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Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves
luciensims writes "The Independent is running an article on another study of the long-term effects of mobile phones. Given how widespread mobile phone use has become, will we even have an adequate control group 50 years from now to gauge what the effects have been?"
the Amish come to mind, they don't seem to make much use of cell phones.
I don't own a cell phone, but with all the microwaves floating around major metro areas I wonder if even those of us who shun this technology will be affected.
- It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Stupid Monkey!!
Given how widespread mobile phone use has become, will we even have an adequate control group 50 years from now to gauge what the effects have been?"
No, of course not. Cities (everywhere) are full of mobile phones. The country (everywhere) is not. However, people living in the city get much different carcinogens than those living in the country, so people in the country aren't a good control group. Any place where people are packed but there aren't mobile phones is likely to be very poor, and thus, different living conditions. So no control group.
Everything seemed to be going so nice
'till the end of all beings punched right through the ice
not that i don't believe there were no ill effects, but how would you tell if a pig is senile? they forget eachothers names or something?
Sad that I never thought about that...
I have at least 7 access points within detection distance of my room, which now makes me wonder how many waves pass through me from those alone...not to mention the rest of the world.
Jeremy Baumgartner
Given how widespread mobile phone use has become, will we even have an adequate control group 50 years from now to gauge what the effects have been?
You're kidding right? Isn't it true that 20% of people (1 billion) on this planet don't even have access to clean water, never mind mobile phones. And how long have we had clean water? More that 50 years.
Don't panic. Your control group will be here.
Many, if not all, Third World countries are adopting cellular as a cheap alternative to a land-line infrastructure. Countries as "poor" as India, Pakistan and Iraq (to pick three easy examples) have (or had) extensive cellular infrastructures. The one in Iraq even expanded under 12 years of UN sanctions. As such, populations without cellular coverage are likely to get harder and harder to find.
ELITISM: It's always lonely at the top. Uninvited company is rarely welcome.
Now why would Motorola want to advice the Government and others conducting the experiment how to spend their money? hmm... I wonder!
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
"stop wasting money" by looking for health damage.
I don't regard research into health issues as wasted money. I rather waste money and find nothing than know nothing about the possible effects and slowly die ignorant.
And every (decent) research that denies any effect, simple puts to rest any concerns. It would simply say that it is save to use a mobile.
Unwilling to do research might cause unnecessary concern and can give the impression that there is something to hide.
After smoking, drinking, driving, pollution, domestic violence, disease, war, invasion, drought, famine, and falling tree trunks.
Some relativity is perhaps in order. The most extreme effects of the GSM that I've seen are (a) a lowering of concentration while driving, which has surely caused many deaths by now, and (b) the total destruction of the planned social agenda. People simply live ad-hoc these days.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
It's important for studies to be peer reviewed and duplicated. If this is real, other scientists will say its real, and they'll duplicate the results.
(Here's a little pop-quiz to see if you were paying attention in science class. What's wrong with this Princeton project? The answer is that no one else can duplicate their results. Peer review and duplicable results are key, even with studies coming out of big name institutions.)
There have been quite a few studies on the effects of cell phones, and dramatic evidence that they cause problems has not jumped out at anyone.
And people have been using cell phones for a long time. I got my first one about 10 years ago, and they were already common back then.
There's a doctor named Dean Edell who does a radio show, and he wrote a book called "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry." In that book, he spent a lot of time talking about how bad most medical reporting is. He makes a pretty persuasive case.
Almost everything you hear on the radio or see on tv about supplements, studies, etc., is either totally false or based on weak science.
I don't know anything about this particular study, but I do know that a study that doesn't find anything isn't news, while the opposite story -- we're all going to have our brains turn to mush in our middle years! -- is sensational news.
And its news to say that the evil cell industry has used its vast power to suppress studies (that's a big red flag in this story for me). Apparently the cell companies aren't just evil, they're stupid, because if they did that they'd be sued out of existence. But hey, corporations are evil, and they're lust for immediate profits knows no bounds.
This story got hyped mostly through a link on Drudge. I love Drudge, but you have to read him with a critical eye. He says outright that he'll put questionable stuff out there and let the readers decide. And I've heard him wax paranoiac on the dangers of cloning, he's kind of whacked out on some biological and medical stories.
reports no ill effects from use of their products. Leaders in the alcohol and tobacco industries were not available for comment. Film at eleven.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Just check on deaf folks. I don't know many who use cell phones. All this talk about third world countries being a haven for control groups is absurd; their adoption rate for cellular telephony is incredible. What you will find in the deaf community is a lot of users with Blackberries and, more recently, Danger Hiptops. If you start seeing tumors sprouting among deaf folks at the waistband, you with the cell phones better get your heads checked.