Every RF-safety conversation eventually circles back to the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s $30-million rodent study. In 2018 the NTP stunned regulators by reporting “clear evidence” of carcinogenicity from cell-phone-style radiation. Industry allies immediately demanded a replication. That became “NTP Lite,” a slimmed-down Japanese/Korean attempt to validate — or bury — the NTP signal.
On June 16, Microwave News broke the story: NTP Lite is now two years behind schedule. The rats left the reverberation chambers in December 2022, but the teams still have no data to share; results may dribble out at BioEM 2026 — if nothing else goes wrong. microwavenews.com
Why the project is wobbling
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Unexpected rat deaths in Korea: four RF-exposed animals died early, forcing protocol changes that remain opaque. microwavenews.com
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Missing positive controls in Japan: a 6 W/kg “thermal arm” was quietly scrapped, erasing the internal benchmark needed to judge the entire experiment.
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An advisory board loaded with skeptics: former ICNIRP chairs Michael Repacholi and Eric von Rongen, and outspoken critic Alexander Lerchl, hardly a neutral panel.
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IARC paralysis: The World Health Organization’s cancer agency keeps postponing its promised RF reassessment, waiting for NTP Lite even as its own advisory groups recommend an immediate upgrade of RF to a “probable” or “known” carcinogen. microwavenews.com
What the delay really tells us
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Replication is hard when the first study is thorough. The original NTP work ran nine-hour daily exposures, three SAR levels, and thousands of pathology slides. “Lite” protocols were never likely to equal that rigor.
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Missing data ≠ clean bill of health. Regulators and industry will doubtless cite NTP Lite’s limbo as evidence that the hazard is “unproven.” In truth, the strongest data set we have is still the 2018 NTP verdict of “clear evidence.”
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Public-Law 90-602 is still being ignored. That 1968 statute obliges U.S. agencies to maintain ongoing research on electronic-product radiation. Funding dried up when the science turned uncomfortable. The NTP Lite stumble underscores how badly we need the program restored.
The policy angle: why Trump Mobile, 666 MHz auctions and Section 704 converge here
While research stalls, Washington is racing to auction the entire 600 MHz band — including the culturally ominous 666 MHz slice — to feed 5 G/6 G build-outs. President Trump’s own Truth Social post celebrated the push to “free up plenty of SPECTRUM” for American innovation. Meanwhile his family’s new T1 gold phone will live on that same network.
Yet Section 704 of the 1996 Telecom Act still bars towns from rejecting a tower on health grounds, even after the NTP alarm bell. Until §704 is repealed and PL 90-602 enforced, every new auction deepens nationwide exposure with no contemporary toxicology to backstop it.
Moving forward: four concrete demands
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Restart full-scale U.S. RF toxicology under PL 90-602 — not pared-down “lite” versions offshore.
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Fast-track IARC’s RF reassessment; stop waiting for a study that may never achieve statistical power.
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Repeal Section 704, restoring local and state authority to weigh new science at zoning hearings.
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Mandate Li-Fi compatibility and ultra-low SAR in every new handset — including that gleaming Trump T1.
Bottom line
A two-year delay doesn’t erase “clear evidence” of RF cancer risk; it exposes the structural rot in global RF safety oversight. If America can launch a gold phone and plan the 666 MHz auction in the same news cycle, it can also fund real research and restore democratic control over where — and how intensely — the next generation of spectrum is deployed.
No more “lite” science. No more gag orders. Real data, real precaution — that’s the only patriotic way to connect a nation.
