Mobile Phone Use and Brain and Heart Tumor Incidence in Rats

by | Jul 19, 2018 | 2018, Cancer, Environmental Health, Radioactivity and Irradiation

Written by Joyce Smith, BS. Study results of the Ramazzini Institute found a significant increase of heart Schwannomas and a non-significant increase of brain tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation.

health hazards - cell phoneThe international Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in 2011, classified radiofrequency radiation (RFR) as a possible human carcinogen1,2 . Two previous epidemiological studies have found an association between mobile phone usage and brain tumor development in the brain area receiving the most RFR 3. In 2016, the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) published the first results of its $25 million study showing an increased incidence of malignant glial tumors of the brain and Schwannomas of the heart in Sprague-Dawley rats and B6C3F1/N mice exposed from prenatal life up to two years to RFR that mimicked the exposure generated by mobile phone antennae 4. Partial findings have now been published and demonstrate results similar to previous animal studies showing that RFR exposure-induced genotoxicity with DNA damage significantly greater in the frontal cortex of male mice and hippocampus of male rats5 than in their females and which, furthermore, might disrupt the blood-brain barrier 6.

Researchers with the renowned Ramazzini Institute 7 in Italy recently announced that a large-scale study of lab animals exposed to environmental levels of cell tower radiation developed cancer. This life-span carcinogenic study on Sprague-Dawley rats evaluated the carcinogenic effects of environmental exposure of RFR that is generated by 1.8 GHz GSM antennae of the radio base stations of mobile phones. A total of 2448 male and female rats were exposed to environmental cell tower radiation from prenatal life until their natural death (1.8 GHz GSM far field of 0, 5, 25, 50 volts/meter) with a whole-body exposure for 19 hours/day with no exposure for the control) This degree of exposure, which mimics base station emissions from cell tower antennas, was far below the US FCC exposure limits used in the NTP studies of cell phone radiation.

While the evaluation of the RI study data is still ongoing, partial findings are available and as in the NTP study, researchers felt an urgency to publish their final results on heart and brain tumors. They found that at the highest dose (50 volts/meter), there was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of heart Schwannomas in exposed older male rats (P<0.05), (this was consistent with epidemiological evidence where an increased incidence of tumors of the same cells, Schwannoma, had been associated with the use of mobile phones, and with the highest risk for men 50 and older who had the highest cumulative exposure) 8. Also evident was a non-significant increase in the incidence of heart Schwann cell hyperplasia in exposed male and female rats, and an increase in malignant glial tumors in treated female rats compared to controls.

Of importance is the fact that both studies found a statistically significant increase in the development of Schwannomas (a rare and highly malignant tumor) in the hearts of male rats. Furthermore, the incidence of malignant glial tumors observed in this study is consistent with the epidemiological evidence where an increased incidence of brain tumors of a similar histotype, glioma, had been associated with the use of mobile phones 9. Hopefully these studies will “provide sufficient evidence to call for the re-evaluation of IARC conclusions regarding the carcinogenic potential of RFR in humans.” Theodora Scarato, Executive Director of Environmental Health Trust, a non-profit that carries out cutting edge research to understand and reduce environmental health risks states, “More than a dozen countries recommend reducing radiofrequency radiation exposure to children, and countries such as China, Italy, India and Russia have far more stringent cell tower radiation regulations in place when compared to the United States FCC…. This study confirms an ever growing literature and provides a wake-up call to governments to enact protective policy to limit exposures to the public and to the private sector to make safe radiation-free technology available.”

Source: Falcioni, L., L. Bua, E. Tibaldi, M. Lauriola, L. De Angelis, F. Gnudi, D. Mandrioli et al. “Report of final results regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed from prenatal life until natural death to mobile phone radiofrequency field representative of a 1.8 GHz GSM base station environmental emission.” Environmental research (2018).

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted July 19, 2018.

Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from  the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.

References:

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