Invited Talk - 1st International Conference on Bioelectromagnetics (INICBEM-2021), May 18-19, 2021

1. Why it is of Paramount Importance to
Know the Source of Funding in EMF
Research? Revisiting 5G Issue
S M J Mortazavi , Ph.D and S Alireza Mortazavi, M.D
Professor of Medical Physics
Email: mortazavismj@gmail.com
Medical Doctor
Email: alireza.mortazavi.med@gmail.com 1
1st International Conference on Bioelectromagnetics
(INICBEM-2021)
May 18-19, 2021

2. In this talk, I’ll try to shed some light on the
dark corners of the EMF Health effects while
mainly focus on 5G issue!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 2
RF-EMF
Health Effects

3. Are We Going to Have a New
Dark Age?
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D &
SAR Mortazavi, M.D
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The impact of telecom industry on EMF studies

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SAR Mortazavi, M.D
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A report by two MEPs accuses the international
commission for the protection against non-ionizing
radiation of being too close to the telecoms industry.
International Commission for the Protection against Non-Ionizing
Radiation (ICNIRP)

6. The technology is coming, but contrary to what
some people say, there could be health risks!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 6
Joel Moskowitz, PhD
Director
Center for Family and Community Health
University of California, Berkeley

7. NY Times: How one scientist and his inaccurate
chart led to unwarranted fears of wireless technology.
• “That’s why they put the towers so
close together,” he said. “The
waves don’t penetrate.” If human
skin also blocks 5G signals, Dr.
Carpenter acknowledged,
“maybe it’s not that big a deal.”.
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 7

8. • Switzerland is relatively advanced in Europe in
adopting 5G. The wealthy alpine country has built
more than 2,000 antennas to upgrade its network in
the last year alone, and its telecoms providers have
been promising their customers’ imminent 5G
coverage for most of the past year.
• However, a letter sent by the Swiss environment
agency, Bafu, to the country’s cantonal
governments at the end of January, has now in
effect called time on the use of all new 5G towers,
officials who have seen the letter told the Financial
Times.
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D &
SAR Mortazavi, M.D
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9. NY Times: Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You.
But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise.
• 5G is also a growing point of
friction between Washington and
Beijing, with each side lining up
allies in what has become a major
technology race. Moscow and
Beijing are seen as possibly
forming a 5G political bloc.
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• “It’s economic
warfare,” Ryan Fox,
chief operating officer
of New Knowledge, a
technology firm that
tracks disinformation,
said in an interview.
“Russia doesn’t have a
good 5G play, so it tries
to undermine and
discredit ours”.

10. Myths about 5G
Health Hazards
• Low penetration (the
protective effect of
human skin)
• Low Energy (not
adequate to ionize
atoms).
• Comparing RF with
Visible Light
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 10

11. Myths about RF Health
Hazards
• Low Energy (not adequate to ionize atoms)
• Comparing RF with Visible Light
• Low penetration of 5G (the protective effect of
human skin)
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 11
“It indicates that among 100
currently available peer-
reviewed studies dealing with
oxidative effects of low-intensity
RFR, in general, 93 confirmed
that RFR induces oxidative
effects in biological systems”.
Electromagn Biol Med. 2016;35(2):186-202.

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16. Potential RF Health
Hazards
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 16
Increased Skin
and Breast
Cancers?
Premature Skin
Aging?
Mehdizadeh AR, Mortazavi SMJ. 5G Technology:
Why Should We Expect a shift from RF-Induced
Brain Cancers to Skin Cancers?. Journal of biomedical
physics & engineering. 2019 Oct;9(5):505-506.

17. RF-EMF Effects: Exposure
Level Matters!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 17

18. Every coin has two
sides!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 18

19. 1. The Good Side!
Low Levels of RF-EMF Might Have
Some Beneficial/Stimulatory Effects
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 19

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23. Radiofrequency-Induced
Adaptive Response
• In 2009, for the 1st time it was found that pre-
exposure of cultured cells to radiofrequency
radiation induced an adaptive response which
increased the resistance of these cells to mytomycin
C (Sannino et al. , 2009a).
Mortazavi SMJ, Ph.D
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24. Radiofrequency-Induced Adaptive
Response
 Mortazavi et al. also found that laboratory
animals pre-irradiated with radiofrequency
radiation were less susceptible to subsequent
lethal effects of high doses of ionizing
radiation (Mortazavi et al. , 2011a, Mortazavi
et al. , 2012a).
 These findings later confirmed by our
subsequent reports (Mortazavi et al. , 2011b,
Mortazavi et al, 2012a) as well as the very
limited published reports that investigated the
induction of adaptive response after pre-
treatment with microwave radiation (Cao et
al. , 2011, Jiang et al. , 2012, Sannino et al. ,
2009b, Sannino et al. , 2011, Zeni et al. , 2012).
Mortazavi SMJ, Ph.D
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27. Window Theory in
Adaptive Response
Mortazavi SMJ, Ph.D
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28. Mortazavi SMJ, Ph.D
“the adaptive response in mammalian cells and
mammals operates within a certain window that can
be defined by upper and lower dose thresholds,
typically between about 1 and 100 mGy for a single
low dose rate exposure”.
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30. Min/Max power
density for AR
• A preliminary experiment was conducted
to determine the minimum power density
needed for 900 MHz RF pre-exposure to
minimize the damage induced by
subsequent exposure to DOX.
• Cells were pre-exposed to 900 MHz RF at
12, 120 and 1200 mW/cm2 power density
for 1 hour/day for 3 days.
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Jin et al. 2012
Doxorubicin

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Jin et al. 2012
Doxorubicin

32. Viability
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 32
Jin et al. 2012
Inverted J Relationship Between RF
Power Density and Viability

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34. 2. The Bad Side!
High Levels of RF-EMF Cause
Detrimental Effects
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 34

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“In conclusion, these results suggest that exposure to RFR is
associated with an increase in DNA damage.

