Cell phone - brain tumor link gets a second look

[Chemisse]

Cellphones Cause Brain Tumors, Says New Report By International EMF Collaborative

A new report, "Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone," was released today by a collaborative of international EMF activists. Groups affiliated with the report include Powerwatch and the Radiation Research Trust in the U.K., and in the U.S., EMR Policy Institute, ElectromagenticHealth.org and The Peoples Initiative Foundation. Download the report.

The exposé discusses research on cellphones and brain tumors and concludes:

- There is a risk of brain tumors from cellphone use;
- Telecom funded studies underestimate the risk of brain tumors, and;
- Children have larger risks than adults for brain tumors.

This report, sent to government leaders and media today, details eleven design flaws of the 13-country, Telecom-funded Interphone study. The Interphone study, begun in 1999, was intended to determine the risks of brain tumors, but its full publication has been held up for years. Components of this study published to date reveal what the authors call a 'systemic-skew', greatly underestimating brain tumor risk.

The design flaws include categorizing subjects who used portable phones (which emit the same microwave radiation as cellphones,) as 'unexposed'; exclusion of many types of brain tumors; exclusion of people who had died, or were too ill to be interviewed, as a consequence of their brain tumor; and exclusion of children and young adults, who are more vulnerable.

Lloyd Morgan, lead author and member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society says, "Exposure to cellphone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled. Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cellphones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia. The public must be informed."

International scientists endorsing "Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern" include Ronald B. Herberman, MD, Director Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; David Carpenter, MD, Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany; Martin Blank, PhD, Associate Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University; Professor Yury Grigoriev, Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, and many others.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/31/cellphones-cause-brain-tu_n_272573.html

[safeinOhio]

1. Doesn't effect me

everything that goes in one ear, comes out the other, so I'm told.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Cool

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[emilyg]

2. ty

[Chemisse]

9. I am just disgusted the industry was allowed to manipulate the studies

This is typical of what has been allowed in this country for some time now and it really needs to stop.

Whether cell phones can cause cancer or not, we deserve an honest appraisal.

[Pangolin2]

5. Testicular cancer? What are people DOING with those devices?

:rofl:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Obviously it's the phone sex. n/t

[intheflow]

20. DUzy! n/t

[jsamuel]

7. putting them in their pockets

[Pangolin2]

14. Oh...well duh. Guess my 'joke' wasn't so funny. I use my cell phone maybe 5 minutes a month

and never have put it in my pocket...:shrug:

[customerserviceguy]

18. Some people put them in their pants pockets

I still do every once in awhile. I mostly have it charging when I'm in the car, and it's turned off in my desk at work every day, but sometimes it's on when I use it on the weekends, and it's in my pants pocket.

Maybe it shouldn't be.

[Happyhippychick]

8. I always use an earpiece - NOT a bluetooth, an earpiece. Bluetooths (blueteeth?) are just as bad.

[Chemisse]

10. I used one at first, when all this came out

But then I was soothed by the early cell phone industry studies and stopped. Silly me.

[StarryNite]

19. Air tube

Unless your earpiece uses an air tube or stethoscope tube it isn't safe. It may even be worse than not using a headset at all.

[AdHocSolver]

29. The main thing is to keep the antenna away from your body.

If you hold the cell phone away from your body when using the earpiece, then you substantially reduce the health risk. The value in using the earpiece is that it allows you to hold the cell phone, which contains the antenna, away from you. Using any type of earpiece is better than none. The amount of microwave energy that could be conducted to your head by the earpiece is miniscule.

[Johonny]

11. International EMF Collaborative snicker

ah the same people that wasted countless tax dollars in studies to show what most scientist know "power lines do not cause cancer". I really, really can't trust these people enough.

Currents of death.

[malaise]

12. All I know is that more and more people are dying of brain tumors

and I have three friends who worked in the industry who died of brain tumors.

[sudopod]

23. Could it be because of carcinogens released into the atmosphere

in industrial quantities? ;)

[shanti]

36. me too

i personally know of 2 in the last 3 years who've died from brain cancer. heavy cellphone users...

[Zynx]

45. THere hasn't been a rash of higher numbers of brain cancer deaths in the aggregate.

It's been pretty steady.

[backscatter712]

13. Might be time to consider turning the power levels down.

Cell phones can broadcast at up to 3 watts, under today's standards, though they frequently use less power.

I suspect the cancer rates may be dialed down if cell phones were to restrict their power usage to .5 watts or so.

And it'd also give us longer battery life!

