DUARTE, Calif.-Wireless Technology Research L.L.C. has awarded more than $1.5 million to the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., to conduct initial research on human exposure to the radio waves of cellular telephony.
WTR, formerly the Scientific Advisory Group, is funded by the cellular industry, and has been charged with conducting research on the potential health impact of wireless devices and infrastructure equipment.
The City of Hope’s research team will be led by Dr. C.K. Chou, director of the center’s radiation research and long-time investigator of the safety aspects of microwave and radio frequency exposure.
The study aims to develop radio frequency exposure systems and determine how much and at what point cellular phone energy is absorbed into the human body. The results then will be used by biologists to study the effects of exposure on living tissue.
Energy absorption shown in a model of a human body exposed to cellular telephone frequencies will be included in the City of Hope study, with energy absorption calculated using a super computer WTR has donated for this study and for future research, the City of Hope said.
WTR also granted $64,000 to Gregory Lapin, Ph.D., of ComBioMed Laboratories in Deerfield, Ill., to develop computer models of experimental animals using computed tomography technology; and another $28,000 to Dr. Allen Taflove of Evanston, Ill. Taflove will analyze proposed systems for exposure of cell cultures to RF energy.
