A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Cell Phone Radiation Leads to Cancer, Says U.S. NTP in Final Report

Rats Developed Rare Heart Tumor
Cancer Link Was Once Thought Impossible

Thursday, November 1, 2018

“We believe that the link between radiofrequency (RF) radiation and tumors in male rats is real,” says John Bucher, the former associate director of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP).

The announcement accompanies this morning’s release of the NTP final reports of studies on cancer in rats and mice exposed to cell phone radiation. Bucher’s project, the largest in NTP history, cost $30 million and took more than ten years to complete.

The NTP found what it calls “clear evidence” that two different types of cell phone signals, GSM and CDMA, increased the incidence of malignant tumors in the hearts of male rats over the course of the two-year study.

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Location, Location, Location
Aggressive Brain Tumors Tell a Story

GBM Rise Only in Frontal and Temporal Lobes

Friday, October 26, 2018

Last updated October 29, 2018

A U.K. epidemiologist has confirmed that glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive type of brain tumor, is on the rise in England. In a new paper, Frank de Vocht of the University of Bristol reports that he sees a significant and consistent increase in GBM in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain over the last 20-30 years.

Alasdair Philips, an independent researcher based in Scotland, and three colleagues first documented the increase last March. It was not due to improved diagnosis, they said, but they could not pinpoint which “environmental or lifestyle factor” was responsible. There was one obvious possibility: cell phones.

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Japan and Korea Planning Their Own Cell Phone Animal Studies

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Japanese and Korean officials are working on a partial replication of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) animal study on cancer risks from cell phone radiation. The project is expected to be approved and get underway late next year.

Though collaborating on a common experimental design, each country will carry out its own exposures with animals from the same breeder. If the designs are similar enough, the two sets of data will be combined in a joint analysis.

“We have been discussing this issue in Japan,” said Masao Taki of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University, who was a member of ICNIRP from 1996 to 2008.

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Hail and Farewell
NIOSH’s Joe Bowman Dies at 73

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Members of the EMF/RF research community are not known as risk takers. Some have sold their souls, but most simply follow the prescribed dogma: They keep a low profile and eke out a grant or contract here and there.

In this environment, original ideas are rare and greeted cautiously. Joe Bowman, who died on July 14, was different. As one colleague told me on hearing the news last week, “Joe was honest and he had guts.”

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Show Me the Studies!

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

Monday, May 7, 2018

Last updated July 16, 2018

George Carlo is back. … Again.

He has a leading role in an exposé in The Nation magazine, where he is portrayed as the inside man who was hired to run a $25 million health research project for the telecom industry and later fired when he found out that cell phones present a cancer risk.

At least that’s what Carlo wants you to believe. The truth is a lot messier and a lot less favorable.

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Short Takes

In Memoriam: Moris Shore

October 10, 2020

“A safe level of microwave exposure was arbitrarily established —no dissent from the arbitrary safe standard was tolerated— in a largely thermal (i.e., high-exposure level) microwave research program … [It] and the averaging provisions … may represent a directed verdict rather than a culmination of objective and unbiased scientific judgment.”

Does that sound familiar?

Actually, it’s from a paper delivered more than 40 years ago by Moris Shore, the former director of the Division of...

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5G Waveforms in Dispute

September 25, 2020

Very little has been written in the popular media about the waveforms used in 5G signals. Two outstanding questions are: How fast are the pulses? How powerful are they?

In 2018, Esra Neufeld and Niels Kuster of the IT’IS Foundation in Zurich issued a warning in a...

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Does Cockpit RF Disorient Pilots?

September 15, 2020

Last updated September 16, 2020

Spatial disorientation among U.S. Air Force pilots has been linked to 72 severe accidents between 1993 and 2013, resulting in 101 deaths and the loss of 65 aircraft. Now DARPA, the defense department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, wants to know whether RF radiation in the cockpit of combat aircraft may be at least partly to blame.

Under the new initiative, with the acronym ICEMAN, DARPA is seeking a contractor to measure the...

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ICNIRP’s Principal Patron: Germany

June 25, 2020

The German government is the main sponsor of ICNIRP, the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.

The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), which is the bureaucratic parent of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), has contributed 70-80% of ICNIRP’s annual income in each of the last three years. This...

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ICNIRP Issues Revised RF Guidelines

March 11, 2020

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has issued updated guidelines for exposures to RF/microwave radiation.

“The guidelines have been developed after a thorough review of all relevant scientific literature, scientific workshops and an extensive public consultation process. They provide protection against all scientifically substantiated adverse health effects due to EMF exposure in the 100 kHz to 300 GHz range,” according to...

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NTP Scientists Endorse Precaution

January 17, 2020

NTP scientists have decided to follow the science.

In a recent revision to the information it offers the public on cell phone radiation, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) revealed that its scientists are now taking precautions by spending less time on cell phones and, when on a call, increasing the distance between their heads and the...

