High levels of cellphone radiation tied to tumors
3 deaths linked to dengue shots
NEW YORK, Feb 3, (Agencies): Male rats exposed to very high levels of the kind of radiation emitted by cellphones developed tumors in the tissues around their hearts, according to a draft report by US government researchers on the potential health risks of the devices.
Female rats and mice exposed in the same way did not develop tumors, according to the preliminary report from the US National Toxicology Program (NTP), a part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The findings add to years of research meant to help settle the debate over whether cellphone radiation is harmful.
Although intriguing, the findings can not be extrapolated to humans, NTP scientists and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday. They noted that the animal studies were meant to test extreme exposures to cell phone radiation, and that current safety limits on cellphone radiation are protective.
However, the two 10-year, $25 million studies — the most comprehensive assessments of health effects and exposure to radiofrequency radiation in rats and mice to date — do raise new questions about exposure to the ubiquitous devices.
In the studies, about 6 percent of male rats whose entire bodies were exposed to the highest level of cell phone radiation developed schwannomas — a rare type of tumor — in nerve tissue near their hearts, while there were no schwannomas in animals that were not exposed to radiation.
“The intriguing part of this is the kind of tumors we saw were similar to tumors noted for quite some time in some epidemiological studies in heavy duty cellphone users,” John Bucher, a senior scientist with NTP, said in a telephone interview.
“Of course, these were in the nerves in the ear and next to the brain, but the tumor types were the same as we saw in the heart.”
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, noted that the studies were negative for common tumors.
“These draft reports are bound to create a lot of concern, but in fact they won’t change what I tell people: the evidence for an association between cellphones and cancer is weak, and so far, we have not seen a higher cancer risk in people,” he said in a statement on Twitter.
Brawley said if cellphone users are concerned about this data in animals they should wear an earpiece.
Unlike ionizing radiation such as that from gamma rays, radon and X-rays, which can break chemical bonds in the body and are known to cause cancer, radiofrequency devices such as cellphones and microwaves emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing radiation.
The concern with this type of radiation is that it produces energy in the form of heat, and frequent exposure against the skin could alter brain cell activity, as some studies have suggested. In the NTP study, rats and mice were exposed to higher levels of radiation for longer periods of time than what people experience with even the highest level of cellphone use, and their entire bodies were exposed all at once, according to the draft report.
Also: MANILA, Philippines:
Philippine health officials said Friday that the deaths of three children injected with a Sanofi Pasteur dengue vaccine may have “causal association” to the inoculation, including two who may have died because the vaccine failed.
The Philippine government halted its massive immunization drive last year after Sanofi said a study showed the vaccine may increase the risks of dengue in people vaccinated prior to infection. More than 830,000 children were injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine, health officials said.
“This issue continues to sow fear and confusion, especially to the parents of children who have been injected with Dengvaxia,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s office said in a statement. “We aim to give clarity on the issues with an honest and objective reporting of the evidence and science.”