A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Cell Phones and Cancer:
Your Genes May Tell the Story

Genetic Susceptibility and RF Radiation Modulate Thyroid Cancer

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Last January, a team led by Yawei Zhang of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven published an epidemiological study on the possible link between thyroid cancer and cell phones. Though some “suggestive” associations were seen among long-term users, none was statistically significant. Still, the results “warrant further investigation,” they advised.

Zhang did follow up, and what she found could well change the way people think about cell phone cancer risks.

She discovered that some people have an innate susceptibility to thyroid cancer when exposed to cell phone radiation. These individuals have small variations in their DNA which affect the functioning of seven different genes.

All seven genes regulate DNA repair.

Continues

GBM Incidence Rates Relatively
Steady in U.S. and Canada

Unlike the Doubling Seen in England

Friday, December 13, 2019

The incidence of glioblastoma multiforme, GBM, the most aggressive type of brain tumor, though rising slowly over the last 20 years, has not jumped up in the U.S. and Canada, as it has in England and a number of other northern European countries, according to a new analysis of national brain tumor registry data.

Between 1995 and 2015, GBM rates went up 10% in the U.S. and 26% in Canada. In contrast, the increase in England over the same period was 110%.

Continues

Open Season on 5G Critics

First NY Times, Now Scientific American

Friday, December 6, 2019

Last updated February 19, 2020

Simply saying that more health research is needed on 5G —the latest generation of cell phone technology— can be hazardous to your reputation.

Last May, the New York Times tried to take down David Carpenter, a public health physician and the country’s most prominent 5G critic. Veteran science writer William Broad painted Carpenter as a willing tool of a disinformation campaign promoted by RT America, a Russian TV network. Two months later, Broad was back for another hit on Carpenter. Much of what Broad wrote was fiction.

Now Scientific American has ambushed Joel Moskowitz, one of the few other academics willing to state the obvious: No one knows whether 5G is safe.

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NTP Turns to Mechanisms

DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and
Gene Expression Are on the Agenda

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Last updated October 22, 2019

The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) will soon embark on a new phase of its long-running RF project. Last year, the NTP concluded that RF radiation causes cancer; now it will begin a systematic search for mechanisms to explain how and why the tumors developed. Work is expected to begin by the end of the year.

The research plan is wide-ranging. It will include studies on gene expression, oxidative stress and DNA damage and repair, as well as on the possible role played by heat. Other priorities on the NTP agenda are studies on behavior and stress.

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A Fact-Free Hit on a 5G Critic

Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk

Monday, July 22, 2019

Last updated July 13, 2021

Last Tuesday, July 16, the New York Times devoted most of the front page of its science section to William Broad’s latest attack on those who challenge the dogma that wireless radiation is absolutely safe.

“The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t” is the catchy headline of the Web version of his article. It is followed by “How one scientist and his inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of wireless technology.”

Broad focuses on two letters* written about 20 years ago by Bill Curry, a consulting physicist, who openly disapproved of putting Wi-Fi in classrooms.

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Short Takes

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.

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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.

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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.

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Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit at Risk

March 14, 2024

The International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF) has written to Italian government officials to support the country’s strict 6 V/m RF exposure limit.

The letter, dated March 13, expresses “great concern” that the standard might be weakened. It is signed by Ronald Melnick, the chair of ICBE-EMF, and by Elizabeth Kelley, its managing director.

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“NTP Lite”: Update from Japan

March 12, 2024

The Japanese group running a partial repeat of the NTP RF cancer study has not observed genotoxic effects among male rats exposed to 900 MHz CDMA radiation at 4 W/Kg, according to a paper to be presented tomorrow at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology in Salt Lake City, UT (SOT2024).

The analysis of the cancer data is ongoing and will not be reported.

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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.

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Hot new papers & articles

“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.
“Use of Mobile Phones and the Incidence of Glioma Since 1979,” IARC’s Isabelle Deltour and Joachim Schüz for Germany’s Federal Office of Radiation Protection, June 30, 2022. Free access. An increased risk of brain tumors in the 10% heaviest mobile phone users remains “plausible.” But any risk would be ”very small”, and would only occur after “very long latency periods of several decades”, or only affect small subgroups within glioma patients. For context go here.
“Self-Referencing Authorships Behind the ICNIRP 2020 Radiation Protection Guidelines,” Else Nordhagen and Einar Flydal, Reviews on Environmental Health, June 27, 2022. Two key findings: “ICNIRP 2020 authors are involved in all literature reviews referenced in ICNIRP 2020 to underpin it”; and “a small and tight network of just 17 authors behind all the literature used to underpin ICNIRP 2020.” From Norway; open access.

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Genetic Susceptibility and RF Radiation Modulate Thyroid Cancer

Unlike the Doubling Seen in England

First NY Times, Now Scientific American

DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and Gene Expression Are on the Agenda

Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

Pages

Microwave News Reading

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DNA Breaks, Oxidative Stress and
Gene Expression Are on the Agenda