A major study released by the US National Toxicology Program has now revealed that exposure to radiofrequency radiation emitted by cell phones resulted in higher incidences of two types of cancer in mice.
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The National Toxicology Program recently released partial results from an ongoing $25 million, federally-funded study that appeared to show a tentative link between cellphone radiation and two rare types of tumors in male rats.
The results have raised long-dormant concerns about the safety of spending so much time with mobile phones glued to our ears. Female rats and those not exposed to radiation had normal levels of cancer. “Where people were saying there’s no risk, I think this ends that kind of statement”, Ron Melnick, who ran the NTP project until 2009 and was one of the study’s peer-reviewers, told the Wall Street Journal.
Preliminary results from a new federal study show bombardment by intense mobile phone radiation is a likely cause of cancer in rats but if this outcome is also true in humans “is not now completely worked out”. The partial findings have sparked anew the debate of whether cellphone radiation may cause the development of heart and brain cancer tumors.
A new study is linking tumors in rats to exposure to cellphone radiation.
Tissues closest to the phone can absorb this energy – but despite many studies investigating the issue, none have found evidence that this contributes to cancer risk. The research is the largest of its type and used data that were already available, instead of retrospectively interviewing phone subscribers whose recall could be selective or unreliable.
According to Pew Research Center, 92 percent of American adults say they own a cellphone.
The research studied rats to determine whether the radio-frequency (RF) radiation emitted by mobile phones can cause cancer.
Under these studies, rats and mice were exposed to radio-frequency “with two signal modulations [Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)] at two frequencies (900 MHz for rats and 1900 MHz for mice)”, the NTP wrote.
A massive on-going study conducted by the US National Toxicology Program found that rats that have been exposed by cellphone radiation for nine hours, seven days of the week had an increased chance of developing cancers.
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The new study’s conclusion, which was posted Thursday night, is more measured. Even then, only 2 percent to 3 percent of male rats – and no females – developed a tumor. They were made public before they were officially published – and despite strong criticism from other NIH scientists – because the results were similar to other studies that hint at a potential problem, said study author John Bucher.
