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Pittsburgh Cancer Center Warns of Cell Phone Risks
RevWaldo contributes a link to an AP story carried by Google, according to which "The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer. The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." RevWaldo continues: "One possible solution offered? 'Use a wireless headset.' No risk of EM exposure from one of them, no sirree!"
Sure, cell phone use might give you cancer, but on the bright side there are hundreds of other compounds just in the air in Pittsburgh that will give you cancer much quicker, so there's really no need for concern.
Use a wireless headset and keep the phone in your front pocket. The poor mans vasectomy.
I carry around my landline and have a huge roll of wire. It's worked for me so #$FDaf#$# NO CARRIER
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a cell phone transmitter (having to reach from the phone to the tower) is on the order of one watt, while your Bluetooth headset (having to reach only a few feet) is on the order of one milliwatt.
Which would you rather have up to your head?
Don't just shut up and drive. Just shut up. And while you're at it - get off my lawn.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Does he have ANY justification, other than "there *might* be a risk"?
So, if I tell him the sun MIGHT not come up tomorrow, will he not bother going to work? After all, I can't prove that the sun isn't coming up tomorrow - there's always some chance it won't.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
And what a doozy... nothing says... WAIT, STOP, CANCER RISK!
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A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine studies -- including some Herberman cites -- with thousands of brain tumor patients and concludes "we found no overall increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies."
Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the same thing.
"If there is a risk from these products -- and at this point we do not know that there is -- it is probably very small," the Food and Drug Administration says on an agency Web site.
Still, Herberman cites a "growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer."
"Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use," he wrote in his memo.
A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university's center for environmental oncology.
"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
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Here's the quote I love:
"I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
Whooo, brill!
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
The fact that he's an expert on this subject does not mean he is always right about this subject.
The tips include warnings not to use your phone on a bus, so as not to passively expose others. I'll take that as text book FUD. In the video footage that accompanies the news piece here, when asked why there's a lack of evidence to support such advice the answer is that "you [don't] want to have enough sick or dead people, before you take action, to prevent harm...". Apparently, there's not enough data about cell phones leading to death simply because we don't want people to die. The current evidence infers that we should have minimal concerns for this issue. Does that make this public health warning unethical, or just proactively cautious? A brief review of the clinical research is here. I personally think this is worth losing his position over. In my view panic-inducing pseudo-concern ends up with a backlash against science. We should trust our MDs to advise us for our health, and this is not currently a health issue. If the research changes that in a decade, we can talk about it then.
Getting diabetes AND salmonella would be a bad weekend.
Correct, and the 2.5 mW devices(class 2) have a range of about 10 meters. I believe this includes the common bluetooth headset.
OK, this is about the thousandth bogus report on this. Based on the dramatic increase in cellular use, and long term it has been used over, there is NO STATISTICAL CORRELEATION to cell phone use and cancer. Not by individual use studies, not by geographiucal correleation of users to cancer outbreaks, nothing.
Brain tumors numbers are up mostly because WE'RE ACTUALLY MORE CAPABLE OF FINDING THEM vs 30 years ago...
No mathematical model has yet been proposed to show any correlation between radio waves from publically accessible technology (obviously excluding X-rays here...) of ANY KIND, including exposure to microwave ovens, high power transmitters, TV, and more. The only thing we're somewhat sure of is that close proximity to extremely high voltage lines "could" be hazardous, but even there they're not 100% sure...
In fact, though cancer detection rates seem to be up, again, mostly due to our ability to better detect it, and due to an increased population of elderly and longer life spans, on the whole, it's believed we've actually reduced the likelyhood of cancer across the board aven with our increase in exposure to these waves.
Cancer is a DNA level response. They have not shown that DNA even respons to these frequncies of emission that I have heard. Does this guy know otherwise, and can he prove it? (cuz others have disproved it)
Granted, I'd be happier if the cell phone use culture was adjusted dramatically, especially use while driving and while in quiet environments, but crap science like this just pisses me off. I'm also sick and tired of the pharmacitical and medical industry in general, proposing medicines that cost more, and have worse side effects than current medice we have today, spending billionjs in marketing to people who have no medical knowledge or rational decision making ability, and billions "buying" doctors to prescribe the crap.
