“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?
More junk science from another POLITICAL organization looking for sensational headlines.
(We witnessed equine hoof prints in the mud therefore we must assume that the existence of unicorns *could* be possible.)
Isn’t this rather old news? More than ten years ago this was being said.
It won’t be long before they link cell phone usage to global warming.
I mean, the rise in usage and temperatures can’t just be a coincidence….
Apparently some people here haven’t read any of these studies but are challenging this report and others based only on their own views. This is the ugliest form of ignorance – refusal to look at all data points.
Simply put, there are some specific cancer occurrences spiking in certain populations of people for which there are no clear explanations. Cell phone use seems to be one correlated variable. Naysayers, don’t get all huffy and defensive when an organization notes this fact and decides it requires some more study.
Time will tell if biological effects of cell phone use are significant, and why. But let’s learn instead of ignoring the possibility.
Seems that all slow-acting diseases are treated with popular mob ignorance. The cancerous effects of tobacco were also questioned for 300 years by ardent smokers — until the healthcare systems and average lifespans improved enough so that health damage and death rates directly due to tobacco use became compeltely undeniable. …and still the corrupt US Department of Agriculture subsidizes tobacco crops and multinational corporations sell their cancer sticks to kids, increasing direct healthcare and insurance costs to you and me. Such willful ignorance (i.e., good old-fashioned “freedom to be stupid”) just can’t be blotted out of society – especially not when there’s an almighty dollar to be earned.