Myth Busting: Cell Phone Cancer
It seems every time you turn around there's another menacing lurking threat to our health. Or is there? Chances are, if you look a little closer at the headlines, past the sensational sell-the-papers hype, and past the quacks who turn a profit by pitching woo, you'll find that the truth is closer to... nothing wrong here, move along.
So when I recently listened to someone talking about how talking on cell phones was going to give you cancer, and how carrying them in your hip pocket was bad for 'women's... areas' and yes, that really is how he said it complete with the awkward pause, I realized that it was past time to shed a little light on this particularly devious junk science that has become a popular myth. No, your cell phones aren't dangerous. At least, not like that. Now, texting and driving? Oh, yeah, that'll drive your mortality risk through the roof. Don't do it. But carrying your phone in your pocket, or putting it to your ear while talking? Not a risk.
But don't take my word for it.
“As noted, the RF waves given off by cell phones don’t have enough energy to damage DNA directly or to heat body tissues. Because of this, it’s not clear how cell phones might be able to cause cancer. Most studies done in the lab have supported the idea that RF waves do not cause DNA damage.” (emphasis mine) --American Cancer Society
“Many people are concerned that cell phone radiation will cause cancer or other serious health hazards. The weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phones with any health problems.” -- FDA And although the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies produced a study stating that they had seen an increase in certain very specific tumors in male (and they don't know why not female) rodents, they also found that the males lived longer in their study than normal because certain kidney diseases were not showing up. On top of that there are the usual concerns with any sort of study like this: mice are not humans and although frequently used as a model mammal for studies, that is because they are small and easily raised in captivity, not because they are reliably a close analogue to humans. Also, they were exposed to a far higher dose of the radio frequency radiation over their entire bodies than a human ever would be. We can safely acknowledge that sunbathing does more damage than cell phone usage, and move on with our lives.
The World Health Organization went even further, and reviewed the studies on all electromagnetic fields. This would include cell phones, your microwave, power lines, computers, WiFi... the list goes on.
In the area of biological effects and medical applications of non-ionizing radiation approximately 25,000 articles have been published over the past 30 years. Despite the feeling of some people that more research needs to be done, scientific knowledge in this area is now more extensive than for most chemicals. Based on a recent in-depth review of the scientific literature, the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields.
Some members of the public have attributed a diffuse collection of symptoms to low levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields at home. Reported symptoms include headaches, anxiety, suicide and depression, nausea, fatigue and loss of libido. To date, scientific evidence does not support a link between these symptoms and exposure to electromagnetic fields. At least some of these health problems may be caused by noise or other factors in the environment, or by anxiety related to the presence of new technologies. Their last conclusion, that the health concerns can be partly tied to anxiety, surprises me not at all. We've seen, over and over, the medical hysteria that crops up when cultures change radically, as with the Industrial Revolution, then the advent of the Silicon Era, and I'm sure the next big thing will bring it's concerns along too. Unfortunately, we will always have quacks who ride the wave of anxiety shilling their services and products to the worried. It's nauseating to watch, and I can only hope that by pointing people in the direction of actual science instead of the wacky world of junk science, I can help allay concerns and let people get on with their lives without the pain and expense of a parasite trying to leech their lives away through snake oil and empty pocketbooks.