Cell Phone Radiation (2011, 2016) Linked to Brain Tumors

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2016

A landmark study will be published in 2017, but due to the unexpectedness and seriousness of the results, they were been reported to the highest levels of the National Institutes of Health in May of 2016. The carefully designed and controlled study generated results contrary to expectations and stimulated additional reviews by the NIH which found no serious problems in the methodology or data of the study.

The study evaluated the effect of the type of radiation emitted by modern cell phone in lab animals, where cancer can develop in about two years. The ongoing study took place in an underground lab shielded from external radiation and involved 2500 rats.

It was a controlled clinical trial using rats and mice who were exposed to a specific kind of radiation beginning before birth and continuing for two years. They were exposed to 9 hours of radiation from time to time over each day: 10 minutes, followed by a 10 minute break for 18 hours. Each animal was exposed for a two year period. The animals were exposed to the most common types of wireless technologies.

Male rats who had been exposed to the radiation had higher rates of gliomas. Gliomas are a tumor of the cells that surround the nerve cells in the brain. These cells provide not only structural support but deliver oxygen and nutrients to the nerve cells.

Male rats also had higher rates of schwannoma of the heart. Schwannomas are usually benign tumors that generally appear in the myelin sheath that protects hearing-related nerves. The schwannomas of the heart were very rare and were malignant. These two types of tumors did not appear in the control animals who were not exposed to the radiation.

Researchers: U.S. National Toxicology Program, M. Wyde, et al.

Report of Partial findings from the National Toxicology Program Carcinogenesis Studies of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation in Hsd: Sprague Dawley® SD rats (Whole Body Exposure), BioRxiV, May, 2016

2011

In 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of WHO) included radiation from cell phones as a possible carcinogen.

Source: Wall Street Journal

A 2011 National Institutes of Health Study showed that a 50-minute cell phone radiation exposure was connected to increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. The researchers have preliminary indication of long-term effects. Glucose metabolism, is an indicator of brain activity and this finding raises concerns that if cell phone radiation is effecting glucose levels, it may also be effecting neurotransmitters and neurochemical activities.

Researchers: Nora D. Volkow et al, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health

Published: "Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation Exposure and Brain Glucose Metabolism," JAMA Feb 23, 2011

Older Studies

Three studies from Europe, one of which combined data from 13 countries found ties between cell phone radiation exposure resulting from heavy cell phone use and brain tumors. Some of these studies were problematic because they used older models of cell phones that are no longer in use and which emitted higher levels of radiation, and the time span of the studies was 5 to 20 years, while cancer can take much longer to develop.