government organizations in Canada, U.S., U.K., Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, Brussels, Italy, and Nepal.

Dr. Havas has provided expert testimony in both Canada and the U.S. on the health effect of power lines, occupational magnetic field exposure and radio frequency radiation. She is co-author of Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution and has edited 3 books and authored more than 130 publications.

Dr. Havas is internationally recognized, both for her previous work on acid rain and metal pollution and for her current research working with people who have developed electrohypersenstivity (EHS).

She helped draft the International EMF Scientist Appeal signed by 220 scientists and doctors from more than 42 countries and submitted to the UN and WHO in 2015 (see www.emfscientist.org).

Since 2000, Dr. Havas has given hundreds of invited lectures in more than 20 countries and at more than 24 universities. She is increasingly being invited to give talks at medical and health conferences on the harmful and beneficial effects of electromagnetic frequencies and ways to help those who have developed electrohypersensitvity.

Isaac Jamieson

PhD DIC RIBA ARB DipAAS BSc(Hons) MInstP

Dr Isaac Jamieson is a scientist, architect and environmental consultant. Much of his work is involved in the development and refinement of international best practice measures related to the creation of healthier, more sustainable environments and technologies.

In addition to his support for PHIRE, he is a co-founder of Biosustainable Design, a Corresponding Member of the RIBA Regulations and Standards Group and a member of the Management Steering Committee for the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group.

Whilst working at Imperial College (after undertaking his PhD there) he undertook work related to risk governance and stakeholder discourse for Integrated Assessment of Health Risks of Environmental Stressors in Europe (INTARESE), for PRATIQUE related to the enhancement of pest risk analysis techniques, for the long-term Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) health research project related to air quality assessments, and developed concepts for Imperial College’s ‘Lifelong Health Project: Environments for an ageing population’.

In 2008 he organised the international 1-day conference ‘Electromagnetic Phenomena and Health – A Continuing Controversy?’ at the Institute of Physics in the UK. He later represented the RIBA on the UK Health Protection Agency’s ELF EMF Communication Working Group in 2011 and also presented the findings of his report on smart meter risks at the European Parliament that same year.

He was Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Institute of Physics Electrostatics Group from 2008 to 2011, and was an Expert Group Member at the European Commission on matters related to electromagnetic fields from 2011 to 2015. He continues to be involved in matters related to international best practice.

In 2014 he gave an invited presentation at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels related to electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) entitled at ‘Changing perspectives – improving lives’ revealing how creating more biologically friendly environments and technologies can benefit all and boost economic growth.

Alasdair Philips

BSc(Eng), DAgE, MIAgE, MIEEE

A professional engineer and scientist, he is seen by Government and industry as a significant voice and he is well known to the national media. his publications have been waved in House of Common debates. He takes a holistic approach to scientific, environmental and health issues.
He is the Director of Powerwatch (UK NGO). He has spoken at many conferences and made many appearances on radio and TV including R4, R5, BBC World Service, BBC1, ITV, CH4, CH5.

In 1998 he, Roger Coghill and Chris Busby took the need for Warning Labels on all mobile phones at point of sale to Court. This directly resulted in the HoC Select Committee on Science & Technology being asked to look at the issue, the setting up of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones and, in December 2000, the Department of Health issuing a health warning leaflet about mobile phones.

He chaired a 2-day international scientific conference in Sweden on the bio-effects and health-effects of microwaves in Sept 1999. He was a member of UK Department of Health’s Advisory Group on ELF EMF (SAGE) (2004-2010) and a member of the HPA EMF/RF Consultation Group (2006-2010), Chaired by Sir William Stewart.

In 2004 and 2012 he helped co-ordinate the Children with Cancer UK international conferences held in Westminster. With Eileen O’Connor, he was a co-organiser of the 2008 RRT conference held at the Royal Society “EMF & Health – A Global Issue – exploring appropriate precautionary approaches”.
With Jean Philips, he is co-author of the books ‘Living with Electricity’, ‘Killing Fields in the Home?’ and the Powerwatch Handbook (Piatkus Books, 2006).

