What You Still Don’t Know about the $25 Million US National Toxicology Program Study

screenshot from the NTP website.

In 2024, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) announced it had no plans to further study the effects of cellphone radiofrequency radiation (RFR) on human health.

They wanted to find out the US if exposure to radiation from 3G phones can cause the development of malignant cancers. They studied this in lab rats.

Finally, on November 1, 2018, they published their report.

In case you have not read this landmark study, here is a summary of what researchers found:

• 6% of the male rats exposed to the highest dose of cell phone radiation developed malignant schwannomas in the heart, while 2 to 3% developed gliomas in the brain.

Researchers conclusion? “Clear evidence” of cancer and DNA damage from wireless radiation.

—The NTP study took about 10 years to complete in 2018.

Did you know it had taken that long? It started out studying the existing wireless technology used in phones (3G). But the time the study had ended, industry and consumers were moving on to 4G.

—Some did not believe that wireless radiation could cause cancer.

The study had massive detractors. Was such a study was even worth the while?

“The NTP has now shown what no one believed was possible before the project started. The assumption has always been that RF radiation could not cause cancer,” he said, “Now we know that was wrong.”—Ron Melnick told Microwave News.

—The study conclusions would have meant updating FCC’s outdated 1996 standards.

NTP researchers communicated the initial findings to the relevant regulatory agencies, including the FDA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which sets the legal limits for wireless radiation. They had not updated its guidelines since 1996. That’s when we were still using 2G.

But they were not interested to update their guidelines.

—The NTP study sounded the alarm on Schwannomas.

Schwannomas cancer were extremely rare.

Schwannomas are basically what makes your cell’s myelin sheath. It insulates nerve fibers and speed the conduction of electrical impulses.

But it so happened that these same malignant tumors of the heart were also found in another large cell phone rat study published that same year in 2018.

This latter study was carried out at the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy.

—Researchers decided to publish a follow-up study, or what they excluded from the first study.

Researchers had also found that RFR exposure was associated with an increase in DNA damage. They evaluated DNA damage in three regions of the brain, the liver, and in blood cells in rats and mice. These findings were removed at an earlier timepoint from the ongoing 2-year toxicology study.

They published this second article in October 2019.

DNA damage, if not repaired, can potentially lead to tumors.

This work was included in NTP’s published Technical Reports, but this study includes analyses of the data in the supporting information not included in the Technical Reports.

—Researchers wanted more detailed studies.

The goal of subsequent studies is smaller “mechanistic” studies to understand biological changes related to RFR that could be causing cancer.

—FCC have not explained their current guidelines either.

This is related.

Because at the time, the FCC hasn’t complied with a court-ordered mandate to explain how the agency determined that its current guidelines adequately protect humans and the environment against the harmful effects of exposure to wireless radiation.

—This was government-funded.

It begs the question. Why does it fall to the government to prove harm or no harm? the biological effects of the telecommunication industry’s products.

“[Research] is what the industry should be doing on their dime and using their expertise and their predictions as to where the technology is going.”—Dr Bucher

—Bureaucracy stalled research findings.

FDA to study RFR “because they’re the agency charged with making recommendations to the FCC with respect to the biological aspects of the need for regulation.”

This is in the USA. But similar bureaucratic challenges exist in every government.

—The NTP eventually shut down the studies.

You would have thought they’d be motivated to find out more. After all, EMF exposure are increasingly exponentially and the effects are profound.

No.

In January 2024, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) announced it had no plans to further study the effects of cellphone radiofrequency radiation (RFR) on human health — even though the program’s own $30 million study, which took about 10 years to complete in 2018, found “clear evidence” of cancer and DNA damage.

This article interviews Dr Bucher, a former senior scientist in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) NTP division.

“By the time we would come out with the next generation of studies’ industry would be on to something else. “The government has always been way behind the technologies that are being developed in the telecommunications industries.”—Dr Bucher

—The NTP study reveals how difficult it can be to conduct such studies.

Studying wireless radiation’s biological effects is no small feat.

EMFs as a phenomenon is completely differently from say, drug or environmental chemicals.

