More Information:
NTP Board of Scientific Counselors Will Discuss Cell Phone Radiation Study
At the June 20, 2018 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors, NIEHS will make a presentation about the NTP cell phone radiation study followed by public comments and a discussion of the study. The Counselors will also discuss future studies of radio frequency radiation. For more information see the meeting agenda.
March 30, 2018 (Updated April 2)
NTP Should Analyze Overall Tumor Risk
In my written submission to NTP about the cell phone radiation studies, I recommended that NTP analyze the overall tumor risk from cell phone radiation exposure. After watching the three-day expert review of these studies, I restate this recommendation.
While it is useful to examine what happened to the trees in the forest in this experiment (e.g., the increased risk of a specific tumor developing in male rats from GSM exposure), it is essential to examine what happened to the forest (e.g., the overall risk of a male rat developing a malignant tumor from cell phone radiation exposure).
NTP should test the null hypothesis that lifelong exposure to non-thermal levels of cell phone radiation does not increase the incidence of cancer.
There are several strong justifications for conducting this analysis.
First, a 5-year, $5 million Air Force study found low incidences of various types of tumors in male rats exposed to microwave radiation. In that study, the exposed rats were three times more likely to get cancer than the control rats. The study employed much lower intensity microwave radiation than the NTP studies.
Second, early toxicology research on the effects of tobacco found low incidences of many types of tumors among animals exposed to tobacco smoke. Scientists dismissed this evidence as they assumed an agent could not cause cancer in different types of tissue. History later proved them wrong.
Third, numerous biologic studies have found that exposure to low-intensity radiofrequency radiation increases oxidative stress causing generation of free radicals, stress proteins, and DNA damage in many different types of cells.
Finally, my preliminary analysis of the overall tumor risk using summary data from the appendices to the NTP report, found that male rats exposed to cell phone radiation were significantly more likely to develop a tumor than control rats overall (81% vs. 62%; p < .001), and even in the lowest cell phone radiation exposure group, 1.5 watts per kilogram (82% vs. 62%; p <.001).
Male rats exposed to cell phone radiation were significantly more likely to develop cancer than control rats (38% vs. 26%; p = .021), and more likely to develop a nonmalignant tumor (70% vs. 54%; p = .003).
Male rats in the lowest cell phone radiation exposure group, 1.5 watts per kilogram, were also more likely to develop a nonmalignant tumor than control rats (74% vs. 54%; p < .001). Although cancer incidence for this low exposure group was greater than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (34% vs. 26%; p = .163).
NTP should conduct these analyses controlling for survival differences between the exposed and control animals.
March 16, 2018 (Updated March 25)
Public Comments on the NTP
Cell Phone Radiation Studies
To see selected public comments about the National Toxicology Program's draft technical reports on their cell phone radiation studies and for information about the peer review meeting, click on the following link:
February 23, 2018 (Updated March 5)
Ramazzini Institute Cell Tower-Cancer Study
Microwave News published a story on February 23, "'More Than a Coincidence': New Large Animal Study, Like NTP’s, Links RF to Schwannoma of the Heart" which describes a new major study that replicates the primary finding in the NTP study.
The Ramazzini Institute in Italy will soon publish a study in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Research, which found that cell phone radiation caused malignant schwanomma in the hearts of male rats.
In this study of 2,448 male and female rats, the animals were exposed to 1.8 GHz GSM cell phone radiation for 19 hours per day from prenatal life until natural death. The cell phone phone radiation exposure in this study corresponds to what one could receive from a nearby cell phone tower. Hence, the exposures were much lower than in the NTP study. The SAR values in this study ranged from 0.001 W/kg to 0.1 W/kg as compared to 1.5 to 6.0 W/kg in the NTP study.
This is the fourth animal study to report increased cancer risk from exposure to low intensity microwave radiation. In addition to the NTP study (summarized below) and the U.S. Air Force study, Repacholi and colleagues (1997) found that female mice exposed to GSM-like cell phone radiation were twice as likely to develop lymphoma compared to unexposed control mice.
Nine peer-reviewed studies, including one cohort study, have found evidence in humans that long-term cell phone use is associated with increased risk of vestibular schwannomma, aka acoustic neuroma. Acoustic neuroma also arises from the Schwann cells, but unlike its counterpart in the heart, it is usually a slow-growing tumor and not cancerous.
February 20, 2018
NTP
Cell Phone Radiation Cancer Study: A Public Health Perspective
The $25
million National Toxicology Program (NTP) cell phone radiation study proves
that long-term exposure to low intensity, non-thermal levels of cell phone
microwave radiation can cause cancer and DNA damage in an animal model. This is
the second study our federal
government conducted which found that low intensity microwave radiation caused
cancer.
In conjunction with recently
published case-control research in humans that found an association
between long-term, heavy cell phone use and brain tumor risk (glioma and acoustic neuroma also known as vestibular schwannoma),
and hundreds of studies that found increased oxidative stress (including stress proteins, free
radicals and DNA damage) from exposure to low intensity microwave radiation,
the NTP study should empower the WHO International
Agency for Research on Cancer to re-classify radio frequency radiation from its
current classification, “possibly carcinogenic to
humans” (Group 2B), to “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) or
“carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1).
