UPI News Article: Scientists dispute military "raygun" claims

Tuesday, 6 March 2001 20:49 (ET)

Scientists dispute military "raygun" claims
By KELLY HEARN, UPI Technology Writer

WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- Claims by U.S. military officials that a new
skin-heating weapon causes no permanent health problems are exaggerated and
highly suspect, experts told United Press International on Tuesday. Possible
long-term side-effects could include cancer and cataracts, they said.

"Their claims are a bunch of crap," said Professor W. Ross Adey, professor
of physiology at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif.
"We've known that many forms of microwaves at levels below heating can cause
significant health effects in the long term."

Military officials hope the technology, known as active denial technology,
will lead to a new class of non-lethal weapons that use millimeter waves,
which are near microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum, to heat but not
permanently burn human skin.

Pentagon officials and Congressional leaders will examine the device in
the coming weeks before deciding whether to approve its use as a weapons
system.

The weapons are designed to help soldiers control civilian crowds and
guard sensitive areas without using deadly force.

Military officials say the device sends brief pulses of electromagnetic
energy 1/64 inch deep into skin, agitating water molecules in the skin and
causing thermal agitation, or a feeling of heat. The pain is similar to
touching a hot light bulb but stops once the waves stop. The idea is to
generate enough heat on the skin that the individual retreats from the beam.

The officials claim to have exposed 72 human civilian and military
volunteers to 6,500 exposures from the weapon in laboratory conditions.
"Other than minor skin tenderness due to repeated exposure to the beam,
there are no lasting effects," stated a military document.

Medical experts, however, said that while it is possible to test for
effects such as acute eye damage and skin burns, it is impossible, given
that some repercussions could take years to surface, to definitively exclude
long-term effects such as cancer.

Adey, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a
distinguished visiting professor of the Royal Society of Medicine, said
Russian studies conducted some thirty years ago show that microwaves can
effect white blood cells before the subject feels heat. "The question is
whether this weapon could include a bundle of non-thermal effects that are
not related to heating," he said.

Years ago, Soviet researchers used millimeter waves in experiments
designed to treat diseases including skin disorders, heart disease and
cancer. Experts said the fact that the waves could have therapeutic benefits
raises the specter of potential hazards if a human is overexposed.

Adey said his own research, in parallel with similar studies in Russia in
the early 1980s, showed that radio frequency and the lower microwave range
effected enzyme systems that regulate growth and division of white blood
cells. He said that while the weapon does not use those specific
wavelengths, no scientific evidence exists to prove that millimeter waves
could not cause similar damage.

Military officials have said the weapon does not harm human eyes because
their intense sensitivity to heat cause victims to immediately close their
eyes or turn away, supposedly avoiding damaging levels of exposure. But Adey
said that while brief exposure to millimeter waves may not cause acute
damage, studies suggest that even short exposures may cause cataracts over
time.

Officials have also said the weapon does not mutate human cells. But Adey
said research suggests that millimeter waves can serve as a kind of catalyst
or promoter that causes any of the millions of mutated cells that occur
naturally in healthy humans to become cancerous over time.

"The principles set forth in international law say that you can't use
weapons that cause irreparable damage or irreversible injury and we think
there just hasn't been enough testing here," said Joost Hiltermann, arms
division director for Human Rights Watch in Washington. "They've tested on
volunteers who are probably healthy, but what happens when they aim it at
pregnant women or children or people who already have a disease that could
be worsened by exposure?"

"The literature on the biological impact of millimeter waves effects is
murky," Kenneth R. Foster, professor at the Department of Bioengineering at
the University of Pennsylvania, told UPI. "You can't truthfully claim that
there is scientific proof of no adverse long-term effects from these kinds
of exposures. On the other hand, I don't know of any good reason to expect
such effects."

Foster said most of the Soviet experiments using millimeter waves were
scientifically suspect.

American studies on the biological effects of millimeter waves are rare
because few commercial devices have used them, experts said.