A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

News Media Nix NTP Cancer Study
“Don’t Believe the Hype”

Are More People Getting Brain Tumors?
GBMs, the Most Virulent Type, Are Rising

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Last updated June 2, 2016

Senior managers at the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released the preliminary results of their cell phone radiation study late last week. They were so concerned about the elevated rates of two types of cancer among exposed rats that they felt an immediate public alert was warranted. They considered it unwise to wait for the results to wend their way into a journal sometime next year. Not surprisingly, the NTP report generated worldwide media attention.

There were some startling reactions. Both the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Consumer Reports immediately shelved their long-held, wait-and-see positions. In a statement issued soon after the NTP’s press conference, Otis Brawley, ACS’ chief medical officer, called the NTP report “good science.” Consumer Reports said that the new study was “groundbreaking” and encouraged people to take simple precautions to limit their exposures.

However, much of the mainstream media saw it very differently. The Washington Post ran its story under the headline, “Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Don’t Believe the Hype.”

Continues

Cell Phone Radiation Boosts Cancer Rates in Animals;
$25 Million NTP Study Finds Brain Tumors

U.S. Government Expected To Advise Public of Health Risk

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The cell phone cancer controversy will never be the same again.

The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) is expected to issue a public announcement that cell phone radiation presents a cancer risk for humans. The move comes soon after its recently completed study showed statistically significant increases in cancer among rats that had been exposed to GSM or CDMA signals for two-years.

Discussions are currently underway among federal agencies on how to inform the public about the new findings. NTP senior managers believe that these results should be released as soon as possible because just about everyone is exposed to wireless radiation all the time and therefore everyone is potentially at risk.

Continues

Power-Frequency EMFs Promote Cancer in Massive Animal Study

Italians Call for a “Reevaluation of the
Safety of Non-Ionizing Radiation”

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Last updated May 24, 2016

Once again, power-frequency magnetic fields have been found to act as a cancer promoter.

Eighteen months ago an international team led by Elisabeth Cardis in Spain showed cancer promotion in workers exposed to chemicals and extremely low frequency (ELF) EMFs. Now an Italian team has found essentially the same promotional effect in animals exposed to ionizing radiation and ELF EMFs.

The new study, which was carried out at the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy, is part of the most ambitious EMF–animal project ever attempted.

Continues

NCRP Pressured CDC To Remove
Cell Phone Safety Advice

You Say “Caution,” We Say “Precaution,”
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The NCRP was the driving force behind the removal of cautionary advice in a CDC fact sheet on cell phone use. Senior officials at the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements pressured the Centers for Disease Control into deleting the cautionary language in August 2014.

The NCRP is an influential policy-setting group, chartered by the U.S. Congress to serve the public health.

Continues

Institute of Environmental Health Secrets:
NIEHS Mum on $25 Million RF Animal Project

Skirts Freedom of Information Act

Monday, November 30, 2015

Last updated December 1, 2015

NIEHS really doesn’t want to talk about it. Ten years into a $25+ million project to assess the cancer risk of wireless radiation in laboratory animals, the staff at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences remains tight-lipped and refuses to release project documents.

NIEHS has many reasons for keeping a low profile. The RF project, the most expensive in National Toxicology Program history, is years late and two-to-three times over budget. A more immediate concern is that it could force the institute into a position it would desperately prefer to avoid: Being at the center of the ever-contentious controversy over cell phone radiation and cancer.

Continues

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Short Takes

Row over Cancer, Cell Phone Review

February 20, 2019

A major review of cell phone cancer risks is at the center of an ongoing controversy over whether it is biased and should be withdrawn.

The new paper by some of the most prominent members of the RF–health community contends that epidemiological studies do not show an increased risk of brain tumors or acoustic neuroma associated with the use of mobile phones. That is, cell phones are cancer safe.

Titled “Brain and Salivary Gland Tumors and Mobile Phone Use: Evaluating the Evidence from Various Epidemiological Study Designs,” the...

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Italian Court Orders Public Safety Campaign

January 16, 2019

In a victory for advocates of precaution, an Italian court has ordered the government to launch a campaign to advise the public of the health risks from mobile and cordless phones.

The information campaign must begin by July 16.

The court in Rome reached its decision last November, but the announcement was only made yesterday. The decision is here.

Today, the...

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ICNIRP Finds NTP & Ramazzini RF–Animal Studies Unconvincing

September 4, 2018

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has determined that the two recent animal studies pointing to a cancer risk from cell phone radiation are not convincing and should not be used to revise current exposure standards.

In a “note” published today, the 12-member group states that the studies by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and the...

Continues

Martin Blank
(1935-2018)

June 15, 2018

Martin Blank died on June 13 at the age of 85.

A retired professor at Columbia University, Blank was a long-time EMF researcher, best known for his collaboration with Columbia’s Reba Goodman.

Writing in his 2014 book, Overpowered, Blank called himself an “unlikely activist” and urged people to practice precaution.

His...

