A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

NTP Turns to Mechanisms

DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and
Gene Expression Are on the Agenda

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Last updated October 22, 2019

The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) will soon embark on a new phase of its long-running RF project. Last year, the NTP concluded that RF radiation causes cancer; now it will begin a systematic search for mechanisms to explain how and why the tumors developed. Work is expected to begin by the end of the year.

The research plan is wide-ranging. It will include studies on gene expression, oxidative stress and DNA damage and repair, as well as on the possible role played by heat. Other priorities on the NTP agenda are studies on behavior and stress.

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A Fact-Free Hit on a 5G Critic

Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk

Monday, July 22, 2019

Last updated April 13, 2020

Last Tuesday, July 16, the New York Times devoted most of the front page of its science section to William Broad’s latest attack on those who challenge the dogma that wireless radiation is absolutely safe.

“The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t” is the catchy headline of the Web version of his article. It is followed by “How one scientist and his inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of wireless technology.”

Broad focuses on two letters* written about 20 years ago by Bill Curry, a consulting physicist, who openly disapproved of putting Wi-Fi in classrooms.

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GBM Rising in Denmark,
Much as in England

True Increases or Artifacts?

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

GBM is going up in Denmark. The steady rise is very similar to what has been seen in England.

New government data, released in May by a member of the Danish Parliament, show a near doubling of this fatal brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, since the year 2000. You can see the trend by following the orange line in the histogram …

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Colorectal Cancer Soaring in Young Adults; Are Smartphones in the Mix?

Epidemiologist De-Kun Li Wants To Know

Monday, June 3, 2019

Last updated July 31, 2019

De-Kun Li wants to change the conversation on cell phones and cancer. Li, a senior epidemiologist and veteran EMF researcher, believes that brain tumors have been getting too much attention at the expense of other types of cancer, notably colorectal cancer.

Efforts to reduce colon and rectal cancers have been a striking success story for those over 50 years old. Incidence among older Americans declined 32% between 2000 and 2013, due largely to better screening. But the story for young adults is very different. Those born around 1990 now face four times the risk of developing rectal cancer and twice the risk of colon cancer in their 20s, compared to those born around 1950, according to the American Cancer Society.

“No one can explain this apparent contradiction,” Li told Microwave News. Known risk factors for colorectal cancer include obesity, an unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity, but Li doesn’t think they can resolve the paradox.

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The Precarious Case
Against Precaution

A Deep Dive into the Swedish Cancer Registry

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Last updated March 30, 2019

It has been nearly eight years since an expert panel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified RF radiation as a possible human carcinogen. Since then, neither the World Health Organization (WHO) nor the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has recommended precautionary policies to limit potential health risks.

No U.S. health agency has yet advised the public to reduce RF exposures.

Even after two large animal studies —by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) and Italy’s Ramazzini Institute— presented clear evidence of a cancer link last year, the WHO has remained silent; ICNIRP responded by calling both animal studies unconvincing.

Now comes the Annual Review of Public Health, which on January 11 posted a paper by five leading epidemiologists who posit that, after a systematic review of all the human studies, they don’t see an elevated cancer risk. The takeaway is that the IARC classification was a mistake.

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Short Takes

Rich Rewards for Bad Behavior

February 8, 2021

Alexander Lerchl’s bogus campaign against the REFLEX project and members of Hugo Rüdiger’s lab did nothing to harm his career. Just the opposite, Lerchl thrived as he gained stature and a succession of rich research grants from the German government.

Over the last 20 years, Germany’s Federal Office of Radiation Protection —the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, or BfS for short— has given Lerchl $5 million in contracts. Lerchl has been the best-funded RF lab researcher in Germany, Europe, and, most likely, the world.

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Physicist Robert Adair Dead at 96

January 6, 2021

Last updated January 7, 2021

Robert K. Adair, the former chairman of the physics department at Yale University and a leading critic of any and all claims that weak EMFs can have biological effects, died on September 28. He was 96.

A particle physicist, Adair held one of Yale’s prestigious Sterling professorships. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Dutch Advisory Panel Calls for Caution on 5G

November 11, 2020

An advisory panel to the Health Council of the Netherlands is recommending a “cautious approach” to 5G radiation exposures.

The committee is also advising that the 26 GHz frequency band (millimeter waves) not be used “for as long as the potential health risks have not been investigated.”

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In Memoriam: Moris Shore

October 10, 2020

“A safe level of microwave exposure was arbitrarily established —no dissent from the arbitrary safe standard was tolerated— in a largely thermal (i.e., high-exposure level) microwave research program … [It] and the averaging provisions … may represent a directed verdict rather than a culmination of objective and unbiased scientific judgment.”

Does that sound familiar?

Actually ...

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5G Waveforms in Dispute

September 25, 2020

Very little has been written in the popular media about the waveforms used in 5G signals. Two outstanding questions are: How fast are the pulses? How powerful are they?

In 2018, Esra Neufeld and Niels Kuster of the IT’IS Foundation in Zurich issued a warning in a...

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Does Cockpit RF Disorient Pilots?

