A new study in the prestigious Elsevier magazine Environmental Research shows that cell phone radiation does a lot more than just warm people’s faces.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The National Cancer Institute says that radio waves from second to fourth-generation cell phones have frequencies between 0.7 and 2.7 gigahertz. If true, then fifth-generation phones will use a band of up to 80 GHz.
This kind of “energy is too low to damage DNA,” so the story goes. Ionizing radiation, on the other hand, is high frequency and high energy. It includes X-rays, radon, and cosmic rays. It is possible for radioactive radiation to damage DNA.
Radiation that damages DNA is especially scary because it could cause physical changes that could make the risk of getting cancer much higher. Christopher Collins, an imaging professor at New York University, told Forbes earlier this year that electromagnetic radiation doesn’t start to damage DNA until it hits 3 million GHz.
“There are no other clearly proven dangerous health effects on the human body from radiofrequency radiation,” the NCI said. These effects only include warmth.
A lack of proof of a direct link between cell phone radiation and cancer does not mean that there isn’t one. This is why many health organizations are worried and warn people to be careful.
For example, the International Agency for Research on Cancer says that the electromagnetic fields that smartphones create might cause cancer in people.
A study that came out last year in the journal Reviews on Environmental Health found that certain low-frequency magnetic fields made by power lines and some electrical products “can raise the chance of childhood leukemia, most likely acute lymphoblastic leukemia.” There is a bigger chance of getting childhood leukemia if you use electric blankets or other products that produce magnetic fields higher than 0.4 µT for a long time.
According to the European Commission’s directorate-general for health and food safety, “long-term cell phone use and acoustic neuroma, a benign growth of the auditory nerve.”
In a 2017 warning, the California Department of Public Health said:
“Research is still in its early stages, but some lab tests and human health studies have linked heavy cell phone use over a long period of time to certain types of cancer and other health problems. These include brain cancer and tumors of the acoustic nerve (important for hearing and balance) and salivary glands; lower sperm counts and sperm that are inactive or less mobile; headaches; and changes in learning, memory, behavior, hearing and sleep.”
A group of Austrian researchers just finished the first controlled study involving humans. They were looking into how cell phone radiation’s cell-killing and DNA-damaging effects might work.
People who participated in the study wore headsets that allowed them to hear low and high amounts of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System signal for two hours every day for five days in a row. We took buccal cells from the 41 participants and closely examined them both before and after their exposure.
The researchers found no evidence of chromosomal damage or “nuclear buds” due to gene amplifications caused by 3G cellphone radiation. However, they observed a “significant increase of binucleated cells, formed as a result of disturbed cell divisions, indicative of cell death.”
Some parts of the subjects’ faces that were not near the UMTS signals did not show these effects.
“These processes could possibly cause cancerous cells to form.”
A group of experts said they had “found clear evidence for disruption of the cell cycle and damage.” Because of these effects, people may be more likely to have negative long-term health consequences.
They wrote, “It’s possible that these effects lead to inflammatory reactions and/or the release of ROS, as seen in a number of laboratory studies.” “These processes could possibly cause cancer cells to form.”
These cells make up tumors, which are also known as neoplasms.
The experts wrote, “There is mounting evidence linking exposure to HF-EMF [between 100 kilohertz and 300 GHz] to certain brain cancers.” The study’s findings suggest that exposure to HF-EMF from cell phones may trigger molecular processes other than genetic damage, leading to the transformation of cells into cancerous ones.”
