In the Trump Administration Crosshairs: Cell Phone Radiation
By Margaret Manto, NOTUS
“The next-generation telecommunications network should be
discontinued until it has been ‘sufficiently demonstrated that there are no
real and serious health risks,’” Kennedy wrote on X in 2020. Kennedy did not
respond to a request for comment.
In a July 2024 episode of his podcast, Kennedy spoke at
length about what he saw as the risks of cell phone radiation and how
he believed research into the topic has been systematically suppressed by the
telecommunications industry.
The amount of radiation produced by cell phones is regulated
by two agencies: the Food and Drug Administration, which generates recommendations for
reducing health risks, and the Federal Communications Commission, which turns
those recommendations into regulations for
manufacturers and cell phone service providers. Other agencies are also
involved in cell phone radiation research, including the National Toxicology
Program, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Both the FDA and
the NIH are part of HHS.
Many experts say that research has not shown a correlation
between the kind of radiation produced by cell phones and the health issues
that Kennedy has said they can cause, including cancer.
“There is no evidence that these radiation wavelengths cause cancer. They don’t cause DNA damage, they don’t sink in beyond the skin,” said Tim Rebbeck, a professor who studies cancer prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Rebbeck added that the kinds of radiation that are known to cause cancer, like gamma rays and x-rays, are much shorter wavelengths than the radiation caused by cell phones — and longer wavelengths have never been shown to be associated with cancer risk.
“I think that if anybody’s cell phone got overheated to the
point that it would cause DNA damage, you’d know that. This isn’t something
that would be invisible to you,” Rebbeck said.
But some scientists say that more research is needed to know
whether cell phones and wireless pose a risk to humans, citing studies conducted
by the National Toxicology Program that found that high doses of the radiation
emitted by 2G and 3G cell phone signals could cause tumors in rats and mice.
These scientists say there has only been limited research on the newer forms of
cell phone signals.
“We’re basically flying blind on 5G,” said Joel Moskowitz,
director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of
California, Berkeley, and a scientific adviser for a group
of scientists advocating for greater research into cell phone
radiation.
Some scientists, including Moskowitz, say the amount of research into cell phone risks has been limited in the U.S., in part due to the power of the telecommunications industry.
Other experts say research has been ongoing and thorough,
pointing to recent epidemiological studies that
have taken place outside the U.S. and have shown no correlation between cell
phone use levels and cancer rates. These types of studies may be more
indicative of actual risk levels to humans, said Jerrold Bushberg — a professor
of nuclear sciences at the University of California, Davis, and a member of the
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements — calling
epidemiological studies the “gold standard” for establishing potential hazards
from environmental sources.
“Animals aren’t humans, so there’s going to be differences
that we can’t account for directly. And the animal experiments are done at
higher exposure levels than people are exposed to,” Bushberg said. “Even if we
see something [like cancer in animals], that doesn’t mean it will happen in
humans.”
The FCC’s regulations on cell phone radiation levels have gone largely unchanged since the mid-1990s. Kennedy has been involved with efforts to compel the FCC to update its regulations on cell phone radiation in the past.
In 2020, Kennedy’s nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, sued the FCC
after the agency declined to update its health and safety guidelines for 5G and
wireless technology. In 2021, the courts sided with the nonprofit, stating in
their decision that the FCC had “failed to provide a reasoned explanation for
its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against the harmful
effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer.”
“The wireless industry is rolling out thousands of new
transmitters amid a growing body of research that calls cellphone safety into
question. Federal regulators say there’s nothing to worry about — even as they
rely on standards established in 1996,” Kennedy wrote on X in 2022.
David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and
the Environment at the University of Albany and a petitioner in that lawsuit,
said Kennedy would push for tighter regulations on cell phone radiation in
addition to more research into the possible health effects.
“In my judgment, there just needs to be much more research
here, and it’s not been high on the government’s list of priorities,” Carpenter
said. “If Bobby Kennedy is confirmed as secretary of HHS, you can be very sure
that that issue is going to get a lot more attention.”
Moskowitz said that he would like to see Kennedy prioritize
research into cell phone radiation with the intention of updating the FCC’s
regulations.
“We would like to see more systematic research that focuses
on setting safe guidelines in the long term,” Moskowitz said. “This is a hard
message to sell, given the economics and the demand for 24/7 wireless, but
clearly the issue has gotten totally out of hand in terms of our exposures.”
Recent epidemiological studies that have taken
place outside the U.S. have shown no correlation between cell phone use levels
and cancer rates.
But Rebbeck said there hasn’t been any research data that
would suggest a reason to change the current policy, so “it would be unlikely
that any proposed changes would be based on anything we’ve learned about the
science of cell phones.”
“The best evidence is all pretty clear around cell phones
right now, and I would make sure that the policy recommendations are not only
based in science, but also don’t cause issues that are unnecessary,” Rebbeck
said.
Moskowitz said that while he would like to think that
Kennedy would be able to prioritize research into cell phone safety if
confirmed as HHS secretary, he’s not optimistic about his chances.
“We’re talking about an industry that spends over 100
million dollars a year lobbying Congress,” Moskowitz said. “It’s hard to be
terribly optimistic that one person can make a difference, even in positions of
power in the administration, when up against one of the most powerful
industries in the world.”
This story first appeared in NOTUS, a
publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute.
Margaret Manto is
a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
