[Experimental data on radiofrequency].
Since 1996, there has been a flurry of scientific activity to evaluate the possibility that cellular telephone use may cause brain tumors, reflecting the rapid increase in the use of these phones throughout the world. Overall, the epidemiologic and laboratory studies to date have ruled out with a reasonable degree of certainty that cellular telephones cause cancer, at least for durations of use up to 5 years. RF signals from cellular telephones are not genotoxic and cannot directly damage DNA, and are thus unlikely to be in itiators; hence the risk of cancer from a thermal or non-thermal mechanism would be one that, if anything, promotes tumor growth. However, there is no convincing evidence from animal experiments or epidemiologic research that RF signals can promote tumor growth. If RF exposure is assumed to act by promoting the growth of an underlying lesion, then the large numbers of recent cellular phone users who have been studied are likely to have been sufficient to detect such an effect, but none has been found and there is no known biological mechanism that supports a causal relation and no evidence of adverse effects in laboratory animals.
Clinica del Lavoro L. Devoto Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Dipartimento di Medicina del Lavoro Università degli Studi di Milano.
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D000818:Animals; D040421:Cell Phone; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000209:etiology; D011840:Radiation, Nonionizing / Q000009:adverse effects*