Cellphone radiation study revives cancer concerns, despite low risks
Print Edition
A new US study of the potential dangers of cellphone radiation, conducted in rats, found a slight increase in brain tumors in males and raised long-dormant concerns about the safety of spending so much time with cellphones glued to our ears.
But the study had enough strange findings that it has caused other federal scientists to highlight flaws in the research, and experts said these findings and those from other studies continue to suggest the potential risk from cellphone radiation is very small.
The National Institutes of Health study bombarded rats with cellphone radiation from the womb through the first two years of life for nine hours a day. It found tumors in 2 to 3 percent of male rats, which the study’s authors called low. But females weren’t affected at all and, strangely, the rats not exposed to the cellphone radiation died much faster — at double the rate — of those that were.
The results were preliminary, and only part of what will ultimately be released. 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.
“This is the first study to actually show that non-ionizing radiation (causes) cancer,” said Dr Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer. The cancer society in a statement praised the study for “evidence that cellphone signals could potentially impact human health” but notes that it doesn’t quite address real risk to people.
“If cellphones cause cancer, they don’t cause a lot of cancer,” he said in an interview. “It’s not as carcinogenic as beef.”
Some of the study’s own reviewers had trouble accepting the results because of the odd factors, such as rats in the group that wasn’t exposed didn’t contract what would be the normal number of brain tumors for that population. “I am unable to accept the authors’ conclusions,” wrote outside reviewer Dr Michael Lauer, deputy director of NIH’s office of extramural research. “I suspect that this experiment is substantially underpowered and that the few positive results found reflect false positive findings.”
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