Cell Phones and Cancer, Again
It seems like this just won’t go away. One research study will show a link between heavy cell phone use and brain tumors or other cancers. Then another set of researchers will say their studies do not support drawing those conclusions. Well, today another article, on the BBC news site, is titled “Cancer link to heavy mobile use“. You should read the details at that link. Here is another story covering the same research.
What always frustrates me about news stories like these are what I believe are the lack of detail readers needed to draw conclusions. The usage in the study was described as “several” and “many” hours per day. Why can’t they just tell us how many hours that was!? The increase in cancer was said to be 50%. Although the actual numbers thee might not change the mathematics statistics, it would help readers put things in perspective. Percentage increases mean nothing to many people unless we also know the true numbers. If the increase was from 1 cancer case per million people to 1.5 cases per thousand people, the overall risk seems very small. If the increase was from 1 in 100 to 1.5 in 100, then even though mathematically the increased risk is the same, it at least appears to be more worrisome. Please, if anyone sees a flaw in my reasoning here, please post a comment. I sometimes get as confused as the next person when trying to figure out what studies like these really mean to the average person.
The study cited in today’s news stories followed 500 Israelis. This would imply a high risk of cancer in the first place wouldn’t it? I mean, if the chances of getting a certain cancer were one in 10,000, then how could studying only 500 people tell you anything? In contrast, another study in Denmark has been tracking over 400,000 people and has found no increased cancer risk.
What to do? Mobile phones are here to stay. And, until satellite technology becomes better and cheaper, the current method of using microwave radio radiation to carry our conversations is what we are stuck with. As with the adaptation of any new or safer technology, even if satellite phones become cheaper, smaller, and prove to be safer, the transition to them will take years or decades to make. This is because of the huge investment companies have in existing technology that they don’t want replaced by something newer until they are ready to be part of the change.
The study also found that users in rural areas had an even higher increased risk, although of course it was not said exactly how much higher. This is because the phones need more radiation to maintain call quality in rural areas. I remember reading somewhere that, especially in rural areas, you should keep the phone away from your body even when not making calls. I don’t know how realistic that is, but the reasoning was thus. The phones are constantly signaling back and forth to the towers so that they are ready to accept calls as they come in. Although the radiation required to do this is small compared to actually talking on the phone, the hours of exposure to a phone in one’s jeans pocket are much higher. How do we know what to believe?
So what can we do to hedge our bets? The most common recommendation is to use the speaker phone or a hands free device. Next, you can make an effort to make calls shorter or use text messaging. When I change my phone next month, a good speaker, a text messaging friendly keypad and BlueTooth technology are at the top of my list. However, I do wonder how long it will be before we see the first study outlining the dangers of BlueTooth technology. You do wear the thing on your ear and it does use radio waves to interface with the phone. I also wonder about the radio waves in general we are exposed to. I am sitting for hours every day in a room with a wireless router. Is there any danger from that?
Please comment if you have opinions, links or answers to any of my questions. Perhaps also digg and stumble, etc. to increase the possibility of getting input from someone who has some real knowledge on this confusing, but troublesome issue.
Thanks! And for now let’s just be thankful that because our kids are so into text messaging on their mobile phones, they actually spend very little time with the devices held to their ears.
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