NTP scientists had to work with toxicologists, statisticians, geneticists, pathologists, and animal care staff, etc. They also had to work with electrical engineers and experts in wireless radiation to design and build the exposure systems and monitor the exposures used in these studies.

—The final report is redacted.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) refuses to reveal nearly 2,500 pages of records related to the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) decision to shut down its research on how wireless radiation affects human health.

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Resources and References:

• NTP’s first paper published on the website. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/research/topics/cellphones

• NTP’s second paper evaluated DNA damage in three regions of the brain: Smith-Roe, S.L., Wyde, M.E., Stout, M.D., Winters, J.W., Hobbs, C.A., Shepard, K.G., Green, A.S., Kissling, G.E., Shockley, K.R., Tice, R.R., Bucher, J.R. and Witt, K.L. (2020), Evaluation of the genotoxicity of cell phone radiofrequency radiation in male and female rats and mice following subchronic exposure. Environ Mol Mutagen, 61: 276-290. https://doi.org/10.1002/em.22343

Study: Air Pollution Can Make You Fat

The effects of air pollution is one of the most well-studied topics in the field of environmental toxins research. Air pollution has also been linked to conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to dementia, Alzheimer's and stroke.

But did you know it can literally make you fat?

The Study

Researchers wanted to find out how exposure to airborne fine particulate matter (diameter, <2.5 μm [PM(2.5)]) pollution impacted adiposity (how fat is laid in the body), as well as metabolic parameters and inflammation. They were interested particularly in exposure during the earlier part of life.

Their breeder at the Ohio State University, Qinghua Sun, had been interested in studying why city-dwellers seem to be at a particularly high risk of heart disease compared to country folk.

It’s common to hear lifestyle habits as a factor in obesity and metabolic diseases. In most cities, a fast food chain is rarely more than a block away, which makes it all too easy to fall in a habit of unhealthy eating.

The breeder wondered if another answer may be hanging, invisibly, in the air we breathe.

To find out more, he started to raise laboratory mice in the kinds of conditions you might find across various cities. Some breathed filtered, clean, air, while others were funnelled the kinds of fumes you might find next to a motorway or busy city centre. Along the way, his team weighed the mice and performed various tests to study how their metabolism was functioning.

Research Findings

After just 10 weeks, the effects were already visible. The rats developed insulin resistance, greater adiposity, and widespread inflammation throughout their body.

• The mice exposed to the air pollution showed greater volumes of body fat, both around the belly and around the internal organs; at the microscopic level, the fat cells themselves were around 20% larger in the mice inhaling a fine mist of pollutants.

• The rats seemed to have quickly become less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that signals to cells to convert blood sugar into energy: the first step towards diabetes.

• The tiny irritating particles may also unleash a flood of inflammatory molecules called “cytokines” to wash through the blood, a response that also triggers immune cells to invade otherwise healthy tissue. Not only does that too interfere with the tissue’s ability to respond to insulin; the subsequent inflammation may also interfere with the hormones and the brain processing that govern our appetite, says Michael Jerrett at the University of California, Berkeley.

This study with laboratory mice offered some of the earliest concrete clues that the effects of air pollution may penetrate far beyond the lungs.

This supports the findings of other studies.

Large studies from cities across the world suggest that humans might be suffering the same consequences.

Chen, for instance, examined the medical records of 62,000 people in Ontario, Canada over a 14-year period. He found that the risk of developing diabetes rose by about 11% for just every 10 micrograms of fine particles in a cubic metre of air.

This is a troubling statistic, considering that the pollution in some Asian cities can reach at least 500 micrograms per cubic metre of air.

In Switzerland, a study saw a similar signs of increased insulin resistance, hypertension, and waist-circumference in a sample of nearly 4,000 people living among dense pollution.

References and Resources:

• Xu X, Yavar Z, Verdin M, Ying Z, Mihai G, Kampfrath T, Wang A, Zhong M, Lippmann M, Chen LC, Rajagopalan S, Sun Q. Effect of early particulate air pollution exposure on obesity in mice: role of p47phox. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2010 Dec;30(12):2518-27. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.110.215350. Epub 2010 Sep 23. PMID: 20864666; PMCID: PMC3065931.

