Cell Phones and Cancer: the Risk is Real

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber04122011.html

There is a book you ought to buy.

It's called Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Is Doing to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family by Devra Davis (Dutton, 2010).

Buy it from a book store – if you can find a book store that carries it.

Davis said that when the book was published in September 2010, she traveled to San Francisco, a hot bed of calls for right to know legislation when it comes to cell phone radiation.

More at the link --

[cali]

1. nah. I don't own a cell phone so I don't need the book. and I have no

intention of ever buying a cell phone.

[babydollhead]

2. Thank you! I have heard the author speak.

She is fantastic!

[Donnachaidh]

5. Did you ever read her book about the War on Cancer?

Holy cow -- scared the crap out of me! She's the real deal.

[babydollhead]

11. Her book"When Smoke ran like water" is GREAT

[babydollhead]

12. She has been to my home

I was working on a mosaic for the Pittsburgh Airport, she came over to show me the colors of pollution like we used to have during the steel mill times. Now Pittsburgh is beautiful, so i made two mosaics, one of Pittsburgh Then, and one of Now. I gave her a Mill and Pollution glass mosaic window and she loved it, it reminded her of where she grew up, Donora, PA, that's what her book is about.

[NCarolinawoman]

24. Now that is interesting!

:hi: :D :thumbsup:

[babydollhead]

28. her name is like mine.

When I was putting the window into her car, i almost dropped it, and i said it wouldn't matter, I'd just use the pieces to make a new mosaic window. She said, "Don't be Ridiculous!" I said, "that's my middle name, I thought it was yours too." I picked up her book"When Smoke Ran Like Water" from the library "Free" bin, with the ides of leaving it on my coffee table so people would think I wrote a book, little did i know that a year later, it would be instrumental in my research for "Old Pittsburgh" all of the pictures from History are in black and white, and the descriptions in the books fleshed it out for me. Same with when I did one about Old Chicago, geez, writings about The Great Chicago Fire are petrifying. pm me if you want to see the pictures of the mosaics.

[SpiralHawk]

3. But...eating Genetically Mutant 'food-like' products will make you resonate at a different frequency

...and if you do that, and keep your tin-foil hat in place with a chin strap, then the only thing you have to fear is reality itself.

[upi402]

15. I'm upgrading mine to hybrid

leather-elastic chin strap. The hat in the pic is clearly a Eurpean 50Hz model and is strictly verboten by Homeland Security. Careful!

X7#*mb - d84hjsdh%ns nrui629O^ (ya know what I'm talkin' about?)

[Voice for Peace]

4. thanks nt

[tabatha]

6. Don't own a cellphone, and hope never to own one.

Thanks for info.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. "cell phones have never been tested for safety."

That is interesting.
Not surprising, either, in this day and age where we now are told mercury, oil, Corexit, radiation in our food is just fine and dandy, because there are "limits" helpfully set by the "authorities".

[SpiralHawk]

22. The Genetically Mutant foods haven't been tested either, really

almost all the so-called 'research' is backed or influenced by the corporations themselves.

Welcome to 21st Century Corporate Facism (R)

[riverbendviewgal]

8. My son had the brain cancer of GlioBlastma Multiforme

He was in perfect health, just before he turned 25 he got a job for a cell phone company and was on the cell phone almost constantly with his job. He died at 26

We believe his using his phone so much and living close to hydro lines could be the reason he got the tumor. He lived 18 months. There were no warning signs, just seizures. 3 days after the first one he was getting brain surgery. Luckily we live in Canada where there was not worry about getting the best treatment and all the medical costs were paid for.

[TuxedoKat]

9. I'm so sorry for your loss

I'm going to show you post to my husband and 14 year old dd who disregard my concerns about her cell phone.

[hlthe2b]

10. OMG... I am so very very sorry...

Truly. What a tragedy and being left wondering if a cell phone could have been related in any way. My deepest sympathies.

