A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Pressure Mounts To Retract
Grimes RF–Cancer Review

Former Director of NIEHS Endorses Removal

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Senior environmental health scientists are calling for JAMA Oncology to retract a review of RF radiation and cancer by David Robert Grimes, a physicist at Dublin City University.*

Grimes’s paper, which was posted on the journal’s website on December 9^th, has prompted a barrage of letters of protest to Nora Disis, the editor of JAMA Oncology.

Among those calling for retraction is Linda Birnbaum, who, for ten years, 2009-2019, was the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Ronald Melnick, who led the team that designed the NTP RF–cancer study, is another harsh critic.

Continues

Four Reasons Why David Grimes’s
RF-Cancer Review Must Be Retracted

Open Letter to Editor-in-Chief, AMA Journals

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Last updated April 21, 2022

Dear Dr. Phil Fontanarosa,

As you are already keenly aware, on December 9^th, JAMA Oncology, part of the AMA family of journals, published what purports to be a review of radiofrequency (RF) radiation and cancer by David Robert Grimes.

Grimes’s paper is rife with distortions and omissions. It is a disservice to the AMA and to all those who care about public health. I urge you, as the current editor-in-chief of all AMA journals, to retract this paper.

Here are four reasons why you should set the record straight as soon as possible...

Continues

Abandoning Inconvenient Science

How RF Research on the Blood-Brain Barrier
Was Shut Down — Again
Reflections on Leif Salford’s 80th Birthday

Monday, January 10, 2022

Last updated May 7, 2022

Leif Salford celebrated his 80^th birthday on December 7. An emeritus professor at Sweden’s Lund University and a noted neurosurgeon, Salford spent much of his career treating patients with brain tumors. Over the years, he became frustrated as, all too often, he was unable to save them with a scalpel.

In 1987, Salford came across a paper in Neuroscience Letters from a group at the University of Western Ontario, who had found that rats undergoing the equivalent of a routine MRI scan showed changes in their blood-brain barrier. The BBB is a membrane that keeps potentially toxic substances in the bloodstream from getting into the brain. It’s not a perfect barrier —it can leak. The Canadians reported that something about the electromagnetic exposures during the MRI scan had increased the permeability of the rats’ BBB. It had become more porous.

If microwaves used in the MRI were responsible, Salford thought....

Continues

The End of BEMS
A Merger or a Heist?

U.S. & European Research Societies Set
To Join and Become BioEM

Monday, November 29, 2021

Last updated June 2, 2022

The Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS) and the European BioElectromagnetics Association (EBEA), the two leading research groups in Western countries, will soon join together and become BioEM. Like its predecessors, the new society will be a forum on the interactions of all types of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields and radiation with living organisms. BioEM will be based in Zurich, Switzerland.

The move is hardly unexpected. Just the opposite. A union has been in the planning stages since at least 2016. Many favored a BEMS-EBEA consolidation even earlier, but it ran into one roadblock or another, at least partly because directors did not want to lose control.

Continues

IARC on RF: What’s Next?

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer Risk
Trends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved

Friday, June 11, 2021

Last updated August 24, 2022

A new analysis from the radiation group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) calls into question the agency’s own classification of wireless radiation as a possible human carcinogen.

On May 27, IARC’s Isabelle Deltour presented the new analysis of the incidence of malignant brain tumors (glioma) in the Nordic countries —Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden— over the last several decades. She spoke at an online colloquium hosted by the German Federal Office of Radiation Protection, known as the BfS.

Deltour argued that the trends are mostly not “compatible” with those seen in the epidemiological studies —principally, Interphone and Lennart Hardell’s— that were the basis of IARC’s 2011 designation of RF radiation as a possible, or 2B, human carcinogen.

Continues

Pages

Short Takes

Schwannoma Puzzle

September 14, 2023

Last updated September 16, 2023

Three medical doctors have published a case report of a 40-year-old Italian man who developed a tumor in his thigh, near where he “habitually” kept his smartphone in a trouser pocket.

The case was published at the end of August in Radiology Case Reports, a peer-reviewed, open access journal.

The tumor, a painless mass, gradually expanded in the man’s left thigh over a period of six months, they wrote.

Continues

Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit Appears Safe

August 9, 2023

Italy’s 6 V/m RF exposure standard, one of the strictest in the world and until recently seen as falling victim to the build-out of 5G towers, will not be relaxed —at least not now.

The Italian government has signalled that the limit, adopted more than 20 years ago, will not be brought into line with ICNIRP’s 61 V/m guideline, as urged by the telecom industry.

Continues

Korean NTP Lite: Progress Report

June 16, 2023

Last updated June 17, 2023

A Korean RF genotoxicology study —part of a joint project with Japan— has been delayed due to the unexpected death of four of the RF–exposed rats early in the accompanying two-year cancer experiment, according to Young Hwan Ahn of Ajou University medical school.

Ahn presented a progress report on the Korean arm of the project in Geneva last week at a meeting of the WHO EMF Project’s International Advisory Committee. Microwave News has obtained a copy of Ahn’s PowerPoint presentation.

Continues

ICNIRP Still Runs RF at WHO

June 5, 2023

Last updated June 8, 2023

ICNIRP continues to dominate EMF policies at the WHO, according to documents made available to Microwave News.

The documents were recently distributed by Emilie van Deventer as she prepared to host a briefing this week for its International Advisory Committee (IAC) in Geneva.