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Peggy Olive who developed a variant of NP Singh’s comet assay to detect DNA breaks, died last December. She was 70. Olive played a key role in a long-running controversy involving Motorola, Joe Roti Roti, John Moulder and Radiation Research to discredit the Lai-Singh work showing that microwave radiation can be genotoxic (more here.)
“Blue Light-Dependent Human Magnetoreception in Geomagnetic Food Orientation,” PLoS1, online February 14, 2019. “Blue-light dependent human magnetoreception occurs in the eyes in a manner that appears to involve the brain and glucose.” From Korea; open access.
“Low-Intensity EMFs Induce Human Cryptochrome To Modulate Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS),” PLoS Biology, October 2, 2018. “Here, we show … that exposure of mammalian cells to weak pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) stimulates rapid accumulation of ROS, a potentially toxic metabolite with multiple roles in stress response and cellular ageing. Following exposure to PEMF, cell growth is slowed, and ROS-responsive genes are induced. These effects require the presence of cryptochrome, a putative magnetosensor that synthesizes ROS. We conclude that modulation of intracellular ROS via cryptochromes represents a general response to weak EMFs, which can account for either therapeutic or pathological effects depending on exposure.” Funded by USAF. Also this follow-up: “Cryptochrome: The Magnetosensor with a Sinister Side?” (Both open access)
“Mobile Phone Use and Incidence of Brain Tumour Histological Types, Grading or Anatomical Location: A Population-Based Ecological Study,” BMJ Open, posted December 9, 2018. “We found no evidence that mobile phone use increased any brain tumour histological types or subtypes.” See also the press release. Open access.
“Systematic Derivation of Safety Limits for Time-Varying 5G RF Exposure Based on Analytical Models and Thermal Dose,” Health Physics, December 2018. “Another conclusion of this study is that the current ICNIRP (1998) and IEEE (2005, 2010) guidelines urgently need to be revised, as the duty cycle of 1,000 currently tolerated can produce unacceptable temperature increases that may result in permanent tissue damage.” From IT’IS in Zurich.
“Evaluation of the NTP and Ramazzini Studies,” BERENIS Newsletter, November 2018. This expert group on EMF/NIR, which advises the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, states that these two animal cancer studies are “the most comprehensive” to date. Despite their methodological differences, they both showed “relatively consistent results in schwannomas and gliomas, as well as a dose-dependent trend to an increase in the carcinogenicity of these tumors.” Based on these findings, BERENIS favors a precautionary approach for RF/EMF exposures.
“Cell Phone Use and Risk of Thyroid Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Connecticut,” Annals of Epidemiology, posted online October 29, 2018. “A suggestive increased risk associated with long-term and frequent uses were observed for thyroid microcarcinomas, but not larger tumors (>10mm).”
“Analyses of Temporal and Spatial Patterns of GBM and other Brain Cancers Subtypes in Relation to Mobile Phones Using Synthetic Counterfactuals,” Environmental Research, posted October 17, 2018. Frank de Vocht confirms that GBM is rising in the U.K. but argues that it’s “unlikely” that RF from cell phones is responsible.
“Critique of the ICNIRP Note of September 4, 2018, Regarding Recent Animal Carcinogenesis Studies,” Ron Melnick, September 12, 2018. Ron Melnick, formerly with NTP, spells out 15 “extensive and misleading” statements made by ICNIRP on the NTP and Ramazzini cell phone–animal studies. Also today, Ramazzini’s Fiorella Belpoggi posted her comments. See also Melnick’s commentary on the NTP study posted (Sept 20) by Environmental Research.
“Scientists and Doctors Zap Theory that Microwave Weapon Injured Cuba Diplomats,” Washington Post, September 6, 2018.” Challenges NYTimes report (below). “No microwave weapon that affects the brain is known to exist.”

A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Cell Phone Radiation Leads to Cancer, Says U.S. NTP in Final Report

Rats Developed Rare Heart Tumor
Cancer Link Was Once Thought Impossible

Location, Location, Location
Aggressive Brain Tumors Tell a Story

GBM Rise Only in Frontal and Temporal Lobes

Japan and Korea Planning Their Own Cell Phone Animal Studies

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

Hail and Farewell
NIOSH’s Joe Bowman Dies at 73

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

Show Me the Studies!

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

Pages

Short Takes

In Memoriam: Moris Shore

5G Waveforms in Dispute

Does Cockpit RF Disorient Pilots?

ICNIRP’s Principal Patron: Germany

ICNIRP Issues Revised RF Guidelines

NTP Scientists Endorse Precaution

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A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

News & Comment

Rats Developed Rare Heart TumorCancer Link Was Once Thought Impossible

GBM Rise Only in Frontal and Temporal Lobes

Verifying NTP Cancer Findings

An Expert on Exposure Assessment, He Never Gave Up

“The Nation” Resurrects an Old Controversy

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

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Rats Developed Rare Heart Tumor
Cancer Link Was Once Thought Impossible