OK, here we go again. Decades ago, there was widespread panic
over the possibility that overhead high tension electrical power lines
could be a cause of cancer for people living in close proximity or
underneath them. When that was disproved, the doomsday crowd went onto
blame cell phones as a possible risk of brain cancer due to tiny amounts
of radiation emitted when the phone is transferring data. Thus far,
after dozens of studies, there has been NO conclusive evidence that cell
phones produce a significant enough amount of radiation to create a
measurable increase in the risk of cancer. But is there a cause for
concern? Just who conducted those tests?
A new joint study from
the University of California at Berkeley and multiple Universities in
Korea, reexamined 465 article published in major journals along with 23
large scale case studies of over 37,916 patients. The study group was
comprised of patients with and without brain tumors. They found that
when they look at the group as a whole, there was no association between
brain tumors and cell phone use. When they looked closer however, and
divided the large group into clinically significant subgroups, there was
a clear increase in risk for cancer, of up to 30%. Furthermore, they
found that some of the previous studies that had yielded results of "no
risk," were in fact funded by cell phone manufacturers.
Other
experts including neurosurgeons have long agreed that cell phones can
cause brain tumors. One such doctor, Dr. Vini Khurana, even stated that
he thought mobile phones could be more dangerous than smoking or
asbestos. He pointed out the there are 3 billion cell phone users in the
world, which is a whopping 3 times the number of smokers worldwide, and
smoking leads to 5 million deaths per year.
Advocate groups still
insist however that there is no concrete, established risk. They cite
correctly that in journal after peer reviewed journal, there is an
overwhelming consensus that wireless cell phones do not pose a public
health risk. Their claims are further backed up by the FDA, the FCC,
American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute and the World
Health Organization. Imagine, all of those private and federal watchdog
groups agreeing on a single thing!
What's the bottom line? This
author still isn't sure. All I know is that there are still people who
believe that the lunar landing was a big hoax. There are nurses that
work for me, that sadly, still won't get vaccinations for their kids for
fear of increased risk of Down syndrome. For me, I'm not giving up my
cell phone anytime soon. If the risk really is that significant, then we
can also say that "the place we carry the phone on our bodies, may
increase the risk of cancer in that particular body area." For instance,
I often carry my cell phone in my shirt pocket. Will I have an
increased risk for breast cancer? Hmm, I always wondered what a
mammogram would feel like...
By
Rich D. Fan