On January 15, 2026, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the department will be launching a study to reinvestigate cellphone radiation and its potential adverse health effects. Under the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, these studies have been sparked due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s (RFK Jr.) claims that cellphone radiation is linked to neurological damage and cancer, as well as a vocal group of scientists similarly claiming there is a need for additional precautionary measures.
Today, 98% of Americans (about 331 million people) own a mobile phone — making it no surprise that, according to a professor emeritus at the department of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Kenneth Foster (who has studied cell phone health risks), “people have been arguing about health effects of RF radiation from cell phones for decades.” While previous research on the matter has been done over the years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has since taken down old webpages that claimed cellphones were not dangerous. One of these now removed webpages stated how “the weight of scientific evidence has not linked exposure to radio frequency energy from cellphone use with any health problems.” As HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon puts it, these takedowns were done while the department studies electromagnetic radiation on health to “identify gaps in knowledge.”
Over the years, RFK Jr. has expressed concerns about the potential health risks associated with cell phones — in 2020 having successfully petitioned a federal court to force the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to look over its wireless-radiation rules. As an environmental lawyer, he has represented plaintiffs who have sued telecom companies by alleging their brain tumors were actually caused by cellphones. Additionally, as chairman of the Children’s Health Defense, he filed and funded lawsuits concerned with 5G infrastructure — including an unsuccessful case that alleged a cellphone tower caused a man in Idaho heart problems. In 2023, Kennedy would make the claim to podcaster Joe Rogan that “our children are swimming around in a toxic soup” and that “the Wi-Fi radiation is a lot worse than people think it is.”
However, the official webpages of agencies such as the FDA, FCC, and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention themselves still state that there is currently no credible evidence linking health problems to cellphone radiation. Additionally, the National Cancer Institute (under the National Institutes of Health) insists that “evidence to date suggests that cellphone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans.” Furthermore, large past epidemiological studies have shown no link between cellphone use and cancer — cancer epidemiologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Elizabeth Platz, claiming that cellphones don’t emit the kind of radiation that causes cancer.
With that said, in 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization, noted how radiofrequency waves are “possibly carcinogenic to humans” but without an identified causal link. On top of this, a handful of studies using lab rats have suggested that exposure to RF radiation may be linked with cancer, but it is currently unclear whether these results would similarly apply to humans, as current studies on humans have been inconsistent and limited in scope and efficacy. As a result, groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe further research is warranted before making concrete claims. So while some scientists have been alarmed that cell phones pose potential health risks such as cancer, quality research promised by the upcoming study is necessary to come to firm conclusions.
