It used to be that dogs were a man’s best friend. Nowadays, it seems as if our everyday companions have taken more of a rectangular, electronic phones. Our cell phones seem to constantly be with us, whether it be next to us while we sleep, in our pockets, or pressed to our heads in the midst of conversation. This has raised much concern and debate as to whether or not cell phones can potentially cause cancer.

According to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association , the number of cell phone users has increased rapidly, with more than 303 million subscribers to cell phone services in the United States 2010, so let’s hope that the risk of developing cancer due to the usage of cell phones is minute. Concerns are derived from knowing that cell phones emit a variation of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, which is able to be absorbed by the tissues surrounding the area closest to the device. Also, the amount of radiofrequency emitted is dependent upon the form of phone, the distance between the device and the user, and the distance from cell phone towers and the user. These are all variables that can differ greatly, offering little consistency or reliability of data for researchers to work with.

Large studies, such as the <a href=” http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/healthyliving/cancercontroversies/mobilephones/mobile-phones-and-cancer” >Million Women Study </a>, with up to 790,000 participants have been conducted to see if a correlation between cell phone usage and cancer development exists. With a rather large sample size, the results of this experiment should be relatively reliable, but the fact that only women were tested should be accounted for as well. The results of this study concluded that there was only an increased chance of developing acoustic neuroma, a certain type of brain tumor, a pattern that was found to decrease again in later years. It is likely that this outlier in results was due to a confounding variable.

Although cell phones have been unproven to cause cancer thus far, the vast difference in fluctuations of variables such as those mentioned above allow for nearly anything to occur-cancer or not. One is merely able to try to protect themselves from the possibility of developing cancerous cells from using their cell phones. Preventative measures include putting your phone on speaker as much as possible, limited usage of one’s phone, and keeping your phone as far away from you as possible.

“Cell Phones and Cancer Risk.” National Cancer Institute. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

“Mobile Phones and Cancer.” Cancer Research UK. Cancer Research UK, 25 July 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.