Continues

Cell Phone Use Is “Not a High-Risk Situation”

February 2, 2018

Last updated February 10, 2018

Here are four key takeaways from the NTP press conference held this afternoon, soon after the release of its two cell phone reports:

1. NTP’s bottom line on cell phone use: “This is not a high-risk situation.”

2. RF radiation has biological effects at levels previously believed to be innocuous —they may be good or bad.

3. NTP will continue to do RF health studies. A new exposure facility is being...

Continues

NTP: Draft RF Cancer Reports Released

January 29, 2018

Last updated February 2, 2018

The NTP has released two reports on the cancer risks from cell phone radiation (GSM and CDMA) on rats and mice. They are available here.

The NTP press release, “High Exposure to RF Radiation Linked to Tumor Activity in Male Rats” is here.

January 29, 12018

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has announced that the draft reports...

Continues

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Hot new papers & articles

“The Intracranial Distribution of Gliomas in Relation to Exposure from Mobile Phones: Analysis from the Interphone Study,” American Journal of Epidemiology, posted online November 3, 2016. The latest analysis from Interphone. The same tensions continue with no clear consensus.
“Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents,“ JAMA Internal Medicine, published online September 12, 2016. “This historical account of industry efforts demonstrates the importance of having reviews written by people without conflicts of interest and the need for financial disclosure.” From Stanton Glantz’s Center for Tobacco Research. Open access. More than 10 years ago the electric utility industry paid Leeka Kheifets $50,000 for a literature review.
“The Effects of RF EM Radiation on Sperm Function,” Reproduction, posted September 6, 2016. “We propose a mechanistic model in which RF-EMR exposure leads to defective mitochondrial function associated with elevated levels of ROS production…” From Australia, open access.
“Magnetite Pollution Nanoparticles in the Human Brain,” PNAS, posted online September 6, 2016. “This discovery is important because nanoscale magnetite can respond to external magnetic fields, and is toxic to the brain, being implicated in production of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS).” See also Newsweek story.
“Tumor Specific Frequencies and Ocular Melanoma,” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, posted online August 23, 2016. Sam Milham and David Stetzer point to a link between kHz signals from variable frequency drives on electric motors at an LNG plant and a cluster of a very rare cancer.
Video of presentation and discussion of the NTP RF study at the NTP Board of Counselors Meeting, June 2016. Also here. Mostly Michael Wyde’s talk with important comments by NTP Director Linda Birnbaum and Associate Director John Bucher. Birnbaum calls the link between RF and Schwannomas of the heart “unequivocally clear” (@43:20-minute mark). A few minutes later, she describes it as having a “beautiful dose-relationship.” Bucher talks about the continuity in the spectrum between hyperplasia and glioma.
“Smart Skin Enables Magnetoreception,” The Scientist, September 2016. “It would truly be a sixth-sense technology.”
“Increasing Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in the Nordic Countries with Main Focus on Swedish Data,” BMC Cancer, July 7, 2016. New from Lennart Hardell’s group in Sweden. “With the emergence of the smartphones in the mid and late 2000s, the internal antenna location started to shift from the top of the phone to the bottom of the phone.” This would entail greater RF exposure of the thyroid gland than earlier phones. (Open access) … In a report issued on August 18, IARC maintains that, “the growing epidemic of thyroid cancer reported in recent decades in several high-income countries is largely due to overdiagnosis.” Read the IARC press release here. We asked Hardell whether the IARC analysis changed his outlook on the possible role played by smart phones. “No,” he replied.
“EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of EMF-Related Health Problems and Illnesses,” Reviews on Environmental Health, posted online July 25, 2016. Open access.
“NTP Toxicology and Carcinogenicity Studies of Cell Phone RF Radiation”; Michael Wyde’s PowerPoint presentation at the BioEM2016 meeting in Ghent, Belgium, June 8, 2016. Covers pathology, survival and genetic toxicology results.

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

News Media Nix NTP Cancer Study
“Don’t Believe the Hype”

Are More People Getting Brain Tumors?
GBMs, the Most Virulent Type, Are Rising

Cell Phone Radiation Boosts Cancer Rates in Animals;
$25 Million NTP Study Finds Brain Tumors

U.S. Government Expected To Advise Public of Health Risk

Power-Frequency EMFs Promote Cancer in Massive Animal Study

Italians Call for a “Reevaluation of the
Safety of Non-Ionizing Radiation”

NCRP Pressured CDC To Remove
Cell Phone Safety Advice

You Say “Caution,” We Say “Precaution,”
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

Institute of Environmental Health Secrets:
NIEHS Mum on $25 Million RF Animal Project

Skirts Freedom of Information Act

Pages

Short Takes

Row over Cancer, Cell Phone Review

Italian Court Orders Public Safety Campaign

ICNIRP Finds NTP & Ramazzini RF–Animal Studies Unconvincing

Martin Blank
(1935-2018)

Cell Phone Use Is “Not a High-Risk Situation”

NTP: Draft RF Cancer Reports Released

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A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Are More People Getting Brain Tumors?GBMs, the Most Virulent Type, Are Rising

U.S. Government Expected To Advise Public of Health Risk

Italians Call for a “Reevaluation of the Safety of Non-Ionizing Radiation”

You Say “Caution,” We Say “Precaution,” Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

Skirts Freedom of Information Act

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

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Microwave News Reading

Microwave News is...

Are More People Getting Brain Tumors?
GBMs, the Most Virulent Type, Are Rising

Italians Call for a “Reevaluation of the
Safety of Non-Ionizing Radiation”

You Say “Caution,” We Say “Precaution,”
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off