What Evidence Reviews Have Reported on 5G Health Effects

Does 5G Affect Your Health? The Short Answer

Current evidence reviews have not found established harm to human health from radio-frequency exposure within guideline limits. If you carry a 5G phone, the agency statements and reviews below are the evidence on your question. Mobile phone use is the subject of the human cohort studies and reviews. Statements from ICNIRP and WHO provide the 5G-specific facts on penetration. The HHS notice is a request for information and states no conclusion about harm.

The CDC states: "At this time we do not have the science to link health problems to cell phone use." The CDC also states: "More research is needed before we know if using cell phones causes health effects." The FDA states: "The weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phone radio frequency radiation with any health problems." The National Cancer Institute (NCI) states: "the evidence to date suggests that cell phone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans."

A WHO-commissioned systematic review of human cancer studies (Karipidis et al., 2024) covered 63 articles published from 1994 to 2022. The authors found moderate certainty evidence that mobile phone use likely does not increase the risk of glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, pituitary tumours or salivary gland tumours in adults, or of paediatric brain tumours. The pooled risk ratio for glioma with regular mobile phone use was 1.01 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.13). The authors reported that risks seen in some case-control studies were "incompatible with the actual incidence rates of glioma/brain cancer observed in several countries". The review described the evidence for cordless phones as low certainty.

The companion WHO-commissioned animal review (Mevissen et al., 2025; 52 studies including 20 chronic bioassays) rated the certainty of evidence for increased glioma as high, based on two chronic bioassays in male rats, and rated heart schwannoma in male rats as high. The authors noted that extrapolating cancer bioassay results to humans "is particularly complex for RF EMF". A 2025 paper in Environmental Health (Melnick et al.) argues the WHO-commissioned reviews "provide no assurance of safety". It argues that most meta-analyses had few studies and that some reviews concluded no risk while rating the evidence low or very low certainty. WHO has not disowned the reviews. Some evidence areas are rated low or very low certainty, and the animal review rated glioma evidence in male rats as high certainty.

Scope and Aims of the HHS Review

The HHS review is an information request and states no conclusion about harm. HHS published the notice titled "Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure" in the Federal Register on September 21, 2026. The publication citation is 91 FR 59792, document 2026-19252. The notice was signed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The proceeding carries docket number HHS-OASH-2026-0397. Public comments are due October 21, 2026. The notice names exposure sources including "mobile phones, Wi-Fi, smart meters, wireless infrastructure, wearable devices, occupational equipment". AIP FYI reporting describes the request as covering "cell phones, Wi-Fi, wearables, and 5G".

HHS states its aims as:

• Identify and assess the current state of scientific evidence on RF/EMF exposures and health outcomes.
• Compare domestic and international safety standards and regulatory approaches.
• Identify research gaps and priority areas.
• Inform evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, families, schools and communities.

The notice states: "This RFI is voluntary, and responses may be submitted anonymously." It states that it "should not be construed as a policy, solicitation for applications, or as an obligation on the part of the government". It invites individuals, families and clinicians to share experiences about potential adverse health effects they believe may be associated with RF/EMF exposure. AIP FYI reported that scientists criticized the request's emphasis on personal accounts. One scientist told AIP FYI that it is "hard to imagine how that would be helpful in addressing the scientific evidence or regulatory standards".

The FCC opened its own comment round a day later. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology notice was published in the Federal Register on September 22, 2026 (91 FR 60128, ET Docket No. 13-84). It seeks comment on RF exposure issues remanded to the FCC by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Environmental Health Trust v. FCC (2021). Comments are due October 22, 2026. HHS and the FCC each opened a public comment round within a day of each other. The HHS round closes October 21, 2026 and the FCC round closes October 22, 2026. The two notices are separate, and neither states a conclusion.

Physical Characteristics of 5G Radio-Frequency Fields

NCI states that cell phones emit radiofrequency radiation "in the nonionizing range of the spectrum, which is low frequency and low energy. The energy is too low to damage DNA." ICNIRP's 2020 guidelines cover radio-frequency fields from 100 kHz to 300 GHz. ICNIRP states that its guidelines "protect against all potential adverse health effects relating to exposure to RF EMF, including from 5G technologies".

ICNIRP bases its limits on heating of exposed tissue, which it calls the only substantiated effect. ICNIRP states that exposure below the thermal threshold "is unlikely to be associated with adverse health effects". In a Q&A dated February 27, 2020, WHO noted that 5G uses higher frequencies, "around 3.5 GHz and up to a few tens of GHz". WHO stated that at higher frequencies "there is less penetration into the body tissues and absorption of the energy becomes more confined to the surface of the body (skin and eye)". WHO also stated on February 27, 2020 that "no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies".

On its 5G guidance page, ICNIRP notes that some 5G uses higher frequencies such as 28 GHz. The higher the frequency, the lower the depth of penetration. A 2023 peer-reviewed comment by Foster and Balzano lists the power penetration depth in skin at 24.25 to 27.5 GHz as 0.05 cm, about half a millimetre. NIST notes millimeter waves have "a limited ability to penetrate obstacles". For 5G networks "the obstructing wall can be no more than an oak leaf", which is why high-band 5G needs small antennas close to users. Under 47 CFR 1.1310, the FCC sets an exposure limit for phones held near the body. The limit is a peak spatial-average SAR of 1.6 W/kg averaged over any 1 gram of tissue. SAR measures the rate at which the body absorbs radio-frequency energy.

Cancer Research and Population Incidence Data

NCI reports stable incidence rates for adult gliomas in the United States, Nordic countries and Australia over several decades. On May 31, 2011, IARC classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, as emitted by mobile phones, as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B). IARC described the human evidence as limited: "credible, but chance, bias and confounding cannot be ruled out". It reported "suggestions of an increased risk of glioma at the highest exposure levels, but biases and error prevent a causal interpretation".

NCI describes a Danish cohort that found no association between cell phone use and glioma, meningioma or acoustic neuroma, "even among people who had been cell phone subscribers for 13 or more years". IARC's March 2024 news item on the COSMOS cohort states: "People with the most total hours of mobile phone calls do not have a higher risk of developing a brain tumour compared with light users."

Metabolic Outcomes and Blood Pressure Studies

The WHO-commissioned reviews cited here report on cancer, symptoms, cognition and reproductive outcomes. Weight gain and blood sugar do not appear among the outcomes they report.

The observational UK Biobank cohort (Ye et al., European Heart Journal - Digital Health, 2023; 212,046 participants) examined phone call usage. The study found a new-onset hypertension hazard ratio of 1.07 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) for people who made or received phone calls versus non-users. For usage over 6 hours a week versus under 5 minutes a week, the hazard ratio was 1.25 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.39). The authors report an association. Observational data cannot rule out other explanations. Related pages: the blood pressure biomarker page and the high blood pressure symptoms page.

The HHS notice names smart meters among exposure sources. A 2011 California Council on Science and Technology report evaluated these devices. The report concluded that "the FCC standard provides an adequate factor of safety against known RF induced health impacts of smart meters and other electronic devices in the same range of RF emissions." No newer authoritative smart-meter statement is cited here.

Conditions That Would Alter This Assessment

A reviewed finding of harm in humans below guideline limits would change this answer. A revision of an FCC or ICNIRP exposure limit would also change this answer.

Where To Go Next

Related pages: Wi-Fi radiation at home, EMF and sleep, EMF, testosterone and sperm, the wearable EMF comparison, EMF blockers, and EMF sensitivity symptoms.