I sleep with my phone right next to me and keep my cell phone in my pocket at all times of the day. I have always heard people say that the radiation from cell phones causes cancer but never really took any initiative into being that rational teenager and changing the way I go about my everyday life with my cell phone. It was my freshman year biology teacher that always kept his cell phone in his back pocket specifically because he believed that the phone does has some affect on the body; this was the first time I really recognized that this could be an issue and gave me the idea to someday look into this topic.
A look inside the cellular device …
As we know pretty much everyone has a cell phones and the question that many of those cell phone owners are curious about is whether or not they are safe. According to the Cancer Research Institute they believe there are a few reasons we should be concerned about cell phones causing cancer; phones do emit a radiation referred to as radio-frequency energy which is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Radio-frequency energy is high frequency and high energy. Another crucial part of cell phones is that the type of radiation it gives off, it is an ionized radiation which is the same category of radiation that x-rays are in.
Here is a YouTube video about the risk of cell phones and interview with Dr. Leonard Coldwell explaining his views on the major concern of cell phones causing cancer.
Experiments
According to Scientific America‘s cell phone radiation study there seems to be significant evidence once again. This 25 million dollar animal testing study revealed that rodents that were affected with a life long of radiation developed rare types of heart and brain cancer. Another thing founds from this stud was that the more and more exposure of RF radiation to the rats had a direct correlation with the amount that got the cancer, not to mention all of the control rats apart of the study did not get cancer.
Conclusion
As we always talk about in class; what would a rational Penn State student do after knowing about this?? I would say that A rational student would definitely make some changes to there everyday life because a lot of the evidence stated in my blog is accurate and consistent with one another. Not sleeping next to you phone at night, not keeping your phone in your pocket, and just not using the device so much would all be simple changes people can make in order to be safer. Cell phones are still a new technology advancement, they have only been around for about 10 years and already 90% of adults in our country have them. In 20 years from not we could see a crazy breakout of cancer that would catch many by surprise because we are the first generation to ever use cell phones; so we need to take precaution while we still can.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/major-cell-phone-radiation-study-reignites-cancer-questions/
I always use speakerphone as a precaution to not keeping the cellphone next to my head, just because I it keeps my conscience clear to not have to worry about the risks of cancer from cellphones. One thing I am interested in learning more about is the risk of getting testicular cancer from cell phones that are left inside your pocket all day. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569116/ This article says there is no risk of cell phones giving cancer but I would feel better knowing the results of a longer longitudinal study. I guess only time will tell if cell phones are having a damaging effect on our health right now.
I’m really glad you dove back into this topic. All my friends and family think I’m being paranoid with my phone and I’m glad to come across someone else who shares the same opinion with me. Honestly, this reminded me of an article I recently came across. “My right to death with dignity at 29″a>where the author Brittany Maynard talks about the controversial issue of the right to die. Maynard has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and is given 6 months or less to live and wants to leave this earth on her own terms. She discusses why she believes she should be able to end her own suffering rather than continue to live and experience tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain. Maynard believes that having the option to die whenever she wants by taking the prescription medicine given to her relieves stress and gives her comfort knowing there is a way out. She says she is not suicidal, but she recognizes that she is dying and wants to be able to die on her own terms. It is not only that she wants to be able to die on her terms but she believes that a person should have the right to die whenever they please. Perhaps you’d enjoy a read! 🙂
Sorry! The link did not work. Here it is!
My right to die at 29.
I’ve been told that the radiation from my phone is dangerous and to try to talk on bluetooth or speaker and to keep my phone out of my pockets, but never really acted on this. I believe we should take this more seriously and change our habits since the use of technology is increasing. Sometime I even fall asleep with my phone on my stomach or in my hands which I am going to try to avoid from now on. Here is an article that says how someone can reduce the risk of getting cancer from using a cell phone.
http://www.saferphonezone.com/tools/10-things-you-can-do-to-reduce-the-cancer-risk-from-cell-phones/
Just like you, I have heard about this correlation, but never changed my habits of always having my phone on me due to me not researching the topic very intensely. I’m glad I read your blog because I think this could easily became an extremely prevalent issue in our society soon, so it’s important to know about it. Like you said, it would be rational to stop having your phone on you constantly, but like this article says, it’s important to note that the rats only grew tumors near their brain and heart, so maybe phones don’t in fact affect us if they are in our pants pockets since it’s not near our brain or heart. Nonetheless, like you said it would still be rational to not have our phones on us with the information we have today.
Hi Jacob! I really enjoyed reading this blog post because I feel like so many people have this concern of phone radiation sitting somewhere in the back of their minds. Your post got me thinking about other things in our everyday life that could also have an impact on the risk of getting cancer. I found this article which offers a list of some other known or very likely carcinogens, including alcohol, tobacco, and UV rays, among many others.
I like this post and never really formed my opinion on the topic. But, I do have some anecdotal evidence that supports the alternate hypothesis, and rejecting the null hypothesis. My uncle who spent his last years as a medical executive for a few healthcare companies and nursing homes was always on his phone taking care of his employment responsibilities. And in one year he went from full healthy human being to being dead due to glioblastoma, a severe brain tumor. Now there was some of it in his family as his father died of the same thing, but my uncle was only 54 years old when he got diagnosed, 10 years under the media age for the disease.
I like this post and never really formed my opinion on the topic. But, I do have some anecdotal evidence that supports the alternate hypothesis, and rejecting the null hypothesis. My uncle who spent his last years as a medical executive for a few healthcare companies and nursing homes was always on his phone taking care of his employment responsibilities. And in one year he went from full healthy human being to being dead due to glioblastoma, a severe brain tumor. Now there was some of it in his family as his father died of the same thing, but my uncle was only 54 years old when he got diagnosed, 10 years under the median age for the disease.
Jacob, like your post about creatine, I also found this very interesting. Although, I have never really taken the time to wonder if cell phones could have a link to cancer or other health hazards. I found an interesting site that radio frequency waves could be to blame for the question you posted. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cellular-phones