A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Cell Tower Radiation Linked to Genetic Changes in Nearby Residents

More Chromosomal Aberrations
A Finding Too Hot To Handle

Monday, July 1, 2024

Last updated July 9, 2026

Senior European scientists are reporting that people living near cell phone towers show significant changes in their genetic makeup. This is the first time that chronic exposure to cell tower radiation has been linked to unrepairable genetic damage.

A team led by Wilhelm Mosgöller of the Medical University of Vienna and Igor Belyaev of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava contend that years of low-dose RF exposure can increase the incidence of chromosomal aberrations. Such changes could lead to serious, though uncertain, health consequences, including cancer.

The new study is small —but provocative. It’s persuaded Mosgöller and Belyaev that they have identified a “biologically plausible mechanism” for how RF can cause cancer.

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IARC Again Asked to Review RF Cancer Risk, Just Not Right Away

Same Advice Was Given in 2019

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Last updated November 5, 2024

An advisory group to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has —once again— recommended a new assessment of the cancer risk posed by RF radiation. RF is one of about a hundred agents listed as “high priority” for evaluation over the next five years, 2025-2029.

The panel, made up of 28 independent scientists from 22 countries, met last month in Lyon, France (IARC’s hometown), to consider more than 200 agents that had been nominated for evaluation or reevaluation. The panel’s recommendations were announced yesterday in the news section of Lancet Oncology and an IARC press release.

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U.S. NTP Quits RF

Promised Studies on Mechanisms Never Done

Friday, February 2, 2024

Last updated August 8, 2025

The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) has closed down its RF radiation research program. Indeed, it appears that work effectively stopped some time ago.

In September 2019, the NTP announced a new project designed to explain how RF radiation causes cancer. It was a year after the NTP made international headlines with its $30 million study showing “clear evidence” that RF caused malignant tumors in rats.

Now, close to four-and-a-half years later, it turns out that none of those experiments to explore mechanisms of cancer causation were ever carried out.

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IARC Will Soon Reassess RF Cancer Risk — Or Maybe Not

Director Sends Mixed Signals

Monday, December 12, 2022

Last updated April 13, 2024

On November 23, 2002, Elisabete Weiderpass, the Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), revealed that a new assessment of the evidence linking radiofrequency (RF) radiation to cancer would likely take place in early 2024. A formal decision could come within a few months.

Calls for a new IARC evaluation have been mounting for some years following the release of two large animal studies showing elevated tumor counts after lifelong exposure to RF radiation.

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ICNIRP Revamp:
Closer Ties to WHO EMF Project

Seven New Commissioners
Akimasa Hirata To Be New Leader

Monday, December 11, 2023

In November, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) elected a new chair, vice chair and seven new Commissioners to join the remaining five. The new lineup takes over in mid-July 2024.

Yet, despite all the changes, ICNIRP’s outlook and policies are expected to remain much the same. While two medical doctors will be joining the Commission —there are none now— the membership will continue to be dominated by physicists and electrical engineers. ICNIRP’s entrenched thermal dogma will most likely continue to hold sway with cancer risks, and other non-thermal effects downplayed, when not dismissed outright.

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Short Takes

RF Animal Cancer Review Is #1

May 7, 2026

A systematic review pointing to evidence that exposure to RF radiation causes cancer in animals has captured the world’s attention.

The review, prepared by an eight-member team from six countries, led by Meike Mevissen of Switzerland’s University of Bern, was commissioned by the World Health Organization in Geneva. It was published by Environment International last April.

A few days ago, the editors of Environment International announced that Mevissen’s review was the journal’s most-downloaded paper of 2025.

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NTP Lite: All Good in Korea Too

January 18, 2026

Last updated July 31, 2026

Korean researchers working on NTP Lite have joined their Japanese collaborators in reporting no evidence of adverse effects among rats chronically exposed to cell phone radiation.

“Long-term exposure to CDMA-modulated 900 MHz RF was neither carcinogenic or genotoxic at an SAR of 4 W/Kg in male rats,” Young Hwan Ahn and coworkers write in Toxicological Sciences, the same journal that published the Japanese results a few days ago. The Korean paper was posted on January 16.

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NTP Lite: No Cancer Risk Seen in Japan

January 13, 2026

Last updated July 31, 2026

The Japanese team working on a partial repeat of the NTP RF–animal cancer study has reported seeing no “reproducible” effects on cancer or genotoxicity in RF-exposed male rats.

