Oncogenic Potential of Radiofrequecy Emissions for Mobile Phones

With the advent of the rising telecom industry there is growth in the usage of the mobile phones by manifold and when we are in country like India, in order to cover one billion population, several transmission towers have been installed to create a jungle of such masts rising atop many buildings in the densely populated parts of India. The erection of these towers has lead to speculations that there may be increased incidence of cancer after exposure to the RF emissions from mobile telephone base stations. There are no high-quality epidemiologic studies that can be used to evaluate health risks from RF exposure. Laboratory studies in this area have been somewhat confusing. Some animal studies suggest that RF fields accelerate the development of sarcoma colonies in the lung, mammary tumors, skin tumors, hepatomas, and sarcomas. In contrast, other studies conducted on large scale on the cell lineage and people working in areas with high RF emissions have not found carcinogenic effects. These conflicting results indicate the need for more well-conducted studies. This paper provides a review of the laboratory studies and indicates what conclusions about RF-induced cancer can be drawn