#1166: No rise in cancer from mobile phones? It depends upon how you spin the findings
From Eileen O’Connor, EM Radiation Research Trust:
No rise in cancer from mobile phones
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6719218/No-rise-in-cancer-from-mo
bile-phones.html
Joachim Schüz is one of the authors. He is also the lead author of the
seriously flawed telecom industry funded Danish cellphone subscribers study.
Download details here: http://www.radiationresearch.org/pdfs/reasons_a4.pdf
Cellphones and Brain Tumors 15 Reasons for Concern – Science, Spin and the
Truth Behind Interphone.
Also read Cell Phones and Brain Cancer””the jury is still out from Dr Devra
Davis.
Cell Phones and Brain Cancer””the jury is still out
According to headlines trumpeted around the world, cell phones are safe.
This reassuring conclusion rests on an analysis of trends in brain cancer in
Scandinavian countries up to 2003 which did NOT tie these trends in any way
to actual patterns of use of cell phones.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091203/cellphones_0912
03/20091203?hub=TopStoriesV2
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/12/03/no-increase-in
-brain-tumors-seen-from-cell-phones.html
In fact, in Sweden, Norway and Finland, about half of all persons had cell
phones in 2000. It would be unreasonable to expect to see any general
population effect from such phone use in such a short period of time.
Scientists know that brain cancer can take a decade or longer to develop in
adults. In the case of the Hiroshima bombing that ended World War Two,
brain cancers associated with that one time massive exposure to radiation
did not become evident until forty years later.
The authors of this work published in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute actually are much more balanced than the headline writers. We
all recognize the tremendous positive role that phones are playing around
the world today. But, their safety, and their impact on the developing
brain, remains a matter of grave concern that merits serious research and
will not be resolved by spinning limited studies such as this one.
The authors of this analysis of brain cancer in adults in Northern Europe
note that their findings could simply mean that their study did not follow
people for long enough period of time and that their study did not determine
or focus on those individuals who had used cell phones the most for the
longest, especially young adults. Instead, their analysis solely reported
on the trend in this one site of cancer.
A number of researchers who have looked at more detailed studies on brain
cancer and cell phone use have reached far different conclusions. Only
after 10 or more years of very heavy mobile phone use does a risk of brain
cancer become evident. Prof. Lennart Hardell of Sweden has found that those
who begin using cell phones heavily as teenagers have 4 to 5 times more
brain cancer as young adults. In this recent study of the entire
population, very few persons are likely to have been heavy users of cell
phones for more than a decade and even fewer will have done so since
adolescence.
Given the limited networks available at the time that this Scandinavian
study began, and the high cost of earlier phones, proportionally few people
have been heavy users for a long period of time. To conclude that the
absence of a clear trend of increased brain tumors in Scandinavia means that
there will be no such trend in the future is wishful thinking that endangers
all of us.
Recent studies by scientists in many different nations have found that
radiofrequency signals can directly damage DNA without producing any
noticeable change in temperature, and can produce cancer-inducing free
radicals, proteins known to be tied with mutation, and memory loss in both
animals and humans. (see www.environmentalhealthtrust.org for more details)
Given the dramatic increase in mobile phone use in the past few years, it is
foolish to assume that their safety has been established. The technologies
are changing rapidly. We need a major international research program to
evaluate their impact on health, especially how they affect the brain of the
young.
Israel, France, China, Russia, Finland, Scotland, the U.K., and the European
Commission have all issued various warnings to limit the use of cell phones
by children. The brain of a child doubles in the first two years of life
and is not fully mature and protected until the early twenties.
Four billion people today are using cell phones and many of them are under
the age of twenty. In truth the jury is out on the long term impacts of
cell phones on our health. There is no scientific basis to conclude
otherwise.
Kind Regards,
Eileen O’Connor
Director
EM Radiation Research Trust
http://www.radiationresearch.org
& Rewire.me eMagazine
http://www.rewire.me