There is “high certanity evidence” from experimental animal studies that exposure to mobile phone radiation increase risk of two cancers and reduces pregnancy rates. These are the conclusions of two recent research reviews commissioned and funded by the WHO. A group of leading experts calls for “immediate policy action to protect public health and the environment” and for the exposure to be significantly reduced.
Cancer
The evaluation of cancer effects observed in animal studies was published on 25 April in Environmental International. The conclusion is that there is “high certanity evidence” that microwave or radio-frequency radiation (emitted by mobile phones, cell towers and WiFi routers etc), increases the risk of malignant brain tumours (gliomas) and malignant schwannomas of the heart, the same type of tumour that causes auditory nerve tumours. In studies of mobile phone users, increased risk of these two tumours has been repeatedly reported in epidemiological studies during the last 20 years.
Furthermore, the WHO commissioned review concluded there is “moderate certanity evidence” that mobile phone radiation also increases the risk of rare liver and adrenal gland tumours.
Fertility
On 22 April 2025, Environmental International also published a major correction to a previously published review of the effects of mobile phone radiation on male fertility in animal studies. The first version of the article had been published a year earlier, but after errors affecting the conclusions were observed, a corrigendum was published with new conclusions. The amended conclusionn is; “From experimental animal studies there is high certainty of evidence that RF-EMF exposure reduces rate of pregnancy…”.
Immediate action needed
The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICBE-EMF), in a press release, calls for “immediate policy action to protect public health and the environment warning that further delay could have serious consequences amid the global surge in the use of wireless communication devices.”.
They further note that the same types of tumours observed in animal studies have also been found in epidemiological studies on humans.
Ron Melnick, one of the experts in ICBE-EMF, states: “The evidence is now clear —cell phone radiation can cause cancer in animals in concordance with the tumor types identified in human studies of mobile phone users. As animal studies are essential for predicting cancer risk in humans, governments should develop science-based safety standards to protect human health. The conclusion of the study commissioned by the WHO shows that the long-standing assumption current government limits are based on — that cell phone RF radiation can only cause harm through tissue heating — is wrong.”
In addition to the moderately confident evidence of rare tumours in the liver and adrenal glands, the ICBE-EMF also notes that some studies have indicated a possible link to lymphoma.
Group 1 human carcinogen
“The preponderance of the research published since 1996 finds adverse biologic and health effects from long-term exposure to low levels of modulated or pulsed wireless RF radiation. Given the widespread global usage of wireless among users of all ages, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease will have broad implications for public health,” according to Joel Moskowitz, PhD, Director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, also an ICBE-EMF member.
Lennart Hardell, M.D., Ph.D., also a scientist within the ICBE-EMF, told The Defender there’s now enough evidence for the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to reclassify RF-EMF as a Group 1 human carcinogen:
“We have now similar findings of increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma in human epidemiology, laboratory studies on animals and mechanistic studies such as on reactive oxidative species with DNA damage. These results fulfill the criteria for a human carcinogen.”
In 2011, IARC classified RF-EMF as a Group 2B “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
Sources:
Mevissen et al. 2025. Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure on cancer in laboratory animal studies, a systematic review. Länk
Cordelli et al. 2025. Corrigendum to “Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure on male fertility: A systematic review of experimental studies on non-human mammals and human sperm in vitro” [Environ. Int. 185 (2024) 108509]. Länk
ICBE-EMF: New WHO-Funded Study Reports High Certainty of the Evidence Linking Cell Phone Radiation to Cancer in Animals. Länk
Burdick, S. : ‘High Certainty’ Cellphone Radiation Linked to Cancer in Animals, WHO Study Finds. The Defender April 28, 2025. Länk