[Gabi Hayes]

16. what about in house cordless?

that's what I've been using for about 15 years.....

[backscatter712]

21. Still looking things up...

but IIRC, in-house cordless transmits with far less power than a cell phone. Milliwatts rather than watts.

[Gabi Hayes]

25. that's what I thought. btw, the last two cells I bought (pay as you go)

are two of the three listed as having the most wattage/wt.

so watch out for them

Motorola moto-something

kyocera (virgin)

[arikara]

24. Sorry to say

house cordless are even worse than cell phones for emissions. Especially the base station which emits constantly so never NEVER have one close to where you sit a lot or sleep. We got rid of cordless and went back to old fashioned landlines a couple years ago, but its getting hard to find a decent phone now. Everything is cheap disposable crap made in China.

[Gabi Hayes]

26. just found this:

Output wattage
To keep neighbors from constantly hearing each other's conversations, the FCC initially limited the output wattage for cordless phones to just .001 watt. But when digital and spread spectrum technologies (SSTs) made eavesdropping a less valid concern by scrambling signals or dividing them across multiple bandwidths, the allowable wattage for cordless phones was increased to 1 watt.

looking up cell wattage....

[Gabi Hayes]

27. they were talking about this on the radio, when I heard my cellphones mentioned:

During the test, the phone's antenna is extended and retracted in order to check for any fluctuations in radiation that the phone might demonstrate in different configurations. The manufacturer is supposed to submit the highest SAR level measured during these tests to the FCC. Phones are required to test below 1.6 W/kg averaged over 1 gram of fluid.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone-radiation3.htm

....................


http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone-radiation1.htm

Cell phones have low-power transmitters in them. Most car phones have a transmitter power of 3 watts. A handheld cell phone operates on about 0.75 to 1 watt of power.

[AdHocSolver]

28. The penetration depth into the body by the microwaves increases with the power level.

Years ago, I repaired microwave ovens when I worked for a company that sold them.

The service manual warned about the health risks of being exposed to microwave energy. Microwave ovens have door seals to keep the microwave energy from escaping. We were to inspect the door seals and replace them if they were deformed or damaged.

Microwave ovens have interlock switches which are to shut it off if the door becomes open even a tiny amount. If we cracked the door and the unit didn't shut down, we were to find and replace the defective switch.

Personally, any time I use a microwave oven, I stand at least six feet away from it while it is running.

You are correct about the danger increasing as the power output increases. The cell phone increases its power output as the signal strength from the base station gets weaker. The fewer the signal level bars, the higher the transmitter power output.

My understanding is that exposure is accumulative. I use a cell phone when I don't have access to a land line phone, but I never talk more than a few minutes at a time.

These people who seem to have a cell phone glued to their ear are taking the most risk for eventual health problems, aside from the ones who have animated conversations while driving.

[seabeyond]

30. especially when preg i had need to walk away. but i walk away too.... nt

[Mari333]

15. landline here.never had a cellphone.

I dont like the idea of being bothered all day long.

[mike_c]

17. as I understand this report-- based on the OP-- it should NOT be confused...

...with data suggesting any cancer/cell phone link. That is, criticism of another study does not constitute data in support of contrary claims. I'm not commenting on the criticisms themselves-- whether or not they have merit will have to be independently investigated. Just that even if the study they criticize is utterly discredited, that still provides zero proof for the cancer link. Zero. Let's keep that in mind.

[seabeyond]

22. one of a number of reason kids still dont have cell phone. i am in no hurry to get them one.

so....

they can just keep on studying, and my kids and their brains can keep on growing and by the time they have it figured out, kids will be on their own, and can get one.

[ddeclue]

31. Ridiculous!

Your 1200 Watt microwave oven LEAKS far more microwave radiation than your 300mW max signal cell phone ever puts out.

If you've still got a CRT based television or computer monitor, it exposes you to far more dangerous X-RAYS than ever came out of EITHER your microwave OR your cell phone.

This is more scare tactic junk science.

[Prometheus Bound]

32. I certainly wouldn't put my ear against a running microwave oven for hours a day.

[ddeclue]

37. You are at FAR more risk sitting in the sunshine for hours a day.

People REALLY need to learn a little bit about electromagnetic radiation, wavelength and ionization effect. Visible light has a much higher ionization potential than microwaves and you are exposed to IT every day in much higher power levels - ultraviolet is even shorter in wavelength.

