By Mike Mulvihill
Mobile apps are all the rage, and why not. Five billion mobile users worldwide (nearly 75 percent of the world population). It is a massive market with lots of research that predicts how everything we do online and electronically will eventually become the bastion of the cell phone.
That is unless cell phones are slowly killing us. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization announced this morning that it has now categorized cell phone radiation as a “carcinogenic hazard.” The same label WHO has attached to DDT, lead, engine exhaust and chloroform. In a press release, the WHO said the new warning is “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.” The announcement came after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.
Ah, how we love to jump on the “bad for you” band wagon. But let’s look at little further. So before you Google “brain tumor self-examination,” there are a few things to consider:
- Even if there is a link, you can minimize exposure using hands free devices – or just text, FB or Tweet instead.
- Last year, results of a large study found no clear link between cellphones and cancer. But some advocacy groups raised serious concerns over “a hint of a possible connection” between very heavy phone use and glioma, a rare but often deadly form of brain tumor. However, the population in that subgroup wasn’t sufficient to make a statistically solid conclusion. (And research loves to show that if you give someone way too much of anything often enough, it will usually have a negative health consequence.)
- The study methodology was controversial because it began with people who already had cancer and asked them to recall how often they used their cellphones more than a decade ago.
- In about 30 other studies done in Europe, New Zealand and the U.S., patients with brain tumors have not reported using their cellphones more often than unaffected people.
- It is difficult to prove a negative. Since many cancerous tumors can take decades to develop, cell phone studies conducted so far haven’t tracked people for longer than about a decade. Therefore, it is impossible to conclude cellphones have no long-term health risks. But we do know the radiation produced by cellphones does not directly damage DNA and is different from stronger types of radiation, like X-rays or ultraviolet light. At very high levels, radio frequency waves from cellphones can heat up body tissue, but that is not believed to damage human cells.
As PR people, we can make a business out of ballyhooing research to make a point. While this research will get plenty of press, it doesn’t prove a causal link. There’s just not enough data to make that conclusion. But the lack of proof that there is no negative impact becomes the story. Sensationalism rings awfully familiar here. Regardless, I think we’re going to have a tough time getting everyone to put down their cell phones. That includes me, so feel free to call.
Photo: Jezebel.com
If something is of great utility (usage, etc), it will surely have its own problems as well; cell phones are no exception. Asking a person never to use his cell phone will seem ridiculous in today’s world in spite the common buzz of the various cancers that might arise due to excessive usage of the mobile phones. With the cell phones penetration into every corner in life where this kind of connectivity was not even thought off during the wired days, the mobile phone is a part and parcel of life that is equivalent to your personal vehicle. The cell phones are a handy device in case of emergency that’s inevitable in the present scenario. However, I think, if using a Bluetooth or a earpiece that moves away the user’s head from the antenna can reduce the RF(Radio Frequency) electromagnetic waves, then it’s worth a practice to keep ourselves at bay from the carcinogenic effect.
Too funny. I remember when people first started talking about cell phone use causing cancer. It seems like everything causes cancer now a days. At the end of the day your right, are people really going to stop using their cell phones? Probably not. So if they do cause cancer lets figure out how to change this.
My theory is we are all going to die, I’d rather live life and not worry too much about all of the little things. I’m all for being healthy but if you think about it, anything can kill you. I’d rather approach life as an adventure!
Mike,
Remember 1966. Surgeon General sez cigarettes absolutely cause cancer. Regulations, warnings, ad campaigns follow. Cigarette use in the US is down 55% FORTY years later. Never underestimate the persistence of an embedded habit. These tenuous causalities for mobile phone use and brain cancer will not interrupt the hegemony of mobile connections. Convenience and habituation trump health every time.
Mobile phones don’t give you brain tumors. There is no mechanism by which they *could* give you brain tumors. It just simply cannot happen. Mobile phones do not make your brain heat up, except in as much as they get warm in use because they’re drawing more power from the battery. Holding an insulated plastic box to your ear makes your brain heat up, because it insulates one side of your head. You’d be amazed how much heat your head radiates off. If you block that heat radiation, your head will warm up. This is how hats work.
I think this is kind of issue is nonsense. The WHO is mistaken. Cell phones do not produce enough radioactive energy to do any damage. And as far as I know, no study has ever shown any negative impact from cell phone use. If there were any danger of cancer, we’d have seen a huge spike in such cancers given the increased cell phone usage over the last two decades. There has been none. I can’t explain the WHO announcement, but will wait for more know legible people to comment. Right now, I think its garbage.