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NYC Subway Cell Service, No Cell-Related Cancer

Luke PiWalker wrote to mention a CNN article discussing a bid process for offering cell phone service to NYC subway stations. The contract is only to wire up stations; moving trains will not have service. Those New Yorkers will also be safe from their phones, as the BBC reports on a study indicating cell phones don't cause cancer. From that article, submitted to us by Dan Hope: "She acknowledged that there appeared to be an increased risk among brain cancer sufferers on the side of the head where they held the phone. The team, however, did not put this down to a causal link, because almost exactly the same decreased risk was seen on the other side of the head, leaving no overall increase risk of tumours for mobile phone users. Instead, they blamed biased reporting from brain tumour sufferers who knew what side of the head their tumours were on."

34 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. How hard would it be? by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm curious to hear from someone who knows--how difficult would it be (in terms of what kind of technology would it require, and relatively how expensive compared to stantionary-wiring would it be) to have service in the trains, too?

    1. Re:How hard would it be? by Alex+P+Keaton+in+da · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Metro in DC has cell service in Trains. I am not sure how they do it, but that would be a good place to research to see how it is done.

      --
      And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
    2. Re:How hard would it be? by TubeSteak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They'd have to setup mini-cell towers at intervals along almost the entire length of the system. It would be prohibitively expensive to try and shoehorn this is after the fact.

      Like many things, it's invariably cheaper and easier to implement 'features' while you're building/developing something than after the fact.

      IMHO, this is not a bad idea to limit this to the platform. Subway trains are kind of like being in an airplane or a full elevator. You want everyone to mind their own business and stay out of your (limited) private space.

      Imagine having to deal with some obnoxious New Yorker who won't STFU and threatens to knife you when you tell him to. Or maybe drug dealers and criminals will start taking their business into the subways, since they can be in constant phone contact with the outside world while staying mobile.

      This might enable the next terrorist attack though. You don't need a suicide bomber if you can use a cell phone to detonate a bomb on the subway platform during the morning rush.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:How hard would it be? by Biomechanical · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, servicing a subway train would not require antenna's all along the tunnels.

      You put a cell-receiver in the train, and run communication signals from the train through radio signals out the tracks, the same as you can control model trains on a DCC setup railway, or do IP over powerlines.

      --
      His name is Robert Paulsen...
  2. The Other Way Around? by Bimo_Dude · · Score: 4, Funny
    Maybe the reaearchers have this whole brain tumor thing backwards.

    Instead of:
    "Cell phones cause brain tumors," they could look into "Brain tumors cause cell phones."

    Maybe people who already have a tumor in the side of their head are naturally attracted to using that side to hold their phone.

    --
    "Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
    1. Re:The Other Way Around? by Ninjy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hey, if I read the article correctly, keeping your phone on the side you don't have a tumor yet will remove the tumor you have on the other side and will thus restore balance again.

      Next headline: Cell phones cure brain tumor!

  3. RE Cells by Alex+P+Keaton+in+da · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I still would rather have my cell to my ear, than sitting in my lap while I am using a headset, for obvious male reasons.
    The Metro in DC has had Cell service for quite sometime. As much as the NYC subway is nice because it is free from Cell yell, I can'y imagine not being able to use my wireless services while commuting.

    --
    And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
    1. Re:RE Cells by TheLink · · Score: 2, Funny

      "i mean, look, i'm as attached to my genitals as anyone"

      Most people do prefer to be totally attached to their genitals. Not just slightly attached.

      Also, prioritizing genitals over brains appears to have worked fine for most species in the world. Genitals have a better track record for keeping a species around than brains.

      --
  4. Above ground by friedo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's worth noting that a good 40% or so of what we call The Subway is actually above ground, on elevated and surface lines, and you can blab on your cell all you want while riding.

    1. Re:Above ground by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Informative
      Yeah but most idiots that move to New York from out-of-town think that Manhattan is the only borough of New York and they are afraid to go to Brooklyn or Queens or The Bronx for fear of getting lost.

      Most life-long Manhattan dwellers think the same way.

    2. Re:Above ground by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 2, Informative

      True, but the 40% of the NYC subway system which is above-ground also tends to be in more outlying areas of the system, and therefore less-traveled and sometimes less-populated areas.

