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The issue first came to public attention
in 1993, when a Florida man appeared on a popular TV talk show and
claimed that his wife's brain tumor was caused by RF (radiofrequency)
radiation from her cell phone.
The lawsuit was dismissed in 1995 due to a lack of scientific and
medical evidence, but the issue had already taken on a great deal of
importance. Since then, there have been many allegations in the media
that cell phones cause cancer.
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The question remains: Are cell
phones really dangerous? The following summary of recent
research results and answers to frequently asked questions may
shed some light on this burning topic.
what is the concern?
Cellular phones operate with RF (Radio Frequencies); a form of
electromagnetic energy located on the electromagnetic spectrum
between FM radio waves and the waves used in microwave ovens,
radars and satellites.
The amount of RF a person is exposed to with the use of a cell
phone depends on a number of factors:
- The distance from the base
station;
- The duration and frequency
of cell phone use;
- The age of the phone
(older analog models involve higher exposure than newer,
digital ones).
A number of organizations, such
as the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), have set limits
for human exposure to RF fields. Nevertheless, many individuals
claim that repeated RF exposure from cell phones, even at low
levels, may cause brain tumors.
The first study (conducted by
Hardell et al.) compared 233 brain cancer patients, diagnosed
between 1994 and 1996, to 466 controls in Sweden. The second
(conducted by Muscat et al.) compared 469 brain cancer patients,
diagnosed between 1994 and 1998, in New York, Providence and
Boston, with 422 controls. The third and largest study
(conducted by Inskip et al.) was conducted in Phoenix, Boston
and Pittsburgh. It compared 782 brain cancer patients, diagnosed
between 1994 and 1998, with 799 controls.
Finally, a Danish study (conducted by Johansen et al.) linked
data on all of the 420,095 cell phone users in Denmark between
1982 and 1995, to the Danish Cancer Registry and found the same
results as the three case-control studies. The results are the
following:
The brain cancer patients didn't report more cell phone use than
the subjects who were free of brain cancer. In fact, for reasons
that remain unclear, most of the studies showed a tendency
toward lower risk of brain cancer among cellular phone users.
When different types of brain cancer were considered, none were
consistently associated with cell phone use.
When specific locations of tumors within the brain were
considered, no associations with cell phone use were found.
None of the studies showed a clear link between the side of the
head on which the brain cancer occurred and the side on which
the cellular phone was used.
Many animal experiments have also been conducted and have
yielded conflicting results. A few of these studies have
suggested that low levels of RF could accelerate the development
of cancer in laboratory rats.
However, many of the studies that showed increased tumor
development used rats that had been genetically engineered to be
predisposed to develop cancer in the absence of RF exposure.
Other studies exposed the animals to RF for up to 22 hours per
day.
Since these conditions are not similar to the conditions under
which people use wireless phones, we do not know with certainty
what the results of such studies mean for human health.
In summary, there is now considerable evidence that shows no
consistent association between cell phone use and brain cancer,
although more research is needed before any definite conclusions
can be drawn.
research results
Because cell phones have only been in widespread use for about a
decade, there hasn't been much opportunity to carry out
long-term studies of their effects on our health. However, four
recently published studies that compared cell phone use in brain
cancer patients and individuals with no brain cancer found the
same results.
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