A multi-year, $25 million government study released Thursday found a link between cellphone use and cancer.
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) found that male rats exposed to the same type of radio frequencies emitted by cellphones suffered from “low incidences” of two types of tumors — specifically, malignant gliomas in the brain and schwannomas of the heart.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the study, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, was “one of the biggest and most comprehensive experiment into health effects from cellphones.”
Despite the “low incidences” reference, the study noted that “even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting from exposure to [radio-frequency radiation] could have broad implications for public health.”
Chris Portier, former associate director of the NTP, told Mother Jones that the study is a “game-changer” and that we “seriously have to look at this issue again in considerable detail.”
Microwave News, cited by the Wall Street Journal and Mother Jones, reported on the study earlier this week and noted that “the new results contradict the conventional wisdom, advanced by doctors, biologists, physicists, epidemiologists, engineers, journalists and government officials, among other pundits, that such effects are impossible.”
Update, 8:55 a.m.: Here’s a statement from the FCC:
“We are aware that the National Toxicology Program is studying this important issue. Scientific evidence always informs FCC rules on this matter. We will continue to follow all recommendations from federal health and safety experts including whether the FCC should modify its current policies and RF exposure limits.”