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“Unfortunately standards set by most national and international bodies
are not protective of human health. This is a particular concern in children,
given the rapid expansion of use of wireless technologies, the greater
susceptibility of the developing nervous system, the hyperconductivity of
their brain tissue, the greater penetration of radiofrequency radiation
relative to head size and their potential for a longer lifetime exposure”.
The giants of EMF science

37. The Roots of
Controversy!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 37

38. 1. The Source of
Funding Matters!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 38

39. SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D &
SAR Mortazavi, M.D
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Industry Funded Research!

40. 2. Troubling
Publications!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 40

41. Troubling
Publications!
• We have previously shown
that some of the papers
claiming no link between
mobile phone use and brain
cancer risk have
methodological errors
and/or shortcomings
(Mortazavi et al., 2017a,b,
2018; Mortazavi, 2018).
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 41

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45. • In particular, in one of
the papers reviewed
by our research
group, a 400%
difference in brain
tumors was masked
by poor statistical
interpretation!
(Mortazavi, 2018).
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 45
Troubling Publications!

46. SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 46
A 400% difference in brain tumors
was masked by poor statistical
interpretation!

47. 3. J-Shaped Dose
Response Relationship!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 47

48. J-shaped Models Come
from Toxicology
• “The known human carcinogen
arsenic (AsIII) adversely affects
DNA repair, cellular control
mechanisms, and oxidative
stress”.
• “In conclusion, low doses of
arsenic (≤1 μM) trigger an
adaptive response that acts to
ameliorate the adverse effects
of oxidative stress”..
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 48

49. Are J- or inverse J-shaped
responses Universal?
• “Different agents induce J- or inverse J-
shaped responses in different test systems,
such as rodents, cattle, rabbit, rhesus
monkey”.
• “For example, alcohol, diesel exhaust
particles, formaldehyde, lead,
Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and
methyl mercury show immunological
biphasic responses”.
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Ricci et al. Dose Response,
2012; 10(2): 177–189.

50. J-Shaped, Linear and Threshold
Dose-Response Models
• A J-shaped model, as shown above, describes low-dose reductions in the incidence of diseases.
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 50
Ricci et al. Dose Response,
2012; 10(2): 177–189.

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J-shaped Models for
Ionizing Radiation

52. J-shaped Models for
Non-Ionizing Radiation
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53. SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 53
Rumi, the 13th Century Persian poet, included "The Elephant in
the Dark" in his “Masnavi”. In his retelling, some Hindus bring
an elephant to be exhibited in a dark room. A number of men
touch and feel the elephant in the dark and, depending upon
where they touch it, they believe the elephant to be like a water
spout (trunk), a fan (ear), a pillar (leg) and a throne (back).

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Mortazavi SMJ, Mortazavi SAR, Haghani M. Evaluation of the validity of a Nonlinear J-
shaped dose-response relationship in cancers induced by exposure to radiofrequency
electromagnetic fields. Journal of Biomedical Physics & Engineering. 2019 Aug;9(4):487-494.
J

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Data from: Coureau G, Bouvier G, Lebailly P, Fabbro-Peray P, Gruber
A, Leffondre K, et al. Mobile phone use and brain tumours in the
CERENAT case-control study. Occup Environ Med. 2014;71:514-22.
Mortazavi SMJ,
Mortazavi SAR,
Haghani M.
Evaluation of
the validity of a
Nonlinear J-
shaped dose-
response
relationship in
cancers induced
by exposure to
radiofrequency
electromagnetic
fields. Journal of
Biomedical
Physics &
Engineering.
2019
Aug;9(4):487-
494.

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Data from: Coureau G, Leffondre K, Gruber A, Bouvier G, Baldi
I. Author’s response: re ‘mobile phone use
and brain tumours in the CERENAT case-control study’. Occup
Environ Med. 2015;72:79-80.
Mortazavi SMJ,
Mortazavi SAR,
Haghani M.
Evaluation of the
validity of a
Nonlinear J-
shaped dose-
response
relationship in
cancers induced
by exposure to
radiofrequency
electromagnetic
fields. Journal of
Biomedical
Physics &
Engineering.
2019
Aug;9(4):487-494.

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Mortazavi SMJ, Mortazavi SAR,
Haghani M. Evaluation of the validity
of a Nonlinear J-shaped dose-response
relationship in cancers induced by
exposure to radiofrequency
electromagnetic fields. Journal of
Biomedical Physics & Engineering. 2019
Aug;9(4):487-494.
Data from: Momoli F,
Siemiatycki J, McBride ML,
Parent ME, Richardson L,
Bedard D, et al. Probabilistic
multiple-bias modelling applied
to the Canadian
data from the INTERPHONE
study .., and parotid gland
tumors. Am J Epidemiol.
2017;186:885-93.

58. CONCLUSIONS:
“Our results suggest that long-term mobile phone use may
be associated with an increased risk of glioma”.
Our Proposed J-shaped Model is
receiving Support from Recent Studies!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 58

59. CONCLUSIONS:
“We found evidence linking mobile phone use and risk of brain
tumours especially in long-term users (≥10 years)”.
Our Proposed J-shaped Model is
receiving Support from Recent Studies!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D 59

60. Thank you!
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D &
SAR Mortazavi, M.D
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