Dr Mary Redmayne

Dr Redmayne is as an independent researcher, educator and consultant, with Adjunct Research Fellowships at Victoria University of Wellington and at Monash University. Her research interests and experience revolve mostly around children’s use of communication devices, resulting exposure to microwave radiation, and the effects these have on health and well-being. A more recent, and growing area of interest and concern, is the effects of screen use on young people with respect to their emotional and mental health and well-being. Mary’s aim it to help equip parents, teachers and health providers to make informed decisions about their families’, students’ and patients’ use of electronic transmitting devices.

Her PhD involved 16 classes of 10 to 13 year-olds in a survey of their phone user habits and self-reported wellbeing, as well as a census of schools in the region regarding school cell-phone rules, and consequences for breaking them. This resulted in a thesis comprised of five peer-reviewed publications.

Dr Redmayne is based in Wellington, New Zealand. She now has many papers in the peer-reviewed literature and speaks often at conferences, seminars and workshops both in New Zealand and internationally. She has addressed a wide range of audiences, including school and university students, epidemiologists, City Councillors, Members of Parliament, Trades Union Health & Safety representatives; doctors, teachers, lawyers and the public, particularly parents of children under 18 years old.

She is a Participating Member of Standards Australia Committee on Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, Technical Committee TE-007, which is responsible for Standard AS/NZS 2772.2:2016, and is a scientific advisor for the Environmental Health Trust, Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association, and Building Biology and Ecology Institute, NZ.

Professor Phil Reed

Professor Phil Reed obtained a D.Phil. from the University of York, and then held a Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford, and a Readership in Learning and Behaviour at University College London. He took a Chair in the Department of Psychology at Swansea University.

Phil’s research interests fall into three broad categories: Learning and Memory, Autism and Educational Interventions, and Psychology and Medicine including Internet Addiction. Phil has written four books, and published over 200 papers on these and other topics, as well as being invited to present his work at international conferences. Phil has served on the Editorial Boards for Behavior and Philosophy, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Phil’s work on internet addiction and autism features regularly on the media, and has been featured on the Science Channel’s ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman’, BBC Radio 4, and Radio Wales, as well as in Time Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mail, and also locally in the Swansea Evening Post and the Western Mail.

Phil works closely with many educational charities and local education authorities to advise about autism and reading problems, and has held appointments for the Department for Education, and the Children in Wales Policy Council in these contexts. Phil has held grants from the Baily Thomas Fund, Economic and Social Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, and Mechner Foundation.

Professor Denis Henshaw

BSc(Lond), PhD(Nott) (Ambassador)

Professor Henshaw is former Professor of Human Radiation Effects, and now Emeritus Professor at Bristol University. Much of his 38-year research career has been in the study of the effects of ionising radiation (principally from natural and made-made radioactivity), but in 1996 he became interested in the adverse effects of electric and magnetic fields from the electricity supply, including those from high voltage powerlines.

His research concerns two features: (i) the effects, created by electric fields, of corona ions emitted from high voltage powerlines and (ii) the way in which magnetic fields from both powerlines and the electricity supply generally, interact with the human body .
When corona ions ions are emitted from powerlines into the surrounding atmosphere, they transfer their electric charge to particles of air pollution, making these particles more likely to be trapped in the lung on inhalation.

Denis’s studies of magnetic fields include the effects on electro-sensitivity, Denis says: “We have noticed that many people who live close to high voltage powerlines suffer sleep disorders and depressive symptoms, an observation which has been seen in a number of professional studies. This could be explained by the fact that magnetic fields such as those found near powerlines disrupt the nocturnal production of the important hormone melatonin in the pineal gland. Whether other symptoms of electro-sensitivity occur in this way is not known, but researchers are looking at a number of ways in which both electric and magnetic fields may adversely affect health.”