DNA damage was investigated in cells of three brain regions (frontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum), the liver and in leukocytes by the comet assay. Furthermore, chromosomal damage was assessed in red blood cells (immature and mature erythrocytes) by the so-called micronuclei, which detects faulty repair events and/or problems in the DNA replication.

According to the protocol of the NTP study, the animals were exposed to GSM (2G) or CDMA (3G) modulated signals (carrier frequencies, rats: 900 MHz; mice: 1900 MHz) at 10-minute intervals (10 min on, 10 min off) for 18 hours per day and 7 days per week, starting from gestation day 5. This corresponded to a daily cumulative exposure of 9 hours and 10 minutes. After 19 and 14 weeks of exposure for rats and for mice, respectively, tissue samples were collected and refrigerated. For each exposure condition (rats: whole body SAR1 1.5, 3 or 6 W/kg; mice: whole body SAR 2.5, 5 or 10 W/kg), and for both sexes and species, 5 animals were included in the comet assay analysis. Thus, DNA damage data of a total of 800 tissue samples were included.

The authors considered a clear indication of increased DNA damage, when a dose-effect relationship was found as well as a statistically significant difference to control animals (p-value ≤ 0.025). These criteria were met at the highest dose (6 W/kg) in the hippocampus of male rats, in the frontal cortex of male mice after exposure to both signal modulations (10 W/kg), and in the leukocytes of female mice. In addition, some evidence was found in other exposure groups and classified as “equivocal”.

In contrast, no evidence for chromosomal damage was found in any of the exposure groups in the micronucleus assays. It is a well-established concept that induced genome instability results in mutations and thus causes carcinogenesis. Hence, such a study design generally aims to establish a potential causality between tissue-specific DNA damage and increased incidence of tumours.

In this regard, the sex-specific differences found in the cancer and the genotoxicological study of the NTP are remarkable. While little evidence for higher tumour incidence was found in female animals, indications were more frequent in males, especially in rats. The DNA damage observed in brain regions could therefore be related to the increased occurrence of malignant gliomas. However, these ex vivo analyses do not allow for direct conclusions about the causality. DNA damage could be both the cause and the consequence of neoplastic changes as well as non-neoplastic tissue damage.

Notably, the proportion of severely damaged cell nuclei is relatively high, which could indicate extensive tissue damage, but also be due to the methodology used.

Source: BERENIS – The Swiss expert group on electromagnetic fields and non-ionising radiation Newsletter No. 21 / June 2020

https://www.emfsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Newsletter_BERENIS_Nr._21_-_ENGLISH-1-2.pdf

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987720309567?via%3Dihub

Abstract

Earlier animal studies have provided evidence that non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may be caused by exposure to radiofrequency (RF) radiation. This was recently confirmed by the U.S. National Toxicology (NTP) study that showed an increased incidence of malignant lymphoma in female mice exposed to the GSM modulated or the CDMA modulated cell phone RF radiation. Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare malignancy in humans with poor prognosis. An increasing incidence has been reported in recent years. Based on a case-report we present the hypothesis that use of the hand-held mobile phone may be a risk factor for PCNSL. The increasing incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Sweden is discussed in relation to etiologic factors.

The post Medical Hypotheses – Central nervous system lymphoma and radiofrequency radiation – a case report and incidence data in the Swedish Cancer Register on non-Hodgkin lymphoma appeared first on EMFSA.

Photo by Julius Drost on Unsplash

See which statement about cell towers wins first prize for not bothering to dig deeper into the available research

The post EMFSA June 2019 Newsletter appeared first on EMFSA.

The post Video interview: Dr Annie Sasco June, 2018 Segovia, Spain appeared first on EMFSA.

Slides from Dr Soffritti’s presentation: (slides used here with permission).

Soffritti: The two new studies “should put an end to the nonsense” that there are no animal studies demonstrating the carcinogenicity of RF radiation.

Soffritti calls for caution on:

-The build out of 5G

-Use of mobile phones by children.

-Soffritti seeks a reevaluation of RF cancer risk by IARC/WHO.

Soffritti and David Rall, former director of the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)

More about the Ramazzini studies from Microwave News:

The post Dr Morando Soffritti (comments and slides) recent Ramazzini and NTP cell phone animal studies appeared first on EMFSA.

