“Radiation from cell phones could possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization,” Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET.
“In a report issued [yesterday], the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is an arm of the WHO, said it now lists mobile phone use in the same category as lead, gasoline engine exhaust, and chloroform,” Reardon reports. “Officially, cell phone radiation is listed as a ‘carcinogenic hazard.'”
Reardon reports, “The CTIA, the wireless industry trade association in the U.S., was quick to point out that the WHO’s IARC did not say that cell phones definitely cause cancer. ‘IARC conducts numerous reviews and in the past has given the same score to, for example, pickled vegetables and coffee,’ John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA, said in a statement. ‘This IARC classification does not mean cell phones cause cancer. Under IARC rules, limited evidence from statistical studies can be found even though bias and other data flaws may be the basis for the results.’ The group also emphasized that the IARC’s determination was based on reviewed published studies and was not the result of new scientific research.”
“The new determination from the WHO’s IARC was established at a meeting in France where a team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, considered peer-reviewed studies about the safety of cell phones. The team said that it had found enough evidence to consider exposure to cell phone radiation as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans,'” Reardon reports. “The scientists reiterated what many in the field have said for years, which is that there are not enough long-term studies to decisively say one way or another whether cell phone radiation causes cancer. But there is enough data to show connections between exposure and health risks for consumers to be concerned.”
Much more in the full article here.
For further information, see CNET’s Special Report: Cell phone radiation: Harmless or health risk?
Everything gives you cancer
Life causes death.
Life leads to death.
Inescapable.
I didn’t do it!!
I’ve always said that Android is a cancer to society.
In my conclusive study, 95% of adults who were diagnosed with brain cancer used cell phones.
In other news, 97% of adults use cell phones. Prior to this study, in 1975, 95% of adults who were diagnosed with brain cancer reported using pay phones.
W.H.O. cares…..?
Now there’s an intelligent statement!
Awesome!
Your headline is absolutely wrong and intentionally misleading.
Your first sentence in your article clearly states: “Radiation from cell phones could possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization,” Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET.
And the categories in the WHO are extremely broad. Just because something has been placed in one of these broad catefories does NOT mean that is just as carcinogenic as the worst case item in that category.
i read about this. there is no proof. They base the claim on untestable statistics A cell phone is as likely to cause cancer as it is to cause a fire at a gas station. We are talking about milliwatts of microwave energy, which is swarming around us on a daily bases, let along from a cell phone. We have been using microwave energy since the 50s and even earlier. In a cell phone, the most it will ever do is heat your head. Don’t use it that much.
Look at the highest rate cell users, are they reporting a higher rate cancer? No. It kind of gets the same bad rap as Sacrin. It’s technology fear mongering.
There is too, proof: “all cancers are caused by mutant strands of DNA. Electromagnetic radiation can’t create mutant strands of DNA unless the frequency is at or higher than the blue limit of the visible spectrum the near-ultraviolet. The frequency of cell phone radiation is about 1 million times too low.”
-via University of Maryland Physics professor Bob Park.
So there is proof, proof that cell phones cannot cause, and never will cause cancer.
This study is 100% pure horse #$#$(*. The WHO has officially turned into the World Weekly News.
Next time you have a broken arm, please go to a physics professor to have it set.
You are absolutely right, the trouble is that quantum physics is not really understood by most people. Maybe MDN should post an article that explains all that in layman’s terms.
This is nonsense. Cancers can be caused by mutations, BUT they may also be caused by epigenetic mechanisms, which do not involve mutations. Do your homework – what you wrote is wrong, misleading, and by now there are massive textbooks about cancer that is caused by mechanisms other than mutagenesis.
Radiation follows the inverse square and most people hold cell phones right next to their heads. The output doesn’t travel far and what is important is the absorbed dose-not the output.
Studies have already shown a significant relationship between long time heavy cell users and acoustic neuromas (benign tumors) that match the side of the subject’s dominant hand.
The cell phone industry has been pulling a Tobacco Institute on this issue for a long time. Be safe and use the speakerphone or earbuds as much as possible.
Under their classification system, “carcinogenic hazard” basically just means that it’s a possible carcinogen, there is some evidence to suggest it, but the evidence is not strong or conclusive at this point.