      A train's time spent above ground may also be quite brief, as is the case on the F line in Brooklyn, where it runs underground to Carroll Street, goes elevated for only 2 stations in order to pass over the Gowanus Canal, and then returns underground for several more stations. A short "hi, I'm on my way" call might be possible during the period spend aboveground, but a longer conversation usually is not.

  5. moving trains will not have service by denisbergeron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, It's a good beginning, but in downtown Montreal we have cell services even in the Métro (subway) train !

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  6. While I don't relish... by PornMaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While I don't relish the thought of hearing people chattering away on their phones while waiting for a train, the idea of being able to reach people I'm trying to meet up with sounds good. Especially when going outside to get service means being out in the rain.

  7. Choose your hemisphere wisely by ExRex · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, now that you can choose which side of your brain is more likely to get a tumor, decide which hemisphere you need more and use the other ear for your cellphone.
    Logical. Artistic. Logical? Artistic? Logical! Artistic!
    Choices, choices.

    --
    The closer you are to the code, the happier you are. - Ancient Geek Proverb
  8. Good news. by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Funny
    She acknowledged that there appeared to be an increased risk among brain cancer sufferers on the side of the head where they held the phone...Instead, they blamed biased reporting from brain tumour sufferers who knew what side of the head their tumours were on.

    I hold my phone on the outside of my head. Does that mean I have a reduced risk of getting brain cancer inside of my head? This is good news for people who use my cellphone usage technique.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  9. Studies. What do they know? by Kohath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why should we listen to studies? Shouldn't we believe that cell phones cause cancer if that belief meets our emotional needs?

    After all, all studies are funded by someone. So we can decide they're biased based on what we wish their conclusions were. And then we can continue to believe what we want.

    C'mon. Everyone's doing it.

  10. If it isn't the cellphone that kills, its the AIR by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to Swedish scientists, people should be more worried about the subway air they breathe, than their cell phone use.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  11. Re:cooking the numbers by lisaparratt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    C. Cell phones don't cause cancer.

  12. Foil underwear by jimbolauski · · Score: 2, Funny

    Foil underwear would stop any conserns about nut cancer and as an adder bounou the goverment mind controll devices for males would be disabled.

    --
    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  13. Leaky Coax by RingDev · · Score: 4, Informative

    Leaky Coax would likely be a cheap way to handle it. You would still need "towers" at regular intervals, but then you run a copper line along the train line for each antena. This is a pretty common trick in large buildings. You let the carrier install antenas on your roof line and drop leaky coax off one of them so that the signal inside the building is just as strong as the signal outside. The expencive part would be getting the pipe to support the volume. I road the DC blue line a few times during rush hour, there are ALOT of people in a very small area. Running that many people on one antena might not work so well, expecially when they are all getting handed off every 45 seconds. You might need some type of redundant line of antenas to handle the call volume, hand offs, and load balancing. And then likely a fiber line to carry the data from the antenas back to the junction. -Rick -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  14. Buenos Aires has coverage on all the network by elfarto · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Buenos Aires had coverage in the whole subway (it's called "Subte" over here) network for the last 5 years, they have upgraded to GSM last year, the cell equipment underground is provided by Nokia.

  15. read about it here (pdf) by digitaldc · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can read how they wire tunnels for cell phones here:
    PDF file warning!
    http://www.adc.com/Library/Literature/100557.pdf?r efer=promotion&c=digivance

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  16. Re:Cell Phone Triggered Bombs by maxwell+demon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since a good number of bombs are triggered by clocks, maybe we should forbid private clocks.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  17. Re:Increase terrorism this way? by DavidTC · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The whole point in using a cell is as a remote detonator.

    If you can see the subway from far enough away to not be caught in the blast, and hence it's outside and the cell works, or you can't see it, and hence don't know when to detonate it, or you are willing to be caught in the blast, and hence don't need a cell at all.

    Do people not sit down and think this stuff through? The use of cell phones it to hide explosives and blow up certain people when they go by. They're using it as a radio.

    Now, how the heck does that translate to subway cars underground? If someone wants to blow up the subway, they'll just put an explosive with a timer on it and get off. Considering how regular subways are, you should be able to time it to go off as the car is sitting at the next station if you pushed the button and leapt out right before the doors close at the previous station.

