Tuesday, August 17, 2010

cell phones and brain tumors


Cellular telephones, which include handheld or mobile telephones, car telephones, and portable or bag telephones, operate on radiofrequency (RF) signals in the 800- to 900-MHz range
.
Cell phones are dangerous 
They emit microwaves.
They produce heat.
Source of the emission is close to your brain.
There are claims that people have had brain tumors in the exact size, shape and position as the antenna on their cell phone!!


Cell phones are safe
Cell phones use a very, very low level of radio frequency (rf) energy - too low to cause damage.
The type of energy emitted is non-ionizing - meaning it doesn't cause damage dna.
Hundreds of millions of people have been using cell phones and cordless phones for years. If there were a problem, we would have seen it by now.


A case control study from JAMA looked at 470 patients with primary brain cancer and matched them with a similar cohort without brain cancer. No association of cancer was found for a follow up period of 2.8 years.Interestingly cerebral tumors occurred on the same side of the head as cell phones were used.In temporal lobe tumors , a greater proportion of tumors occurred on the contralateral side. Both these findings failed to achieve significance.

The latest study published in March 2010 -  INTERPHONE was a international case control study which looked at 4 types of cancer - glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma and parotid tumors, and their association with cell phone usage. They included 2708 glioma and 2409 meningioma cases and matched controls. Overall, no increase in risk of brain cancer was found in cell phone users over a period of greater than 10 years. 


We need studies with even longer follow up, considering the fact that radiation changes in tissues take a long time to develop .As for as now, we can safely tell our anxious i-phone users ! that there is no association between cell phones and brain cancer over a 10 year period of use.
Posted by Samson at 10:07 PM
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5 comments:

  1. This is interesing. There was also some concern on whether or not Laptops can cause cancer. There have been some interesting findings regarding Laptops and testicular cancer.
    The increasing popularity of laptop computers (LC), coupled with existing evidence that elevated scrotal temperature can result in sperm damage, prompted researchers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook to undertake the first study into the effect of heat from LC on scrotal temperature.
    The findings are reported in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1]. They show that using an LC on the lap increased the left scrotal temperature by a median 2.6�C and the right by a median 2.8�C. Several previous studies have shown that increases in testicular or scrotal temperatures of between 1�C and 2.9�C are associated with a sustained and considerable negative effect on spermatogenesis and fertility.
    Just thought this was also of interest, since it is presumed that ove 150 million people use laptops worldwide!!! Take a look into it, may find some more interesting information regarding this?

    Bottom line: Until further studies provide more information on this type of thermal exposure, perhaps young men should limit the use of laptops on their lap as long-term use may have a detrimental effect on their reproductive health.

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