We can expect many years of studies and counter-studies before there is any consensus. That’s just the way science is. 50 years ago we didn’t know how harmful tobacco was, but there were early, non-conclusive signs, and it took a lot of study before the cause and effect was established.
WHO isn’t overreacting, but the media and the internet echo-chamber sure are.
Ur a moron, W.H. O. scientists are stoopid, like, so their
You are absolutely right, Bubbles. ‘Nice to see a voice of reason from time to time.
Actually, 50 years ago, there was strong evidence that cigarette smoking greatly increases the risk of lung and other cancers. The Surgeon General report came out in 1964 based on a large data set going back to the early 50’s.
Rubbish science. The French don’t know what rape is, and now they seem to have forgotten about science.
Why are you blaming the French? The only connection to France is that the meeting of scientists was held there. Would you blame Americans if the meeting had been held there?
I was obviously joking.
This is a very inappropriate, gross, and malicious comment. Does not have place in a civilized society. The topic is a different one…
I’d still rather have brain cancer from an iPhone than an Android phone.
You’re a complete f-in idiot. Wait until you see someone who is dieing of cancer who you care about. It’s not a joke.
Geez, MDN for someone who always has a conniption if someone misplaces a capital letter in the name of any of Apple’s products, you’d think you’d be a bit more careful with “WHO”…Never heard of W.H.O., is that like U.N.C.L.E. (gawd, I’m old)?
Yes, Mark. You are old!
That’s OK, ottawamark. Most people only hear of the W.H.O. when they decide to release a new dire warning about some not-so-new mass disease/world health epidemic that never seems to arrive. Other than that, they really don’t do much (kinda like the rest of the United Nations).
You’re missing my point…It’s “WHO” not “W.H.O.” MDN always discredits anybody who makes the smallest error in an Apple product name.
Cell Phones use non-ionizing radiation that is too weak to break chemical bonds or affect DNA. So says the morning paper. They went on to say that if cell phone radiation is causing cancer no one has any idea how.
Note also that it has been classified as a “possible carcinogen”. Not for sure.
If I recall correctly, the only “evidence” really was lab rats which were exposed to something like 100 or 1000 times the radiation from a cell phone for some hugely extended time period, like 4 days straight, and it slightly increased their risk of getting brain cancer. And it had to be kept right next to their ear for that time period.
I guess that means that only teenagers are at risk. 🙂
But not the texting ones. 😉
lab rats do text a lot more than they actually talk.
Is anyone surprised?
I won’t be surprised if 15-30 years we have conclusive evidence, but that isn’t going to stop me from using my phone.
this i flat-out FUD.
we live in a world awash in all kinds of ionizing radiation these days, not just cell phones. if it really caused cancer, there would be significant evidence of that by now – and there just is not. not high voltage power lines, not microwaves, nothing.
the Euros are suckers for this paranoia.
let’s deal with real shit, like global warming.
“Researchers” and “Scientists” have been peddling this crap for years. Any of you old farts remember Macworld magazine back in 1985-ish – when it used to be nearly 300 pages? They ran a series of articles back then discounting EMF from power lines and the correlation with some cancers. EMF was the threat du jour, so the cell phone bugaboo is just a continuation of this silly Luddite pap.
Aren’t the Israelis among the heaviest per-capita users of cellphones in the world? If not them, then there is a population that theoretically be over-the-top brain cancer ridden.
Bunch o’ malarkey, nonetheless.
And I believe you had to hold the phone to your ear for there to be any possible exposure issue anyway. So just use the Bluetooth connection in your BMW like I do and you’re good to go!
This just in:
BMW’s prevent brain cancer.
(Stop using my BMW!)
The ‘cellphone radiation’ story is media darling, unlike all others that WHO reports almost on daily basis.
This report is very similar to dozen others on different matters, that just concludes that there may be some evidence and further proper study is needed.
Surely enough, press will take this and immediately turn it into “Cellphones cause brain cancer!”, most of them knowing how untrue that is, but happy enough that there is a remote connection between the attention-grabbing headline and the actual report.
This is really, really a non-event that will be turned into a global moment.
“Media darling” is being gracious. I would have termed it “tired old canard”…
From 2001:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2001-02-06-phone.htm
Ask Joe Jackson (iTMS) “Everything Gives You Cancer”- good song.
