Comment to the Letter to the Editor: Subjective Symptoms Related to GSM Radiation from Mobile Phone Base Stations: A Cross-sectional Study in Reply to the Comments by Seyed Mohammad Javad Mortazavi

Mortazavi SMJ [1] has some concerns about the results of our recent work : “Subjective symptoms related to GSM radiation from mobile phone base stations: a crosssectional study [2]. Dr Mortazavi criticizes that authors started the introduction of their paper with a political frightening historical event, the verification that the US embassy in Moscow was being subjected to such radiation from 1953 to May 1975 [3], being its frequency and intensity quite different from those of mobile base stations. However, since that episode has historical significance, being a pioneer in the studies of the area of Western influence about the possible causality of exposure to radio frequencies, the radar at that time, a preliminary mention is usually considered essential Dr Mortazavi also states that we only cited a review that “showed in 8 of the 10 studies evaluated there were increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances <500 m from base stations but simply ignored contradictory reviews such as the review published by Röösli and Hug in 2011”. However, an important work of Röösli [4], which Dr Mortazavi erroneously contends that we have not mentioned in our work, appears in our literature as the principal motivation of our new article. Dr Mortazavi also claims that the study of Gómez-Perretta et al. in fact is a repeat of the paper previously published by Navarro et al. in 2003 [5] : “This study has been performed in La Nora, a small city in Spain, with a population of 20,000 people. This paper has some severe methodological flaws. Gómez-Perretta’s data was initially obtained with a significant bias in selection of the participants”. Firstly, this is not a replica of the previously published study since crucial considerations has been introduced in the present article. Thus, this current article adds new elements that were not expressed in the work of 2003 [5] precisely following the guidelines of Roosli [4]. Thus, a robust statistical analysis (simple binary logistic regression and adjusted binary logistic regression with variables such as the use of mobile or computer and concern for the erection of the antenna, was now performed. Moreover, Dr Mortazavi seems contradictory when indicates a significant bias in selection of the participants while cites our paragraph indicating that selection was randomly performed: “Some 215 questionnaires were randomly distributed through 17 streets representing practically the entire village. The houses were selected using a street map of the village. Therefore, if the distribution was random Dr Mortazavi should have understood that thereafter a blind procedure was used to select the houses on the street map. Also, if Dr Mortazavi looks again the text carefully, he should verify that La Ñora hasn ́t a population of 20,000 people, but this town (around 2000 habiLetter to Editor