Monday, April 9, 2018

No national safety standards in the US for safe levels of wireless radiation exposure

Did you know that there are no national safety standards in the US for safe levels of wireless radiation exposure, and that cell phones were allowed for sale in the US by the FDA before any market safety testing was done?  

Because cell phones were exempted by the FDA from market safety testing, subsequent similar technologies like Wi-Fi was exempted too from market safety testing.  The current US government (FCC) exposure limits are only guidelines based on the level of microwave radiation that could cause thermal effects,  which were adopted from industry over 20 years ago.  This means that the government exposure guidelines only protect against tissue heating, and not against harmful biological effects  which have been found to occur at orders of magnitude lower than the thermal guidelines.  In the FCC’s own words, “there is no federally developed national standard for safe levels of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) energy"  .  https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/ guides/wireless-devices-and-he alth-concerns

So the FDA commissioned the US NTP (National Toxicology Program) in the 1990s to do a study on cell phone radiation to determine if there are health effects https://ntp.niehs.nih. gov/results/areas/cellphones/
In May 2016, the preliminary results were released, which found that 3% of the rats exposed to cell phone radiation developed gliomas or Schwannomas (rare cancer of the heart, originating from Schwann cells, a type of glial cell)  Rats NOT exposed to cell phone radiation did NOT develop any form of cancer.   Results were statisically significant.  This was a well-controlled, $25 million study http://biorxiv.org/conte nt/early/2016/05/26/055699  
Decades later, this $25 million NTP animal study is finally undergoing peer review right now, and the peer review panel has voted that there is "clear evidence of carcinogenic activity" from cell phone radiation on March 28, 2018.  ("Clear Evidence" is the highest rating)  https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2 018/4/feature/feature-2-cell-p hone/index.htm?WT.mc_id=efacto remail_redesign  

This is a very significant acknowledgement by the US government which could lead to changes in current cell phone radiation exposure limits and the World Health Organization ugrading its current classification of radiofrequency radiation from a class 2B "possible carcinogen" to a higher category (higher categories are class 2A "probable carcinogen" or class 1 "known carcinogen") http://pocketnow. com/2018/04/05/who-carinogenic -wireless-radiation-up

------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some important recent papers on Wi-Fi

1) Taheri M et al.  Evaluation of the Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation Emitted From Wi-Fi Router and Mobile Phone Simulator on the Antibacterial Susceptibility of Pathogenic Bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli.   Dose Response. 2017 Jan 23;15(1):1559325816688527. doi: 10.1177/1559325816688527. eCollection 2017 Jan-Mar.


 Exposure to 900 MHz GSM mobile phone radiation and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radiofrequency radiation emitted from common Wi-Fi routers alters the susceptibility of microorganisms to different antibiotics. The pure cultures of Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli were exposed to RF-EMFs generated either by a GSM 900 MHz mobile phone simulator and a common 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi router. It is also shown that exposure to RF-EMFs within a narrow level of irradiation (an exposure window) makes microorganisms resistant to antibiotics. This adaptive phenomenon and its potential threats to human health should be further investigated in future experiments. Altogether, the findings of this study showed that exposure to Wi-Fi and RF simulator radiation can significantly alter the inhibition zone diameters and growth rate for L monocytogenes and E coli. These findings may have implications for the management of serious infectious diseases. 

2) Pall, Martin.  Wi-Fi is an Important Threat to Human Health.  Environmental Research 2018 Mar 21;164:405-416. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.035.

