Cell Phones Make My Head Hurt

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Sept. 16, 2009

For years cell phone companies have been telling us there’s nothing to worry about, but recent studies have found cell phones pose significant risk for brain tumors. There’s great cause for concern if those studies are true, but so far they have yet to be replicated. This week, the Senate held a committee hearing and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences held a conference on whether cell phones cause cancer.

Also on this episode

Guests:

Maggie Reardon, reporter with CNET; she was at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences conference in DC this week

Dr. Christopher Duma, MD, FACS, Medical Director of Brain Tumor Program at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach

Dr. Michael Thun, MD, MS, Vice President Emeritus of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research with the American Cancer Society

Dan Gavilan
4 months, 3 weeks ago

I would like to know, if in fact cell phones emit radiation and can alter and inhibit cancer, has there been a rise in testicular cancer in the past 10 years since in explosion of cell phone poularity?

Brennen
4 months, 3 weeks ago

This is still considered a news story? I heard a guest mention long term studies, have cell phones been around long enough to even have a long term study done with them?

If you could ask someone in 1889 if they could have the ability to basically contact anyone from anywhere at the small risk of getting a brain tumor I'm sure they'd love that opportunity. Life is so good we can complain about our advantages.

Julie
4 months, 3 weeks ago

In Europe the dangers of cell phone use have been discussed for many years. My relatives in Austria and Germany are very cautious and are using them sparingly. There are also guidelines on how to hold the phone to your ear, directing the antenna (or antenna portion) away from your skull. My sister is even refusing to have a cordless phone because of studies ( I don't know anything about) warning about some radiation from them as well.

Meg Venz
4 months, 3 weeks ago

I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma on the right side in 2000. I was a sales rep and had been using a cell phone on that side. Ironically, the tumor was treated with radiation @ John's Hopkins and now I'm almost deaf in that ear.

Meg Venz
4 months, 3 weeks ago

Btw, I think you need to tell the listeners that acoustic neuromas are not malignant.

jw
4 months, 3 weeks ago

A study of the effects of sun exposure(solar radiation) conducted over a period of ten to twenty years might show no elevated risk, but we now know that skin cancer is the result of sun exposure over a period of many years.

Is this an apt comparison to the results of cell-phone generated radiation?

JW

Ben
4 months, 3 weeks ago

What was the name of the website with the list of cell phone radiation?

Dave Suess
4 months, 3 weeks ago

The radiation from the sun is more dangerous than that of cell phones because of frequency: the frequencies of the energy from the sun are a thousand times higher than cellphones, and energy is proportional to frequency. Solar radiation can carry enough energy to cause tissue damage that can lead to cancer (ionizing levels of radiation), but cellphone frequencies cannot.

So don't sweat tumors from cellphones; the energy in light from the sun is a way more dangerous threat. And Bluetooth devices use the same range of electromagnetic radiation as cellphones, and so do cell towers and TV towers, and nobody's found a way for them to cause cancer. Maybe they will find a way, but maybe we'll find a way to jump really high and go into orbit on our own; the laws of physics don't work on fear, they work on fact.

Now, who's gonna make money off this "controversy"?

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