Smartphone radiation not causing health issues

ISLAMABAD:

A lot has been said about the radiation caused by smartphone and as 5G is being rolled out across the world, concerns about the negative effects of technology are also on the rise.

A study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal notes that any potentially harmful biological effects are more commonly seen in low-quality scientific studies, Cnet reported.

The researchers argue that many of the studies indicating the effect of radio frequency radiation going beyond heating of human tissue are of low quality but get published because they are interesting.



They further argue that these studies lack the consistency in terms of their results and anti-5G sentiment without scientific evidence would do more harm than good.

"Many of the studies showing a potential detrimental health effect are of low quality, but get published because they are interesting," said Mark Elwood, an epidemiologist at the University of Auckland.

"The word 'potential' is important. Most of the studies investigate some physiological or molecular change which could possibly be related to a health effect, but usually direct evidence of a health detriment is lacking," Elwood said.



Elwood points to a recent review by researchers at the University of Texas which reviewed over 200 studies and over 2000 tests of RF radiation on mammalian cells, finding only 9 per cent of the highest-quality studies suggest genetic damage may occur, whereas half of the lowest-quality studies showed this.

"This suggests that the positive results in many studies are due to failure to meet basic criteria of quality of conducting studies," he said.