A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

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.

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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.

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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.

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Ignorance Drowns Out Precaution

NY Times Tech Columnist Has Hands Slapped

Friday, March 20, 2015

Last updated April 19, 2015

The New York Times went into damage control mode yesterday after Nick Bilton, a tech columnist and a rising star at the newspaper, suggested that precaution is the best approach to the use of cell phones and wearable electronics.

No sooner had Bilton’s column hit print than Margaret Sullivan, the Times’ Public Editor, chastised Bilton for his naive analysis. (It was posted on the Web a day earlier.) Sullivan targeted the lack of “sophisticated evaluation of serious research.”

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RF Cancer Promotion:
Animal Study Makes Waves

Germany’s Alex Lerchl Does a U-Turn

Friday, March 13, 2015

Last updated March 14, 2015

The RF–cancer story took a remarkable turn a few days ago. A new animal study challenged many of the assumptions which lie at the heart of claims that RF radiation —whether from cell phones, cell towers or Wi-Fi— are safe.

The new study, from Germany, a replication of an earlier experiment, also from Germany, found that weak cell phone signals can promote the growth of tumors in mice. It used radiation levels that do not cause heating and are well below current safety standards. Complicating matters even further, lower doses were often found to be more effective tumor promoters than higher levels; in effect, turning the conventional concept of a linear dose-response on its head.

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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SARs for Apple Watch 3 Released

September 22, 2017

Apple has released the RF exposure numbers —SARs, or specific absorption rates— for its new Series 3 Watches. These are the first wristwatches that can connect to cellular networks without being tethered to an iPhone.

The highest exposures, according to Apple, occur when the new watches are placed next to the head. The SAR measurements are based on a 10mm separation distance. The Model A1860 entails the highest exposure: 0.53 W/Kg averaged over 1g of tissue (0.52 W/Kg for the A1861).

The...

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NTP Cancer Study
Now Due Early 2018

August 30, 2017

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) will release the “complete results” of its $25 million project on cell phone cancer risks early next year, according to a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.

“The complete results from all the rats and mice studies will be available for peer review and public comment by early 2018,” the NTP states. The animals were exposed to GSM or CDMA radiation for two years before they were sacrificed...

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Hot new papers & articles

“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.
“Mechanosensory Hairs in Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Detect Weak Electric Fields,” PNAS, posted online May 31, 2016. Open access.
“Synergism Between Sinusoidal 50 Hz Magnetic Field and Formaldehyde in Triggering Carcinogenic Effects in Male [SD] Rats,” American Journal of Industrial Medcine, posted online May 24, 2016. “Life-span exposure to MF and formaldehyde induces statistically significant carcinogenic effects in male rats.” From the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna. See also our detailed report on the same project.
“Magnetic Correlates in EM Consciousness,” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, posted online April 6, 2016. The latest paper from Abe Liboff in which he examines the hypothesis that “consciousness is a manifestation of the EM field,” based on evidence that “living tissue is ultrasensitive to ultrasmall (1-100 nT) [0.01-1 mG] ELF fields.”
“The Magnetic Orientation of the Antarctic Amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica Is Cancelled by Very Weak RF Field,” Journal of Experimental Biology, published online March 2016. “The results of our experiments suggest the remarkable sensitivity … of the Antarctic amphipod … Even 2 nT RF regardless of frequency was able to disrupt orientation.” (1-10 MHz)
“Financial Conflicts of Interest and Study Results in Environmental and Occupational Health Research,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, March 2016. “[F]inancial relationships are clearly associated with the direction of reported scientific findings.”
“Effects of Cell Phone Use on Semen Parameters: Results from the MARHCS Cohort Ctudy in Chongqing, China,” Environment International, May 2016. “Our results suggest that certain aspects of cell phone use may negatively affect sperm quality in men by decreasing the semen volume, sperm concentration, or sperm count, thus impairing male fertility.” Click here for more on the growing literature detailing effects on fertility.
“Influence of Author’s Affiliation and Funding Sources on the Results of Cohort Studies on Occupational Cancer,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, March 2016. “Our study demonstrated that the cohort studies on occupational exposures and cancer published by authors belonging to the private sector (industry or consultant), or funded by the private sector, concluded significantly less often that an excess of risk of cancer was found than those published by authors affiliated to universities or public institutions. Furthermore, private authors more frequently downplayed the risk in the Conclusion section of the abstract, as compared to the Results section, than public authors did.”

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

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

Ignorance Drowns Out Precaution

NY Times Tech Columnist Has Hands Slapped

RF Cancer Promotion:
Animal Study Makes Waves

Germany’s Alex Lerchl Does a U-Turn

Pages

Short Takes

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

SARs for Apple Watch 3 Released

NTP Cancer Study
Now Due Early 2018

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A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

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

NY Times Tech Columnist Has Hands Slapped

Germany’s Alex Lerchl Does a U-Turn

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

Pages

Microwave News Reading

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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