It’s back. The dreaded
debate over the effects of cell phone radiation and cancer has returned,
and if you number among the 92 percent of Americans who own a mobile device, you may want to sit down. Initial findings
from a $25 million, two-and-a-half-year study by the National
Toxicology Program suggest that radio-frequency (RF) radiation emitted
by our cellphones can indeed cause cancer.
In conducting their research, scientists exposed male rats to two
kinds of RF radiation, and found that they were “significantly more
likely” to develop brain cancer than were rats that were not exposed to
the radiation. In particular, exposed rats tended towards a type of
brain cancer known as a glioma, as well as a higher likelihood for a
rare tumor called a schwannoma of the heart. This same effect, however,
was not observed in female rats.
“This is by far—far and away—the most carefully done cell phone bioassay, a biological assessment. This is a classic study that is done for trying to understand cancers in humans,” said Christopher Portier, who once served as the head of the NTP before his retirement. “There will have to be a lot of work after this to assess if it causes problems in humans, but the fact that you can do it in rats will be a big issue. It actually has me concerned, and I’m an expert.”
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