From: mkb30@cam.ac.uk (Matthew Belmonte) To: info@annecampbell.org.uk Subject: EU directive on electromagnetic fields would harm British research Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 04:30:15 +0100 Dear Mrs Campbell As a neuroscientist living and working within your constituency, I write to bring to your attention a draft directive of the European Parliament which, if allowed to reach implementation, would severely damage British research on brain imaging and the British industry that supports such research. Specifically, the current "amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (electromagnetic fields and waves)" would prohibit exposure to magnetic fields stronger than 2 Tesla, a move that would put many existing brain scanning facilities out of business. Several hospitals and research centres in Britain have 3-Tesla scanners either currently operational or due to come online in the near future. Here in Cambridge, the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre at Addenbrooke's Hospital operates a 3-Tesla scanner for clinical and research purposes. The total British investment in these high-field scanners is approximately twenty million pounds. Adoption of the proposed directive would render all of these instruments inoperable. Such a move would make British research unable to compete in terms of quality with that conducted in North America, where such restrictions neither exist nor are contemplated. Furthermore, such a move would hobble the international magnet building industry based near Oxford. The proposed directive is all the more odious since it is based not on fact but on fear. In the early 1990s, when the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection published the reviews on which the proposed directive is based, very little experience existed with human exposure to magnetic fields above 2 Tesla. In the intervening years, clinical and research scanners operating at 3 Tesla have been introduced and regularly used with no ill effects. In fact, special-purpose scanners operating at up to 7 Tesla are available. All of this experience indicates that these instruments are safe. Were they not, those of us who work around such instruments would be among the first to be calling for their regulation. I understand that Mr Norman Smith at the Health and Safety Executive is negotiating this matter on behalf of the Government. I hope that he and any other responsible officials will give voice to these concerns as a matter of urgency for British biomedical research and industry. Yours sincerely Matthew Belmonte Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge Douglas House 18b Trumpington Road Cambridge CB2 2AH