A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

Jim Lin on ICNIRP

April 13, 2021

“Science, Politics, and Groupthink,” by James Lin, IEEE Microwave Magazine, May 2021.

Jim Lin faults ICNIRP for preferring to “quibble” over the 2018 NTP and Ramazzini RF–animal studies rather than concluding that they point to a cancer risk. He writes: “The simultaneous penchant to dismiss and criticize positive results and the fondness for and eager acceptance of negative findings are palpable and concerning.”

He concludes the column with a call for precaution: “When confronted with such divergent assessments of science, the ALARA —as low as reasonably achievable— practice and principle should be followed for RF health and safety.”

Lin did not call out ICNIRP by name (except in a footnote), describing it only as “a privately constituted group, with self-appointed membership.”

Lin was a commissioner of ICNIRP from 2004 to 2016 and is the first former member to break ranks and speak out against its refusal to acknowledge an RF–cancer risk and call for precaution.

Lin, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Chicago, is currently the editor-in-chief of the journal Bioelectromagnetics.