Swedish Study Finds Cell Phone Cancer Risk

dtjohnson writes "A new Swedish study has found that heavy users of cell phones had a 240 percent increase in brain tumors on the side of their head that the phone was used on. The study defined 'heavy' use as more than 2,000 total hours, or approximately one hour of use per workday for 10 years. An earlier British study was previously discussed here that didn't find an increased risk, although that study covered fewer subjects and only followed one type of brain tumor for a shorter period of time. Or course, the biggest epidemiological study of all is the one we are all participating in whenever we use our cell phone. The results from that study won't be available for a while."

Comments

Re:but it can't be

[pmj]

You sound awfully bitter, did you fail physics in university or something? :)

Re:dangerous use of statistics

[xamomike]

"Has anyone ever been able to give a rat cancer by blasting it with amplified cellphone-type radiation?" can't say I've ever blasted rats with cellphone radiation, but you should see what a microwave does to them!

Re:Assumptions

[Anonymous Coward]

There is another study that says that the handsfree cord simply acts as a parasitic radiataor and offers only marginal protection.

All Balls, no Brains.

[twitter]

"The way to get the risk down is to use hands-free," he told Reuters.

Now we need a study on testicular cancer. They are sensitive, you know. Handedness might not matter as much there, but it can make you blind.

Re:no details, read the article instead

[flynns]

oh god. my poor brain. make the numbers stop.

Re:but it can't be

[Gactaculon]

Exactly! Cell phones are transferring data so fast these days, you get all these bits flying around and smashing into your peptide bonds and shit like goddamn billiard balls... pretty soon you've got 1s and 0s mixed in with your As, Ts, Cs, and Gs and its all a just big fucking mess. Somebody stop the madness!

Feed Your Head

[Doc Ruby]

Those aren't "brain tumors" - not the familiar cancerous growths. They're neural phone links our brains are growing to directly interface the phones. Rather than shielding radiation or moving phones away from our heads, we should be investing in more and faster growths. Because this development is the fastest way to move phones inside the head, where annoying ringtones and semversations don't bother bystanders.

Re:Assumptions

[Khyber]

"Virtually all fires emit some radiation in the UVB band, while the Sun's radiation at this band is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere." That comes from the wikipedia link I posted below to budgenator. It doesn't matter what the hell I burn. Hydrogen flames will emit high levels of UV and low levels of IR, while a coal flame will produce lower levels of UV, and high levels of IR. Either way, I'm still getting exposed to UV radiation. Now read my sig and go someplace else.