This story is probably going to be swept under the rug by America's pop-up media, and if it isn't, people are going to act surprised by its contents. But who should be surprised that holding a device that transmits radiation next to your head is going to cause cancer?
It's been known since at least the '90s that cell phone towers transmit rays that cause brain cancer to people who live nearby. And a Swedish study from 2006 (also largely ignored by the American press) said cell phone use itself increases the risk of brain cancer. But now it's been found that people who use cell phones for hours each day are 50% more likely to develop parotid gland cancer than folks who don't use cell phones at all.
The study conducted at Tel Aviv University covered almost 500 people who had tumors in the salivary glands. The parotid gland is closest to where the phones are usually held.
How to prevent this? The report says to use speaker cell phones instead and limit cell phone use.
I'd love to see what the anti-science wingnuts say about this. They've denied that dioxin exposure or aspartame are hazardous, and denying this report is going to be even more far-fetched (unless they expect people to believe radiation is safe), but you know they'll try. So be prepared for a wave of denials.
(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/18/nphones118.xml)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Cell phones linked to oral cancer
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Is that 50% more likely or 50 TIMES more likely to get parotid cancer? If it's only a 50% increase, that's pretty minimal and probably worth the risk if you find cell phones convenient (I dislike them for other reasons).
ReplyDeleteAccording to WebMD, the incidence of tumors in the salivary glands, which include the parotid glad, is 1-2 cases per 100,000 people and only 20% of those tumors are malignant. A 50% increase bumps that up to 1.5-3 tumor cases per 100,000. Lung cancer, the biggest killer among cancers, has an incidence of about 78.5 cases per 100,000.
If the "pop-up" media is ignoring this, it is because it's a nonstory.
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