--- title: "Researcher Warns That 5G Might Actually Cause Cancer After All" description: "Public health researcher Joel Moskowitz argues that we don't yet understand the risks of 5G, such as causing cancer, and that more research is necessary." date: "2019-10-18" modified: "2019-10-18" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/researcher-warns-5g-cancer" categories: - "Cancer" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "5G" - "health" --- # Researcher Warns That 5G Might Actually Cause Cancer After All ![Public health researcher Joel Moskowitz argues that we don't yet understand the risks of 5G, such as causing cancer, and that more research is necessary.]() *\Image: Finn Maxwell Cousineau via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* As 5G cellular network tech looms, conventional wisdom dictates that cell phone radiation is [more or less safe for humans](). But writing for the widely respected magazine *Scientific American*, University of California, Berkeley, public health researcher Joel Moskowitz [argues that]() we don't yet understand the risks — and that more study is necessary before we roll out 5G infrastructure. Moskowitz's main concern: there just isn't any research on the health effects of 5G. But he also points to a [swathe of studies]() that suggest that the existing standards 2G and 3G are [more dangerous]() than generally believed. "Meanwhile, we are seeing increases in certain types of head and neck tumors in tumor registries, which may be at least partially attributable to the proliferation of cell phone radiation," he wrote in *SciAm*. "These increases are consistent with results from case-control studies of tumor risk in heavy cell phone users." It's hard enough to quantify the health effects of things that have already been deployed, nevermind an upcoming technology. But in *SciAm*, Moskowitz argues that regulators should listen to the 250 doctors and scientists who recently signed the [5G Appeal](), a petition for a moratorium on public rollout of the tech until the health implications are better understood. "As a society, should we invest hundreds of billions of dollars deploying 5G, a cellular technology that requires the installation of 800,000 or more new cell antenna sites in the U.S. close to where we live, work and play?" he asked. "Instead, we should support the recommendations of the 250 scientists and medical doctors who signed the 5G Appeal that calls for an immediate moratorium on the deployment of 5G and demand that our government fund the research needed to adopt biologically based exposure limits that protect our health and safety." ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()