[Prometheus Bound]

42. I certainly wouldn't sit under the sun for hours every day either.

[ddeclue]

43. Well sunlight is on average about 1000 watts/sq meter in the

southern U.S. and contains not just visible light but pretty much the whole spectrum - it is far far more damaging than a pathetic 300mW cell phone and you get far more exposure to the sun than you ever spend on your cell phone.

By the way while you are worried about cell phones:

1) Why not wireless LAN's in your house?

2) Why not portable wireless home phones?

Both operate in either 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz bands, some of the newer ones in the 5+ GHz region and at similar power levels to your cell phone.

Oh noes the microwaves are gonna get me...

NOT.

This is just luddite paranoia.

In this case, wrap your head in tin foil.. It actually WILL protect you from those mean old microwaves..

:rofl:

[Prometheus Bound]

44. The tin-foil attack and the ROLF. Powerful stuff.

for a primary school kid.

[AdHocSolver]

33. With the proliferation of microwave ovens, has anyone done a study of the safety level of them?

As I mentioned in another post, many years ago, I used to fix microwave ovens, and the service manuals stressed the necessity of safety checking the units to ensure that there was no microwave leakage.

If the door seals showed any damage, or if the safety switches didn't shut of the unit when the door was cracked open even slightly, we were to repair the unit.

Now most of these devices (like almost everything else) comes from China, and my experience with a lot of imported goods is that the quality is compromised to keep the price low. Microwave ovens put out hundreds of watts and, if the safety features are compromised, they could be doing a whole lot more damage than cell phones.

[ddeclue]

38. Some put out 1200W or more >3000x the max power of a cell phone

and at a higher frequency than a cell phone too.

If your microwave leaks 0.1% of the power it is still "leaking" 4x the maximum power of the current generation of digital cell phones and it is doing it in the multi GHz range instead of 800-900MHz.

Of course this is more luddite junk science nonsense to scare the "scientifically challenged" amongst us.


To put it another way:

DANGER 1 MILLION OHMS!

:hide:

[Hekate]

39. At least most people don't lean their heads on microwave ovens while they're operating, right?

That's probably the biggest difference.

Hekate

[ddeclue]

40. Microwaves operate at 1200W about 3000x the power of your cell phone at its peak power.

even if your microwave is leaking 0.l% of the power it produces it is still "leaking" 4x the MAX power of your cell phone and doing it at a much higher frequency.

[FarCenter]

34. Show me the dead radar technicians

If cellphones were dangerous, there would be dead radar technicians by the hundreds.

[AdHocSolver]

35. Your contention is absurd.

My understanding from what I read about electronics issues, some early radar technicians did suffer medically when they got "zapped" from radar equipment.

Years ago, I repaired microwave ovens and the service manuals contained safety information so that we wouldn't have any problems and neither would our customers.

Microwave ovens and radar sets can produce hundreds of whats of microwave energy. The higher the wattage, the deeper the penetration. The energy in a radar set is emitted by the antenna, which acts as a concentrator to focus it. Any radar technician would know to stay away from the antenna.

A cell phone emits anywhere from a half watt to three watts of microwave power, depending on the signal strength to the base station. It is emitted from the antenna. Some cell phones have an antenna sticking out from the top of the phone. In some cases the antenna is inside the case. If users used an ear piece and held the phone away from their bodies, then there would be little risk from using it.

The risk of damage to one's health comes from the usual practice of holding the cell phone next to one's head. Then the antenna is right next to one's skull, and the penetration of the microwaves can be a significant amount. Penetration depth depends on the power output and the closeness of the antenna. The argument is not over whether this is problematic, but how much risk is there at power levels used by cell phones.

There were also studies that suggested a danger of developing cataracts of the eye from prolonged exposure to cell phone emissions. Microwaves could "cook" the lens causing it to "cloud" up just as boiling an egg turns the clear fluid white.

I also wonder if health problems from exposure to microwave energy could be due to the proliferation of cheap, imported microwave ovens that may not measure up to proper safety standards.

[ddeclue]

41. Umm join the 1990's.. cell phones max power these days is 300mW

your knowledge of cell phones is apparently about 15 to 20 years old and your knowledge of electromagntic radiation is preposterous. If cell phones posed a risk we'd all be dead long ago simply by our exposure to microwave ovens and CRT based monitors alone -not to mention good old fashioned SUNLIGHT.

:eyes:

[Prometheus Bound]

46. I wonder why mobile phone makers warn you not to let the phone touch your body even when not in use.

Blackberry 8300 - warns users to keep it one inch away
Mororola V195 GSM - warns users to keep it one inch away
Apple i-phone - warns users to keep it 5/8 inch away.

See Concern 13 of the report.