At some point or another we all may have heard someone say something along the lines of “if you keep that phone too close to your head for too long, you’re going to get brain cancer!” When I was first told this I thought that my parents were just trying to persuade me to stop having my phone attached to my hip, but then I started hearing similar things from more credible places. Once I was driving in the car and happened to flip my radio over a station who had a doctor talking about the possible effects that having your phone next to you while you sleep can have on your brain which I am most guilty of. Since these tests and studies first came out I have definitely been more skeptical about how long I talk on the phone with it pressed to my ear, but I still find myself having my phone either very close to or on my bed while I sleep. Given this, I thought it would be interesting to see what facts and statistics came up when I researched this specific claim in more detail.
From an article that I found on the National Cancer Institute website I was able to get more information as to whether or not there was a clear link between cell-phone radiation and cancer as a whole. From this website I was able to conclude many things. Apparently, one of the reasons that people believe that there may be some correlation between the two is that cellphones are known to emit radiofrequency energy which is a form of radiation and can be absorbed by tissues that are close to the area where the phone is located. Of course this would cause some concern for doctors. However, although this is true it seems as though studies have so far not shown a consistent link between close exposure to cellphones and cancers of many kinds. As they state in the article, this lack of confirmation is partially due to the fact that cell phone technology as well as the way that phones are being used has changed a lot over time. They can however conclude that the number of cellphone users, the number of calls per day as well as the length of each call has increased over time.
In the article, they also discuss a recent study which according to them, “showed that when people used a cell phone for 50 minutes, brain tissues on the same side of the head as the phone’s antenna metabolized more glucose than did tissues on the opposite side of the brain. The researchers noted that the results are preliminary, and possible health outcomes from this increase in glucose metabolism are still unknown.” So it’s clear that having a cellphone consistently pressed to our head or even in close proximity does cause some changes in the way our brain behaves, however it doesn’t seem like there’s much concrete evidence that there’s any direct correlation with cancer.
It seems apparent that the ultimate objective of scientists is to figure out if there are any cancer-causing effects of radiofrequency energy. The levels of radiofrequency is usually measured in studies using information from interviews and questionnaires. They based their final results on some of the following things: “how ‘regularly’ study participants use cell phones, the age and the year when study participants first used a cell phone, the average number of cell phone calls per day, week, or month, the average length of a typical cell phone call, and the total hours of lifetime use.”
So as said perfectly in the article, “although there have been some concerns that radiofrequency energy from cell phones held closely to the head may affect the brain and other tissues, to date there is no evidence from studies of cells, animals, or human that radiofrequency energy can cause cancer.” It seems as though all the things that we have been hearing on the television, radio, and from our parents may have to wait a couple more years to be completely verified. In the meantime, it might be wise to disconnect before you go to bed, place our phones somewhere not so close and try to minimize the time we spend on the phone as we find out if there is some real threat or not.
Sources:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones
This article really intrigues me. Personally I am always torn of whether or not to sleep with my phone under my pillow. When I first received my cellphone my grandma used to always tell me to sleep with it directly under my pillow for safety precautions. Her thought process was that if someone were to break into my house at night I would have fast and easy access to dialing 911. As radiation concerns rise I find myself taking the risk of sleeping further from my phone at the cost of not having easy access to my phone in case of an emergency.
My Grandmother refuses to buy a cellphone because of it’s radiation. We discussed in class how it took scientists many many years to figure out how smoking causes lung cancer. Now people now that smoking causes lung cancer, yet millions of people smoke until this day and will keep smoking for years to come. Just like smoking, phones are addiction, if not more. If it’s 100% proven that phones causes cancer, I can’t imagine myself stopping. It might sounds stupid, but I’m addicted to my phone.
I choose to deny the possibility that cellphone’s radiation can cause cancer. But if in the years to come it’s proven, scientist well start creating numerous ways to avoid the problem, just like e-citrates and nicotine gums are created.