Continues

Pulsed RF: Plausible Cause of Havana Syndrome

March 30, 2023

A newly declassified, though heavily redacted, report from the intelligence community has put renewed emphasis on the possibility that the condition known as “Havana Syndrome” could be caused by pulsed RF energy.

“Electromagnetic energy, particularly pulsed signals in the radiofrequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics [of Havana Syndrome, also called ‘anomalous health incidents’] although information gaps exist,” the intelligence panel concluded.

Continues

David Carpenter Reinstated

February 21, 2023

Last updated February 22, 2023

The University at Albany in New York State has closed its investigation of Professor David Carpenter, the director of its Institute for Health and the Environment, without taking any disciplinary action.

After being barred from going to his office most of last year, Carpenter may now once again “teach and conduct research on campus,” according to a statement released by the University on Tuesday evening.

Continues

Help Support
Microwave News

Sign Up Here for
E-Mail Alerts

Hot new papers & articles

“Acute RF EM Radiation Exposure Impairs Neurogenesis and Causes Neuronal DNA Damage in the Young Rat Brain,” Neurotoxicology, posted November 3, 2022. Five-week-old male rats exposed to 2.1 GHz with a head average SAR of 1.51 W/kg for 8 hours. Higher levels of lipid peroxidation, carbon-centered lipid radicals and single-strand DNA damage were seen in the rats’ brains.
“WiFi Related RF EMFs Promote Transposable Element Dysregulation and Genomic Instability in Drosophila melanogaster,” Cells, December 13, 2022. Experiments with fruit flies exposed to 2.4 GHz WiFi radiation at an SAR of only 0.06 W/Kg point to non-thermal genotoxic effects. Implications for genomic stability, neurodegeneration and tumorigenesis unresolved. From Italy. Open access.
“Evaluation of EMFs in Human Body Exposed to Inverter of Pure Electric Vehicle,” Radiation Protection Dosimetry, December 22, 2022. Calculated maximum magnetic field is concentrated in the leg and foot areas. The taller the driver, the greater the exposure. Maximum in driver’s body = 0.2 µT (2 mG). From China.
“How the FCC Shields Cellphone Companies from Safety Concerns,” ProPublica, November 10, 2022. By Peter Elkind. “The wireless industry is rolling out thousands of new transmitters amid a growing body of research that calls cellphone safety into question. Federal regulators say there’s nothing to worry about — even as they rely on standards established in 1996.” Also Elkind’s: “The Girl Scouts’ Latest Business Project: Hailing 5G Cellphone Technology,” ProPublica December 9, 2022.
“He fell ill with cancer due to the use of his cell phone: Inail sentenced to pay a pension to the worker,” La Repubblica, November 5, 2022. In Turin, Italy: A 63-year-old technician who used a cell phone for >2½ hours/day for 13 years and who developed an acoustic neuroma, wins a disability pension on appeal. More another Italian acoustic neuroma case, go here.
Association Between Electronic Device Usage and Sperm Quality Parameters in Healthy Men Screened as Potential Sperm Donors,” Environmental Pollution, November 2022. New study from China shows negative, albeit modest, impact of using electronic devices on fertility. A perhaps surprising finding: Headset use also linked to lower sperm quality. Authors explain: Those using headsets may have phones closer to their reproductive organs.
“ELF Magnetic Fields Significantly Enhance the Cytotoxicity of Methotrexate and Can Reduce Migration of Cancer Cell Lines via Transiently Induced Plasma Membrane Damage,” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, October 2022. “Our results suggest an important role for the use of ELF-MFs in the treatment of tumors that opens some new and exciting possibilities including using smaller therapeutic doses of chemotherapeutic agents and disrupting tumour metastasis.” In vitro experiment using 10 Hz EMFs at a very low intensity, 0.3 µT (3 mG). Open access.
“Low Intensity of Broadband Terahertz Radiation Promotes Neuronal Growth and Development,” Acta Physica Sinica, July 2022. In Chinese, with English abstract. Open access. “These results herald specific frequencies and energies of terahertz radiation as a novel neuromodulation technology for the treatment or intervention of diseases such as neurodevelopmental disorders.”
“Static Magnetic Fields from Earphones: Detailed Measurements Plus Some Open Questions,” Environmental Research, November 2022. From Argentina and Slovakia. Team includes Igor Belyaev. “Overall, it is concluded that the whole of the literature precludes assuming that, a priori, static magnetic fields from earphones are innocuous.”
“Interagency Committee on the Health Effects of Non-Ionising Fields: Report to Ministers,” New Zealand Ministry of Health, June 28, 2022. Report runs 107 pages: offers a full-throated endorsement of ICNIRP (on both RF and ELF EMFs) and recommends adoption of ICNIRP’s 2020 RF exposures guidelines. Strangely, committee members not named and they are not allowed to speak to the media.

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Former Director of NIEHS Endorses Removal

Open Letter to Editor-in-Chief, AMA Journals

How RF Research on the Blood-Brain Barrier Was Shut Down — AgainReflections on Leif Salford’s 80th Birthday

U.S. & European Research Societies Set To Join and Become BioEM

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer RiskTrends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

Pages

Microwave News Reading

Microwave News is...

How RF Research on the Blood-Brain Barrier
Was Shut Down — Again
Reflections on Leif Salford’s 80th Birthday

U.S. & European Research Societies Set
To Join and Become BioEM

Own Radiation Group Challenges Basis for “Possible” Cancer Risk
Trends for Aggressive Brain Tumors Unresolved