France's recent ban on sales of the iPhone 12 due to radiation concerns has sparked apprehension throughout Europe about the health risks of cellphone radiation exposure. While U.S. tests focus narrowly on whether phones heat tissue, some experts argue they fail to show the whole picture.
“The way they're tested is to see whether or not they heat you up, and not for the chronic long-term effects that have been demonstrated,” Devra Davis, a cancer epidemiologist who holds a doctorate in science studies and a master's in public health in epidemiology, told The Epoch Times. “Particularly the effects on sperm and lower testosterone, among others.”
Cellphone Radiation Tests Are ‘Rigged’: Expert
According to Ms. Davis, the biggest problem with U.S. testing is that it’s not conducted with the phone against the body. She compared it to the "Dieselgate” scandal involving Volkswagen, where the company rigged its tests to show lower exhaust emissions than the vehicle actually produced.
“The same thing is happening here,” she added, noting that the tests were initially set up with spacers, as if phones were in holsters or holders.
When the French government tests cellphones as they are actually used, “like in your hand [or] next to your body,” Ms. Davis said, the phones exceed European Union (EU) radiation limits. France has pulled or required software updates for 42 other cellphone models that emit excessive radiation since 2017, The Telegraph reported.
The United States lacks this oversight, according to Ms. Davis.
The telecommunications industry has almost complete control of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to a report published by Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (pdf). A telecom lobbying group executive boasted its lobbyists meet FCC officials 500 times annually, the report stated.
“We don't have any programs to test phones after they've been approved,” Ms. Davis said. “And the approval process is self-regulated because of this revolving door that takes place between the FCC and the telecom industry.”
Ms. Davis said if phones underwent drug testing, they'd be illegal. She warned of the danger cellphones pose, similar to certain drugs found to cause cancer and other health problems, in her 2010 book, "Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family," and still stands by it today.
The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to comment on this story, but they have not yet replied.
17 Minutes of Daily Cellphone Use Increased Cancer Risk
Heavy cellphone use has a "possible" association with increased brain cancer incidence, especially in research not funded by telecoms, according to a review of 23 case-control studies in 2009 published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“Our government, however, stopped funding research on the health effects of radiofrequency radiation in the 1990s,” study author Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health and Community Health at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, said in a press statement in July 2021. “Our main takeaway from the current review is that approximately 1,000 hours of lifetime cellphone use, or about 17 minutes per day over a 10-year period, is associated with a statistically significant 60% increase in brain cancer,” Mr. Moskowitz wrote.
The 2009 review was updated in 2020 to include 46 studies with similar findings.
Cancer Linked to Living Near Cell Towers
The International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields warned in 2022 (pdf) that radiofrequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits established in the 1990s don't adequately protect the public, especially from novel 5G technology lacking health studies.
Several bills pending in Congress give the telecom industry “free range” to put their towers wherever they want them, including “right by your bedroom window” if you're living in an apartment building, according to Ms. Davis.
A review of scientific studies published in 2022 found that most of the research found increased rates of cancer and radiofrequency sickness in people living within close proximity to mobile phone base stations. A recent study from Brazil found cancer mortality rose with population exposure to radio base station frequencies.
“I think 5G belongs in the medical and military places, wired in [Ethernet], but not in homes,” Ms. Davis said. “The real problem is that in order for 5G to work, we need one million new antennas."
