Dr. Melnick and Dr. Davis Respond to the FCC Action on Cell Phone Radiation
Dr. Ronald Melnick led the design of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) animal study on cell phone radiation during his 28 year career as NIEHS senior scientist. On December 4, 2019, the FCC issued an item, “FCC Maintains Current RF Exposure Safety Standards” which declared the following:
- The FCC declines from updating US radio frequency (RF) human exposure limits set in 1996.
- The FCC finds it “unnecessary” to update evaluation procedures to include testing cell phones for radiation emissions in body contact positions.
- The FCC acknowledges that cell phones could exceed FCC limits in body contact positions but “such exposure would still be well below levels considered to be dangerous, and therefore phones legally sold in the United States pose no health risks.”
- The FCC can dismiss the findings of the NIH NTP study which found cancer and DNA damage from cell phone radiation because the FDA issued a statement disagreeing with the NTP conclusions.
- The FCC declines from updating regulations to account for the unique vulnerability of children to RF.
In the video below, Dr. Melnick, Dr. Davis and EHT’s Theodora Scarato discuss the FCC action.
Note: February 1, 2020, EHT filed litigation against the FCC for this action.