According to the
California Brain Tumor Association (CABTA),
San Francisco is the first city in the world to require warning labels
on cell phones. Also,
CABTA states that cell phones have never been
tested on children.
In May 2011, the
WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly
carcinogenic to humans, based on an increased risk for glioma, a
malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use. The
Working Group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past
cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40% increased risk for
gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30
minutes per day over a 10‐year period). The IARC concluded that there
could be some risk, therefore, they need to keep a close eye on the link
between cell phone use and cancer risk. The IARC also recommends that
it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as
hands‐free devices or texting.
The "
Interphone Study" is the name that was given to a series of multi-national
case-control studies to assess whether radiofrequency (RF) exposure from mobile phones
is associated with cancer risk. The
International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) coordinated the study. Other potential
environmental and endogenous risk factors were also examined. The types
of cancer studied were acoustic neuroma, glioma, meningioma, and
tumours of the parotid gland. It is the largest epidemiological study
to date and should help resolve some of the questions about an
association between cell phones and cancer.
Participating countries were Australia, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, and the UK. Results of national studies have been published since 2004.
The Interphone study group is currently working on detailed analyses
for future publications such as precise localization of brain tumours
using 3-dimensional radiological grid, the health effect of
RF exposure at the exact location of the tumor by using a
gradient of radiofrequency. Determinants of mobile phone output power
from a software-modified phone (SMP) study is also in progress.
Results from both the studies
and also data obtained from the simulation study will help make any adjustment for exposure measurement
errors on cancer risk related to mobile phone use.
I
have no need of statistical evidence and results of studies. I know
about quite a few people who were early users of cellphones who have had
brain tumors or died from brain tumors. When cell phones first became
available, very few ordinary people could afford to own one. Most of the
early users were corporate executives, sports administrators, and
military personnel. Some of the early users ended up with brian tumors.
One such person is the late marketing executive Chris Elliot who
together with his wife Dellann established the
Chris Elliot Fund
(CEF) before he passed away from gliobastoma, a rare brain cancer.
Funds raised by CEF support Glioblastoma Brain Cancer Research at
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Hands-Free Devices:
While we wait patiently for further scientific proof, it is best to
exercise caution and safety by using
hands-free devices which not only
reduce the risk of RF exposure but also help to mitigate other risks
such as accidents caused by cell phone use and texting.
Here is a good article on RF exposure from use of cell phones and how you can mitigate the risk.
====================================================
Wellness: Cell-ing Out Our Health?
Before you make your next phone call, read this.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
By Stephanie Kraft
It's
been one of the most visible technological revolutions since the coming
of the automobile: the liberation of telephones from stationary land
lines to mobile models; the proliferation of hand-held phones in
workplaces, in homes and on the street; the explosion of enhanced
versions to send texts, take pictures, play music, guide people through
their day. By now an estimated four billion people around the world use
cell phones.
Undergirding
the wild success of these products has been something less explicit
than a guarantee, just a trust—for would enlightened governments allow
corporations to put something dangerous on the mass market?—that the
devices were safe to use. Study after study, usually industry-funded,
said there was only minimal risk. So the image of the millennial city is
an image of people walking along streets and in and out of buildings
with miniaturized phones to their ears, and laws are in the making to
keep us from crashing our cars while we're talking or texting.
Now
that cell phones are a fixture in our lives, new information—and old
information breaking out after years of enforced silence—suggests that
we need to rethink the matter of their safety. Consider this:
*Findings
of Swedish researchers published in 2007 in the journal Occupational
and Environmental Medicine showed "a consistent pattern of increased
risk for acoustic neuroma [a benign tumor of the nerve connecting the
brain and the ear] and glioma [a tumor originating in the brain's glial
cells]."
*In
Israel, a study published in 2008 found that cell phone users had a 50
percent greater chance of developing benign or malignant tumors of the
salivary gland than non-users.
*Also
in 2008, the Royal Society of London published findings that people who
begin using cell phones before age 20 were five times more likely as
non-cell phone users to have brain cancer by age 29.
But
it's not only information that's surfaced within the last few years
that's given impetus to new cautions about cell phone use. Investigation
of the health effects of electromagnetic radiation goes back
decades—and for decades there have been moves to downplay if not
suppress it.
