Your cellphone might really be giving you cancer, new study finds

New study finds link between cellphone radiation and cancer
(Image credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

On Thursday night, the U.S. government–funded National Toxicology Program released partial results from a multi-year, peer-reviewed study on the risk of cancer from cellphone emissions, and unfortunately they found "low incidences" of two types of tumors. Some previous epidemiological studies have also found an increase in these two types of tumor — gliomas, in the brain's glial cells, and schwannomas in the heart — leading the World Health Organization to classify cellphone radiation as a 2B possible carcinogen (the same category as coffee and some pickles, The Wall Street Journal notes).

"Given the widespread global usage of mobile communications among users of all ages, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting from exposure to [radio-frequency radiation] could have broad implications for public health," the NTP said. The $25 million study, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, used rats and mice, exposing them to radio frequencies from GSM and CDMA devices, the two most common types of consumer wireless technologies. Only the male rats appeared to experience a boost in cancer rates.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.