    And considering they're using it as a radio to keep security forces from jamming it and because it's cheap to get one without being suspicious, how would that apply to using them over real radios on subways? Subways do not scan nerviously for radio signals, and any idiot can buy a radio at Radio Shake.

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
  18. maybe it's not the cell phones? by ZWarrior · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe the problem isn't that the phone cause the tumors, but rather your hand preference. Think about it. Most people will, a majority of the time, use their dominant hand to hold the cell phone when talking on it. So of course the tumor that supposedly is caused by the phone is also going to match up to their dominant had as well. So maybe this is about your dominant hand being the deciding factor in the location NOT the phone!

    What percent of persons using a cell phone have developed a tumor in the first place? I think that with the massive use of cell phones in our culture, and the lower numbers of tumors in the same population, we are going to find that there is probably not a real strong correlation.

    --
    Here I come to save the da... *thud*
    I gotta get me a shorter cape.
  19. The Truth cannot save you now by ajs318 · · Score: 2
    I don't think it would make a blind bit of difference if they announced, tomorrow, that there was absolutely no causal link between phones and ill health, and described an experiment that could be carried out using commonly-available materials to demonstrate this, people would still believe that there was a link. Why? Because people seem to prefer the idea that things are bad for them.

    We're better fed now than we've ever been -- but there are still people with eating disorders, and there isn't a single foodstuff that is agreed by all experts as safe to eat. Crime is at the lowest level it's ever been at for years -- but the Authorities are stoking up the fear of crime as an excuse to invade our civil liberties. I'm reminded of a lyric from a song by Del Amitri:
    And I won't pretend that I'm the saviour of the innocent and bad,
    But put two withered old blooms in a couple of rooms
    And they'll behave like lunatics and crave what makes them sad
    It seems that Doom and Gloom just make for better news than boring nice stuff. Nobody is interested in fluffy kittens unless they're being brutally hacked to pieces, or trees and flowers unless they're deadly poisonous. And never mind about all the lives that have been saved just because someone had their mobile with them .....
    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    1. Re:The Truth cannot save you now by swilver · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think people learned from the tabacco industry not to believe everything the corporate world says.

  20. Re:Oh hell. by afabbro · · Score: 4, Funny
    When they get obnoxious, I just participate in their conversation.

    Obnoxious Cell Phone User: "Dude did you hear about Heather and Mack?"

    Me, over his shoulder: "Is Mack banging Heather?"

    OCPU: "Excuse me?"

    Me: "Oh, sorry, your voice was so loud I thought you were talking to me."

    OCPU: "...so, anyway, Heather and Mack...(talks a while and then he gets loud again)...yeah, man, they were in the hot tub for two hours."

    Me: "I hear that Mack's member was shriveled up like a prune from the hot water."

    OCPU: "Dude, I'm not talking to you!"

    Me: "Then stop shouting how Mack is sodomizing Heather in the jacuzzi."

    --
    Advice: on VPS providers
  21. Re:Increase terrorism this way? by vadim_t · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Crawl back into the hole you came from, moron.

    I live in Madrid, and used the same line where the train blew up to go to class every day. One of my friends was even there when it blew up, but fortunately wasn't hurt.

    However, I happen to be sane enough to realize that this nonsense leads nowhere. You can't have perfect security unless you decide to move into a bunker and never come out, but that's not a very nice way to live. I like living in a country without armed guards standing everywhere and draconian security.

    The Madrid mess wouldn't have happened if our ex-president (Aznar) wasn't such a moron and decided to kiss Bush's arse against the wishes of 90% of the population! Fortunately he was promptly kicked out after that incident. Now if only America could do the same, the world would be a much nicer place.

  22. Re:non-users adds bias by Dun+Malg · · Score: 3, Interesting
    What you have left is simple: does the cancer happen on one side more than the other? Well, yes it does. That's enough to say that cell phones are almost certainly affecting the cancer.

