Roger W Coghill (UK) | MA(Cantab,) C Biol MI Biol MA(Environ Mgt) Sometime Senior Visitor, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
It is with great sadness that I remember Roger W Coghill, one of our scientific advisors at the EM Radiation Research Trust. Roger was a pioneering scientist and a passionate advocate for public health.
Early Work and Scientific Contributions
He was one of the first scientists to investigate the Wishaw, Sutton Coldfield cancer cluster in 2002, surrounding a T‑Mobile phone mast, and he fearlessly highlighted the very real dangers of such exposures. In the small hamlet of Wishaw, alongside cases of cancer, residents reported fertility problems, sleep disturbances, headaches, nose bleeds, skin rashes, and other symptoms consistent with radiation sickness. A number of residents also suffered from low white blood cell counts, directly tying in with Roger’s laboratory research on the effects of mobile phone radiation on human white blood cells. In 1998, in his laboratory in Wales, he conducted groundbreaking studies exposing white blood cells to mobile phone radiation, demonstrating its potential to impair immune function. Roger was far ahead of his time in recognising the risks from everyday electromagnetic exposures.
International Leadership
Roger’s leadership extended internationally. He organised the First World Congress on EMF and Nature in Madeira in 1998 and co-hosted the Emergency Conference on Human Health in an Electro‑Technological World at the Royal Society in London in 2007. I will always remember his generosity in inviting me to present My Story, my personal account detailing the phone mast and cancer cluster in Wishaw (download presentation).
That conference produced the London Resolution, calling for biologically based public safety limits for radiofrequency and extremely low frequency electromagnetic exposures.
Advocacy and Legal Action
Roger also launched a legal test case against a mobile phone shop for allegedly failing to warn customers of the potential risk of radiation (BBC News 1998, BBC News 2002). He received strong support from researcher Alasdair Phillips and Dr Christopher Busby during the case.
During the hearing, Alasdair Phillips highlighted the unprecedented nature of mobile phone exposure, noting:
“I have received frequent reports from regular phone users telling of headaches, loss of concentration, skin tingling or burning and twitching. The complaints can involve eye tics, short-term memory issues, buzzing in the head at night, and other effects such as tiredness. This is the first time in human existence that people have wandered around with radiating devices held close to their bodies. We have got numbers of people that are now unable to work who have been using mobile phones up to seven or eight hours a day.”
The case was eventually dismissed for lack of firm evidence at the time, but it demonstrated Roger’s courage and commitment to challenging industry practices and advocating for public safety.
Later years
After retiring to Madeira, Roger shared his love of music with local communities, performing and composing under the name Bampi Bill. Even in retirement, his courage, insight, and generosity continued to inspire those of us fighting for public health.
Eileen O’Connor
Charity Director, EM Radiation Research Trust
Selected Publications
1/. Coghill RW, Health effects of electromagnetic fields, J Royal Soc Med, 1990 Oct;83(10) doi: 10.1177/014107689008301040
2/. Coghill RW, Steward J, Philips A, ELF EMF in the bedplace of children diagnosed with leukaemia: a case-control study, Eur J Cancer Prev, 1996 Jun;5(3):153-8. DOI: 10.1097/00008469-199606000-00002
3/. Coghill RW, Childhood cancer and power lines: study had important omissions, BMJ 2005 Sep 17;331(7517):635; DOI: 10.1136/bmj.331.7517.635-a
4/. Coghill RW, Galonja-Coghill T, Protective effect of a donor’s endogenous electric fields on human peripheral blood lymphocyte viability, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 2009, 19(1) DOI:10.1081/JBC-100100295
Books by Roger W Coghill
- The Dark Side of the Brain (1988)
- Electro-Pollution How to Protect Yourself (1990)
- Electrohealing: Medicine of the Future (1992)
- Something in the Air (1997)
- Magnet Healing (2000)
- The Healing Energies of Magnets (2005)
- The Healing Energies of Light (2005)
- The Message of Atlantis (2011)
- Nature’s Mighty Molecule (2011) [Melatonin]
- Telenature and the Future of Mankind (2015)
- The 50-year Cover-Up: Memoirs of an Inconvenient Scientist (2020)