cell phones and cancer |
|
One on-going argument is whether cell phones cause brain cancer. The
basis of this concern, it seems, is a study released in 2001 in the
"Lancet". The study, researching diagnosed cases of brain cancer over a
period of 10 years, found that those who used cell phones were two and a
half times as likely to have a brain tumor on the side where they used their
cell phone. The problem with this study is, since they studied people for 10 years, most of the people in the study had been using analog cell phones (which emit MORE radiation than do digital cell phones) - today most networks are digital. Also did they study anything ELSE about the heavy cell phone users? For example were they more likely or less likely to do daily exercise, a factor which can reduce cancer risk by 40 percent? My other questions are - how much could portable house phones add to the problem? Which of those people had had MRIs or body scans (the body scan supposedly provides as much radiation as one would have gotten living close to Nagasaki when they dropped the atom bomb). How many of the people who got brain cancer were drinking diet pop or having yearly mammograms? How many of those diagnosed with brain cancer had had cancer previously or chemotherapy? How many were on prescription medications like those to reduce cholesterol? How many got dental X-rays once a year? There are so many factors which can raise the risk for cancer that just looking at one factor LIKE- the use of a cell phone, may not be relevant! Do the new speaker cell phones reduce the risk? Not really, according to Dr Mercola who limits his cell phone useage to 3 minutes a year - the radiation from the phone goes into the hands, he tells us, which is better than the head but still not safe. (what about hand held computers? How about the CRT we are sitting in front of to read this?). Apparently in a JAMA (from the AMA) which appeared "in the 1920's", doctors are pictured smoking and evidence is presented how healthy smoking is. That article would be laughable in light of today's knowledge about smoking, stated Dr Mercola. I am thinking so would all the articles detailing the dangers of electricity and how the trolley cars with their overhead wires were responsible for all types of illness - this in a society which had open sewage (no flush toilets) and minimal refrigeration of food (both of which were, of course, never suspected of causing disease). And what about the numerous studies in medical journals which showed hormone replacement therapy as being "heart protective" when in fact, recently, two double blind studies which showed the opposite were stopped MIDWAY through the studies because the women taking the hormones were not only getting MANY more heart attacks than those on sugar pills, but also, breast cancer, stroke and thrombosis! Are we doing the same thing with cell phones now that we did with trolley cars in the early 1900's? Pointing the finger at a "safe target" to make news and ignoring other more likely causes of cancer. Why demonize the cell phone industry? How many lives have been saved by someone being able to use a phone when in trouble? To me the cell phone industry is doing just as any other business is - INCLUDING the medical business - out there to make a buck. And many things we do are cancer causing - the transfat in food (that which makes food taste good) is a cancer activator and birth control pills are a cancer initiator AND a cancer activator. Mammograms a cancer activator. Cigarettes a cancer initiator and a cancer activator. Booze a cancer activator (at least) Even hair dye has been linked with bladder cancer. In fact, if we want to point fingers, we can say OUR MODERN LIFE is a cancer activator and a cancer initiator. A better plan (unless you want to become Amish and eschew all modern machines) might be to beef UP our immune systems by daily exercise of 60 minutes (that's cardio or intentional exercise) which can cut down our chances of cancer by 40 percent, by taking co-enzymeQ10 - this stuff kills cancer cells in the Petri dish and is in our bloodstream naturally but as we age, we have smaller amounts of it - it is thought to directly protect against cancer - and by eating lots of veggies which have cancer UNFRIENDLY enzymes in them. I have one of those speaker cell phones and do not hold it up against my ear. So far I just can not see ENOUGH evidence that cell phones are dangerous if used in moderation. And a much more likely cause of brain cancer is the sweetener, aspartame/nutrasweet, which caused cancer in all the rat studies but of course pointing the finger at that as a possible reason for the increase in brain cancer is not a "safe target". In fact, if dieting has been proven to challenge the immune system, how much cancer is caused by dieting? And again, in a society which considers even a small amount of adipose tissue as disgusting and horrible, this is a question we will never ask. Instead we grasp at straws, presenting faulty figures to find other less likely causes of the high incidence of cancer. Like cell phones.... By the way, the radiation from the sun also damages DNA yet people who lived naked in the sun in former centuries like Native Americans did NOT have a high incidence of cancer. And when we slather chemicals on our skin (like sun screen) which not only absorb into the body (what do they do in our bodies?) but only protect from ONE type of radiation from the sun and not the most harmful radiation, does that make a whole lot of sense? Sue who DOES use her cell phone more than 3 minutes a year. |