We have posted on this before and the statistics support a significant
long term risk with heavy chronic usage.
It is not as powerful as the impact of cigarettes on your health which
we observe usually takes at least twenty five years to show up. With cigarettes though, the next twenty years
will surely finish you off simply because the cumulative damage is far too
great. That should not be true in the case
of cell phones.
On the other hand, if you work hard at it for ten years, you may want to
do a brain scan just to have peace of mind and to have a base image in place.
The risk is small but it is not zero and can also be easily
countered. I use a device in my phone to
counter any effect.
Does Extended Use of Cell Phones
Cause Brain Cancer?
September
3, 2013
Case
Adams
Two recent
studies provide fuel for both camps: They both find the association between
brain cancer and cell phone use is dubious. Does this mean they found no
associations? Hardly.
The debate about
whether cell phones cause brain tumors continues as two new studies appear to
illustrate that brain cancers do not rise as a result to increased cell phone
use – at least until the data is looked at more closely.
In the first of
the two – from the University of Oxford’s International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) – followed 791,710 middle aged-women for seven years – after they
reported their cell phone use in 1999, 2005 and 2009.
The research
discovered 51,680 invasive cancers and 1,261 central nervous system cancers
during the period.
The research
found that there was no increase in any cancers – including brain cancers – for
those women who used cell phones versus those who did not.
However, when
non-cell phone users were compared with cell users who had used cell-phone
users for more than ten years, there was a 10% increase in meningioma risk. While the results were clear, the researchers
did not consider the finding as significant enough.
In addition to this, compared to non-cell
phone users, the long-term (10+ years) use of cell phones increased the risk
of acoustic
neuroma by two-and-a-half times. Perhaps they
didn’t think this was significant because acoustic neuromas are considered
non-malignant, and thus not a true cancer. That may be true, but this is not a
reason to ignore the increased risk.
According to the research, these risks also
increased as cell phone use increased – making the risk “dose-dependent.”
When a risk is dose-dependent, it validates
the causation element of the study. It means that the longer a person uses the
cell phone, the greater the risk.
Study
tracks meningioma cases…
With regards to meningioma, a more recent
study from Swedish researchers, published in this July’s Environmental Health
Journal, also found minimal increased risk from increased cell phone use.
This study tracked 709 meningioma patients and
compared them with 1,368 control subject subjects. They compared mobile phone
usage among both groups, and analyzed the data using a latency period – the
amount of time from tracked usage – of 25 years.
Here the researchers found, once again, little
increased risk – but some. And the risk
appeared to increase with increased cell phone use.
Two periods of use – between one and five
years and over twenty-five years, showed an increased risk of meningioma by 30%
among those who used wireless phones over a 25 year period.
In the highest-use quartile, wireless and
mobile phone use resulted in a higher risk of meningioma, by 30% for mobile
phones and 40% for wireless phones, and 80% increased risk for cordless phone
use.
The increased risks was found to be related
primarily to those who used their phones equivalent to about 40 minutes a day
for 10 years, equated to 2,376 hours of cumulative use.
The researchers stated that:
“There was a statistically significant trend for increasing
cumulative use of 3G mobile phones, cordless phones, phones of the digital type
(2G, 3G and/or cordless phone), and wireless phones in total.”
They also noted that there was more than a
seven times increased risk for high-use 3G cell phone use. But this was
considered not significant because it was based on only five users.
“No
Conclusive Evidence”
It should be noted that in both of these
studies, the researchers clearly stated that they found no conclusive evidence
of a link between cell phones and brain cancer.
“No conclusive evidence” is a tricky concept,
and yes, to establish a “conclusive” result, there must no doubt. Is there ever
no doubt in scientific research? Both of these studies presented enough
evidence that the brain cancers may have not come from cell phone use to utilize
these terms.
This doesn’t mean they proved there is no
association, however. Quite the contrary.
The fact that in both studies, risk levels did
increase with more use does provide some indication that there could be a link.
But there is still more evidence needed. Time perhaps?
In the latest study, for example, one of the
problems presented by the researchers was the fact that the use of cell phones
and wireless phones are ubiquitous.
And previous studies have also exposed this
risk among long-time users. As
stated in a 2013 recent review in the Journal
of Pathophysiology:
“Studies carried out in Sweden indicate that those who begin
using either cordless or mobile phones regularly before age 20 have greater
than a fourfold increased risk of ipsilateral glioma.”
It only makes sense to consider a wired
headset or using the speaker system available on most new cell phones. What’s
the difficulty with that? I personally prefer not feeling my ear heat up (which
has also been studied and found to cause other issues). Maybe it
doesn’t look as cool as walking around with a phone stuck to the head, but hey,
when has being healthy ever looked cool?
About
the Author
Case Adams is a California
Naturopath and holds a Ph.D. in Natural Health Sciences. His focus is upon
science-based natural health solutions. He is the author of 25 books on natural
health and numerous print and internet articles. A listing and description of
many of his books can be found on Realnatural.org. His
new video series on low back pain can be found at Healthy-back.net. Case
appreciates feedback and questions at case@caseadams.com.
REFERENCES:
Benson VS, Pirie K, Schüz J, Reeves GK, Beral
V, Green J; Million Women Study Collaborators. Mobile phone use and risk of
brain neoplasms and other cancers: prospective study. Int J Epidemiol. 2013
Jun;42(3):792-802. doi:10.1093/ije/dyt072.
Carlberg M, Söderqvist F, Hansson Mild K,
Hardell L. Meningioma patients diagnosed 2007–2009 and the association with use
of mobile and cordless phones: a case–control study. Environ Health. 2013 Jul
19;12(1):60.
Davis DL, Kesari S, Soskolne CL, Miller AB,
Stein Y. Swedish review strengthens grounds for concluding that radiation from
cellular and cordless phones is a probable human carcinogen. Pathophysiology.
2013 Apr;20(2):123-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pathophys.2013.03.001.
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