You’re being told that shiny “new” NIEHS/NTP radio-frequency (RF) studies will ensure safer wireless. They won’t. They’re tuned to yesterday’s frequencies (900/1900 MHz)—the same 2G/3G bands we’ve already studied for decades and already linked to harm. Meanwhile, the real exposure layer of modern 5G—low-band around 600 MHz—goes essentially untested, even as it blankets homes, schools, and workplaces. That’s not public health; that’s delay dressed up as diligence.
What They’re Testing—and Why That’s Backwards
NIEHS’s “small-scale” reverberation chambers are configured around GSM/CDMA at 900 and 1,900 MHz. Technically tidy? Sure. Protective of real people in 2025? No. Those bands are the past. The coverage workhorse of U.S. 5G is low-band, with 600 MHz used precisely because it travels farther and penetrates better. If your next decade of toxicology ignores the frequency that actually reaches the farthest into the population—and into bodies—you’re testing the wrong thing on purpose.
What We Already Know (Stop Pretending We Don’t)
We don’t need another round of 2G/3G “maybe it’s fine” experiments. We already have:
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The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP): long-term, whole-body exposures in rats produced malignant schwannomas of the heart and gliomas of the brain in males—at non-thermal levels.
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The Ramazzini Institute: independently observed the same rare heart tumor in male rats at far lower, tower-like field strengths, thousands of times below heating thresholds.
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The WHO-commissioned 2025 systematic reviews: upgraded the animal evidence to high certainty for those tumor types and to high certainty that RF reduces pregnancy rate in experimental studies.
“High certainty” is the top GRADE rating. In plain English: new data aren’t likely to overturn these conclusions. Redoing 900/1900 MHz yet again is a red herring.
The Thermal-Only Story Collapsed Years Ago
The old line—“if it doesn’t heat, it can’t hurt”—was already undercut by the non-linear dose–response in NTP (e.g., 1.5 W/kg groups sometimes faring worse than 6 W/kg) and by replicated effects at sub-thermal levels. Add genotoxic signals (DNA damage), oxidative stress findings, and calcium-signaling effects, and the “purely thermal” narrative just doesn’t fit the biology. The science moved on. The guidelines didn’t.
Meanwhile: The 600 MHz Hole Big Enough to Drive a Network Through
RF penetration depth increases as frequency decreases. That’s basic electromagnetics. Compared with 900/1900 MHz, 600 MHz fields couple more deeply into tissue—meaning bone marrow, internal reproductive organs, and deeper brain structures receive more of the field, all else equal. It’s also the band used to push coverage over long distances and indoors; that’s why it was chosen.
Figure (for your blog): Penetration depth comparison in human muscle—600 MHz vs 900 MHz vs 1900 MHz.
(Insert the bar chart you generated earlier; caption it clearly.)
If protection is the goal, 600 MHz belongs at the front of the queue, not absent from the docket.
Why You Don’t See This Fixed in Court
The 1996 Telecommunications Act, Section 704 blocks local governments from denying towers based on the “environmental effects” of RF emissions if they meet FCC limits. Translation: as long as a site is under the thermal-only thresholds set in 1996, health evidence is off-limits in siting fights. In 2021, the D.C. Circuit ruled the FCC failed to reasonably explain keeping those 1996 limits despite a large record of non-thermal evidence and remanded the decision. And yet…we still live under the same framework. That’s how a 1990s model survives in a 5G world.
A Better Design Inside—and Real Testing Outside
Indoors, you can slash deep-tissue RF by moving traffic to Li-Fi (data over visible/near-IR light). Optical systems are governed by photobiology standards (eye/skin exposure), not whole-body RF absorption; they don’t bathe your marrow and pelvis in low-band fields. No technology is “risk-free,” but for indoor connectivity Li-Fi is the obvious harm-reduction tool.
Outdoors and system-wide, public health requires urgent, chronic-exposure testing at the bands people actually live in—starting with 600 MHz and real 5G modulations/duty cycles. Anything else is theater.
What “Protect the Public” Must Mean—Right Now
Retune the chambers to 600 MHz, replicate the NTP long-term protocol with current 5G signals, and include reproductive, neurodevelopmental, genotoxic, and cancer endpoints. Adopt the WHO 2025 conclusions as the scientific floor, not a ceiling. Update FCC limits to account for non-thermal biology and chronic, whole-body exposures. And deploy Li-Fi widely to de-RF indoor spaces—especially schools and pediatric settings—while we finish the real work.
Bottom Line
Testing 2G/3G bands again won’t protect a 5G nation. 600 MHz is the coverage layer that reaches the deepest—and it’s the one we aren’t testing. The science must meet the exposure we actually have. Until that happens, calling these “new safety studies” anything but a stall tactic is generous.
References (links at the end, as requested)
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Meike Mevissen et al. “Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure on cancer in laboratory animal studies, a systematic review.” Environment International 199 (2025): 109482. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109482
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Eugenia Cordelli et al. “Corrigendum to ‘Effects of RF-EMF exposure on male fertility…’” Environment International 199 (2025): 109449. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109449
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NTP. “Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation Studies” (rats/mice; final reports and technical summaries), 2018. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/topics/cellphones/index.html
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Lorenzo Falcioni et al. “Report of final results regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to GSM-modulated RFR (1.8 GHz).” Environmental Research 165 (2018): 496–503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037
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Environmental Health Trust et al. v. FCC, 9 F.4th 893 (D.C. Cir. 2021) (opinion and remand). https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf
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47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7) (Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 704—preemption of local authority on RF “environmental effects”). https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title47-section332
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3GPP Band 71 / FCC 600 MHz Incentive Auction (use by U.S. carriers for low-band 5G coverage). FCC and carrier technical briefs, 2017–present.
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ICNIRP / IEC photobiological safety frameworks for visible/IR sources (e.g., IEC 62471), for Li-Fi exposure considerations.