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%.

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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.

Continues

Will WHO Kick
Its ICNIRP Habit?

Non-Thermal Effects Hang in the Balance
Repacholi’s Legacy of Industry Cronyism

Monday, November 4, 2019

Last updated November 29, 2021

After eight years of work, the World Health Organization (WHO) is reopening its review of the health effects of RF radiation for a summary report intended to serve as a benchmark for its more than 150 member countries. The report will be used as a guide to respond to widespread concerns over the new world of 5G.

The WHO issued a public call in October for detailed literature reviews on ten types of RF–health impacts from cancer to fertility to electrohypersensitivity. Some see the move as a sign that the health agency is interested in opinions beyond those of its long-time partner, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). They hope that the WHO is finally ready to recognize evidence of low-level effects, in particular the link between cell phones and cancer. Others are far from convinced.

The skeptics see the new reviews as little more than a ruse.

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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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Short Takes

French Health Agency Seeks RF Research

November 16, 2022

ANSES, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, has issued a request for proposals for studies on RF radiation.

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RF Health Review, Paris in November

October 19, 2022

Last updated October 31, 2022

Two influential health agencies, both based in France, will host a one-day meeting on RF–health research, November 23 in Paris. The public is invited to attend in person or online. Registration is free.

The conference, organized by ANSES, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety, and IARC, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, will focus on potential effects of RF radiation on the brain and on cancer risks. The theme is “Research in a Fast-Moving Environment.”

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The MW Debate Continues
—in Norwegian

July 14, 2022

Last updated July 15, 2022

Close to 40 years after its first publication, The Microwave Debate, Nicholas Steneck’s history of research and regulation of microwave health effects, is back in print —this time in Norwegian.

The new translation comes with an epilogue by Thomas Butler, a professor at Ireland’s Cork University Business School, who has contributed seven chapters —about 30,000 words— to bring Steneck’s story up to the present.

The translation is the brainchild of Einar Flydal ...

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NIER Effects on Flora & Fauna:
A Major Review

September 27, 2021

Last updated November 25, 2022

A detailed examination —likely the most exhaustive ever attempted— of the environmental effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation has been published in Reviews on Environmental Health.

“Effects of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Fields on Flora and Fauna” is in three parts, the last of which was posted today.

Taken together, the three papers run over 200 pages in the journal and include more 1,000 references.

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Italy’s 6 V/m RF Limit at Risk

May 3, 2021

Last updated May 5, 2021

Italy’s 6 V/m RF exposure standard, one of the strictest in the world, may soon fall victim to 5G.

The Italian limit, adopted more than 20 years ago, is widely perceived as standing in the way of the build-out of 5G infrastructure, which will require the installation of many more RF antennas. The proposed solution is to bring it in line with ICNIRP and follow its 61 V/m guideline.

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Rich Rewards for Bad Behavior

February 8, 2021

Alexander Lerchl’s bogus campaign against the REFLEX project and members of Hugo Rüdiger’s lab did nothing to harm his career. Just the opposite, Lerchl thrived as he gained stature and a succession of rich research grants from the German government.

Over the last 20 years, Germany’s Federal Office of Radiation Protection —the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, or BfS for short— has given Lerchl $5 million in contracts. Lerchl has been the best-funded RF lab researcher in Germany, Europe, and, most likely, the world.

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Hot new papers & articles

“Development of Health-Based Exposure Limits for RFR from Wireless Devices Using a Benchmark Dose Approach,” Environmental Health, posted July 17, 2021. From the Environmental Working Group (EWG). “The analysis presented here supports a whole-body SAR limit of 2-4 mW/Kg for adults... and 0.2-0.4 mW/Kg for young children.” Open access.
“Review of the Scientific Evidence on the Individual Sensitivity to EM fields (EHS),” Reviews of Environmental Health, posted July 6, 2021. By Dariusz Leszczynski. Includes 263 references. Open access. Five additional tables in the supplementary materials.
“Environmental Impacts of 5G: A Literature Review of Effects of RF EM Exposure of Non-Human Vertebrates, Invertebrates and Plants,” by Arno Thielens of the University of Ghent for the European Parliament, June 2021.
“Exposure to ELF Magnetic Fields and Childhood Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” PLoS One, May 14, 2021. Significant associations were observed between exposure to ELF-MFs and childhood leukemia. Furthermore, a possible dose-response effect was also observed.”
“Map-Like Use of Earth’s Magnetic Field in Sharks,” Current Biology, posted May 6, 2021. “The use of magnetic maps appears to be a fundamental tactic of how marine animals migrate. … This work points to a solution for a major puzzle in biogeography: how are migratory routes and population structure maintained in marine environments…”
“Arabidopsis Cryptochrome Is Responsive to RF EMFs,” Scientific Reports, July 9, 2021. RF “reduces conformational changes associated with biological activity” and “alters cryptochrome-dependent plant growth responses and gene expression.” This is the “first demonstration of a biological receptor responding to RF exposure.”
“5G: No New Health Risks in Light of Available Data," ANSES, April 20, 2021. French national health agency, ANSES, finds research on mm waves (26 GHz band) inadequate to judge possible health impacts. Seeks public comment.
“Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress—Biological Effects and Consequences for Health,” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, April 6, 2021. Review paper. Open access. “In summary, indications for increased oxidative stress caused by RF-EMF and ELF-MF were reported in the majority of the animal studies and in more than half of the cell studies.”
“Mutational Analysis of MpPhy Reveals Magnetoreception and Photosensitivity Involvement in Secondary Metabolites Biosynthesis in Monascus purpureus,” Journal of Photochemistry & Photobiology, B: Biology, April 2021. “A coupling effect could exist between magneto-reception and photosensitivity.”
“Science, Politics, and Groupthink,” by James Lin, IEEE Microwave Magazine, May 2021. 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.”

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

Non-Thermal Effects Hang in the BalanceRepacholi’s Legacy of Industry Cronyism

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

Pages

Short Takes

Hot new papers & articles

Pages

Microwave News Reading

Microwave News is...

Non-Thermal Effects Hang in the Balance
Repacholi’s Legacy of Industry Cronyism

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