TRENT SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Trent University
1600 West Bank Drive Peterborough, ON Canada K9L 0G2
705-748-1011 ext. 7199; tse@trentu.ca;
Press release:
Embargoed until November 28, 2016
The Missing Link: Why your government isn’t protecting you from Wi–Fi and cell phone radiation when research shows this radiation causes cancer.
The American scientific journal Environmental Pollution reports, in its next issue, that government safety guidelines for microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones, Wi-Fi, smart meters, and other common wireless devices, are fundamentally flawed and fail to protect the public from this possible carcinogen.
Increasing scientific evidence shows wireless radiation causes cancer and infertility and other health effects, but due to a flawed assumption in safety guidelines, governments in the United States, Canada, and the UK are allowing their citizens to be overexposed to microwave radiation from wireless technology.
Why?
Because governments relied on the wrong model when declaring these devices to be safe.
Ionizing radiation such as x-rays and gamma rays are known to cause cancer by detaching the negative ion – the electron – at the heart of human cell structure. Non-ionizing radiation, such as microwaves, do not detach electrons. Therefore when determining whether microwaveemitting devices were safe to be sold to the public, governments formulated their consumer safety guidelines with the understanding that microwave radiation does not directly or immediately discharge electrons. Despite the growing number of scientific studies documenting that microwave radiation causes cancer, governments have refused to update their guidelines.
One critical aspect of non-ionizing radiation has been overlooked.
Ionizing radiation increases free radicals in the body directly. Non-ionizing radiation increases free radicals in the body indirectly, by interfering with repair mechanisms that neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are carcinogenic. Therefore by interfering with the body’s ability to repair free radical damage, microwave radiation is also carcinogenic.
Microwave radiation was used in the 1940s for military radar, and was widely adopted for civilian residential use in the 1970s to cook food. Microwave ovens are shielded because microwaves are known to cause heating. At that time, it was assumed that the only danger from microwave exposure was tissue heating, known as the “thermal effect”. This led to thermal guidelines for microwave radiation.
This paper shines a spotlight on the misguided genesis of government regulations that are based on the thermal effect and documents free-radical damage induced by non-ionizing radiation.
As usage of microwave–emitting devices increases and is marketed to younger consumers without caution, we can expect a societal increase of certain types of cancers including glioblastoma as well as infertility and other health effects associated with free-radical damage. Indeed this is already happening.
Publication:
Contact information for the author:
Dr. Magda Havas, BSc. PhD.
Trent School of the Environment, Trent University,
Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 0G2,
email: mhavas@trentu.ca
phone: 1 705 748-1011 ext 7882