September 15, 2020

Last updated September 16, 2020

Spatial disorientation among U.S. Air Force pilots has been linked to 72 severe accidents between 1993 and 2013, resulting in 101 deaths and the loss of 65 aircraft. Now DARPA, the defense department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, wants to know whether RF radiation in the cockpit of combat aircraft may be at least partly to blame.

Under the new initiative, with the acronym ICEMAN, DARPA is seeking a contractor to measure the...

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“ICNIRP: Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Capture and the Push for 5G,” by Klaus Buchner and Michèle Rivasi, June 2020. Both authors are members of the European Parliament. A call for disbanding ICNIRP and replacing it with a “new, public and fully independent advisory” panel.
“Continuous Exposure to 1.7 GHz LTE EMFs Increases Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species to Decrease Human Cell Proliferation and Induce Senescence,” Scientific Reports, June 8, 2020. “The anti-proliferative effect of 1.7 GHz LTE RF-EMF on various human cells in this study suggests that the [such] exposure would be more harmful to children.” From Korea, open access.
“Propagation of THz Irradiation Energy Through Aqueous Layers: Demolition of Actin Filaments in Living Cells,” Scientific Reports, June 2, 2020. “The potential of THz waves as an invasive method to alter protein structure in the living cells is demonstrated.” From Japan; open access.
“Rising Incidence of Glioblastoma Multiforme in a Well-Defined Population,” Cureus, posted May 19, 2020. “There was a significant increase in incidence from 0.73 to 4.49 per 100,000 over the 10-year period (p≤0.001).” Number of cases grew from 3 in 2008 to 21 in 2017. Open access.
“Is 5G Going to Kill Us All?” The New Republic, May 8, 2020. By Christopher Ketcham.
“Setting Guidelines for EM Exposures and Research Needs,” by Frank Barnes and Ben Greenebaum, Bioelectromagnetics, posted April 20, 2020. “Over the last 20 years the evidence has become extremely strong that weaker EMF over the whole range for frequencies from static through mm waves can modify biological processes.” They propose starting with a limit of 0.1 V/m. Note that the 4 W/m² (400 μW/cm²) that follows 0.1 V/m on p.5 of the letter was a slip-up and should not be there.
“Association Between Maternal Exposure to Magnetic Field NIR During Pregnancy and Risk of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Offspring in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort,” JAMA Network Open, March 24, 2020. See also: “Notice of Retraction and Replacement.” “Consistent with the emerging literature, this study suggests that in utero exposure to high levels of MF non-onizing radiation was associated with an increased risk of ADHD, especially ADHD with immune-related comorbidity.” The most recent study by De-Kun Li of Kaiser Permanente. Note: “high” is defined as a 24-hour exposure of ≥1.5 mG (90^th percentile). According to a 1998 survey, >40% of Americans are exposed to >1 mG. And the ICNIRP 2010 guidelines allow the general public to be exposed up to 2,000 mG.
Review of Published Literature between 2008 and 2018 of Relevance to Radiofrequency Radiation and Cancer, U.S. FDA, released February 10, 2020. “[T]here is insufficient evidence to support a causal association between RFR exposure and tumorigenesis. There is a lack of clear dose-response relationship, a lack of consistent findings or specificity and a lack of biological mechanistic plausibility.”
“RF-Induced Temperature Increase in a Stratified Model of the Skin for Plane-Wave Exposure at 6-100 GHz,” Radiation Protection Dosimetry, posted January 16, 2020. “The maximum observed temperature increase is 0.4°C for exposure at the present power density limit for the general population of 10 W/m² [1 mW/cm²]. This result is more than twice as high as the findings reported in a previous study.” From IT’IS in Zurich.
“Comparative Cyto- and Genotoxicity of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz EMF Radiations in Root Meristems Allium cepa,” Exotoxicology and Environmental Safety, January 2020. Very low SARs lead to DNA breaks: 0.09 W/Kg @900 MHz and 0.169 W/Kg @1.8 GHz. Damage “more pronounced” at 1800 MHz. (Allium cepa = onion)

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

NTP Turns to Mechanisms

DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and
Gene Expression Are on the Agenda

A Fact-Free Hit on a 5G Critic

Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk

GBM Rising in Denmark,
Much as in England

True Increases or Artifacts?

Colorectal Cancer Soaring in Young Adults; Are Smartphones in the Mix?

Epidemiologist De-Kun Li Wants To Know

The Precarious Case
Against Precaution

A Deep Dive into the Swedish Cancer Registry

Pages

Short Takes

Rich Rewards for Bad Behavior

Physicist Robert Adair Dead at 96

Dutch Advisory Panel Calls for Caution on 5G

In Memoriam: Moris Shore

5G Waveforms in Dispute

Does Cockpit RF Disorient Pilots?

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A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and Gene Expression Are on the Agenda

Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk

True Increases or Artifacts?

Epidemiologist De-Kun Li Wants To Know

A Deep Dive into the Swedish Cancer Registry

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

Pages

Microwave News Reading

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DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and
Gene Expression Are on the Agenda