Countless studies have been conducted on the links between cell phone usage and cancer, with seemingly conflicting results. Now, Devra Davis, a U.S. public health advocate, epidemiologist, and author discusses the science surrounding cell phones in her new book, Disconnect, wrote the Globe and Mail. The book reveals that, although the published science is conflicted, […]
Countless studies have been conducted on the links between cell phone usage and <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/diseases">cancer, with seemingly conflicting results. Now, Devra Davis, a U.S. public health advocate, epidemiologist, and author discusses the science surrounding cell phones in her new book, Disconnect, wrote the Globe and Mail.
The book reveals that, although the published science is conflicted, there is information that cell phones have their dangers, said the Globe and Mail.
A variety of studies, wrote the Globe and Mail, specifically citing a large review released this year by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer-research agency, revealed that people using cell phones for just a half-hour daily for 10 years experience a two-fold risk for glioma, a rare and generally fatal type of brain tumor. Gliomas were found on the same side of the brain as where the cell phones were held.
Dr. Davis writes that these cancers generally take tens of years to form, but that they are now turning up just after 10 years of light cell phone use, an issue of growing concern. “For such a risk to show up in cell phone users within 10 years, given what we know about brain tumours, which is that they can have a latency of 40 years, is deeply, deeply disturbing,†Dr. Davis said in an interview, quoted the Globe and Mail.
In 2008, we wrote that the head of one of the country’s top cancer centers warned his staff that cell phones could be dangerous to their health. Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers, issued an internal advisory memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff members advising them to take precautions to avoid the possible cancer risks of cell phones.
The Globe and Mail explained that cell phones utilize microwaves, which are deployed by the devices’ antennas, which are located on the backs of the phones. And, while stronger forms of radiations, such as those found in X-rays, are known to cause cancer, microwaves—nonionizing radiation—have long been considered safe.
According to Dr. Davis, experiments suggest that microwaves are more dangerous that first believed, citing lab tests with rats exposed to two hours of microwave radiation and who developed broken DNA strands, which occurs in cancer, said the Globe and Mail. The lab tests also revealed, said the Globe and Mail, “brain-cell alterations, memory lapses and fluids leaking from their brains into their blood, indicating a breach of the blood-brain barrier.â€
Dr. Davis explained in her book that safety tests conducted on cell phone use look at radiation absorbed into the head of man who in the top 10 percent of typical U.S. military recruits. Such a man, said Dr. Davis, is described as a 200-pound, six-foot, two-inch male, with an 11-pound brain, wrote the Globe and Mail. The current standards are also based on early generation analog phones used for about six minutes and tests do not look at the impact to people with smaller head sizes, such as children or women, and do not consider the current phones that can overheat, noted the Globe and Mail.
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