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Study of Cellphone Risks Finds 'Some Evidence' of Link to Cancer, at Least in Male Rats
For decades, health experts have struggled to determine whether or not cellphones can cause cancer. On Thursday, a federal agency released the final results of what experts call the world's largest and most costly experiment to look into the question. The study originated in the Clinton administration, cost $30 million and involved some 3,000 rodents.
The experiment, by the National Toxicology Program, found positive but relatively modest evidence that radio waves from some types of cellphones could raise the risk that male rats develop brain cancer. "We believe that the link between radio-frequency radiation and tumors in male rats is real," John Bucher, a senior scientist at the National Toxicology Program, said in a statement.
But he cautioned that the exposure levels and durations were far greater than what people typically encounter, and thus cannot "be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience." Moreover, the rat study examined the effects of a radio frequency associated with an early generation of cellphone technology, one that fell out of routine use years ago. Any concerns arising from the study thus would seem to apply mainly to early adopters who used those bygone devices, not to users of current models.
[...] The rats were exposed to radiation at a frequency of 900 megahertz — typical of the second generation of cellphones that prevailed in the 1990s, when the study was first conceived. Current cellphones represent a fourth generation, known as 4G, and 5G phones are expected to debut around 2020. They employ much higher frequencies, and these radio waves are far less successful at penetrating the bodies of humans and rats, scientists say.
Previously: Major Cell Phone Radiation Study Reignites Cancer Questions
First Clear Evidence Cell Phone Radiation Can Cause Cancer In Rats
Related: Dim-Bulb Politician Wants Warning on Cell Phones
California Issues Warning Over Cellphones; Study Links Non-Ionizing Radiation to Miscarriage
Mill Valley, California Blocks 5G Over Health Concerns
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday November 03 2018, @03:50PM (6 children)
Thanks for the details - so the claim is that the frequency of 2.8ghz and anything below some threshold that should be calculable by converting from eV to frequency that there is no possibility of damage to DNA. I did not know that was the standing science.
Well, you say "basically impossibly" - how basically is this impossible? Are we talking a gradient of possibilities here? In my laymans understanding of quantum physics its all based on probability. Does basically impossible mean the chances of splitting DNA at 2.8ghz are as good as my chance of walking through solid matter or something like that? Or is there really a switch?
It would not surprise me one bit if we discover it's a gradient and more probable than we want it to be. Combined with inverse square law and that people keep cell phones in their pocket in a proximity to the transmitter we've never seen before with a duty cycle we've never seen before we could have easily put the whole planet in an edge case.
I don't know it's what is going on but it wouldn't surprise me one bit. We've been colossally wrong about toxic materials we thought were benign too after 50 years. It happens.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @05:04PM (5 children)
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:39PM (2 children)
Awesome thank you AC - bringing it into quantization is helpful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 04 2018, @03:11AM (1 child)
You should look up the photoelectric effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoelectric_effect [wikipedia.org]
Which is, BTW, what Einstein won the noble prize for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 04 2018, @03:13AM
Nobel prize *
(Score: 4, Insightful) by rleigh on Saturday November 03 2018, @09:30PM (1 child)
Why are you making the assumption that bond-breaking is a significant mode of action here? There are plenty of other interesting effects which can occur without any bond breaking at all. DNA and proteins are huge molecules whose structural stability is very much dependent upon temperature. Structural changes due to localised heating can have profound functional consequences.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 04 2018, @04:57AM