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

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—The study conclusions would have meant updating FCC’s outdated 1996 standards.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

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