Is your life on the line?
As scientists test whether cellphones cause tumors, they're receiving lots of static from the telecom industry. Here's what you need to know before you point a loaded phone at your head
LLOYD MORGAN, AN OLD MAN with a hole in his head, had no business discovering the fatal flaw. After all, this was a $30 million effort to answer the question of whether cellphones can give you brain cancer.
Morgan, 68, is a survivor of brain cancer. Based in Berkeley, California, this retired electronics engineer and self-trained epidemiologist has made it his mission to spread the message that cellphone radiation is carcinogenic. He does this more or less as a wireless communications vigilante, however. The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the World Health Organization all regard the radio waves emitted from cellphones as safe. But another growing body of experts believes cellphone use can promote tumors, and momentum has been shifting to their side. A researcher in Sweden, for instance, recently reported that people who started using cellphones before the age of 20 -- including 80 percent of the readers of this magazine -- have four to five times the odds of developing one type of brain tumor. An unpublished (and therefore not peer-reviewed) analysis by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute shows an increase in brain tumors among Americans in the under-30 age group.
And according to new research, studies showing that cellphones are safe tend to be (a) less rigorously designed and (b) funded by the cellphone industry, while studies showing that cellphones carry risks are (a) produced with better science and (b) have no financial conflicts of interest.
Morgan, 68, is a survivor of brain cancer. Based in Berkeley, California, this retired electronics engineer and self-trained epidemiologist has made it his mission to spread the message that cellphone radiation is carcinogenic. He does this more or less as a wireless communications vigilante, however. The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the World Health Organization all regard the radio waves emitted from cellphones as safe. But another growing body of experts believes cellphone use can promote tumors, and momentum has been shifting to their side. A researcher in Sweden, for instance, recently reported that people who started using cellphones before the age of 20 -- including 80 percent of the readers of this magazine -- have four to five times the odds of developing one type of brain tumor. An unpublished (and therefore not peer-reviewed) analysis by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute shows an increase in brain tumors among Americans in the under-30 age group.
And according to new research, studies showing that cellphones are safe tend to be (a) less rigorously designed and (b) funded by the cellphone industry, while studies showing that cellphones carry risks are (a) produced with better science and (b) have no financial conflicts of interest.
And if the slow spread of distress within the halls of government means anything, the topic no longer causes eye-rolling among lawmakers. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, has recently authorized a $25 million study to analyze rats that have been bathed in cellphone radiation for a period of 2 years. Both houses of Congress have held hearings on the issue. And in Maine, legislation may soon require warning labels on cellphones sold in that state.
The cellphone industry has responded with studies, mind you -- ones that exonerate the technology, including a new study showing that tumor rates are steady in Scandinavia, where cellphones were adopted early. But if you dig deep, those findings aren't as reassuring as you might hope. For one thing, they tend to limit their good news to people who've been using cellphones for less than 10 years.
And then there's the trouble unleashed by Morgan, an unfunded retiree armed only with personal suspicions and plenty of time to read the fine print. Thanks to his pursuit of answers, we now know the biggest cellphone study of all produced a biologically impossible conclusion: It determined that not only do cellphones not give you cancer, but they protect you from it. Another recent study claims that they ward off Alzheimer's. It makes some people question whether the defenders' cases are riddled with wrong numbers.
THE LAWS OF PHYSICS DICTATE THAT IT SHOULD be impossible for cellphones to cause cancer, let alone act as tumor-busting force fields or magical memory sharpeners. While radiation from x-rays and CT scans is strong enough to knock electrons from molecules and damage the double helix, radio waves from cellphones are too weak to subvert your operating code in this way.
"It's the equivalent of holding a flashlight up to your head," my friend Steve, a high-school physics teacher, explained to me with a shake of his head over dinner. His analogy has not been lost on the defenders of the technology. "Radio waves, or radiofrequency (RF) energy, is a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes AM and FM broadcast radio, television, and many other devices and technologies, including cordless phones, baby monitors, radar, and microwave ovens," says Linda Erdreich, Ph.D. Erdreich is a spokeswoman for Exponent, the consulting company chosen by the cellphone industry to represent its position before the U.S. Senate.
And then there's the trouble unleashed by Morgan, an unfunded retiree armed only with personal suspicions and plenty of time to read the fine print. Thanks to his pursuit of answers, we now know the biggest cellphone study of all produced a biologically impossible conclusion: It determined that not only do cellphones not give you cancer, but they protect you from it. Another recent study claims that they ward off Alzheimer's. It makes some people question whether the defenders' cases are riddled with wrong numbers.
THE LAWS OF PHYSICS DICTATE THAT IT SHOULD be impossible for cellphones to cause cancer, let alone act as tumor-busting force fields or magical memory sharpeners. While radiation from x-rays and CT scans is strong enough to knock electrons from molecules and damage the double helix, radio waves from cellphones are too weak to subvert your operating code in this way.
"It's the equivalent of holding a flashlight up to your head," my friend Steve, a high-school physics teacher, explained to me with a shake of his head over dinner. His analogy has not been lost on the defenders of the technology. "Radio waves, or radiofrequency (RF) energy, is a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes AM and FM broadcast radio, television, and many other devices and technologies, including cordless phones, baby monitors, radar, and microwave ovens," says Linda Erdreich, Ph.D. Erdreich is a spokeswoman for Exponent, the consulting company chosen by the cellphone industry to represent its position before the U.S. Senate.
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