Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer: Critics cite Senator Kennedy's diagnosis

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: June 3, 2008

What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?

Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.” Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.

Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’ remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer. That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society. The theory that cellphones cause brain tumors “defies credulity,” said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful effects. CTIA — the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade group, said in a statement, “The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk.” The F.D.A. notes, however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn’t answer questions about long-term exposures. Critics say many studies are flawed for that reason, and also because they do not distinguish between casual and heavy use.

Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer. But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone....

***

For people who are concerned about any possible risk, a simple solution is to use a headset. Of course, that option isn’t always convenient, and some critics have raised worries about wireless devices like the Bluetooth that essentially place a transmitter in the ear....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/03well.html?8dpc

[nebenaube]

1. ok

how many of us have a 3G phone that makes their hand and forearm tingle? My sprint PocketPC did when it was new.

[TheWraith]

4. I've got a couple of those. Never had any tingling.

Have you ever been sensitive to any other kinds of radio transmission? I once heard from a guy who could literally hear this government LF radio beacon that his group serviced any time he drove out there.

[zeos3]

10. I've got a 3G pocketPC, haven't had any tingling

However, when the phone is in front of me near the computer the computer screen gets a little goofy right before the phone rings. My old nextel was much worse with this. I don't know much about electronics but I always wonder what the phone does to my brain if it does that to the screen.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Interestingly, a few weeks back, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did this topic during an

interview on his show on AAR, "Ring of Fire". Archived on his website.

http://www.goleft.tv/

Go to search and do "cell phones" and then "Danger". The video will pop up.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks, no_hypocrisy. nt

[zeos3]

11. Thom Hartman did a bit about this

on his show, as well, last week. The guest was saying ear pieces were worse because they go inside your ear and bring the radio signal with them. He was talking about the corded ones, not sure about the bluetooth ones.

[TheWraith]

3. Here's a perfect example of why I don't worry.

The people who object to both cell phones and Bluetooth headsets don't know enough to realize that a Bluetooth transmitter puts out 2.5 milliwatts, which is around 1 100th of what the typical cell phone puts out.

And frankly, 99% of the claims I hear about phones causing brain tumors always fall back on the old style phones which in turn put out around 10 times as much wattage as a modern phone.

Maybe there is the chance of increasing your risk of cancer, but I think that if you're not glued to the phone all day for decades you have a lot of other risks that are far more likely.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. be interesting to compare risk

of cell phone use when not in a car

versus

cell phone use while driving

[TheWraith]

7. I feel certain you're at a LOT more risk getting killed talking in the car. nt

[hokies4ever]

8. The evidence is VERY weak

revolves around the theory that the cell phone is heating up your brain. Yeah, I can REALLY feel my head getting hot when I'm on the phone. :rofl:

[AdHocSolver]

9. Since the microwave energy penetrates your brain past the nerves that detect heat...

your brain could be cooked to a medium rare, and you would not feel the heat.