NIH study: Still no definite evidence smartphone radiation can harm people

The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) has this special division called the National Toxicology Program, and just recently, its research team has released the results of its most recent studies on whether radiation levels from mobile devices are enough to actually pose a health risk to humans. Its findings seem to suggest that there is no definite proof that smartphone radiation can harm mobile users (like the results more than a year ago).

What the NIH did was subject a number of male and female rats to quite high levels for RF radiation expected from today’s 2G and 3G cellular frequencies. While it is true that a few male rats developed cancer tumors, none of the female rats were affected. And curiously, the results of another similar study showed that neither male and female rats displayed any symptoms.

On top of that, the researchers had some rather unusual findings -- for instance, while the newborn rats and their mother rats had experienced some reduction in weight, they eventually grew to normal sizes. And then weirdly enough, the rats that were exposed to smartphone radiation went on to live longer than those than subjected to any test. It should be mentioned that the radiation levels in the experiment were at higher levels than that of the existing cell phone safety standard, as pointed out by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Of course, it is worth noting that there is a big difference between rats and human beings. For one, size means everything -- rats would likely be more vulnerable because their whole bodies are exposed to the radiation, whereas human beings would probably only worry about areas such as the ears, hands, or thighs (where pockets usually are). And because the experiments only dealt with 2G and 3G frequencies, they do not take into account how 4G LTE would fare.

The debate over whether mobile devices are harmful to humans has been existing since the invention of cell phones. It is safe to say that until now, that debate is raging on, and even with numerous studies, such as those by the NIH, being conducted, nobody seems to be sure if we are any closer to finding the answers. We are about to enter into the 5G era, and for better or worse, mobile devices will increasingly become a bigger part of our daily lives, and we need to know, sooner than later, if we are in harm’s way or not.