QuantaDose Press Releases

EMF Blind Spot in the MAHA Assessment (2025)

Omission, Non‑Linearity, and WHO High‑Certainty Findings

ABSTRACT

The 2025 Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission devotes a single paragraph to electromagnetic‑field (EMF) hazards while calling evidence of harm in children “low to inadequate.” This paper documents three critical failures: (i) selective citation—no study newer than 2022, omitting two World Health Organization (WHO) reviews that now grade radio‑frequency (RF) radiation as a high‑certainty cause of malignant tumours and male‑factor infertility; (ii) suppression of non‑linear dose‑response data from the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), which showed the greatest tumour burden at the lowest tested specific‑absorption rate (SAR); and (iii) silence on corporate capture, including 30 years of telecom tactics and the 2021 Environmental Health Trust v FCC ruling that declared FCC guidelines “arbitrary and capricious.” The EMF section of MAHA is therefore a public‑health red herring, misguiding policymakers just as Congress considers a 600 MHz spectrum auction that would blanket homes at biologically active wavelengths.

1 · INTRODUCTION

Since 1983, RF exposure in U.S. homes has risen by orders of magnitude, yet federal limits remain tied to a 1996 heat‑only paradigm. MAHA’s mission was to explain America’s chronic‑disease explosion; its 140‑word treatment of EMFs leaves the central exposure of the digital age effectively unexamined.

2 · MISSING AND DOWNPLAYED EVIDENCE

2.1 NTP Dose‑Inversion (2018)

SAR (W kg⁻¹) Heart schwannoma Brain glioma
0 (Control) 0/90 0/90
1.5 6/90 (↑) 3/90 (↑)
3 3/90 0/90
6 2/90 2/90
Non‑monotonicity undermines FCC/ICNIRP heat scaling and signals a biological trigger at sub‑thermal levels—ignored by MAHA.

2.2 Ramazzini Lifetime Replication (2018)

Heart schwannomas and brain gliomas re‑appeared at 0.1 W kg⁻¹ (tower‑level, far‑field), five‑to‑forty‑fold below FCC limits—uncited.

2.3 WHO High‑Certainty Upgrades (2024–2025)

  • Mevissen et al., 2025 – RF causes malignant gliomas & heart schwannomas; High certainty.
  • Cordelli et al., 2024/25 – RF reduces sperm quality and pregnancy success; High certainty. MAHA predates publication but issues no addendum—rendering its evidence chapter obsolete on release.

3 · CORPORATE INFLUENCE AND REGULATORY CAPTURE

MAHA devotes three full pages (pp. 45‑48) to “Corporate Influence on Science,” spotlighting agro‑chemicals, fossil fuels, and Big Pharma—yet its EMF chapter never references the telecom sector, despite a far richer record of manipulation. Leaving RF off that list is not a gap; it is the report’s loudest silence.

Year / Event Evidence of telecom manipulation Peer‑reviewed documentation
1993‑1999 – CTIA “Wireless Technology Research” program $25 M industry consortium promised to prove safety; internal memos show agenda to “war‑game the science.” Blood‑brain‑barrier leaks (Salford lab) & genotoxic effects were buried. Moskowitz 2017; Carlo 2018
1995 – Motorola vs. Henry Lai Company strategy memo: “discredit, neutralize, or suppress” Lai & Singh’s DNA‑break study (0.6 W kg⁻¹). Microwave News 1999
2002‑2011 – ICNIRP revolving door 6 of 11 guideline authors held direct consultancy or grant ties to telecom; same authors later appear in industry affidavits. Hardell & Carlberg 2019
2011 – IARC Monograph 102 PR agency Burson‑Marsteller hired to “prepare talking points” for delegates tied to industry. O’Carroll 2014
2018 – “War‑Gaming 5 G” emails Verizon lobbyist strategy to fund reassuring millimeter‑wave studies before FCC vote. NYTimes FOIA, 2019
2020‑2023 – Funding‑bias meta‑analyses Odds of a “no effect” outcome are 10‑25× higher when studies are industry‑funded—greater than the bias ratio seen in tobacco toxicology. Huss et al. 2007; López‑Iglesias 2023

Telecom is the only sector on record lobbying to keep regulatory authority (FCC) within the same agency that sells spectrum licenses, creating a structural conflict unmatched in pesticides or pharma. MAHA’s omission obscures the strongest contemporary example of corporate capture.

Take‑home bullet for policymakers: If MAHA can name Monsanto for ghost‑writing glyphosate papers yet stay silent on Motorola memos to “neutralize” DNA‑break findings, its EMF section does not meet the report’s own transparency standard.

4 · LEGAL CONTEXT MISSING FROM MAHA MISSING FROM MAHA

  • EHT v FCC (2021) – D.C. Circuit: FCC acted “arbitrary and capricious” for ignoring 11 000 pages of non‑thermal evidence.
  • Telecom Act § 704 (1996) – pre‑empts local RF‑health objections; repeal is prerequisite for protective zoning.