The strongest finding in
the NTP reports was increased cancer incidence in Schwann cells of the hearts
in male rats exposed to cell phone radiation. These rats also exhibited twice
as many total schwanommas across all organs of the body compared to control rats, but
this difference was not statistically significant (6% vs. 3%).
Other organs in male rats were observed to have low incidences of tumors that exceeded those found in the unexposed controls, including the brain (i.e., glioma), the adrenal, pituitary, and prostate glands, the pancreas, and the liver.
Female rats exposed to
cell phone radiation also had elevated tumor incidence in the brain (i.e.,
glioma) and adrenal glands.
DNA damage was observed
in mice and rats of both sexes exposed to cell phone radiation. (See my earlier
posts for a summary of these results.)
Why is NTP downplaying the study results now?
NTP classified the
increased malignant schwannoma in male rats as “some evidence of carcinogenic activity.” Other elevated incidences of tumors were considered “equivocal evidence of carcinogenic
activity” because they failed to display a classic dose-response relationship. However, much of the published research on microwave radiation finds that the
likelihood of a health effect does not correspond closely with the dose (or intensity) of the
radiation. Rather, the frequency of the carrier wave and pulsing and modulation of the signals appear to affect the organism's cell signaling processes independent of the intensity of the microwaves.
Although this is the largest and most important animal study to examine tumor risk caused by cell phone radiation, both the NTP and the FDA are now downplaying the study results. Yet, in May, 2016, the NTP was so concerned about the increased risk of schwanomma and glioma in male rats, they released a partial report with these results because these are the same types of tumors found in several case-control studies of cell phone use among humans. What explains this turnaround?
According to the new NTP report, Schwann cells are similar to glial cells. Thus, the causes of schwannoma may be similar to glioma:
"Schwann cells are similar to glial cells in the brain in that they are specialized supportive cells whose functions include maintaining homeostasis, forming myelin, and providing support and protection for neurons of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In the PNS, Schwann cells produce myelin and are analogous to oligodendrocytes [a type of glial cells] of the central nervous system" (page 162).
NTP should analyze the
overall tumor risk.
The NTP researchers did not
carefully examine the overall tumor risk, that is, the risk of an animal
developing any type of tumor due to cell phone radiation exposure. There are several
strong justifications for conducting this analysis.
First, a 5-year, $5 million Air Force study found low incidences of various types
of tumors in male rats exposed to microwave radiation. In that study, the
exposed rats were three times more likely to get cancer than the control rats.
The study employed much lower intensity microwave radiation than the NTP
studies.
Second, early toxicology
research on the effects of tobacco found low incidences of many types of tumors
among animals exposed to tobacco smoke. Scientists dismissed this evidence as
they assumed an agent could not cause cancer in different types of tissue. History
later proved them wrong.
Finally, my preliminary analysis of the overall
tumor risk using summary data from the appendices to the NTP report,
found that male rats exposed to cell phone radiation were significantly more
likely to develop cancer than control rats (38% vs. 25.5%; p = .021), and more
likely to develop a nonmalignant tumor (70% vs. 54%; p = .003).
Male
rats in the lowest cell phone radiation exposure group, 1.5 watts per kilogram,
were also more likely to develop a nonmalignant tumor than control rats (74%
vs. 54%; p < .001). Although cancer incidence for this low exposure group
was greater than the control group, the difference was not statistically
significant (34% vs. 25.5%; p = .163).
I questioned the omission
of the overall tumor risk analysis during the recent NTP press conference. Will NTP conduct this analysis, adjusting for
survival time and litter differences, in time for the peer review of the NTP
reports in late March?
Feb 7, 2018
"Same RF Cancer Data, Different Outlook"
Microwave News (MN) published a
story today that poses the question, “Why was the NTP so ambivalent about its
cell phone cancer findings at the press conference last Friday when two years
ago the same scientific evidence prompted a public health warning?” (“What
Changed at NTP? Same RF Cancer Data, Different Outlook.” Feb 7, 2018. URL: http://microwavenews.com/news-center/what-changed).
Besides the recent change of leadership at the National Toxicology Program (NTP), Microwave News speculates about potential political influence from the federal government including the NIEHS and NIH, the FDA, and the military, especially the Navy and Air Force. In addition, Congress and the White
House may have intervened in response to lobbying by the cell phone
industry.
Microwave News has been reporting on the potential
health and environmental impacts of electromagnetic fields and radiation for
more than 35 years and is widely recognized as an objective source of
information on this topic.
Feb 2, 2018 (Updated Feb 6)
NTP Releases Draft Reports on Cell Phone Radiation
and Conducts Press Conference
On February 2, 2018, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) conducted a press conference and released two draft technical reports on the cell phone radiation studies -- one report on rats (TR-595) and one on mice (TR-596) and two supplemental data tables. The reports and data tables are available at http://bit.ly/NTPreports.
