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Read the full EMFSA February 2025 Newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/emfsa/february2025newsletter

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Report Date: April 2021

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Modern electric lighting practices have facilitated a society in which people may work, sleep, and receive goods and services at any time of the day. People are exposed to ill-timed, unnatural, electric light (such as light at night, or “LAN”) through lifestyle choices, necessity, the locations of their residences, and employment during the night shift. As light is the critical regulator for circadian rhythms, exposure to LAN can cause circadian disruption, which can be associated with potential adverse health effects such as cancer. Night shift work includes exposure to electric LAN, sleep disturbances, or changes in meal timing, as well as other potential factors (e.g., social stressors, lifestyle behaviors, decreased exposure to sunlight, and lower vitamin D levels). Most, but not all, of these factors can lead to circadian disruption.

Extract

NTP final cancer hazard conclusions

There is high confidence for a causal relationship between human cancer (breast and less so prostate) and persistent night shift work — i.e., frequent and long-term night shift work, especially beginning in early adulthood — that causes circadian disruption. This conclusion is based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from the collective body of evidence from cancer epidemiological studies and mechanistic studies in humans and in experimental animals. The strongest evidence is for breast cancer.

There is moderate confidence for a causal relationship between human cancer and certain lighting conditions — i.e., excessive LAN exposure combined with insufficient daylight exposure — that cause circadian disruption. This conclusion is based on strong evidence that LAN acts through mechanisms that are likely to cause cancer in humans.

The full report pdf is available at https://doi.org/10.22427/NTP-CHR-NSWLAN

More on the topic: https://www.emfsa.co.za/news/ntp-review-of-shift-work-at-night-light-at-night-and-circadian-disruption/

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Modern electric lighting enables people to work, sleep, eat, and receive services throughout the 24-hour day. As a result, many individuals encounter new patterns and types of electrical light, change the timing of their meals, and experience sleep disturbances and other stresses. Those factors can disrupt circadian rhythms and possibly lead to adverse health effects such as cancer.

NTP studied two exposure scenarios related to modern lighting practices.

1. Night shift work

Night shift work is defined as working three hours between 12 and 5am. It is a complex exposure scenario and includes the following.

2. Sources of electrical light at night

Why is it important to study night shift work and light at night?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 10 million adults in the U.S. frequently work night shifts. Frequent night shift work is more common among men, blacks, and non-Hispanics.

Night shift work may contribute to almost 12,000 new breast cancer cases per year in the U.S. The link between night shift work and breast cancer among black women is a research gap.

Exposure to indoor electric lighting is nearly ubiquitous in our society. Findings from the National Sleep Foundation show that 90% of Americans use some type of electronic device a few nights per week within one hour of bedtime. In 2016, satellite imaging data of the Earth at night (see Figure 5) indicated that more than 99% of the U.S. population lived under light-polluted skies at night.

NTP Evaluation

NTP used systematic review methods and established criteria to reach its cancer hazard conclusions. These conclusions are based on scientific judgment with consideration given to all relevant information.

What did the evaluation find?

High confidence that persistent night shift work that disrupts circadian rhythms can cause breast cancer in women and may cause prostate cancer in men. Persistent night shift work is defined as frequent and long-term night shift work, especially beginning in early adulthood.

• The exact conditions of persistent night shift work are hard to define as duration and frequency may depend on their specific combination.

Moderate confidence for a causal relationship between human cancer and certain lighting conditions that cause circadian disruption. Certain lighting conditions are defined as excessive LAN exposure combined with insufficient daylight exposure.

• The lighting conditions at night that lead to circadian disruption depend on a combination of light characteristics such as wavelength, exposure duration, light intensity or levels, and timing.

Q: How does circadian disruption work?

Sunlight is the major external signal that synchronizes the master circadian clock to natural light-dark cycles we experience daily. To keep biological rhythms coordinated (see figure for example of daily rhythms), the master clock, which is located in the brain, sends signals to a large network of peripheral clocks that are in almost every cell of the body. Exposure to too much light at night, especially during times when people are typically asleep, is thought to contribute to circadian disruption and increased risk of cancer.

Q: How were the conclusions on persistent night shift work and certain lighting conditions reached?

NTP used systematic review methods to identify studies, evaluate study quality, and integrate evidence across studies.

For each exposure scenario (night shift work or LAN), NTP integrated the evidence from human and non-human studies of exposure and cancer, studies of circadian disruption, and studies of mechanisms (e.g., biological effects) to reach our conclusions.

