A cell tower rises amidst a suburban neighborhood. In the United States, similar towers are often sited dangerously close to homes and schools under outdated federal safety guidelines. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—an agency with no medical or public health mandate—set nationwide radiofrequency (RF) exposure limits based solely on preventing immediate thermal (heating) effects, dismissing decades of prior scientific evidence of non-thermal harm. At the same time, Congress enacted Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act, which prohibits communities from denying cell tower permits due to health or environmental concerns. Together, these actions created a “perfect storm” of regulatory capture: Americans, including young children, have been subjected to exponentially increasing electromagnetic exposures with no way to object and no updates to safety standards in nearly 30 years. It is a situation as dangerous as it is unconstitutional. Evidence of harm—from alarming cancer clusters in schoolchildren to thousands of independent studies—has mounted while the FCC’s 1996 rules remain frozen in place. It is time for Congress to investigate how this public health disaster was enabled and to demand accountability for what can only be described as a fraudulent approach to public safety.
The FCC’s 1996 RF Safety Guidelines – Thermal-Only Standards Ignoring Science
In 1996, the FCC adopted RF exposure guidelines that consider only tissue heating effects. These limits are based on the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) concept—the rate at which RF energy is absorbed and heats body tissue. If a device’s emissions stay below levels that significantly heat the body (for example, a SAR of 1.6 W/kg for cell phones), it is deemed “safe” under FCC rules. But this approach was fundamentally flawed from the start. The FCC is not a health agency; it simply lifted exposure limits developed by industry-linked engineering groups without independent medical review. FCC staff did no original health research, relying instead on assumptions from 1950s–60s military radar studies and short-term experiments on lab animals. These guidelines focused exclusively on acute thermal effects (i.e. whether RF waves could cook tissue) and blatantly ignored the large body of research on non-thermal biological effects.
Crucially, by 1996 there was already extensive scientific evidence that RF radiation can cause biological harm at levels far below the threshold of measurable heating. For instance, mid-1990s research reported DNA strand breaks in the brain cells of rats exposed to low-level RF—exposures that caused no detectable heating. Earlier studies demonstrated that weak radiofrequency and electromagnetic fields could disrupt cellular processes, affect the nervous and immune systems, and trigger oxidative stress (an overproduction of damaging free radicals) without any significant temperature increase. U.S. military and government experts were well aware of such findings; a 1988 U.S. Air Force review noted that Soviet-bloc scientists considered non-thermal RF exposures a serious health hazard, observing neurological and cardiovascular effects in animals at power levels hundreds of times lower than the Western “safe” limits that were based only on heating. Decades earlier, the Pentagon’s secret “Project Pandora” had investigated the ability of low-intensity microwaves (similar to the infamous Moscow embassy signal) to induce biological effects and behavior changes—recognizing this as a potential threat to human health. By the early 1990s, even an industry-funded research initiative led by epidemiologist Dr. George Carlo was uncovering red flags such as possible increases in brain tumor risk among cell phone users. In short, ample scientific warnings were on the record. Yet the FCC’s 1996 rulemaking summarily dismissed non-thermal effects as “inconclusive,” choosing convenience over caution.
Section 704: A Gag Order on Communities – and Why It’s Unconstitutional
Adding insult to injury, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 included a little-known provision, Section 704, that effectively gagged local and state governments from protecting their citizens. Section 704 prohibits any state or local regulation of wireless facility placement based on the “environmental” effects of RF emissions, as long as the facilities comply with the FCC’s industry-drafted standards. In practice, this means that even if a town knows a planned cell tower will be right next to a school or hospital, officials cannot reject or delay it on the grounds of health concerns. Citizens who raise health impacts at zoning hearings are told that such objections are off the table by federal fiat. Local governments are limited to considering aesthetics or other secondary issues—health is entirely off-limits, even when credible scientific evidence of harm is presented.
Section 704 was an unprecedented pre-emption of local authority, and constitutional scholars have argued it crosses legal lines. By stripping communities of their right to address environmental health and safety, Section 704 arguably violates the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to states (and the people) powers not delegated to the federal government. Public health and zoning have traditionally been core local powers; yet Section 704 summarily removed local power to safeguard residents from RF radiation—an area the federal government itself was neglecting. Furthermore, by barring citizens from petitioning their local officials on the basis of health concerns, Section 704 infringes on the First Amendment right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Parents simply cannot voice health-based objections about a tower near their home—their concerns are legally irrelevant, no matter the evidence. As a result, this law has been dubbed a federal “gag order” favoring the wireless industry. It was enacted at the height of industry lobbying influence and has served corporate interests by eliminating grassroots resistance to the rapid buildout of wireless infrastructure.
