BfS's expert opinion: Result of US mobile phone study not transferable to humans

18 February, 2019.

According to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), the recently published study by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) provides no meaningful evidence that cell phone radiation increases the risk of cancer in humans. This is due in particular to the fact that the rats and mice in the animal experiment were exposed to significantly higher radiation intensities on the entire body than is the case in everyday life in humans. The BfS therefore continues to assume that adhering to the legal limit values, no negative health effects due to high-frequency electromagnetic fields from mobile phones are expected.

Conclusions of the expert opinion:
Although the NTP study, under the specific study conditions, provides indications of a correlation between strong high-frequency electromagnetic fields well above existing limit values and the development of cancer. From the point of view of the BfS , however, the study has a number of weaknesses and ambiguities that significantly limit its significance and make evaluation more difficult. For example, it could not be conclusively clarified whether thermal stress could have been the reason for the conspicuous results in the case of high whole body exposures. Thermal stress is a result of increased body temperature, which is known to cause health effects. This case can occur if the limit values are significantly exceeded.
The BfS scientists point out that the high whole body exposures and the associated thermal effects can not be transferred to today's mobile phone use. Because people are exposed to significantly lower radiation intensities throughout the body than was the case with the experimental animals, this does not trigger any significant increase in body temperature. According to measurements, the whole body values produced in the human body are at least three orders of magnitude (factor 1,000) lower than those of the experimental animals.
The President of the BfS, Inge Paulini, said: "The NTP study provides in our view, no evidence of an increased cancer risk from mobile phone radiation in humans However, there remain uncertainties in the risk assessment of intensive use of mobile phones for many years, the.. BfS working on the Clarifying these unanswered questions. Until new findings are made, we continue to advise using the mobile phone wisely. "

Further information (only in German) is available from:
http://www.bfs.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/BfS/DE/2019/004.html