The project —nicknamed NTP Lite— is a scaled-down version of the $30+ million project carried out by the U.S. National Toxicology Program which found “clear evidence” that RF radiation can cause cancer in rats.

The Japanese results were published in the journal Toxicological Sciences yesterday, January 12. The paper is open access.

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ElektrosmogReport Now in English Too

February 9, 2025

Last updated March 28, 2025

One of the longest-running newsletters on the health and environmental impact of electromagnetic fields and radiation —the ElektrosmogReport— is now available in English.

Diagnose:Funk, the publisher, is translating the German-language original and making it available at no charge. Both versions come out quarterly. D:F is a consumer and environmental protection group with offices in Germany and Switzerland.

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NCI ‘Cancer Bioelectricity’ Conference

August 26, 2024

On September 12^th, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) will host a conference on cancer bioelectricity via Zoom. Attendance is free, but registration is required.

Michael Levin, a professor of biology and biomedical engineering at Tufts University in Massachusetts, will be the keynote speaker.

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Another WHO RF Review Challenged

August 21, 2024

Last updated January 21, 2025

A third RF systematic review commissioned by the World Health Organization’s EMF Project is under fire. This one is on RF–induced oxidative stress.

Last month, two other WHO reviews —on pregnancy outcomes and on tinnitus— were both called into question as critics called for them to be retracted.

A team of 14 from six countries, led by Felix Meyer of the German Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), identified 11,599 studies on oxidative stress in the frequency range 800-2450 MHz. They then eliminated 11,543 of them as not meeting their criteria for inclusion.

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Hot new papers & articles

“RF EMFs Reduce Bumble Bee Visitation to Flowers,” Environmental Pollution, July 14, 2025. No effect of 2.4 & 5.8 GHz RF on flower visitation rates by honey bees. But there was a “significant reduction” in visits by bumble bees when the plants were exposed to the RF. From Germany.
“Weak RF Field Effects on Biological Systems Mediated through the Radical Pair Mechanism,” Chemical Reviews, July 14, 2025. A major review of the radical pair mechanism as a possible explanation —or not— of low-level RF biological effects from Germany’s University of Oldenburg with participation and funding from the BfS, the German radiation protection office.
“Temporal Change of Outdoor RF-EMF Levels in Four European Countries: a Microenvironmental Measurement Study,” Environment Research, July 11, 2025. “Our measurements of RF-EMF outdoor exposure levels [in four countries] do not indicate change in exposure levels between 2016 and 2023 despite an increase in mobile data traffic by a factor of eight in Western Europe.”
“A Novel Radiation Protection Method for Miniaturized MIMO Mobile Terminal Antenna Design Based on Metamaterials,” PLOS One, May 7, 2025. It “could effectively mitigate the absorption of radiation by head tissues.” From China.
“Electromagnetic Wireless Remote Control of Mammalian Transgene Expression,” Nature Nanotechnology, May 5, 2025. “EMFs represent promising, minimally invasive control modalities for next-generation gene- and cell-based therapies.” Using mT fields in the 0.1-1 kHz frequency range with nanoparticles to generate reactive oxygen species. From Switzerland; open access.
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“Impact of a Terahertz EMF on the Ion Permeation of Potassium and Sodium Channels,” Communications Chemistry, April 3, 2025. “Demonstrates that ion channel function can be modulated by specific THz fields, opening new avenues for applications in biomedical fields, particularly in treatment of channelopathies.”
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Learned Magnetic Map Cues and Two Mechanisms of Magnetoreception in Turtles,” Nature, February 12, 2025. “Our results demonstrate that an animal can learn the natural magnetic signatures of geographical areas, thus corroborating a foundational premise of goal navigation with magnetic maps.”
“Smartphone Administered Pulsed RF Energy Therapy for Expedited Cutaneous Wound Healing,” Digital Medicine, February 15, 2025. “Its ultra flexible, battery-free design supports personalized wound care at a low-cost (<US$1). Both EMF simulation and measurement demonstrated that the proposed [pulsed RF energy] bandage achieves the field strength of clinical-grade PRFE equipment.”

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

More Chromosomal Aberrations A Finding Too Hot To Handle

Same Advice Was Given in 2019

Promised Studies on Mechanisms Never Done

Director Sends Mixed Signals

Seven New CommissionersAkimasa Hirata To Be New Leader

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Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

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More Chromosomal Aberrations
A Finding Too Hot To Handle

Seven New Commissioners
Akimasa Hirata To Be New Leader