Read more at: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/cancer/completed/shiftwork/index.html

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Summary of NTP Cancer Hazard Conclusions Exposure Circumstances That Cause Circadian Disruption:
Persistent Night Shift Work
Certain Lighting Conditions

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/results/pubs/cancer_assessment/lanfinal20210400_508.pdf

Selected images:

NTP Review of Shift Work at Night, Light at Night, and Circadian Disruption

Topic Overview

Status: NTP cancer hazard assessments

Conclusion(s): NTP concluded that

(1) persistent night shift work can cause breast cancer in women and

(2) certain lighting conditions may be linked to cancer.

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/cancer/completed/shiftwork/index.html

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Source: https://microwavenews.com/news-center/glore-2020

The post Public Shut Out of Global RF Health Briefing appeared first on EMFSA.

What are NTP’s future plans for studying cell phone RFR?

NTP is working to better understand the biological basis for the cancer findings reported in its earlier RFR studies. The program has developed smaller RFR exposure chambers for additional short-term studies that will take weeks and months to complete rather than years. NTP aims to better understand the underlying effects of RFR on biological systems, such as looking at biomarkers of damage. The biomarkers are measurable physical changes, such as DNA damage, that can be seen in shorter amounts of time than it takes to develop cancer and that might be predictive of disease. NTP scientists also want to know if heat or exposure-related stress plays a role in cancer development.

With 5G technology on the horizon, many questions have been raised about what this means with respect to human exposures to RFR. One significant difference between 5G networks and the current networks is that 5G will utilize a broader range of frequencies, including those much higher than NTP previously evaluated (> 6000 MHz). The lower frequency ranges that are currently in use (700-2700 MHz) remain relevant since they will continue to be used in existing cellular communication networks, as well as the 5G network. The higher frequencies, known as millimeter waves, can rapidly transmit enormous amounts of data with increased network capacity compared with current technologies. Millimeter waves do not travel as far and do not penetrate the body as deeply as do the wavelengths of the lower frequencies. Since these millimeter waves are likely to penetrate no deeper than the skin, there is less concern that these frequencies can cause harmful effects in the heart and brain. However, scientists do not know if millimeter waves may cause toxicity in the skin and other human tissues. Since the NTP’s studies have demonstrated that there is some interaction between RFR exposure at the tested frequencies and cancers of certain tissues, there is a need to understand the interaction between RFR and biological tissues and the factors that affect that interaction.

The exposure system is also designed to allow NTP to conduct studies with various RFR frequencies and modulations used by cell phones to keep up with changing technologies in the telecommunications industry. In general, NTP scientists want to understand the impact of exposure to RFR on biological tissues, regardless of generation, or G.

Source: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/topics/cellphones/index.html

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  The “Other” Half of the Spectrum – Thermal and non-thermal effects of non-ionizing radiation exposure

D. Miles  EMFSA  www.emfsa.co.za

Dr. Dimitris Panagopoulos

Dr Erica Mallery-Blythe BMBS (Soton) – UK / USA http://phiremedical.org

https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/reveh.2016.31.issue-3/reveh-2016-0011/reveh-2016-0011.xml

South African Scientist  James Lech

Mr Lech’s CV is included in the link below:

Submission to the Department of Health, South Africa – EMF National Report 2108/2019

Carcinogenicity Studies

Cell Phone Radio Frequency Radiation

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/topics/cellphones/index.html

The Significance of Primary Tumors in the NTP Study of Chronic Rat Exposure to Cell Phone Radiation [Health Matters] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8866792 and

The Significance of Primary Tumors in the NTP Study of Chronic Rat Exposure to Cell Phone Radiation

Evaluation of the genotoxicity of cell phone radiofrequency radiation in male and female rats and mice following subchronic exposure https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/em.22343

9th October 2019: The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Radiation Programme has an ongoing project to assess potential health effects of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields in the general and working population. To prioritize potential adverse health outcomes, WHO conducted a broad international survey in 2018. Ten major topics were identified for which WHO will now commission systematic reviews to analyze and synthesize the available evidence. https://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/rf_ehc_page/en/

29th October, 2019:

“Non-ionizing radiation (radiofrequency), High Priority, ready within 5 Years” 

https://monographs.iarc.fr/news-events/advisory-group-report-on-priorities-for-the-iarc-monographs-during-2020-2024/

EMFSA October 2019 Newsletter

The post SAAPMB Congress 2019 Presentation Notes appeared first on EMFSA.

https://monographs.iarc.fr/news-events/advisory-group-report-on-priorities-for-the-iarc-monographs-during-2020-2024/

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