5 · METHODOLOGICAL GAPS IN MAHA’S EMF SECTION

  1. No exposure assessment—neither national SAR distribution nor densification maps.
  2. Heat‑only framing—no mention of oxidative stress, VGCC activation, or genotoxic ROS pathways.
  3. Outdated bibliography—last RF citation = 2022; ignores WHO 2024‑25 reviews.
  4. No risk quantification—unlike PFAS tables, RF gets no DALY or cost‑burden estimate.

6 · PUBLIC‑HEALTH IMPLICATIONS

  • Dose‑inversion indicates ordinary phone use sits in the most carcinogenic window.
  • Non‑thermal mechanisms (ROS ➞ DNA breaks) connect RF to the same oxidative‑stress network MAHA blames for metabolic, neuro‑developmental, and autoimmune trends—yet the report severs that link.

7 · POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Level Action
Federal Repeal § 704; adopt non‑thermal metrics (peak E‑field, modulation, cumulative dose); transfer guideline authority to EPA under PL 90‑602.
Infrastructure Li‑Fi for indoor high‑bandwidth, fiber backbones, orbital/stratospheric macrocells.
Research NIH fast‑track on VGCC‑ROS pathways; NTP replication at ≤ 0.3 W kg⁻¹.
Public “Distance · Duration · Damping” campaign—RF is the new tobacco.

8 · KEY FAILINGS & RAPID-ACTION CHECKLIST

🚩 Systemic Failings in MAHA’s EMF Analysis

  • Metabolic Blindness ↯ Frames obesity & diabetes as diet-only while omitting EMF‑triggered mitochondrial ROS as a root metabolic disruptor.
  • Research Amnesia 📚 Ignores >500 non‑thermal RF studies (1995‑2025) showing oxidative stress, calcium‑channel dysregulation, and DNA damage.
  • ROS Omission 🧬 Fails to name reactive‑oxygen species—despite ROS being the biochemical common denominator in MAHA’s own pesticide, air‑pollution, and BPA chapters.
  • Autism Disconnect 🧠 Sidesteps 20+ EMF–ASD epidemiology papers and all bioelectric‑development literature.
  • Corporate Capture White‑wash 💰 Lists Pharma & PFAS lobbying but erases telecom’s 30‑year war‑game against RF science.
  • Regulatory Gag 📜 Nowhere mentions § 704’s First‑Amendment‑blocking clause that bars local RF‑health objections.
  • Lifestyle Scapegoat 🍔🛋️ Over‑attributes chronic disease to “personal choice,” muting omnipresent EMF exposure in homes, classrooms, NICUs.
  • Fragmented Risk Lens 🔍 No cumulative‑exposure model; treats EMFs as a side note rather than a synergistic amplifier of chemical toxicity.

✅ Rapid‑Action Policy Checklist (2025‑2026)

  1. Repeal Telecom Act § 704 → restore local zoning power & free speech on RF health.
  2. Reinvigorate Public Law 90‑602 → hand RF guideline authority back to the EPA; mandate continuous hazard review.
  3. Immediate moratorium on FCC spectrum auctions → no new low‑band licences until non‑thermal metrics are codified.
  4. Clean Aether Act → declare the Schumann cavity a protected environmental resource; set ambient RF “quiet‑zone” ceilings.
  5. Photon‑First Mandate → Li‑Fi or fiber for all indoor broadband; relocate macro transmitters to stratospheric or orbital platforms.
  6. Non‑Thermal Rulemaking → adopt peak E‑field, pulse modulation & cumulative dose as enforceable limits; require SAR hotspot disclosure on devices.
  7. National “Distance · Duration · Damping” Campaign → public‑health messaging analogous to tobacco warnings.
  8. Research Fast‑Track → NIH/NIEHS grants on VGCC‑ROS cascades, RF‑autism linkage, and synergistic chemical + EMF toxicity.
  9. Longitudinal Health Registry → track RF exposure vs. autoimmune, neurodevelopmental, and early‑onset cancers—closing the latency loophole.

9 · CONCLUSION

MAHA’s EMF treatment is not merely thin; it is structurally misleading. By ignoring non‑linear NTP findings, WHO high‑certainty reviews, and three decades of telecom manipulation, the report undercuts its own mandate to diagnose America’s health crisis. The RF chapter must be rewritten—or policymakers risk codifying a heat‑era illusion while the evidence for bio‑electric disruption stands at high certainty.

REFERENCES (abbrev.)

  1. Mevissen M. et al. (2025) Environ. Int. 199.
  2. Cordelli E. et al. (2024/25) Environ. Int. 185 + corrig.
  3. National Toxicology Program (2018) Tech. Rpt. TR‑595.
  4. Ramazzini Institute (2018) Environ. Res. 165.
  5. Yakymenko I. et al. (2014) Electromagn. Biol. Med. 33 (3).
  6. EHT v FCC, 9 F.4th 893 (D.C. Cir. 2021).