Screw all this healthy BS- you are going to die.The death rate for humans is 100%. Do youreally wantto live on tofu & filtered water only to be 90 in a diaper in a nursing home drooling on yourself?
Light up a stogie, grab a cold one, lay out in the sunshine and talk on your phone. Otherwise, have a life.
Actually cancer can start to appear in the 30s and 40s, and earlier is not unknown. Many people want to live past their 50s, 60s, even 70s … and so minimizing cancer is a reasonable concern. If you want to burn out in your 20s, go for it. My mom is in her 70s and happy and active, and her mom is still alive. I would feel terrible if she got cancer from a cell phone or anything else.
As far as your “tofu and water” gibe, protective lifestyle choices are a teensy price to pay for a long and fulfilling life. I like tofu, and would eat it even if it wasn’t a healthy substitute for less healthy options. I filter my own water because the water out of the tap tastes terrible. I eat lots of fruits, veggies, nuts, grains. And it all tastes great … in fact, what I eat at home is often more satisfying than the greasy junk served in restaurants.
I think you’ll find it’s the careless ones who will end up in a diaper, drooling, and sad … while the “health nuts” are still running, swimming, playing, biking, and enjoying good relationships in their retirement years.
It is doubtful I will stop using a cell phone any time soon. But crying out against a WHO report because it is ever so slightly against your favorite toy? With further studies and research, it may be possible to invent a cell phone that has zero cancer risk, or maybe even reduces cancer (dreaming). But not if people rebel against research like a lot of people here seem to be doing.
I was kind of being sarcastic. I work in medicine and have for 25 years. I’ve seen people who had good genes (risk wise) and lead healthy lifestyles end up in the home and have also seen 80 year olds who smoke a pack/day of unfiltered Cigs that could whip both of our as*es.
Not the norm, but more common than you might believe.
What I was getting at is that we all assume a certain amount of risk and are forced into accepting a certain amount of risk in our lives and one cannot avoid it.
Diesel exhaust is way more carcinogenic than mainstream cigarette smoke, yet I do not see laws banning Diesel trucks, trains, generators, tractors and buses from our environment. Many schools back right up against major highways- many times near highly congested areas prone to traffic jams and huge concentrations of Diesel exhaust.
There is no such thing as a safe sunlamp, yet “health minded’ people lay in them in order to get the elusive bronzed tan.
Iphonez definitely cause dental problems. I’ve heard about this Blue Tooth thing … WHO should investigate immediately!
Not only do I think this is bunk,
the fetus sticking out behind my ear concurred….
Curious … I fall asleep with my iphone next to me often listening to audiobooks … wonder if airplane mode would reduce this issue if it even is an issue. Thoughts?
“Look at the highest rate cell users, are they reporting a higher rate cancer? No.”
Actually, the answer to that question is, “Yes”.
“there would be significant evidence of that by now – and there just is not.”
There is FAR more evidence than there was at the time when the government made the then very courageous move to require cancer warnings on cigarette packets.
“The frequency of cell phone radiation is about 1 million times too low.” – Maryland Physics professor Bob Park.
Nonsense reasoning. Cell phone HAVE been shown to have negative effects. But even much more diffuse electromagnetic fields have health consequences. The Swedish studied their whole population of under-16s, I think it was. That long term study showed increased cancer rates in those living within 1000 feet of high-tension power lines.
The CTIA, the cell industry body, has zero credibility in this. They hired what they thought was a industry-pet scientist – someone who had been involved with industry favorable research on second hand smoke and breast implants.
George Carlo, PhD. M.S. J.D. was made head (for 6 years) of the cell industry research/PR project on this topic. He had 50 scientists under him, running research in twelve different labs, handling tens of millions of dollars. In the end, he did NOT produce the findings they wanted…
“They cannot guarantee that cell phones are safe. We’ve moved into an area where we now have some direct evidence of harm from cellular phones. The industry said that there were thousands of studies that proved that wireless phones are safe and the fact was there were NO studies that were directly relevant. They have shown total disregard for mobile phone users.”
Just a couple of others…
The Lancet Nov. 25, 2000 (probably the single most prestigious and respected medical journal)
“There is a growing body of scientific research linking microwave radiation to conditions ranging from sleep disorders, memory loss and suppression of immune response to leukemia and other forms of cancer.”
