From the Doctor's Desk
By: Dr. Kim Panovka - Medical Director, CMN Inc.
Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?
Intracranial tumors comprise approximately 95% of the estimated 17,200 brain and other nervous system malignancies in the US. Most brain cancers cannot presently be attributed to known risk factors.
Recent media attention has focused on a possible link between cellular phone use and brain cancer.
Because widespread cellular phone use is little more than a decade old, there has been limited opportunity to examine its long-term health effects. The lack of ionizing radiation and the low energy level emitted from cell phones and absorbed by human tissues make it unlikely that these devices cause cancer. It is impossible to prove that any product or exposure is absolutely safe, especially in the absence of very long-term follow-up. However, three recently published large case-control studies and one large cohort study have compared cell phone use among brain cancer patients and individuals free of brain cancer.
- The brain cancer patients did not report more cellular phone use overall than the controls.
- When individual types of brain cancer were considered, none was consistently associated with cell phone use. When specific locations of tumors within the brain were considered separately, no associations with cell phone use were observed.
- None of the studies showed a "dose-response relationship" between cell phone use and brain tumor risk.
- None of the studies showed a clear link between the side of the head on which the brain cancer occurred and the side on which the cellular phone was used. In summary, there is now considerable epidemiologic evidence that shows no consistent association between cellular phone use and brain cancer.
The only documented adverse effect from cell phones is an increased risk of automobile crashes when the phones are used while driving.
The following summary from the Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health offers advice to people concerned about their risk:
“If there is a risk from these products—and at this point we do not know that there is—it is probably very small. But if people are concerned about avoiding even potential risks, there are simple steps they can take to do so. People who must conduct extended conversations in their cars every day could switch to a type of mobile phone that places more distance between their bodies and the source of the RF, since the exposure level drops off dramatically with distance. For example, they could switch to: a mobile phone in which the antenna is located outside the vehicle, a hand-held phone with a built-in antenna connected to a different antenna mounted on the outside of the car or built into a separate package, or a headset with a remote antenna to a mobile phone carried at the waist. Again the scientific data available does not demonstrate that mobile phones are harmful. But if people are concerned about the radiofrequency energy from these products, taking the simple precautions outlined above can help reduce any possible risk.”
Some national radiation advisory authorities, including those of Austria, France, Germany and Sweden have recommended certain measures to minimize exposure to their citizens. Examples of these recommendations include:
- Use hands-free to decrease the radiation to the head.
- Keep the mobile phone away from the body.
- Do not use telephone in a car without an external antenna.
Children and cell phones
To date, there is very limited research available on cell phone use and the health effects on children, whose bodies are still developing. You may consider limiting your child’s cell phone use.