Finally, A Definitive Answer On Whether Cell Phones Cause Cancer — In 20 Or 30 Years

from the long-wait dept

For years, there’s been conflicting research on the health risks posed by mobile phones. For every study that found a link between the radiation from phones and cancer, there was another that didn’t. Part of the problem is that the health issues that could be caused by phones can take years to emerge, and since mobile phones are relatively new — and have changed significantly over the past 10 or 15 years — so definitive research is a long and difficult task. But now, some researchers in Europe are embarking on a large-scale, 20- to 30-year study to examine just how phones affect people’s health. They’re looking at cancer, but also other issues commonly tied to phones, such as brain diseases, headaches, tinnitus, depression and sleep disorders, and will also be examining radiation emitted by other devices, like baby monitors and cordless phones. It will be great to have some more definitive answers as to exactly what risks we’re subjecting ourselves to by putting mobile phones up against our heads, so be sure to check back in a few decades.

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Comments on “Finally, A Definitive Answer On Whether Cell Phones Cause Cancer — In 20 Or 30 Years”

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25 Comments
bishboria (profile) says:

Other EM radiation?

What about all the other (man made) EM radiation emissions that have been bombarding us already for 50+ years, like TV transmissions, radio, etc? There’s no escaping those what so ever.

This 20-30 year study will be probably be inconclusive unless they put a control group of people inside a Faraday cage for the period of the study.

Anonymous Coward says:

On Faraday Cages

A Faraday Cage is something of Tesla-day origin. It’s designed to protect it’s inhabitants from being hit by lightning. In the past, being hit by lightning usually resulted in instantaneous death. However, if you’re in a Faraday Cage, you are protected from death.

An example of this is:
“Mismanagement doesn’t exist in the entire Wallstreet district of New York, because it exists in a Faraday Cage.”

That’s a Faraday Cage.

Anonymous Coward says:

Financial Humor is the cancer that kills /B/

I tend to think some people have a better understanding of this than others.

People like Dimon, maybe even Pandit who get out of the that faraday cage and maybe even travel coach every once in a while. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had were with normal people.

It may take four or five trips before you find that ‘one’, but when you do, it will make it all worthwhile.

Tips for the non-sociable (Pandit):

1.) Don’t give a business card.
2.) Just say “I run a small business in New York” What do you do?
3.) Don’t talk about what you do, but instead ask about how the crisis has hurt/helped them.
4.) Pandit: “You know, I ran into the same thing. I had an account that Citibank sent to collections and they started contacting everyone I knew, even people from High School”
5.) Let them talk
6.) Say (Pandit): What really earks me is that Citibank returned to sender my bankruptcy discharge. Now they can claim the bankruptcy never happened, and sell the account to another party.
7.) Let the person beside you say that Citibank is a bad company to do business with.
9.) Agree.
10.) Go home and wallow in the sorrows of the company you run.

Bradley Stewart (profile) says:

If I Were To Guess

It was as I recall at least a decade ago I remember an article on the very same subject of cell phone safety. The article had something interesting in it that I had not seen and I don’t remember seeing in any other article on the subject since. There were a couple of X-Rays taken of people heads while they were using these phones. One was of an adult. The second X-Ray was of a young child. In both X-Rays as I believe it is known by non-ionizing radiation was penetrating both skulls and the brains. The radiation penetrated the child”s skull and brain to a deeper degree as children have thinner skulls. If I were to guess I can’t say how harmful this was and I know improvements have been made so I can’t say how harmful this may be now if at all but I don’t believe these devices contribute to good health.

Duck says:

What happen(n)ed?

bacon, wrapped in cheese, wrapped in chicken…
cigarettes…

i heard that water or the other water will kill you also. one of which is…. A WITCH!

–faraday cages havent been used for ten years. So what is a faraday cage?

I had something I considered witty, however, I have been watching too much footage of the good mister chapel as of late, and decided that I would not make a comment. Except for the previous and following:

On the tubes of various people (i’m looking at you), I am quite sure that you might find a video of someone on a… wearing a who?

xenomancer (profile) says:

Since we still use analog...

Isn’t this study missing the fact that cell phone technology AND usage is changing way faster than the sample period? For example: text messages. The use of text messages throws a wrench in to mix from the start. Without properly controlling for even (non-constant) rates of use other than zero there can be no statistical measure for relative use, making the entire study a waste of money.

peter (profile) says:

Wait another 20 years?

There is already a 20 year study carried out in Denmark

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=06/12/07/223218

I think that if a study of nearly 1/2 million users over a 20 year period was not able to find a correlation, the actual risk is so miniscule that it is just not worth worrying about.

Are they saying that another 20 year study is really required…..or are they touting for a 20 year meal ticket?

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