NIST researchers have developed a new MRI-based technique to directly image how cell phone radiation penetrates and is absorbed in tissue-mimicking materials, going beyond the heating-based measurements that current safety guidelines rely on. The method can also visualize how implants and foreign objects distort and reradiate microwave fields. The study was published in Science Advances, a leading peer-reviewed journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
"Aside from heating, there are no other clearly established dangerous health effects on the human body from radio frequency radiation [...]. However, this question remains under debate [...], in part due to the lack of precision measurements to determine how cellular device radiation is absorbed in complex tissue systems, e.g., the brain, and what effects it may have beyond heating."
"Electromagnetic field imaging can be done before substantial heating of the material. Imaging and quantification provide a better understanding of how cellular radiation penetrates and is absorbed in complex materials, such as tissues, and may allow validation of numerical models."
"Here, we present a method to image microwave electromagnetic fields from cellular device radiation in tissue mimics using hyperpolarized low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)."
"Resonant absorption of microwave radiation in free radicals added to the tissue mimics, transfers polarization to the water proton system and, at cell phone power levels, can not only be detected, but can increase the signal over the native low-field MRI signal."
Ogier SE, Russek SE, Martinez JA, Betz KM, et al. (2026) Science Advances Journal Level 2ⓘ
