“It’s the moment we’ve all been dreading. Initial findings from a massive [U.S.] federal study, released on Thursday, suggest that radio-frequency (RF) radiation, the type emitted by cellphones, can cause cancer,” Josh Harkinson reports for Mother Jones. “The findings from a $25 million study, conducted over two-and-a-half years by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), showed that male rats exposed to two types of RF radiation were significantly more likely than unexposed rats to develop a type of brain cancer called a glioma, and also had a higher chance of developing the rare, malignant form of tumor known as a schwannoma of the heart.”
“The radiation level the rats received was ‘not very different’ from what humans are exposed to when they use cell phones, said Chris Portier, former associate director of the NTP, who commissioned the study,” Harkinson reports. “Although ionizing radiation, which includes gamma rays and x-rays, is a widely accepted as a carcinogen, the wireless industry has long noted that there is no known mechanism by which RF radiation causes cancer. The researchers wrote that the results ‘appear to support’ the conclusion that RF radiation may indeed be carcinogenic.”
“The authors of the NTP study did not say how their results might translate into cancer risk for humans. But ‘given the extremely large number of people who use wireless communication devices,’ they wrote, ‘even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting from exposure to RFR resulting from those devices could have broad implications for public health,’ Harkinson reports. “The wireless industry and many media outlets — particularly tech sites, which depend on the industry for advertising — have confidently proclaimed that the science on cell phone safety is settled. You ‘can’t choose to ‘believe’ in facts because they are, well, facts,’ Charlie Sorrell wrote in Wiredin 2011, after detailing the results of a Danish epidemiological study showing no link between cellphone use and cancer. ‘So there you go, people. Finally you can ditch that dorky Bluetooth headset. Your brain isn’t being microwaved after all.'”
“But Portier says there still isn’t enough data to consider the case closed,” Harkinson reports. ‘There are arguments in the literature now that we are at the beginning of an epidemic of cancers,’ he told me. ‘There are arguments against that. It is not clear who is right. I have looked through it. It’s a mixed bag.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The jury is still out, but this is certainly a sobering study.
Thank God, we here at MacDailyNews, hardly ever use our cellphones to make phone calls at all, much less have them pressed up against our skulls. In fact, we’ve probably taken less than 100 calls since iPhone was introduced in 2007 and we can’t remember the last cellphone call we had that lasted more than a couple of minutes. We almost always use our iPhones on Wi-Fi and for data (browsing, texting, mail, etc.), not voice over cellular — hopefully Wi-Fi is safe or we’re all in big trouble!
SEE ALSO:
Study claims cellphone radiation can cause cancer – July 31, 2015
U.S. watchdog calls for regulators to review of cell phone radiation rules – August 8, 2012
FCC’s Genachowski looks to open new inquiry into cellphone radiation emissions – June 16, 2012
New research doubts link between cellphones and cancer – July 5, 2011
