Cell Phone Radiation: More Than Just a Headache

September 8th, 2009. By LucyC

So it’s back to school this week, and many parents will have armed their kids with the latest in cell phone technology to help protect them from potential threats to their safety. But there may be a bigger price to pay than user fees, and that is the development of brain cancer. 

Admittedly, there’s still no clear answer on whether or not cell phones can cause brain cancer. But there’s a mounting body of evidence to suggest that cell phones are seriously dangerous to our health. 

The telecom industry has funded studies to identify any possible health risks, but just how capable are they of objectively evaluating the risks when they stand to either lose or make millions of dollars from the findings? 

A case in point involves a recent 13-country study—the Interphone Study—which was done to look at the risks of brain tumors associated with cell phone use. Begun in 1999, the publication of the study has been held up for years, and, according to a collaborative team of EMF activists, has some various serious flaws, including an underestimation of the risk for brain tumors. 

Bottom line, EMF (electro-magnetic frequency) activists, which include medical doctors, conclude that there is a risk of brain tumors from cell phone use, and that children are at greater risk for developing them than adults. 

In an article that appeared on the website Foodconsumer.org, (Sept 2009) Gerd Oberfeld, M.D., the Speaker for Environmental Medicine for the Austrian Medical Association in Vienna, Austria says:

“The scientific data show, with a high degree of confidence, that mobile phone exposure is associated with an increased brain tumor risk.

The age group below 20 years is facing the greatest risk, which for malignant (deadly) brain tumors is about 400 percent, compared to non-exposed.

When we take the long latency period of up to some decades into account, and the fact that large parts of our society, and especially more and more teenagers and even children are using mobile phones on a daily basis, we may well expect a brain tumor epidemic.

From a public health perspective there is an urgent need not only for a wake-up call for our society, but for measures that are able to combat this public health threat effectively, now.”

FYI—a conference has been set up to try and get some unbiased data on the health problems associated with cell phones. The International Expert Conference on Cell Phones and Health is scheduled to take place on September 13-15 in Washington D.C.  Those health problems are not restricted to brain cancer—but include eye cancer, testicular cancer, salivary gland tumors, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Leukemia. 

So, stay tuned. In the meantime, maybe use that speaker phone function…

Tags: Cell Phone Radiation

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