Decades of animal research point to serious health risks from cellphone radiation exposure, but examining a possible link stops now.
The National Toxicology Program (NTP), tasked with studying potential toxins, recently announced it would no longer investigate evidence that cellphone radiation can harm animals or people. The move stunned scientists like Devra Davis, a former senior adviser to the assistant secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, who called the abrupt reversal scientifically unjustified.
There’s “no scientific explanation or justification for this sudden reversal,” Ms. Davis told The Epoch Times.
Unpublished NTP Research Undermines Decision to Halt Cellphone Radiation Studies
The NTP recently claimed that additional radiofrequency radiation (RFR) studies are not planned, stating the research was “technically challenging and more resource-intensive than expected.”
Ms. Davis criticized this decision, noting that technical challenges are not a reason to avoid studying something that appears to cause cancer in animals. “Everything that we know for sure causes cancer in people will produce it in animals when adequately studied,” she added.
Despite admitting to developing a novel small-scale RFR exposure system in 2019 to clarify earlier findings, the NTP canceled further investigations. This system only studied older 2G and 3G devices, not newer 4G or 5G technologies.
Ms. Davis, a former NTP advisor, said she helped recommend smaller test chambers. The agency takes years to plan studies, so scrapping this project is “beyond my comprehension at this point,” given millions of children’s daily exposure, she noted.
In an emailed statement, the NTP confirmed that although work on the small-scale exposure system and accompanying research has been completed, the results will be publicly available and posted on the agency’s webpage only “when internal reviews are finished.” As of this writing, the 2019 research remains unpublished.
Court Finds FCC Illegally Ignored 5G Health Risks
The NTP published results in 2018 from two-year toxicology studies showing “clear evidence” of associations between 2G/3G cellphone radiation and tumors in male rats. Follow-up research in 2019 revealed DNA damage in the brains, livers, and blood cells of exposed rats and mice.
Despite originally requesting and overseeing these studies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has since dismissed the NTP’s findings, Ms. Davis said.
In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission affirmed outdated 1996 radiation exposure standards for new 5G technologies, which did not even exist then. To justify this, the FDA anonymously produced an unreviewed document in 2020. The Environmental Health Trust (EHT) sued the FCC.
In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the FCC. The court said the FCC acted improperly and illegally by keeping its 1996 wireless radiation exposure limits. The court found the FCC ignored evidence that radiation below its current limits can cause adverse health effects besides cancer, noting that the FCC also failed to respond to comments about the environmental harm caused by radiation.
The court ordered revised standards accounting for EHT’s records on risks to children and the environment.
FCC Let Carriers Abandon Landlines
Since 2019, France has mandated cellphones include warnings to keep such devices away from teens and pregnant women’s lower abdomens because of radiation risks. The European Union also funds extensive research on RFR hazards.
“So why are we ignoring animal study results showing harm?” Ms. Davis said. “There’s only one reason: because there’s so much money involved.”
Landlines offered an alternative to cellphones, but the FCC’s 2019 order let carriers abandon copper lines. Companies like Verizon have begun retiring landlines, leaving consumers with only wireless options.
People can still reduce RFR exposure by:
- Not carrying phones in pockets or bras
- Using speakerphone and holding phones away from the head/body
- Keeping devices away from reproductive organs
- Using wired over WiFi internet
- Not sleeping near phones
