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

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.

Continues

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.

Continues

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.

Continues

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.

Continues

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.

Continues

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.

Continues

Help Support
Microwave News

Sign Up Here for
E-Mail Alerts

Hot new papers & articles

“Impact of Specific EM Radiation on Wakefulness in Mice,” PNAS (Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences), April 1, 2024. “Alteration of sleep behavior by EMR depends upon not just carrier frequency but also frequency and mode of the modulation.” From China.
“Neurological Illness and National Security: Lessons to Be Learned,” JAMA, March 18, 2024. Sharply-worded editorial on two new NIH studies on Havana Syndrome by David Relman of Stanford University.
“‘Tumor Treating Fields’ Delivered via EM Induction Have Varied Effects Across Glioma Cell Lines and Electric Field Amplitudes,” American Journal of Cancer Research, February 28, 2024. “In summary, we have illustrated that the impact of Tumor Treating Fields can yield highly diverse effects on gene expression within distinct GBM stem cell lines.” Open access.
“Health and Environmental Effects to Wildlife from Radio Telemetry and Tracking Devices—State of the Science and Best Management Practices,” Frontiers in Veterinary Sciences, March 6, 2024. By Albert Manville, Blake Levitt and Henry Lai. Open access. “We need to seriously question if the continued use of radio tracking devices, gear, and technologies are worth their impacts on the species whose populations we supposedly are trying to protect and maintain.”
“Changes in Honey Bee Nutrition After Exposure to RF EMF,” The European Zoological Journal, February, 9, 2024. “RF EMFs disturb honey bee nutrition. The changes in the analyzed indicators may have long-term effects.” Open access.
“Interactions Between Electromagnetic Radiation and Biological Systems,” iScience, March 15, 2024. Major review from China, with more than 230 references. Open access.
“Mobile Phone Use and Brain Tumour Risk – COSMOS, a Prospective Cohort Study,” Environment International, March 1, 2024. “Our findings suggest that the cumulative amount of mobile phone use is not associated with the risk of developing glioma, meningioma or acoustic neuroma.” Yet, there appears to be support for unexplained reports of increases in GBMs in the same COSMOS countries. More...
“A Study on Effects of Cell Phone Tower–Emitted Non-Ionizing Radiations in an Allium cepa Test System,” Environmental Monitoring Assessment, February 13, 2024. Onion roots exposed to ~1-13 µW/cm² RF from cell towers showed “enhancement of oxidative stress and genotoxicity.” The higher the exposure, the greater the effect. Levels are orders of magnitude lower than most exposure limits. From Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India.
A Meta-Analysis of the Risk of Salivary Gland Tumors Associated with Mobile Phone Use: The Importance of Correct Exposure Assessment,” Reviews of Environmental Health, July 21, 2022. “This meta-analysis found no significant association between mobile phone usage and salivary gland tumors. However, these results were susceptible to selection and recall bias, and were predicated on poor exposure assessment, precluding firm conclusions from being drawn.” From Australia
“Biological Effects of Magnetic Storms and ELF Magnetic Fields,” Biology, December 8, 2023. A major review, with 362 references, from the Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Open access.

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