    But you are missing the entire point of the study. They found that there was a corresponding drop in cancer on the side of the head where the cancer wasn't, in comparison to a control group of one-side cancers who don't use cell phones. In other words, cell phones aren't causing elevated levels of one-side brain cancer, cell phone users with one-side brain cancer are (intentionally or unintentionally) erroneously claiming the cancer side is the side where they used their cell phone most.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  23. I Don't Care by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want to use my cell phone on the subway. I don't care if a terrorist might use it to blow me up. I don't see that terrorism is a significant threat to my person.

    However, terrorism will become a threat to my way of life if the fear of it prevents me from using my cell phone on the subway.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  24. Re:WTF? by d-e-w · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, the problem is that it proves nothing except a possible reporting bias.

    Someone with a brain tumor knows it's on the left side of his head. When asked which side he holds his cell phone on, he reports that he holds it on the left side of his head.

    For those that report that they hold the cell phone on the left side of their head--if cell phones caused an increased risk of brain tumors--you would see an increased risk of left-side tumors and a STANDARD risk of right-side tumors. But what the study actually found was that there was an "increased" risk of left-side tumors and a "decreased" risk of right-side tumors with left-side cell phone holders.

    What that indicates is that the reporting of which side of their head they have historically held the cell phone on may have become biased due to them knowing that there's a tumor in the left side of their head. They might have been right-side holders, but "recall" that they were left-side holders because, of course, everybody knows that holding the cell phone on one side of the head causes brain tumors. It's an indication of a possible self-reporting bias, rather than an actual connection.

    So, basically, what the study said was that people with left-side tumors reported that they held the cell phone on the left side, while people with right-side tumors reported that they held the cell phone on the right side, WHETHER OR NOT it was reality. The decreased risk of other-side tumors indicates that it may not be reality--that the public assocation between brain tumors and cell phones causes a person to report that they held the cell phone on the side of their head with the tumor even if they did not.

  25. Powerwatch is a company, not a nonprofit. by Nephroth · · Score: 4, Informative
    If you have a look at the powerwatch website, you'll notice two sections that are rather interesting: catalog and price list.

    They sell worthless junk along the same lines as aluminum foil hats, and magic-crystal healing devices. They aren't protecting people from EMF, they are getting rich of scaring people into believing that it's going to destroy them and their families.

    They completely disregard the fact that we have been, and continue to be bombarded by radiation from natural sources such as the sun, celestial events, and the Earth's magnetic core. Making our homes into faraday cages just means that we won't be bombarded by EMF in our houses, but wait! Every single electronic device emits some amount of EMF, from your toaster, to your microwave, to your vibrator, it's all going to emit some amount of EMF and you really can't escape it without becoming a Luddite and living in a sealed hovel in some remote location.

    It's also important to note that there are different kinds of radiation, at its purest definition, it's the transmission of energy via waves. In that case, sound is radiation, ripples in water, also radiation. What most people confuse, however, is electromagnetic radiation versus particle radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is the oscillation of magnetic fields, particle radiation is caused by nuclear decay and the two are quite different. Electrons moving around is a lot less invasive than a red hot proton ripping through the nuclei of your cells which leads us to how cancer is caused by radiation. Particle radiation, caused by nuclear decay, shoots off ions at high velocities which actually shoot through your body and kill cells. Sometimes, in the process of doing this, they will damage the nucleus of a cell but not so much that the cell dies, just enough to mangle its DNA. This can cause faulty reproduction of this cell which can, in turn, cause tumors, or even cancerous growths. This kind of radiation is fundamentally different from the kind of radiation that makes your microwave and even oven (yes, heat is radiation!) work.

    It's this lexical confusion that throws a lot of people off, yes it's radiation, no it's not dangerous unless at very high energy levels. And even then, it just cooks you like so much hot dogs. You don't grow tumors, you don't get cancer, you don't turn into a hideous fly-man, you just pop like a big water-ballon.

    --
    Our greatest enemy is neither a single man, nor is it a nation, it is, as it has always been, our own greed.
  26. Re:*mutters* by electronym · · Score: 2, Informative

    Huh? I think you're remembering this wrong. There's no tunnel or train involved in this scene; he's placing the calls from the motel room. "Hello, operator? Oh that's right, you have punch in the numbers nowadays.... Eight-six-seven-five-three-oh-nine... wait, that's not right. Damn you Tommy Tutone!"