Just to provide some context, I started my career related to microwaves in the early seventies here at Health Canada. I proceeded from that to a job with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, where I was dealing with non-ionizing radiation in a broader sense. I got involved in lasers, microwaves, RF sealers, and all of those sorts of applications in industry and such. I was eventually a participant in the magnetic field study that was carried out by Ontario Hydro in conjunction with Hydro-Québec and Électricité de France.
I took early retirement in the early nineties and have operated as a consulting physicist on these kinds of issues since then. Generally speaking, I've been involved in the standards-setting committees, organizations like ACGIH. The National Research Council of Canada had an associate committee related to environmental criteria. It dealt with chemical and physical agents and their standards and guidelines for that sort of thing. I had a stint with the World Health Organization with the EMF project in 1999.
Basically--how can say this?--I'm a supporter of the standards as they exist. I think they're based on a distillation of all the scientific literature that's been accumulated, probably since the 1600s, going right back to Galvani. People have always been interested in electromagnetic field effects of one sort or another.
As for some of the controversies that exist, there are always indications of associations. It takes a certain amount of accumulation of information and evidence before those sorts of indications cross the threshold for public policy. That debate will continue on all fronts.
Thank you.