Interview with CHE Partner, Louis Slesin, PhD

Editor & Publisher, Microwave News

Steve Heilig: What first brought you into environmental health work?

I was pursuing a doctorate in chemical physics at the time the environmental movement was just getting going. It prompted me to stop working on my dissertation (too theoretical for the problems at hand). My first job was at the Scientists' Institute for Public Information (SIPI), which sought to make technical data on an array of environmental issues accessible to a wider audience. I eventually returned to graduate school, this time to study risk analysis and decision-making at MIT. I got a PhD in environmental policy and joined the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It was there, while working on the regulation of toxic chemicals and genetic engineering, that I caught the electromagnetic field (EMF) "bug". The subject matter involved a mix of science, technology, politics and public health. It was as if all my training prepared me to take on this challenge. I soon decided to work on EMFs full time. In 1980, I left NRDC and started Microwave News.

What is your primary mission in your work?

Microwave News has sought to provide accurate and reliable information on a highly controversial subject. Specifically, what the emerging science has to say about the health risks from a host of different sources of EMFs —including power lines and electric appliances, computer displays (VDTs), radar guns and high-power radars and, of course, cell phones and other wireless technologies. I have tried to show that EMFs, when stripped of technical jargon, are little different from other chemical and physical agents we encounter on the job and in our environment. In 2003, I stopped publishing the print edition of Microwave News and switched to an electronic format. It is now freely available to all on the Internet. I have also added more commentary to help the uninitiated reader make sense of what's going on.


What are the most important recent developments in your work, scientific or otherwise?

I have long been uncertain as to whether cell phones could promote cancer and neurological diseases, arguing instead that we need to step up the research. More and more, it looks like we may indeed have a major public health problem on our hands.


What successes have most encouraged you in your work recently?

The biomedical community is finding new ways to harness electromagnetic energy to treat a number of different ailments. If these were successful, it would lay to rest the argument that the radiation has no effects except at high exposure levels.


What have been some of the greatest recent challenges?

There are many. First, the public health community has stayed on the sidelines, and when it does get involved it has too often sided with industry and other skeptics. The environmental, consumer and labor groups, with very few exceptions, have ignored EMFs. The U.S. media runs hot and cold but has mostly failed to cover significant EMF news stories.


What would you regard as the most significant potential future developments in your field?

By far the most important change would be a paradigm shift that would lead the scientific community to accept that electromagnetic radiation can do more than cause bulk heating of biological tissue.


What or who continues to inspire you in your work?

I have patterned my work on that of a host of public interest scientists and journalists. We recently lost John Gofman, a scientist of immense integrity who showed us (and me in particular) how much one dedicated individual can accomplish. I owe him a huge debt for his encouragement and inspiration.


Any thoughts about CHE?

CHE represents an extension of what I have long believed is my most important mission. From my early days at SIPI to the decades publishing Microwave News, I have strived to make information accessible to help advance public health.

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Posted: 25 September 2007