In
1975, neuroscientist Allan Frey went public with research showing that
microwaves could cause breaching of the blood-brain barrier. That's
dangerous because the barrier protects the brain from many toxins and
bacterial infections. Eventually Frey, who had received research funding
from the Navy since he had begun experimenting with radar waves in the
1960s, was told he would lose his funding if he continued to publish his
findings on the blood-brain barrier. (In those days, the military
thinking on electromagnetics was based on the idea that only the thermal
effects of the radiation were potentially harmful.)
In
1986, Carl Blackman, a highly credentialed physicist working for the
federal Environmental Protection Agency, was ordered to stop his
research on the health effects of electromagnetic radiation, which
built, in part, on Frey's findings. Blackman told GQ reporter
Christopher Ketcham he suspects that "a decision was made to stop the
civilian agencies from looking too deeply into the nonthermal health
effects from exposure to EM fields." Ketcham also quotes an unnamed EPA
physicist as saying, "The Department of Defense didn't like our research
because the exposure limits that we might recommend would curtail their
activities." (Ketcham's article, "Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be
Hazardous to Your Health," in the February, 2010 issue of GQ and
available on the Web, should be required reading for all cell phone
users.)
In
the 1990s, Henry Lai, a bioengineering professor at the University of
Washington, found that electromagnetic radiation damaged DNA in the
brains of lab rats. His findings stopped short of proving conclusively
that the DNA damage would produce cancer, but cancer was seen as a
possible result of it. Motorola and other mobile phone companies mounted
such a campaign to discredit findings of this nature that research
efforts were muted for years to come.
Meanwhile,
the industry funded a multimillion-dollar, six-year study that brought
some unwelcome surprises. It confirmed that cell phone radiation caused
breaching of the blood-brain barrier, interfered with normal DNA repair,
and increased the risk of tumors in the tissues covering the brain and
spinal cord.
Now
studies by Dariusz Leszczynski at Finland's Radiation and Nuclear
Safety Authority also add to the body of information indicating that
mobile phone radiation can damage the blood-brain barrier.
And
experts are waiting for the result of a 13-country investigation of the
health effects of cell phone use called the Interphone study (the 13
countries are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K.; the
U.S. did not participate). Some preliminary results of that study have
been released; one finding incorporating information from Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Finland and the U.K showed a 40 percent increase in
tumor incidence in adults who use cell phones for more than 10 years,
though fewer than 10 years' use was not found to cause significant risk.
But
the results of the ambitious study, though they are nearly four years
overdue, have not been released. In the U.S., the National Toxicology
Program ( a program of the National Institutes of Health) is
investigating the health effects of mobile phones, but results are not
expected until 2014 at the earliest.
The
fragmentary nature of the available information about cell phones
(which also applies to land-based cordless phones) and human health
presents a daunting conundrum. What should users do until more
definitive information is available? Experts aren't suggesting that
people throw away their cell phones, but that they use them in more
safety-conscious ways.
Think
twice before getting rid of your land line and its phones with cords;
use those for your longer, leisurely conversations at home. When you buy
a cell phone, read the manual that comes with it; some manuals warn
users to keep the phones at least an inch away from their heads.
The
Federal Communications Commission limits the so-called specific
absorption rate (SAR)—the amount of radiation the phone feeds into your
body—at 1.6 watts per kilogram, but there's debate about how much that
really protects you. Nonetheless, the SARs of different models vary, and
you might as well choose one with a lower rather than a higher SAR (to
get the SAR of the phone you're considering, check the packaging, ask
the seller, or visit the FCC's website, www.fcc.gov/cgb/sar/).
Don't
carry your cell phone near your body (in your pocket, for instance). A
study from Hong Kong last year showed that even very low-level EMR
fields affect sperm, and cell phones worn around the neck are suspected
of causing heart attacks. Women, who usually stow the phones in their
pocketbooks, probably incur lower risk.
National
Institutes of Health associate director Jon Bucher recommends using
earpieces instead of holding the phones close to the head. Encourage
children not to use cell phones except for emergencies, to major on
texting rather than talking, and not to keep the phones under their
pillows.
Source: http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=11552
Source: Press release -- "IARC CLASSIFIES RADIOFREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AS POSSIBLY CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS"
