Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on fellow parents to join him in enforcing a strict rule on cellphone use—to keep kids from getting “microwaved.”
The health secretary, 72, found a fresh opportunity to make eyebrow-raising claims in an hourlong sitdown on The Bossticks podcast released Monday.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader whose appointment to the helm of the Health Department drew backlash, cited a study from the 1990s in claiming that children’s brains “don’t return to normal for at least 12 hours” when they use their phones for as little as 10 minutes.
“I mean, it’s frightening when you start reading it,” he told hosts Lauryn and Michael Bosstick. “What I tell parents is—and what I do with my kids is—I don’t let them put the cell phone next to their head, ever. Put it on speaker.”
“Your kid should not be sleeping with a cell phone next to their head, which they all do,” he continued.
Kennedy has long taken issue with guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission on wireless devices, arguing that they don’t kick in “until the phone literally begins to raise the temperature inside of your brain or your body, so it’s microwaving you.”
Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group founded by the health secretary, secured a win when an appeals court ruled in its favor and ordered the FCC to explain how its guidelines protect against health risks. The court, however, did not take a stance on the potential health effects of cellphone radiation.
Kennedy has previously claimed that electromagnetic radiation from cellphone use can “cause cellular damage and even cancer.” But a major analysis commissioned by the World Health Organization in 2024 found no connection between cellphone use and brain cancer. The National Cancer Institute has also said that frequencies emitted by cellphones are “too low to damage DNA.”
“The RF (radiofrequency) waves given off by cell phones don’t have enough energy to damage DNA directly or to heat body tissues,” the American Cancer Society explained.
The FCC also says on its website that, since 1996, it has required all wireless communications devices sold in the U.S. to meet minimum guidelines for safe human exposure to radiofrequency energy.
Kennedy has gained notoriety for making bonkers health-related claims. Last year, he said fluoride is making kids “stupider” and asserted that children these days visibly appear “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges.”
The Health Department did not immediately return a request for comment on this story.