30 Years of Unchecked RF Exposure – and Alarming Health Consequences
For almost three decades, the FCC’s 1996 RF limits and Section 704 have jointly enabled a massive expansion of wireless technology without any meaningful safety adjustments. The late 1990s saw the spread of 2G/3G cellular networks; the 2000s and 2010s layered on ubiquitous Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and now 4G and 5G networks. Today, cell towers blanket both urban and rural America—many placed only yards from homes and schools—and children are exposed to Wi-Fi routers and wireless devices from infancy. All of this has occurred under RF exposure guidelines set in 1996, which the FCC has never updated even as usage patterns and exposure durations have skyrocketed. In 2020, the FCC reaffirmed these same 1990s standards, ignoring calls from scientists and medical organizations for stricter limits. The assumption that “if it doesn’t cook you, it can’t hurt you” has now been decisively disproven by an ever-growing body of research, yet that false assumption still underpins U.S. policy.
Meanwhile, evidence of serious health effects from chronic RF exposure continues to emerge—implicating current “safe” exposure levels in increased risks for cancer, neurological disorders, and other illnesses. In 2011, the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm reviewed epidemiological data and classified RF electromagnetic fields as “Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans” based on links to brain tumors. Subsequent studies have only strengthened the case: in 2018, the U.S. National Toxicology Program completed a $30 million, decade-long animal study and reported “clear evidence” that long-term, low-level RF exposure (at levels roughly equal to FCC limits for cell phones) caused malignant tumors in rats. The NTP also found DNA breaks and signs of oxidative cellular damage in exposed animals. Around the same time, Italy’s renowned Ramazzini Institute published results from a separate large animal study which discovered increased malignancies (rare heart schwannomas) in rodents exposed to RF at intensities orders of magnitude lower than the FCC’s allowable limits—essentially mimicking exposure from a cell tower rather than a phone. Taken together, these studies provide hard evidence that current RF emissions do have carcinogenic and genetic effects even without causing measurable heating.
Human data is similarly alarming. Epidemiological studies from multiple countries have found that long-term cell phone use (over 10 years) is associated with higher rates of brain tumors (gliomas and acoustic neuromas) on the side of the head where the phone is used. Some studies report increases in certain cancers among people living near cell towers (within a few hundred meters), and numerous reports document clusters of illnesses in schools and neighborhoods shortly after new towers or Wi-Fi systems are installed. For example, in Ripon, California, four students at Weston Elementary School were diagnosed with cancer in just three years, prompting outraged parents to demand the removal of a cell tower on campus. Although the carrier initially insisted that the tower was operating far below the FCC’s allowable limit and posed “no safety threat,” community pressure eventually forced the company to shut the tower down and relocate it.
Figure 1: A cellular tower adjacent to Weston Elementary School in Ripon, CA. In 2019, after four students developed cancers, the tower was shut down amid parents’ fears that its RF emissions were to blame. Under current law, local authorities cannot consider health risks when approving such towers.
In Seminole, Florida, Bauder Elementary School—attended by more than 600 young children—sits only 465 feet from a major cell tower, far closer than what many experts consider safe. Parents there have reported a suspected cancer cluster among students and staff in recent years, raising alarms that the tower’s radiation could be a contributing factor. “My seven-year-old daughter’s desk is in the shadow of that tower,” says one parent. “My hands are tied—I know how dangerous this is, but Section 704 prevents me from protecting my child.” Communities like Ripon and Seminole are not alone; across the country, parents, teachers, and physicians are witnessing unusual spikes in headaches, insomnia, cognitive problems, and even tumors that appear linked to heavy wireless exposures. These incidents underscore the glaring inadequacy of the FCC’s 1996 safety limits. People are getting sick while exposures remain “compliant” with federal rules—a clear indication that the rules themselves are inadequate.
Public Law 90-602: A Long-Ignored Federal Mandate for RF Safety
It may surprise many to learn that federal law already requires the government to continuously research and update safety standards for electronic device radiation. In 1968, Congress passed the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act (Public Law 90-602) in response to concerns about radiation from television sets, microwaves, and other emerging electronic devices. Public Law 90-602 explicitly declared that protecting the public from electronic product radiation was a matter of national health interest. It amended the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health (now part of Health and Human Services, HHS) to “establish and carry out an electronic product radiation control program.” This program was to include developing and administering performance standards for electronic devices, conducting and supporting research into radiation health effects, and updating standards as needed to ensure public safety. In short, the law recognized that as technology evolved, so too should our scientific understanding and safety regulations—providing an ongoing, adaptive oversight of all forms of electronic radiation, whether ionizing or non-ionizing.
