Microwaves and Brain Tumors

The following section on Microwaves and Brain Tumors are an excerpt from Chapter 8, Man Made Electromagnetic Radiation Fields, of the book "Cross Currents: the Perils of Electrical Pollution" by Robert O. Becker.

Microwaves and Brain Tumors

In 1985, Dr. Ruey Lin of the Maryland Department of Health reported on an epidemiological study of people whose occupations would expose them to higher levels of electromagnetic radiation than would be experienced by the general public.  He found that a significantly greater number of the exposed group developed cancer of the brain.  Lin also reviewed a study, conducted by the U.S. Navy following the Korean War, that evaluated a possible link between brain tumors and  microwave exposure.  The navy had compared the rate of brain tumors among people who were radar operators with the rate among members of another group of navy personnel who were not exposed to radar.  The researchers had found no difference and had concluded that there was no relationship between radar exposure and brain tumors.  Lin’s review of this study revealed that the control group in the navy study had actually been exposed to radar to the same extent as the experimental group. Therefore, the nay’s conclusion was based upon biased data.  Lin recalculated the navy data, using an appropriate control group, and found that there had in fact been a significant increase in brain tumors in the exposed group of personnel.

Shortly after Lin’s report was published, doctors Margaret  Spitz and Christine Cole of the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, reported that “children of fathers employed in occupations with electromagnetic-field exposure were at significantly increased risk” of developing brain cancer before the age of two.  This was a particularly chilling report because the children themselves were never exposed, , either in the uterus or following birth.  The only way they could have had a higher-than-expected incidence of brain tumors was if their father’s genes had been altered by the microwave exposure and had been passed on to the children, in the same fashion as that of Manikowska-Czerska’s male mice.

During the years between 1940 and 1977, there was an unprecedented increase in the use of microwaves.  During that same period, the incidence of primary brain tumors among white from 3.80 to 5.80 per 100,000 and the incidence among blacks rose from 2.15 to 3.85 per 100,000.  While these data do not prove a direct connection, when taken along with the reports of Lin, Spitz, and many others, they raise valid questions.

It is not possible here to list the many other studies that have lent support to the causal association between microwave exposure and cancers of all types (not just brain tumors) and genetic abnormalities.  The scientific data at this time indicate that microwaves have major biological effects at power levels far below those required to cause heating.  The majority of these effects are productive of various disease states, primarily cancer and genetic defects, in those exposed and in their unexposed offspring.  These disease are not strange new types unique to microwave exposure; they are instead our old, familiar enemies.  The hazard comes from the fact that exposure to microwaves, like exposure to any abnormal electro-magnetic field, produces stress, a decline in immune-system competency, and changes in the genetic apparatus.  Thus, the levels of exposure that the government says are “safe” are in fact not safe at all.