I’m sure everyone has heard of rumors that say that cell phones increase the risk of cancer. I’m here to tell you that this claim is not entirely accurate. But note that I say not entirely accurate. There are reasons that there are these claims. Some scientific facts will make people believe that this in fact is true. However, we know that science is never completely 100% accurate.

If this was true and people knew that cell phone usage was a cause of cancer, then the cell phone market would probably dramatically experience a decline. Let’s be honest, we are all on our cell phones throughout the day more than we anything else. I’ll step forward and admit that I’m on my cell phone almost all day. Cell phones are essential nowadays, which may or may not be such a great thing. But that’s not the point of this blog. What I’m trying to transition into is what about cell phones make people think that it causes cancer. Cell phones contain electromagnetic radiation, which consists of either ionizing or non-ionizing radio-frequency. Being exposed to ionizing radio-frequency is known to increase the risk of getting cancer. There is no evidence that says non-ionizing radio-frequency increases the risk of getting cancer.

There are some studies currently being conducted to test if cell phone usage will cause cancer. About 290,000 participants that are 18 years or older are currently in a study called COSMOS. They will be followed for the next 20 to 30 years. This unfortunately means that we do not have data that can help us conclude anything. But soon we will know once they fill out a survey that talks about their current health at the time. If you want to know about more studies about cancer and cell phone correlation, read section seven here.

The last thing I wanted to mention is the question of whether or not kids have a higher risk of getting cancer through cell phones than adults. As mentioned before, cell phones aren’t conclusively a link to cancer, but if you were talking about the ionizing radio-frequency aspect, children have a less developed nervous system, so they are in fact more vulnerable to “cancer through cell phone radiation”.

In conclusion, the myth about cell phone radiation causing cancer has not yet been proven due to lack of evidence. There are studies being measured currently, but we will not know about them for a bit of time. I would say just to be safe, avoid radiation when it is not necessary, but don’t worry too much about cell phones being harmful. I know for a fact I’ll still be using my phone as much as I normally do!

Sources:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/electromagnetic+radiation

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