For many years, HHS (via the FDA’s Bureau of Radiological Health and with input from the EPA’s Office of Radiation Programs) carried out research on microwave and RF risks pursuant to this law. However, by the mid-1990s, this federal research effort was effectively dismantled—just when it was most needed. Public Law 90-602’s mandate did not disappear; it remains U.S. law—but HHS (and its sub-agencies FDA and EPA) have largely failed to enforce it with respect to wireless radiation. No new RF exposure standards have been developed by health agencies since the 1980s; instead, the task was ceded to the FCC and its industry partners, contrary to the original intent of the 1968 Act. The law’s requirement for “continuing study of the effects and control of such radiation emissions” has been willfully neglected. Most damning, when the FDA initiated the major RF health study (the National Toxicology Program cell phone study) and the results indicated harm, the agency abruptly cut the program. In 2018, after the NTP’s landmark findings of clear evidence of RF carcinogenicity, the FDA essentially dismissed the results and later defunded any further NTP research on wireless radiation. As one analysis put it, “This abandonment of critical research is a direct violation of Public Law 90-602, which mandates that the FDA actively pursue knowledge about electronic product radiation hazards, not bury it.” Indeed, Public Law 90-602 makes it the federal government’s duty to update safety standards in light of new science—a duty that has been utterly neglected in the case of RF. By shutting down research and clinging to 30-year-old exposure limits, our health agencies are ignoring the law and jeopardizing public health. HHS’s failure here is so stark that experts have called it “regulatory dereliction.”
In sum, the FCC’s thermal-only RF limits from 1996 and the muzzling of communities by Section 704 have persisted only because federal health authorities abdicated their lawful responsibilities. This regulatory vacuum has left Americans with no protective oversight on wireless radiation—a situation Congress never intended when passing Public Law 90-602. It is long past time to enforce that law’s vision: continuous, science-based review and updating of radiation safety standards by agencies accountable for public health.
A Call to Action: Investigate the FCC’s Failures and Protect Public Health
Thirty years of inaction and suppression have allowed a preventable public health crisis to fester. We now face the consequences: children potentially exposed to harmful radiation in school classrooms, communities powerless to object to tower installations, and a rising tide of scientific evidence indicating that today’s “safe” levels are anything but safe. Congress must step in and confront this failure of governance. We call on Congress to launch a full investigation into the FCC’s 1996 RF safety guidelines and the process by which they were adopted—examining what evidence was ignored or downplayed, what conflicts of interest tainted the standard-setting process, and why no updates have been made despite abundant new data. Lawmakers should subpoena records and gather testimony from past and present FCC officials, scientists, and industry leaders to expose how these fraudulent guidelines were imposed on the public. Similarly, Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act deserves intense scrutiny: Congress should hold hearings on its impacts, question its constitutionality, and ultimately repeal or amend this provision that has stripped Americans of their right to a voice in environmental health matters. The American people did not consent to be “human guinea pigs” in a nationwide RF experiment, yet that is exactly what has happened under Section 704’s shadow.
Most importantly, Congress and federal agencies need to take immediate protective actions based on the evidence at hand. This includes:
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Mandating Safe Distances for Wireless Facilities:
It is unconscionable to allow powerful cell antennas next to schools and homes without restrictions. At minimum, no cell tower should be allowed within 1,500 feet of a school campus, as recommended by the BioInitiative Report—a comprehensive review of over 1,800 studies. Other countries have enacted such precautions (for example, India and Israel ban towers near schools). The United States should do the same nationwide to protect children, along with developing guidelines for safer siting away from hospitals, playgrounds, and densely populated areas. -
Upgrading Technology in Schools – Adopt Li-Fi to Replace Wi-Fi:
While children need internet access, it does not have to come at the expense of continuous RF exposure. Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is an innovative, proven technology that uses harmless infrared or visible light to transmit data instead of radio waves. It can provide gigabit-speed wireless internet with zero RF radiation. Congress should fund and mandate pilot programs to transition schools and libraries to Li-Fi networks, eliminating the need for Wi-Fi routers that saturate classrooms with microwave signals. Such a transition would dramatically reduce students’ EMF exposure while also improving cybersecurity, as light-based networks do not leak through walls. -
Restoring Expert Oversight of RF Safety:
RF regulation should not lie solely in the hands of the FCC. It needs to be returned to a medically competent agency—whether it be the EPA, the FDA, or a new independent commission—where scientists with expertise in bioelectromagnetics and public health set exposure limits. In the 1970s, the EPA had a dedicated Office of Radiation Programs moving toward biologically based RF exposure guidelines; that effort should be resurrected. Congress should require the EPA (in coordination with HHS) to review the latest science and update RF exposure limits to protect against all known biological effects, not just thermal. This change would fulfill the mandate of Public Law 90-602 and restore accountability and scientific rigor to the standard-setting process. The FCC could continue to enforce regulations, but scientific guidance must come solely from health experts free from industry influence. -
Investigating and Addressing Existing Problem Sites:
A national inquiry should be established to identify communities reporting unusual health issues around wireless infrastructure—such as the school cancer clusters in California and Florida—and to conduct independent health investigations in these areas. If a cell tower is suspected in a cancer cluster, federal agencies (such as the CDC or NIH) should study the case rather than leaving parents to fend for themselves. Regulators must have the authority to modify or remove wireless installations found to pose a health risk. We can no longer simply assume “if it meets FCC limits, it’s fine”—that assumption has proven disastrously inadequate.