The recording and transcript of the press conference are available at http://bit.ly/NTPpress2-2-18.
For information about the upcoming review process in March see National Toxicology Program: Peer & public review of cell phone radiation study reports.
Dec 1, 2017
Microwave News reported today that the vice-chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), Maria Feychting, has been trying to convince the scientific community to dismiss the $25 million cell phone cancer study conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP).
According to Microwave News, Feychting claimed at scientific meetings held in Germany and Sweden last month that the pathology analyses in the NTP study were not properly blinded. This issue was originally raised by an official reviewer of the study and was laid to rest in the NTP interim report released in May, 2016.
Several researchers in the U.S. and Europe expressed their concerns to Microwave News about Feychting's misguided efforts to undermine the credibility of the NTP cell phone study.
The Microwave News article reports that Feychting's declaration of personal interests filed with ICNIRP is incomplete as she has not fully disclosed potential conflicts of interest due to her role in the Swedish COSMOS study which has industry funding.
For more information see Microwave News.
Nov 28, 2017
NIEHS updates its cell phone information page
This month the National Toxicology Program (NTP) of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) updated the cell phone information page on its website and the fact sheet which summarizes the NTP cell phone radiation study. See below for a summary of the study and its findings.
The NTP's website indicates that the NIEHS has warned its "federal regulatory partners" (i.e., the Federal Communications Commission and the Food and Drug Administration) that the NTP's research found that cell phone radiation caused cancer in male rats to enable these agencies to provide the latest guidance to the public about safe ways to use cell phones and other radiofrequency radiation-emitting devices.
Following is some of the language which now appears on the NTP website.
The updated NTP fact sheet includes the following two graphics.
Nov 21, 2017
Two-year oncogenicity evaluations of cell phone radiofrequency radiation in Sprague-Dawley rats and B6C3F1 mice
McCormick
D. Two-year oncogenicity evaluations of cell phone radiofrequency
radiation in Sprague-Dawley rats and B6C3F1 mice. Toxicology Letters.
280 (Suppl. 1): S31. Oct 20,
2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2017.07.07
Epidemiology
data concerning possible health effects of exposure to radiofrequency
fields (RF) are conflicting. For this reason, well-designed and
controlled studies in predictive laboratory animal models provide the
best prospective opportunity to identify effects of RF exposure that may
translate into human health hazards.
The U.S. National Toxicology
Program supported a program in our laboratory to identify and
characterize effects of acute, subchronic, and chronic exposure to
non-thermal levels of RF in Sprague-Dawley rats and B6C3F1 mice.
Five-day
pilot studies were performed to identify the maximum Specific
Absorption Ratios (SARs) to which juvenile, adult, and pregnant rodents
can be exposed without increasing body temperature by >1.0 °C.
Subsequent subchronic (ten-week) toxicity studies failed to identify any
toxicologically significant effects of non-thermal RF on survival, body
weight, clinical signs, hematology, or gross or microscopic pathology.
Two-year
studies were performed to determine if exposure to non-thermal levels
of RF increases the incidence of neoplasia in any site. Male rats
exposed to RF demonstrated significantly increased incidences of glioma
(brain) and schwannoma (heart); these increases were not seen in female
rats or in either sex of mice.
Gliomas
and schwannomas have been identified in some epidemiology studies as
possible RF-induced neoplasms. Considering (a) the conflicting results
of RF epidemiology studies and (b) the lack of generally accepted
biophysical or molecular mechanisms through which RF could induce or
promote neoplasia, data from animal bioassays will play a central role
in “weight-of-the-evidence” assessments of the possible health effects
of RF exposure.
Sep 20, 2017
Scientists from the National Toxicology Program presented their data on the genotoxicity of cell phone radiation in rats and mice at the annual meeting of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society held in Raleigh, North Carolina from September 9-13, 2017.
Male and female rats and mice were exposed to 2G cell phone radiation, either CDMA or GSM, for 18 hours per day in 10 minute intervals. The rats were exposed to cell phone radiation at 1.5, 3, or 6 W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) for 19 weeks from gestation day 5. The mice were exposed to radiation at 2.5, 5, or 10 W/kg SAR for 13 weeks from postnatal day 5.
DNA damage was assessed in three brain regions, in liver cells and in blood leukocytes using the comet assay. Chromosomal damage was assessed in peripheral blood erythrocytes using the micronucleus assay.
DNA damage was significantly increased:
- in the frontal cortex of male mice from either CDMA or GSM cell phone radiation exposure,
- in peripheral leukocytes of female mice from CDMA exposure, and
- in the hippocampus of male rats from CDMA exposure.
There were no significant increases in micronucleated red blood cells in rats or mice.
The authors concluded that, "exposure to RFR [radio frequency radiation] has the potential to induce measurable DNA damage under certain exposure conditions."
The NTP is scheduled to publish a complete report about its cell phone radiation studies in early 2018. The FDA called for this research in 1999.
Here is the abstract for this presentation.
