You've probably heard from plenty of sources about cell phone radiation is bad for you how it causes cancer.
Not that it stops you from using your phone, but maybe it worries you in the back of your mind? Yeah, there's no need to do that anymore.
The National Toxicology Program has just released the results of a major study, conducted over 10 years and with a $30 million budget. They were studying the effects of radio frequency radiation (RFR) on the risk of tumours in rodents. And because of how long ago the study began, it was based on RFR similar to that used in 2G and 3G cell phones.
We've talked about the preliminary findings from this study before, and the final results are pretty much the same. The radiation was found to have caused tumours in the brains and adrenal glands of male rats. However, it was impossible for the scientists to pinpoint whether the tumours they observed in male mice, or the females of both species, were linked to the RFR at all.
"We believe that the link between radio frequency radiation and tumors in male rats is real," said John Bucher, a senior scientist at NTP.
However, there's some fine print you need to read before running down the street yelling about how our phones are giving us cancer. For one, the levels of radiation in the study were much greater than what we get scrolling through Twitter. Specifically, the lowest level of RFR the rodents were exposed to in the study was the same as the maximum exposure for cell phones allowed by wireless device authorities, something that "rarely occurs with typical cell phone use" the scientists said. Similarly, the highest level was four times greater than the maximum allowed for any device.
The team also exposed the mice and rats to the RFR for much longer periods of time (nine hours a day for two years at a time), and it was spread across their whole body, as opposed to the more localised exposure we would encounter.
You also have to remember that radio frequency radiation, is much lower than the ionizing radiation you might get from an X-ray. Prolonged exposure to that can certainly damage your DNA, but RFR would take a much much much longer time if at all. And Bucher admits as much in a follow up comment.
"The exposures used in the studies cannot be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience when using a cell phone," he says, but they insist it's at least a confirmation that it occurs in rats. Additionally, they worry that this study only involved 2G/3G-like radiation, and they have no idea how 5G might differ in its effects, if at all. Unfortunately, that's probably another long study before we find out.