SoylentNews

Major Cell Phone Radiation Study Reignites Cancer Questions

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday May 28 2016, @04:46AM   
from the back-to-a-bag-phone dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Federal scientists released partial findings Friday from a $25 million animal study that tested the possibility of links between cancer and chronic exposure to the type of radiation emitted from cell phones and wireless devices. The findings, which chronicle an unprecedented number of rodents subjected to a lifetime of electromagnetic radiation, present some of the strongest evidence to date that such exposure is associated with the formation of rare cancers in at least two cell types in the brains and hearts of rats.

There are some major caveats, though. The results were only observed in male rats; there weren't any significant effects seen in female rats. Exposure in utero didn't seem to affect cancer risk. And in male rats, the incidence of those two cancers was quite low. But even a small increase in the incidence of those cancers could have a major public health impact given how many people in the world regularly use cell phones.

---

Original Submission

• Re:P hacking (Score: 3, Insightful) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday May 28 2016, @07:00PM

  by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Saturday May 28 2016, @07:00PM (#352020)

  It is distressing that the results border on statistical insignificance. From TFA:

  Overall, there was no statistically significant difference between the number of tumors that developed in the animals exposed to CDMA versus GSM modulations. With both modulations and tumor types, there was also a statistically significant trend upward—meaning the incidence increased with more radiation exposure. Yet, drilling down into the data, in the male rats exposed to GSM-modulated RF radiation the number of brain tumors at all levels of exposure was not statistically different than in control males—those who had no exposure at all.

  In another post [soylentnews.org] Maxwell demon pointed out:

  But was the increase in the number of cardiac tumors larger than to be expected for the increased life span?

  The male rats living longer may be just co-incidence as well.

  I am not sure calling this study a waste of $25M is the right answer. If there is something there, we may want to try to reproduce the results. It will be interesting it see if the parallel study on mice (yet to be published) has similar results.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3