The Environmental Board of Mora and Orsa municipalities receives the Swedish Skeptics’ Obscurantist of the Year anti-award.
For five years the Board has been handling a complaint from a person who claims to be hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields. The Board assigned an official at the Environmental Office of the municipalities to devise a plan to force cell phone operators to decrease radiation from their antennas over the house of the complainant.
Even though there is great scientific evidence that electromagnetic fields is not the cause of the variety of symptoms reported by the hypersensitives, the Board persists in claiming the scientific field is unclear. The Swedish Skeptics have no reason to doubt the suffering the so-called electrohypersensitives report, but infrastructural change is not the solution to their problems. In stead efforts should be directed at finding the cause of their symptoms and cure them with evidence based methods. Accepting the assumptions of the affected in contradiction with scientific medicine is actually a disservice to the people involved. The anti-award has been reported in local as well as national media. The final decision in the Board is to be made in February 2nd.
The Swedish public TV show Hjärnkontoret receives the Enlightener of the Year award for their excellent science coverage directed towards children. Hjärnkontoret has aired for 16 years and thus contributed to the upbringing of the entire current generation of students and young scientists at Swedish universities. The Enlightener of the Year receives a cash prize of SEK 25 000 ($3600, €2800).