Abstract
Repeated Wi-Fi studies show that Wi-Fi causes oxidative stress, sperm/testicular damage, neuropsychiatric effects including EEG changes, apoptosis, cellular DNA damage, endocrine changes, and calcium overload. Each of these effects are also caused by exposures to other microwave frequency EMFs, with each such effect being documented in from 10 to 16 reviews. Therefore, each of these seven EMF effects are established effects of Wi-Fi and of other microwave frequency EMFs. Each of these seven is also produced by downstream effects of the main action of such EMFs, voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) activation. While VGCC activation via EMF interaction with the VGCC voltage sensor seems to be the predominant mechanism of action of EMFs, other mechanisms appear to have minor roles. Minor roles include activation of other voltage-gated ion channels, calcium cyclotron resonance and the geomagnetic magnetoreception mechanism. Five properties of non-thermal EMF effects are discussed. These are that pulsed EMFs are, in most cases, more active than are non-pulsed EMFs; artificial EMFs are polarized and such polarized EMFs are much more active than non-polarized EMFs; dose-response curves are non-linear and non-monotone; EMF effects are often cumulative; and EMFs may impact young people more than adults. These general findings and data presented earlier on Wi-Fi effects were used to assess the Foster and Moulder (F&M) review of Wi-Fi. The F&M study claimed that there were seven important studies of Wi-Fi that each showed no effect. However, none of these were Wi-Fi studies, with each differing from genuine Wi-Fi in three distinct ways. F&M could, at most conclude that there was no statistically significant evidence of an effect. The tiny numbers studied in each of these seven F&M-linked studies show that each of them lack power to make any substantive conclusions. In conclusion, there are seven repeatedly found Wi-Fi effects which have also been shown to be caused by other similar EMF exposures. Each of the seven should be considered, therefore, as established effects of Wi-Fi.
3) Ding et al, Moderate Dose of Trolox Preventing the Deleterious Effects of Wi-Fi Radiation on Spermatozoa In vitro through Reduction of Oxidative Stress Damage.  Chin Med J (Engl). 2018 Feb 20;131(4):402-412. doi: 10.4103/0366-6999.225045.
Study showed that 2.45 GHz Wi‑Fi radiation emitted from a smart phone damaged human sperm in vitro through the effects of oxidative stress on sperm DNA and mitochondria. Trolox, a water-soluble derivative of vitamin E, could mitigate the harmful effects of 2.45 GHz Wi‑Fi electromagnetic radiation by inhibiting oxidative stress damage to sperm DNA and mitochondria. Results were statistically significant (p<0.001).  Trolox has been used as an antioxidant therapy against excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in myocardial injury and diabetic retinopathy.

4) Kamali K et al.  Effects of electromagnetic waves emitted from 3G+wi-fi modems on human semen analysis.   Urologia. 2017 Oct 25;84(4):209-214. doi: 10.5301/uj.5000269. Epub 2017 Sep 14. 

Free Full-Text http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.5301/uj.5000269

Study showed that at levels below FCC exposure limit of 1.6W/kg SAR, modems emitting Wi-Fi and 3G signals simultaneously caused a significant decrease in human sperm motility and velocity.  Results were statistically significant  (p = 0.046)

 
5) Ibitayo AO, et al.   RAPD Profiling, DNA Fragmentation, and Histomorphometric Examination in Brains of Wistar Rats Exposed to Indoor 2.5 Ghz Wi-Fi Devices Radiation.   Biomed Res Int. 2017;2017:8653286. doi: 10.1155/2017/8653286. Epub 2017 Aug 20.


"The effect of [2.5GHz] Wi-Fi radiation exposure as a threat to brain health was studied using genomic analysis and histopathological study which showed the high risk of its genotoxicity especially in prolonged exposure spectrum through the findings from this study. The genomic analysis confirmed DNA damage due to Wi-Fi radiation toxicity and DNA damage effect which was seen through the RAPD profiles of animals from the exposed groups. The histopathological analyses also confirmed significant deleterious alterations in the brain tissues of Wi-Fi-exposed animals. Hence, the need to exhibit caution in handling smart devices that are used from day to day is fast becoming a threat to human health and wellness. "

Includes images of damaged brain tissue.

5) A list of 100+ studies on health effects of Wi-Fi complied through 2015:  http://www.mainecoalitiontost opsmartmeters.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/02/WiFi-and- Device-Studies-Final.pdf