I am constantly using my phone, whether I’m texting, talking on it, or checking various social media apps such as twitter and instagram. When I heard a rumor that your cell phone could cause cancer, it kind of freaked me out considering I’m on mine 24/7. I decided to do some research to see if this was true.
The National Cancer Institute says that there is not a consistent link between cell phones an cancer. Although cell phones do give off radiofrequency energy, usually it is not enough to actually cause any sort of tissue damage. The National Cancer institute says that cancer is caused by damage in the DNA, and the radiofrequency waves do not cause DNA damage. One way they tested if cell phone use causes cancer is by utilizing a comparing the cell phone use of people with tumors to the cell phone use of people without tumors.
Another study done found a small link between cell phones and cancer of the salivary glands. This study may not be accurate because of the small amount of participants. It could very easily just be chance that caused the positive correlation between cell phone use and salivary gland cancer. Overall, this article also agreed that there is no link between cell phone use and cancer.
A different study done in Sweden concluded that cell phone use does in fact cause Glioma, a deadly form of brain cancer. The study says that people who have been talking on a cell phone for 25 years or more had triple the risk of developing this deadly cancer. The article says that since my generations uses there phones so much, in about 10 years we will see a drastic spike in brain tumors. It also says that most of the other studies done have been financed by the cell phone industry. That could make sense as to why this study found a link, but the others didn’t. A correlation between cell phones and cancer could cause the cell phone business to lose business or be forced to put large amounts of money into research for new technologies for cell phones so that they do not cause cancer. There could also be a confounding third variable that instead causes the cancer. Perhaps there is something in the water that all the participants are drinking that actually causes the cancer.
Overall, there may be a link between cancer and cell phones, but there also may not be. Findings could easily be due to chance or a confounding third variable. It is also hard to come to a conclusion because of the constant changing of cell phone technology. Cell phones from 20 years ago are much different than cell phones now. Maybe the cell phones now do not cause cancer, but cell phones from 20 years ago did, or vice versa. In conclusion, I will probably continue to use my cell phone, but it is interesting and scary that there could possible be a link to cancer.
A couple of weeks ago I watched a show that showed a girl that had gotten breast cancer from always putting her phone down her shirt for easy access. I think that we can never be too sure of things that are said to cause cancer and not cause cancer because no one ever really knows. The studies don’t provide accurate enough information and from that we never get any solid answers. All that we know is that if or when someone gets cancer some treatment will help and some cannot.
I like that you included numerous sources in your blog post, but there is always the possibility of chance, and correlation doesn’t always equal causation.
I think that there are so many things that people do that possibly could cause cancer that it is impossible to tell what is actually causing the cancer. People interact with cell phones, laptops, microwaves etc multiple times a day. It is so hard to isolate each variable because so many things that have become part of our lives have a possible cause for cancer. I agree that there is a possible link between cell phones and cancer, but it is not set in stone yet.
I did a similar post to this one last blog period. I think that phones are behind a lot of problems that we face as a society today. Although I myself do use my phone a lot I think it is important that we try to reduce our cellphone use to avoid the problems that come with them. Here is an article describing the negative affects of cellphone use.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/5-reasons-why-cellphones-are-bad-your-health-247624