If the cure for a headache makes my nose bleed, my vision blurry, prevents me from driving a car, causes stomach ulcers, and could cause my kidneys to fail or heart to stop, i'll deal with the headache!
Also, even if it has a 1:10,000 chance of causing me cancer, I've got a 1:100 chance of being killed in my car, should I stop driving now too?
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
Bluetooth RF emissions are way way way lower than cell phones. Give it some thought. Bluetooth has an operating range of about 30-50 feet or so. Cell phones can reach cell towers that are miles away.
While you aren't wrong, you have to recognize that this sentence works just as well if you replace "cell phone" with "breakfast cereal" or "gym sock".
Before you talk about a cover up, you need to find a piece of evidence that shows there is actually a risk in the first place. The tobacco companies fought against mounds of data showing that cigarettes are dangerous, but in this case there is no mound of evidence that is being denied.
If medically and statistically valid studies show an elevated cancer risk of cell phone use, the cell phone companies will certainly lie about it. So what? They aren't the only source of information in the world.
"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
What this really proves is that we need to make sure that crazy people like this woman are not involved in making public policy decisions. You should at least have some indication that something is unsafe, or may be unsafe before you start issuing alarmist advice like this. If we waited until we knew for sure that every god damned little thing was safe before we started using it, we'd still be living in caves!
What's your brother's qualification to determine what "dangerous" levels of RF from a phone are? In particular, what makes him MORE qualified than the FCC, FDA and other government agencies that set maximum transmit power levels for mobile phones?
Regardless of health related issues, second hand smoke is annoying and disgusting if you do not smoke yourself.
Similes are like metaphors
That article in New Scientist was supported by a manufacturer of those little EM blockers a few years ago. We have our own testing equipment and have thoroughly disproved their findings. While some of the EM field couples to the headset, it only does so for the first 0-3cm (depends on location of headset). In our measurements, the EM absorption from a wired headset is 0. The EM absorption from Bluetooth is 1/100th of that from a mobile phone. The only increase in radiation absorption from using a headset occurs when the phone is placed next to the body while using the headset since muscle mass near the phone (heart, leg, etc) absorbs microwave energy at 4 times the rate as your brain does.
RF engineers can only demonstrate how much radiation can be measured at a certain point within your head. We cannot show any medical causality without decades of statistics. All the medical studies that have been published over the past 10 years are largely inconclusive (there is a ratio of 50:50 for "no harm" vs "bad"). In addition, a 2-3 year study cannot effectively be used to predict a 20-30 year trend--especially with microwave energy since the effects are largely due to the intensity of the radiation.
And while some of us may place faith in the FCC, they know very little as well. For example, the FCC regulation specifies that the EM absorption is measured and certified in the brain tissue next to the users' ears. Since the EM absorption is a near field effect (within 1-2 cm), the cell phone manufacturers (including the Apple iPhone) started placing their antennas at the bottom of the handset. So while your brain is now absorbing much less energy, your lymph nodes are getting much more and the manufacturers can pass the FCC certification.....
In the end it is personal choice--do you "feel" safer using a headset. Are you ultra-paranoid--don't use a phone, stand next to a microwave oven, live in a shield box like some people in Northern Scandinavia do (they believe they are allergic to electricity).
Except that our current understanding of biology gives no physical mechanism through which non-ionizing microwave wavelength radiation can damage DNA to cause cancer.
Maybe that understanding will change at some point in the future - biology and genetics have been developing quickly in recent decades, but in the mean time we have no reason to be worried, compared to all the other risks we take in a day.
It's anti-science to go to fear-mongering due to ignorance simply because there's a technology involved. That's not just being cautious, that's being reckless in a non-conventional direction.
Getting diabetes AND salmonella would be a bad weekend.