Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Biased WHO-commissioned review claims no cancer link to cellphone use

September 3, 2024

‘Today, many major news outlets are promoting a biased review of the literature commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) which claims that cellphone use has no link to cancer.
In my professional opinion, the WHO selected scientists to conduct systematic literature reviews on the biologic and health risks of wireless radiation who had demonstrated their bias through prior publications by either not finding evidence of harm or dismissing any evidence they found.
Moreover, each WHO team has one or more members of the ICNIRP, a German NGO that issues exposure limits for wireless radiation primarily based on research produced by its own members, their former students and close colleagues. The ICNIRP limits, designed to protect humans only from the acute effects of heating induced by wireless radiation, are promoted by the WHO and are similar to those adopted by the FCC.
In 2019 investigative journalists from eight European countries published 22 articles in major news media that exposed conflicts of interest in this “ICNIRP cartel.” The journalists report that the cartel promotes the ICNIRP guidelines by conducting biased reviews of the scientific literature that minimize health risks from electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. These reviews have been conducted for the WHO and other government agencies. By preserving the ICNIRP exposure guidelines favored by industry, the cartel ensures that the cellular industry will continue to fund their research. Since then, a former ICNIRP member who served as editor in chief of the Bioelectromagnetics Society journal accused ICNIRP of “groupthink.”
Recently, the ICBE-EMF published several peer-reviewed papers refuting the “thermal-only paradigm” upon which the ICNIRP exposure limits are based because the preponderance of peer-reviewed research finds non-thermal effects. ‘