For decades now there have been ongoing worries about whether cellphones can give you cancer — in particular brain cancer, as we always use our phones near our heads. The fact remains that mobile phones radiate radio waves. But it’s radio-frequency radiation, which is much lower energy than the ionizing radiation you’d get from an say an X-ray. Research has shown that ionizing radiation can harm one’s DNA structure can eventually lead to cancer. But the to calm the situation down, radio-frequency emissions from a mobile phones don’t that way — and today’s results proves that.
According to the studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a division within the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Based on the NTP’s results, as well as hundreds of other studies, experts are still confident that the current limits on cellphone radiation are safe.
In the study, male rats exposed to very high levels of radio-frequency radiation grew tumors around their hearts. Female rats exposed to the radiation didn’t, and neither male nor female mice showed obvious health problems in a second study. Neither study turned up clear evidence that radio-frequency radiation causes brain tumors, although the researchers are continuing to investigate. The studies are drafts that haven’t yet been reviewed by outside scientists.
The study specifically used 2G and 3G frequencies — not the frequencies used on more advanced 4G or 5G networks. Researchers exposed the rats’ entire bodies to the radio-waves for more than nine hours per day, for up to two years. These exposure levels were much higher than what people would experience, John Bucher, senior scientist with the NTP, says in a statement. “So, these findings should not be directly extrapolated to human cell phone usage,” he says.
So, what do these results in rats mean for people? Nothing is certain yet according to experts . The USA’s FDA’s statement says that “Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors.”