Guy, 1985
Rats exposed to pulsed microwaves, in ranges that simulated the levels allowed by current standards for humans, had increased incidence of adrenal medulla tumors, malignant endocrine and endocrine tumors, and increases in carcinomas and sarcomas.
Michael Repaacholi, 1997
“…significant increase in B-cell lymphomas in mice exposed to long-term low-level frequencies in the cellular, PCS range”
And to finish — here is a beaut — The cell phone industry is exempt from environmental protection laws that govern all other industries, even the incredibly powerful oil lobby. When combating the location of a cell tower, e.g. on a school’s clock tower, you can do so only on the basis of esthetics. It is AGAINST THE LAW to bring health issues up. Now – why would the cell industry have even lobbied to get that sickening exemption if bringing up such matters were immaterial?
The Precautionary Principle would state that concerned people such as myself don’t have to prove something is unsafe — the cell industry should have to prove it’s safe — ESPECIALLY with the massive amount of evidence of harm.
Want to really puke? The technology exists to make the cellular system enormously safer – it just hasn’t been deployed. (Can you say “dollars”? I knew you could.)
So you must not use a cell phone or an electromagnetic field inducing computer or TV.
So what device did you use to safely submit your post?
If you actually mean that, it’s an infantile response. By that reasoning, I’m not allowed to speak against chemical additives in food unless I’m 100% organic, natural, unprocessed.
Make an actual point, if you can — and back it up with some data and logic.
http://www.bobpark.org/
“CELL PHONES: SANJAY GUPTA USES A WIRED EARPIECE.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, MD, the Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, uses a wired earpiece to avoid radiating his brain with microwaves. I don’t even use a cell phone, so am I safer than Sanjay Gupta? No not unless Sanjay keeps his cell phone in his pants pocket when he uses the earpiece. Our gonads dangle in that silly scrotum to keep them slightly below body temperature, but they do seem dangerously exposed. Microwaves from the cell phone might raise their temperature a bit. The most that could happen would be an infinitesimal decrease in the fertility rate. At least that’s in the right direction. Sanjay Gupta is a good writer, and he’s probably a good doctor. I listen to him whenever I can. My mother would have said, “He’s a REAL doctor,” as opposed to the PhD scientist kind. Trust me Mom, an M.D. is not a scientist.
MORE CELL PHONES: WHAT THE MEDIA DIDN’T TELL YOU.
Here’s the conversation I have several times a day with total strangers: Caller: do you use a wired earphone? BP: No. Caller: would it be too much trouble? BP: No. Caller: Wouldn’t you be safer? BP: No. Caller: How do you know? BP: Quantum physics; all cancers are caused by mutant strands of DNA. Electromagnetic radiation can’t create mutant strands of DNA unless the frequency is at or higher than the blue limit of the visible spectrum- the near-ultraviolet. The frequency of cell phone radiation is about 1 million times too low. Caller: Wow! When did this news break? BP: Albert Einstein let it out in 1905. Robert Millikan, considered to be the world’s top physics experimentalist, spent a decade constructing an experiment to test it. It confirmed Einstein’s theory perfectly. Caller: I’m shocked! Are you sure this is right? BP: Virtually the entire modern world rests on it. Caller: Why am I just hearing about this? BP: Because Sanjay didn’t tell you. We all depend on the news media to keep us informed, and the news media all over the world let us down on this one. And we scientists should have been screaming louder. ”
And now the WHO caves to pseudo-science and woo-woo imagination.
“Researchers” and “Scientists” have been peddling this crap for years.
This bombastic right-wing crap is thrown up against every point that might interfere with the status quo. I’m sure you, or someone exactly like you, said precisely the same thing around
– pesticides in food
– lead in gasoline causing neurological damage
– cigarettes causing cancer
– artificial coloring of food (oopsie, we just discovered red dye #_ causes cancer. oopsie again, so does yellow dye #_, and umm this one, and this one……)
This happens with EVERY health issue: You say,
– you complainers have to prove it’s unsafe
– there’s no evidence
– it’s a plot by commie scientists
If not yourselves, are those of you who spout this knee-jerk drivel enough over 14 years old to consider your children – or possible future children? There are SO many examples of poisonous and dangerous products – and more being discovered all the time. CAUTION should be the default operating framework, not “Let the big bosses do whatever they want, and we’ll sweep up the bodies afterwards.”