• https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151207-the-air-that-makes-you-fat

Research: Review on Water Issues in Malaysia

The water you drink and bathe in in your house affects your health.

The chlorine with which almost all municipal water is treated reacts with naturally occurring organic materials, creating harmful trihalomethanes.

This is in addition to the chlorine itself which is a microbial poison.

Read the research study here: The paper was published August 2021 International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478) 11(8):860-875. DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v11-i8/10783

Is Your Tap Water Safe To Drink In Malaysia?

The paper review focuses on water management and usage practices in Malaysia. But it yields astonishing insights into the quality of water declining tremendously in the nation.

While the beautiful tropical country of Malaysia is blessed with the abundant resource, multiple municipal weakness mean the tap water can often be dangerously polluted.

A basic good practice is to install the best personal water filter you can at home to prevent heavy metal contamination.

Insights from the paper:

• Aluminium contamination is higher recorded more than the standard limit set by the Ministry of Health guidelines for drinking water. Based on a 2011 study , from two housing areas with a total of 100 respondents, the mean value of daily chronic aluminum intake (CDI) in PR drinking water (0.00707 mg / kg / day) is much higher than MPL (0.00164 mg / kg / day)!

• Half (49.5%) of all water supply problems in Malaysia were reported in — a densely populated state that houses the main city and urban areas. That increased in 2017 to 62.4% (Malay Mail, 2019).

  Nowadays, water shortage is no longer considered a natural disaster that must be borne and accepted but instead is a human-made cause that can be dealt with and solved by humans.

• mining, industrial, and agricultural activities also contribute to the contamination of heavy metals in the body of water due to improper management of wastewater and discharge from fertilisers (Karavoltsos, 2008). However, most heavy metals from surface water and groundwater are usually removing during the water treatment process (Kioko & Obiri, 2012). Furthermore, corrosion of water pipes, faucets, and water fixtures can cause contaminated water supply for daily use. Unclean practices at home, such as improper drinking water storage containers and unclean operators, also contribute to this. This exposes consumers to the dangers of excess copper ions in drinking water, which can lead to acute poisoning and lead to diseases and ailments, such as liver damage, heart and kidney failure, and brain disease.

• the cost of treating polluted water is high and reduces the overall water availability. In the year 2019, toxic chemical pollution in the Kim River in Pasir Gudang (Johor), which disrupts the water supply to around 20,000 households, is an example. Furthermore, there were 160 cases of river pollution reported in which enforcement was taken during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period from March 18 to May 4, 2020 (Malay Mail, 2019).

• How polluted are the rivers? The Malaysian Environmental Quality Report 2017 shows that the percentage of clean rivers has decreased since 2015, while the rate of polluted rivers has increased.

  …(out of 89 river basins in Peninsular Malaysia) 25 ‘dead’ rivers in Malaysia. Sixteen rivers were found in Johor, five in Selangor, three in Penang, and one in Melaka. These rivers were categorised under Classes 4 and 5, which are reserved for highly polluted rivers and where aquatic life cannot survive (The Sunday Daily, 2019).

• Many factories operate illegally along the banks of the Semenyih River. This adds to pollution to a source that serves several areas around the country’s capital such as Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat, Sepang and Petaling.

• This fact tells us about the possible integrity of pipes channelling water produced by treatment plants to consumer homes. Water wastage could be due to pipe leaks, inaccuracies of customer meters, and unauthorised use. The amount of water wasted in Malaysia is too high, with a national average of 35%. This rate is equivalent to losing 35 liters from every 100 liters of treated water (The Star, 2020).

The only way to assure the quality of what you drink and cook with is by having your own purification system

You can take steps to ensure that your own water system is carefully and periodically maintained.

Typically, purification systems for large municipal water systems can be standard off the shelf systems.

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Do you know your water quality parameters and water treatment options? Get in touch to find out more about how you can find suitable carbon filters, types of purification systems, reverse osmosis, sterilization, and water conditioning.