Finally, Congress must hold accountable those responsible for leading us into this predicament. This includes examining the influence of telecom lobbyists and former industry executives who suppressed science and infiltrated federal agencies. The American people deserve to know why their health was sacrificed for corporate profit and who was behind it. A thorough congressional investigation can bring much-needed transparency and pave the way for legislative reforms—not only by undoing Section 704 but also by establishing new safeguards such as emission limits for 5G/6G small cells, long-term health monitoring funding, and mandatory consumer disclosures about wireless device radiation.
In conclusion, the thermal-only RF safety standards rubber-stamped by the FCC in 1996—and the silencing effect of Section 704—represent a 30-year failure of our regulatory system. They allowed the wireless revolution to proceed at breakneck speed at the cost of public health and fundamental rights. We can enjoy the benefits of technology only if we base policy on sound science and constitutional principles. Right now, we are doing neither. It is imperative that Congress shine a light on this issue. A full investigation and a series of public hearings will expose the fraudulent foundations of our current RF safety framework and galvanize the action needed to change it. The stakes could not be higher: millions of Americans are counting on their leaders to put public health first. We owe it to our children—and to all of us—to end the era of “see no evil” in wireless regulation. The time for complacency is over. It’s time for accountability, justice, and reform.
Congress, do your job: investigate the FCC’s RF safety scandal, restore science-based policy, and protect the American people from preventable harm. Our future depends on it.
Sources
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Federal Communications Commission (FCC): RF safety guidelines focused only on thermal effects and ignored long-term exposures. The FCC relied on industry research and did not consider non-thermal risks when setting the 1996 limits.
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Environmental Health Perspectives: A 25-year research review invalidated FCC assumptions by documenting evidence of DNA damage, cancer, and other non-thermal effects below thermal thresholds.
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RF Safe (Advocacy Reports): Detailed the origins of the 1996 SAR guidelines, the influence of the telecom industry, and how crucial research was defunded in 1995–96—leaving the FCC, with no independent medical oversight, as the sole regulator. It also critiques the “no heat, no harm” myth.
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EMFacts/Moskowitz: A 1988 U.S. Air Force review acknowledged non-thermal biological effects of RF radiation at low levels, though the FCC adopted standards that ignored these risks.
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Children’s Health Defense: Reported that Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act bars local authorities from denying cell towers on health or environmental grounds.
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RF Safe (Further Analysis): Argued that Section 704 undermines both the First Amendment (right to petition) and the Tenth Amendment (state powers), effectively silencing health-based objections and benefiting industry.
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CBS News: Covered the case of a cell tower at a school in Ripon, CA, where parental concerns over childhood cancers led to the shutdown and relocation of the tower, despite it operating below FCC limits.
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National Toxicology Program (U.S. Dept. of Health): The 2018 study found “clear evidence” that RF exposure from mobile phones causes malignant tumors in rats, along with DNA damage and oxidative stress.
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RF Safe (Additional Critique): Highlighted that after positive findings in the NTP study, the FDA dismissed the results and cut further research funding—violating Public Law 90-602’s mandate for continuous study.
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Public Law 90-602 (Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1968): Requires HHS to research electronic radiation and update safety standards. This law remains largely unenforced in the context of wireless radiation, as the FCC’s limits have not been updated in nearly 30 years.
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BioInitiative Report (2012): An independent science review recommending at least 1,500 feet (approximately 500 meters) of separation between cell towers and schools to reduce chronic RF exposure to children.
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Oledcomm / LiFi Industry Sources: Provide evidence that Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) can offer high-speed data transfer with zero RF emissions, making it an ideal alternative for schools concerned about wireless radiation.