The post Dr. Paul Heroux: Comments on the National Toxicology Program Study appeared first on EMFSA.

With a relatively short survival rate, glioblastoma is the most common primary brain tumor. As it is unlikely that a single biomarker can effectively detect glioblastoma, scientists have tried to use a novel combination of multiple biomarkers (Popescu et al., 2014). Experiments performed for better understanding of cellular and molecular events involved in glioblastoma pathogenesis, show that the PI3K pathway can be a prime target for treatment of glioblastoma (Cruceru et al., 2013). Despite its strengths, this paper has at least one major shortcoming. Over the past decade, my colleagues and I have studied the health effects of cellular phones and their base stations. We have also shown that some of the papers claiming no link between mobile phone use and cancer have methodological errors and/or shortcomings (Mortazavi et al., 2017a,b, 2018; Mortazavi, 2018). For example, in one of the papers reviewed by our research group, a 400% difference in brain tumors was masked by poor statistical analysis! (Mortazavi, 2018).

The major shortcoming of the paper authored by Xu et al. comes from this point that the authors have not considered substantial evidence that shows a significant association between mobile phone use and brain cancer “Other potential risk factors like cell phone use, smoking, and environmental exposures have been studied, however, the conclusions were not definitive (Gomes et al., 2011).” For example, a significant association between mobile and cordless phone use and malignant brain tumors was reported in a case-control study on brain tumors performed by Hardell et al. The authors claimed that the results of their study were in line with this hypothesis that exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) generated by wireless phones can play a significant role in the initiation and promotion of cancer (Hardell et al., 2013). Hardell and Carlberg in their recent report regarding Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) of CNS cancers stated “In summary this register based study showed increasing rates of tumors of unknown type in CNS (D43) with higher rate during 2007–2015. AAPS increased especially in the age group 20–39 years at diagnosis. This may be explained by higher risk for brain tumor in subjects with first use of a wireless phone before the age of 20 years taking a reasonable latency period” (Hardell and Carlberg, 2017). Moreover, a meta-analysis of 24 studies (26,846 cases, 50,013 controls) also supported this hypothesis that long-term use of mobile phones can be associated with increased risk of intracranial tumors (Bortkiewicz et al., 2017). The findings of this study revealed that mobile phone use > 10 years was linked to higher risk of all types of intracranial tumors. Wang and Guo also in their recent meta-analysis reported a significant association between mobile phone use for more than 5 years and the risk of glioma (Wang and Guo, 2016).

Moreover, the findings of a recent large-scale study conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) revealed statistically significant increases in cancer in rodents that had been exposed to GSM or CDMA signals for 2-years. NTP study showed that when the intensity of the radiation increased, the incidence of cancer among the rats also increased (Wyde et al., in review). This 25,000,000 USD study that is the most complex study completed by the NTP, showed that the occurrence of malignant gliomas in the brain and schwannomas of the heart, can be linked to exposure to mobile phone radiofrequency radiation (RFR) “The occurrences of two tumor types in male Harlan Sprague Dawley rats exposed to RFR, malignant gliomas in the brain and schwannomas of the heart, were considered of particular interest, and are the subject of this report.”

It should be noted that recently Momoli et al. (2017) have performed a re-analysis of the Canadian data from the 13-country INTERPHONE case-control study and when they applied a probabilistic multiple-bias model to address possible biases simultaneously, the odds ratio (OR) for glioma comparing highest quartile of use (>558 cumulative lifetime hours of use) to non-regular users was 2.0 (95% confidence interval: 1.2, 3.4). When adjusted for selection and recall biases, the OR was 2.2 (95% confidence interval: 1.3, 4.1).

The post Commentary: Geographic Variations in the Incidence of Glioblastoma and Prognostic Factors Predictive of Overall Survival in US Adults from 2004–2013 appeared first on EMFSA.

National Toxicology Program U.S. Department of Health and Human Sciences

The post VIDEOS – NTP Peer Review of Cell Phone/Cancer study – March 26-28, 2018 appeared first on EMFSA.

The post Cell Phone Radiation, Cancer and Science: Dr. Lennart Hardell Testifies at Danish Parliament appeared first on EMFSA.

By Virginia Guidry  https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2018/4/feature/feature-2-cell-phone/index.htm

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