At home, I would always put my phone down next to my pillow before I went to sleep. When I woke up, it would always be in a different spot somewhere across the room, and my mom would explain that she moved it because if I fell asleep with it right next to my head, I would get a brain tumor. Now, my mom has the tendency to overreact to essentially everything, so I never took this seriously. But now that she’s hundreds of miles away and can’t move my phone away at night, I always wake up with it right next to me and wonder if what she said has any truth behind it. Is there a possibility that our phones can give us cancer?
Cell phones are known to emit radio waves. When your phone is nearby, the tissue nearest to it will absorb the energy from the waves. This is where the concern comes from. However, there are two types of these radio waves, ionizing and non-ionizing. Enough exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the risk of cancer, however cell phones only emit non-ionizing radiation. Studies conducted on animals, humans, and cells have shown no evidence of these radio waves being linked to cancer. Several case-control and cohort studies were conducted all around the world, and the results all showed no significantly significant increases in cancers. No substantial evidence was found that could connect cell phone usage to areas where we use our phone or keep it the most often. One study in Denmark found 358,000 cell phone subscribers that were suffering from brain tumors, and even then could not find a link between the tumors and cell phone usage. As of right now, there is no reason to be concerned and no visible connection between the two.
I personally think this subject is going to continue to be studied. The question of if cell phones cause cancer seems to be a popular one, and maybe there is a connection that no one has found yet. This is extremely important in our society today, because of how popular cell phones are today and how undeniably addicted we are to them. My guess is that cell phones are only going to become more popular in the coming years, and maybe that increase will cause a problem. Who knows how much we will be using them in the future? If our research continues the way it is going now, hopefully something will be detected. For now, it looks like my mom can relax a little and not try to hide my phone where I can’t find it.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones
My mom shares a similar belief concerning me sleeping next to my cell phone! I also thought she was a little high strung about the subject. I am very impressed with the research and information that is presented in this post. I have looked into the problem myself in the past and after finding my answers I still continue to sleep with my phone next to my pillow. I use my phone as an alarm clock every morning so in my mind if I didn’t have it right next to me, I would oversleep. However, after reading your post I looked deeper into the connection between cancer and the use of cell phones to see if there was even a connection at all. I came across an article that suspected the development of breast cancer in young women due to carrying their cell phone in their bra or a pocket near their breast. Being diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40 is very rare and after going through the cases of women who were diagnosed at such a young age, scientists suspected the link between breast cancer and cell phones. Although it may not have direct evidence yet, like you said, we will only learn more with time.
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/expertvoices/post/2014/05/13/cell-phones-bras-and-breast-cancer-risk.aspx