By Joel Moscowitz, PhD, Dec 30 2018 | Original Safer EMR article here.
“How Big Wireless Convinced Us Cell Phones and Wi-Fi are Safe" was selected as one of the ten most under-reported stories of the past year by Project Censored — a media research initiative that champions the importance of a free press for democratic self-government.
The Project Censored story featured a new study of miscarriage in pregnant women and a special investigation for The Nation and The Guardian which examined how news about wireless health risks has been censored by the media due to industry influence.
In 2018, the U.S. government disbanded with many environmental protections and paved the way for industry to intensify its exploitation of the environment at the expense of planetary health. The telecom and wireless industries have benefited from the government’s abdication of responsibility to protect the public’s health. State and federal governments have conflicts of interest — on average, 19% of your cell phone bill is devoted to taxes and fees in addition to the taxes that corporations pay.
With the conclusion of two major studies this year, we now have “clear evidence” that cell phone radiation exposure can cause cancer based upon research conducted by the National Toxicology Program in the U.S. and the Ramazzini Institute in Italy. Many scientists believe that this research constitutes the “missing link” needed for the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer to declare wireless radiation a Group 1 human carcinogen (the strongest determination).
Researchers at Yale University and the Connecticut Health Department published the first case-control study examining the association between cell phone use and thyroid cancer. The researchers found elevated risks of thyroid cancer among heavier, long-term cell phone users. This research may help explain why thyroid cancer is the fastest growing cancer in the U.S. Incidence has nearly tripled since the 1980’s from four per 100,000 in 1980 to fifteen per 100,000 in 2014.
By year end, 246 scientists who have published over 2,000 papers in professional journals on electromagnetic fields and biology or health signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal. The consensus of these experts, based upon the preponderance of peer-reviewed research, is that cell phone and wireless radiation exposure increases the risk of reproductive harm, neurological disorders, and cancer. They are demanding health warnings and stronger regulation of magnetic fields and radio frequency radiation.
Yet health agencies (e.g., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization) and quasi-official groups (e.g., the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) continue to dismiss the preponderance of research which finds that cell phone and wireless radiation causes adverse bioeffects and health effects.
In January, Physicians for Safe Technology launched its website which documents the health risks from wireless radiation exposure. In April, the International Society of Doctors for the Environment and its member organizations in 27 countries, adopted a declaration calling for a moratorium on the deployment of the fifth generation of cellular technology, known as 5G.
Following the tobacco industry playbook, the CTIA, the wireless industry trade association, launched an advertising campaign, "The Global Race to 5G," which claims that the U.S. could reap massive economic benefits, but only if it is the first nation to deploy this technology. The CTIA successfully lobbied for greater access to the electromagnetic spectrum including millimeter waves in addition to more microwave spectrum and limits on fees that localities could collect for "small cell" antenna sites.
The CTIA and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) were also successful in getting legislative and regulatory bodies to adopt industry-written rules which override local policymakers’ ability to control where so-called "small cell" antennas are to be sited in the public right-of-way, oblivious to the well-founded claims by scientists and medical doctors about the health hazards from exposure to 4G and 5G RF Microwave Radiation at close proximity.
The plan to deploy a million or so so-called "small cell" antenna sites across the US will create an extreme density of 4G and 5G infrastructure that harms privacy, property values, health and safety. Americans that oppose this ALEC-written Telecom agenda hundreds of community groups have organized in opposition. Many have coalesced under an umbrella organization, Americans for Responsible Technology. In the next few years, this grassroots movement may grow into a powerful political force as more and more people finally become aware of the health risks associated with wireless radiation exposure.
About Safer EMR
Safer EMR, the EMR Safety website , addresses scientific and policy developments regarding the health risks from exposure to electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Since 2013, the website has had almost 1.9 million page views by visitors from over 200 countries which attests to the worldwide recognition about the impact of wireless radiation on our health and the health of our environment. During the past year, half of visitors were from outside the United States with the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, Israel, Germany, Greece, Italy and France represented the most. The website provides a curated collection of links to articles on cell phones and other wireless devices and infrastructure. The site summarizes the peer-reviewed research on adverse health outcomes associated with wireless radiation and provides links to news stories that report on the manufacturing of doubt about these health harms by agencies and scientists with conflicts of interest. The following links were the most popular RF wireless radiation stories in 2018:
5G and proliferation of cell towers (including so-called “small cells”)
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Link to Wireless Technology: Millimeter Wave Health Effects
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Link to Scientists and Doctors Demand Moratorium on 5G
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Link to 5G Wireless Technology: Is 5G Harmful to Our Health?
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Link to Cell Tower Health Effects
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Link to 5G Wireless Technology: Cutting Through the Hype
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Link to Cell Phone Towers are Largest Contributor to Environmental Radiofrequency Radiation
National Toxicology Program and Ramazzini cellphone radiation studies
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Link to National Toxicology Program Finds Cell Phone Radiation Causes Cancer
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Link to National Toxicology Program: Peer review of cell phone radiation study
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Link to Cell Phone Radiation Study: Final Reports
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Link to Ramazzini Institute Cell Phone Radiation Study Replicates NTP Study
Recent wireless radiation research
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Link to Recent Research on Wi-Fi Effects
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Link to Electromagnetic Sensitivity
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Link to Recent Research on Wireless Radiation and Electromagnetic
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Link to Effects of Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields: 833 Studies
Cellphone health effects research
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Link to Brain Tumor Rates Are Rising in the US: The Role of Cell Phone & Cordless Phone Use
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Link to Thyroid Cancer & Mobile Phone Use
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Link to Scientific Evidence of Harm from Cell Phone Radiation: Two Years of Research
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Link to Female Infertility & Cell Phone
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Link to Effect of Mobile Phones on Sperm Quality