A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Japan and Korea Planning Their Own Cell Phone Animal Studies

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Japanese and Korean officials are working on a partial replication of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) animal study on cancer risks from cell phone radiation. The project is expected to be approved and get underway late next year.

Though collaborating on a common experimental design, each country will carry out its own exposures with animals from the same breeder. If the designs are similar enough, the two sets of data will be combined in a joint analysis.

“We have been discussing this issue in Japan,” said Masao Taki of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University, who was a member of ICNIRP from 1996 to 2008.

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Hail and Farewell
NIOSH’s Joe Bowman Dies at 73

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Members of the EMF/RF research community are not known as risk takers. Some have sold their souls, but most simply follow the prescribed dogma: They keep a low profile and eke out a grant or contract here and there.

In this environment, original ideas are rare and greeted cautiously. Joe Bowman, who died on July 14, was different. As one colleague told me on hearing the news last week, “Joe was honest and he had guts.”

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Show Me the Studies!

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

Monday, May 7, 2018

Last updated July 16, 2018

George Carlo is back. … Again.

He has a leading role in an exposé in The Nation magazine, where he is portrayed as the inside man who was hired to run a $25 million health research project for the telecom industry and later fired when he found out that cell phones present a cancer risk.

At least that’s what Carlo wants you to believe. The truth is a lot messier and a lot less favorable.

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“Clear Evidence” of Cell Phone Cancer Risk, Say Leading Pathologists

Why Peer Review Panel and NTP Interpreted the Same Animal Data Differently

Monday, April 9, 2018

“You had it right the first time.” That was the implicit message to the National Toxicology Program (NTP) from an expert panel after a point-by-point review of NTP’s draft reports on its $25 million study of cancer risks of cell phone radiation in mice and rats.

Two years ago, with the results in hand, the NTP rushed to warn the public about the dangers of cell phones. It issued an interim report pointing to higher rates of tumors in the hearts and brains of male rats exposed to two different kinds of phone radiation. Then early this February with the release of the formal draft reports, the NTP made a U-turn, saying that using a cell phone “is not a high-risk situation.”

Now a peer review panel —11 pathologists and toxicologists from academia and industry and one statistician— has concluded that there is “clear evidence of carcinogenic activity” in those male rats.

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Aggressive Brain Tumors on the Rise in England

Rate of GBM More Than Doubled Between 1995 and 2015

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Last updated June 25, 2018

The incidence of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the deadliest type of brain tumor, more than doubled in England between 1995 and 2015, according to a new analysis of national statistics. During that time, the number of cases of GBM rose from 983 to 2,531.

“We found a sustained and highly significant increase in GBM throughout the 21 years and across all ages,” said Alasdair Philips, the lead author of the study, which has just been released online by the peer-reviewed, open access, Journal of Environmental and Public Health.

“The incidence rate of GBM, the most aggressive and quickly fatal brain tumor, is rising dramatically in England while the rates for lower grade tumors have decreased, masking this dramatic trend in the overall data,” Philips told Microwave News from his home in Beeswing in southern Scotland, not far from the English border.

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NIER Effects on Flora & Fauna:
A Major Review

September 27, 2021

A detailed examination —likely the most exhaustive ever attempted— of the environmental effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation has been published in Reviews on Environmental Health.

“Effects of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Fields on Flora and Fauna” is in three parts, the last of which was posted today.

Taken together, the three papers run over 200 pages in the journal and include more 1,000 references.

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Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit at Risk

May 3, 2021

Last updated May 5, 2021

Italy’s 6 V/m RF exposure standard, one of the strictest in the world, may soon fall victim to 5G.

The Italian limit, adopted more than 20 years ago, is widely perceived as standing in the way of the build-out of 5G infrastructure, which will require the installation of many more RF antennas. The proposed solution is to bring it in line with ICNIRP and follow its 61 V/m guideline.

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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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Hot new papers & articles

“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)
“Whole-Body Exposures to RF-EMF Energy Can Cause DNA Damage in Mouse Spermatozoa via an Oxidative Mechanism,” Scientific Reports, November 25, 2019. In summary, our evidence supports the hypothesis that sustained whole-body RF-EME is capable of inducing a state of oxidative stress in the male germ line, a cell vulnerable to the effects of ROS. … Furthermore, our data further implicate the mitochondria as the target for RF-EME biophysical interaction, with a consequential elevation of mitochondrial ROS generation being linked to reduced motility and elevated oxidative DNA damage and DNA fragmentation in the spermatozoa of exposed male.” From Australia. Open access.
“Changes in Trends in Thyroid Cancer Incidence in the United States, 1992 to 2016,” Journal of the American Medical Association, December 24-31, 2019. “Between 2009 and 2016, after 3 decades of rapid increase, the incidence of thyroid cancer incidence in the United States reached a plateau and possibly started to decline.”
“If Jet Radars Don’t Raise Cancer Risk, Why Did the Navy Coat Some Cockpits in Gold?” McClatchy News, November 27, 2019. An investigation has found a cluster of cancer cases among U.S. Navy pilots of E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft exposed to radar radiation.
“Evaluation of the Genotoxicity of Cell Phone RFR in Male and Female Rats and Mice following Subchronic Exposure,” Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, posted October 21, 2019. From the NTP: "[S]ignificant increases in the levels of DNA damage measured by the comet assay were seen in several tissues from rats and mice, indicating that RFR may be capable of causing increases in DNA damage.” More here and here.
“Parental Occupational Exposure to Low-Frequency Magnetic Fields and Risk of Leukaemia in the Offspring,” Occupational & Environmental Medicine, July 29, 2019. “We did not find any associations.” Pooled analysis of 11 case-control studies by the Childhood Leukaemia International Consortium, including Joachim Schüz of IARC and Elisabeth Cardis. Open access.
“Untargeted Metabolomics Unveil Alterations of Biomembranes Permeability in Human HaCaT Keratinocytes upon 60 GHz Millimeter Wave Exposure,” Scientific Reports, June 27, 2019. Millimeter waves “might alter the permeability of cell membranes.” An “unexpected” finding. Open access.

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Japan and Korea Planning Their Own Cell Phone Animal Studies

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

Hail and Farewell
NIOSH’s Joe Bowman Dies at 73

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

Show Me the Studies!

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

“Clear Evidence” of Cell Phone Cancer Risk, Say Leading Pathologists

Why Peer Review Panel and NTP Interpreted the Same Animal Data Differently

Aggressive Brain Tumors on the Rise in England

Rate of GBM More Than Doubled Between 1995 and 2015

Pages

Short Takes

NIER Effects on Flora & Fauna:
A Major Review

Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit at Risk

Rich Rewards for Bad Behavior

Physicist Robert Adair Dead at 96

Dutch Advisory Panel Calls for Caution on 5G

In Memoriam: Moris Shore

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A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

Why Peer Review Panel and NTP Interpreted the Same Animal Data Differently

Rate of GBM More Than Doubled Between 1995 and 2015

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

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