Department of Radiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106.
Radiat Res. 2021 Oct 1;196(4):417-422. doi: 10.1667/RADE-21-00079.1.
This commentary considers research needs for radiofrequency (RF) energy above 6 GHz, including in the "high band" of 5G New Radio (NR) communications systems that exists just beneath the mm-wave band (30-300 GHz). As of late 2020, approximately 100 RF bioeffects studies have been published involving exposures above 6 GHz, encompassing a wide range of exposure levels and frequencies. A majority of these studies report statistically significant effects of exposure, many at exposures within international safety limits. This commentary examines 31 genetic damage studies involving RF exposures above 6 GHz in the context of two sets of quality-assessment criteria: 1. "Risk of bias" (RoB) criteria used for systematic reviews of health-related studies; and 2. a broader set of criteria for research quality from a different scholarly approach (metascience). The 31 studies report several statistically significant effects of exposure on different markers for genetic damage. These effects, if real, would have great potential significance for carcinogen risk assessment. However, the studies as a group have significant technical weaknesses, including small size, failure to meet multiple RoB criteria, naïve use of statistics, and lack of prespecified hypotheses and methods of analysis, all of which increase the chances of false discovery. Here we propose a "carrot" (adequate funding to support high-quality research) and a "stick" (more stringent review of bioeffects manuscripts, including explicit instructions to reviewers to assess study quality) approach to increase the reliability of RF bioeffects studies to facilitate health agency reviews of this socially controversial topic.
本评论探讨了 6GHz 以上射频（RF）能量的研究需求，包括在 5G 新无线电（NR）通信系统的“高频段”，该频段位于毫米波频段（30-300GHz）之下。截至 2020 年底，已有约 100 项涉及 6GHz 以上射频生物效应的研究发表，涵盖了广泛的暴露水平和频率。这些研究中的大多数报告了暴露的统计学显著效应，其中许多是在国际安全限值内的暴露。本评论在两套质量评估标准的背景下审查了 31 项涉及 6GHz 以上射频暴露的遗传损伤研究：1. 用于健康相关研究的系统评价的“偏倚风险”（RoB）标准；2. 来自不同学术方法（元科学）的更广泛的研究质量标准。这 31 项研究报告了射频暴露对不同遗传损伤标志物的几种统计学显著影响。如果这些影响是真实的，它们将对致癌风险评估具有重要意义。然而，作为一个整体，这些研究存在着显著的技术缺陷，包括规模小、未能满足多个 RoB 标准、统计方法幼稚以及缺乏预设的假设和分析方法，所有这些都增加了错误发现的可能性。在这里，我们提出了一个“胡萝卜”（为高质量研究提供充足的资金支持）和一个“大棒”（更严格地审查生物效应手稿，包括明确指示审稿人评估研究质量）的方法，以提高射频生物效应研究的可靠性，从而促进健康机构对这一具有社会争议性的话题的审查。
