New Studies Dial Up Discussion On Cellphone Cancer Issue

A Wall Street Journal report pointed to study results that support a push for tightened standards "to protect humans from potential health effects" of cellphones and cellphone usage.

"Cellphones are tested for safety based on the heating effects of RF (radio frequency) radiation. Each test produces a SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) score, representing the amount of RF absorption in the body. The FCC says lower SAR isn't necessarily safer. To measure SAR, phones are held against a human-form model filled with a solution emulating human tissue," according to the Journal.

However, a recent U.S. government study confronts the idea that heating effects are the only potential health effect, "renewing a debate about whether the modern tests adequately protects human health."

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"Last month, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released partial results from a $25 million study on rodents that found an association between RF radiation and cancer," the report read.

The coverage continued "Most rats in the study were exposed to levels beyond what any human would ever encounter from a cellphone, but some rats were exposed to levels near federal safety limits for small amounts of tissue."

"It's a paradigm shift in my mind because this is the first study where tremendous care was taken to use nonionizing radiation, and not heat up tissue, and then find that nonionizing radiation caused tumors," said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.

The primary method for testing the radiation emissions from cellphones was based on the concept of Quirino Balzano, a former engineer of Motorola.

"Motorola put in a substantial amount of research on the biological effects of radio-frequency radiation," said Dr. Balzano, who retired from Motorola in 2001 and is now at the University of Maryland. "We found absolutely no proof whatsoever" of anything harmful.

David Andrews, an Environmental Working Group senior scientist, claims that what the recent study "indicates is that there are [sic] the potential for more subtle, but potentially much more damaging health effects."

The Journal concluded, "Even with the NTP study, many scientists still consider heating the only possible health effect and don't consider cellphones harmful."