I’m sure you’ve all heard about the controversy whether cell phone usage has any link to cancer. I myself, have never really chosen a side on this. It’s akin to the rumors that artificial sweeteners can cause cancers but still everyone still enjoys their Diet Coke.
Should cell phones include a warning on their box stating that their radiation may cause cancer?
Although putting a warning on cell phones probably wouldn’t make people stop using them, it could help to make more people aware of how much radiation they are putting up against their heads 24/7.
I know that many people have stopped using a landline and use my cell instead. And why not?
Our mobile phones are always sitting next to us anyways like an extra appendage. So, why pay the extra money a month for a house phone? But, after reading all of these studies and more into this controversy, I may reconsider…
Let’s take a look at a quick overview of some facts:
- Last year in the US, more than 270 million people signed up for cellular phone service, according to the Wireless Association.
- More than 4 billion people worldwide use cell phones.
- In ‘08 Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sent a memo to 3,000 faculty and staff members warning of cancer risks due to cell phone usage. He said children especially should be careful because their brains are still developing.
- The cancer institute’s website states that “Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn.”
- A study done in Sweden found that for every 100 hours of cell phone usage your risk of brain cancer increases by another 5%. Moreover, these risks increase after more than 10 years of cell phone usage.
- The cell phone technology has only been out for a little more than 20 years.
- After a lawsuit filed against a cell phone manufacturer, congress asked the cell phone industry to study their safety. (The study became known as the Interphone Study.) In this study they determined there was no significant increased risk of brain cancer or tumors posed by cell phone usage.
Whether you believe that cell phone usage directly causes cancer or not, there are some things you can do in order to lower the amount of exposure to your brain you get from cell phones.
Action Items
Because let’s be honest, even if you don’t think all of that radiation causes cancer, you have to admit it sure can’t be too GREAT for you either. Here are some tips, thanks to Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Get a corded headset.
- Keep the phone a few inches away from your body. *Not holding the phone directly to your ear can make a difference.
- Take your Bluetooth headset off. Even though it doesn’t pose as much radiation, having it attached to your ear all day also isn’t good.
- Get a cell phone with a low absorption rate (SAR). It tells you how much radio frequency energy gets absorbed into your body.
Are certain cell phones safer than others?
Recently, the Environmental Working Group analyzed the radiation emitted from 1,000 plus cell phone models.
The worst??? It came from Verizon, the Motorola MOTO VU204.
The Best? AT&T’s Samsung Impression. *On a side note, which after checking it out, it seemed like a pretty neat phone. I expected the one with the lowest emission to be something that didn’t have many features, but this does 
AT&T users, check it out.
* I tried looking to see which phones had lowest emissions that I could get and no such luck. In fact, there wasn’t even a phone for Verizon in the Best Top 10.
The Environmental Working Group is trying to get the cell phone manufacturers to include radiation emissions on the cell phone boxes.
So what to do now? Well no study has come right out and said CELL PHONES CAUSE CANCER.
But then again, lets look back at cigarettes and tobacco usage which has been around forver. It took a while for that to come out too. So for now, just be smart and logical. Try to lower the amount of radio waves you have flowing into your brain all the time by using some of those steps above.