[babydollhead]

14. I am so sorry

[upi402]

16. EMF is nasty radiation - not a tinfoil hat issue!

Electro magnetic lines of flux are too high to tolerate over time near transmission lines. Sounds like with cell phones too. I'm no biologist but I can't imagine the fragile membranes of cells would not be disrupted and harmed.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I get accused of being a tinfoil hatter trying to raise awareness about EMF at harmful levels. Frustrating.

[arikara]

17. I am so very sorry to hear this happened

my daughter used to work for hospice in Seattle. Years ago she told me there were all kinds of brain cancers cropping up in young people and the workers were attributing it to increasing cell phone use. I cringe now when I see the kids walking along with a phone attached to their head, I feel like jumping out of the car and grabbing it, throwing it under the car and driving over it.

[alterfurz]

21. my mom also...

She was already 60+ by the time mobile technology became common, but for the last 10 years of her life, she spent at least a couple hours a day with her cell phone held to her left ear. Tumor was on the left side of the brain...coincidence? Maybe...maybe not.

[marions ghost]

27. My cousin had that also

He was an oncologist and believed that it had developed from cell phone usage. He is no longer with us.

Sorry about your son :hug:
Thanks for speaking out about this.

[hootinholler]

30. Now there is a study that should be done.

A ready population to be sampled to maybe establish a link.

I can't imagine the pain of losing one of my children, my most sincere condolences to you.

-Hoot

[uppityperson]

31. My condolences. My cousin had that, died at 49, never used a cell phone

or had any other exposure like hiwire lines. He was a great guy and we all miss him a lot.

[juajen]

39. My sister lives within 60 or 70 feet of a cell phone tower. If this also

dangerous? I worry about that a lot.

[immoderate]

13. Remember, some people will believe anything.

:tinfoilhat:

--imm

[whistler162]

18. Its a yearly posting.....

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969732,00.html

evidence to support, about as much as Elvis working in the 7-Eleven down the road.

[arikara]

20. Hang in there

Never question. Its good to believe whatever industry and government will have you believe. Radiation is healthy for you. Corexit cleaned out the Gulf, dolphins aren't dying and people aren't getting sick. Babies were never born deformed by thalilomide. Coal is clean fuel. War is peace.

Go with it!

:crazy:

[immoderate]

23. Yeah, I have a friend who is trying to spin me on DDT.

After sending me the "literature" he wonders why I have such "hatred" for the Koch Brothers and the chemical manufacturers.

--imm

[TheWraith]

26. And here we have the predictable response blindly accusing anyone who disagrees of being sheeple.

After all, fuck all that "science" nonsense that can tell us what is actually true or not, we just need to believe every single claim of something bad, and trash anyone who expects proof. Because stuff which is proven false is exactly as valid as the stuff proven true, a 0.01% risk of something is the same as it happening, and anything that can be described as "radiation" will kill you, whether it's harmful or not. :sarcasm:

[immoderate]

29. Can stepping on a crack break my mother's back?

Or is that a mystery too?

--imm

[PVnRT]

43. People don't agree with me! They must be paid corporate shills or idiots!

I guess the only science that is acceptable to you is anything that reinforces what you already believe. Kind of like Republicans only accepting industry-sponsored "research" into climate change.

[immoderate]

19. There is also a scientific POV...

This is from the website of Bob Park, a physicist at the University of Maryland. I recommend it to those who are interested in science.

1. EMF EXPOSURE: DOES WAVING OF THE TREES MAKE THE WIND BLOW?
Identifying the cause of disease is the first step in its treatment. Epidemiology, the branch of medicine concerned with causation, seeks to establish correlation between exposure to a possible cause and actual occurance of the disease. Data must be taken over a period of years to allow for latency; if no effect is seen, a longer latency period is assumed. Since there is no record of individual usage, people are asked to recall what they did years earlier. Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) in modern society is ubiquitous, but with the exception of a few crackpots it was not thought to be a problem until 1989 when the New Yorker ran a series of hopelessly misinformed articles by Paul Brodeur linking EMF to cancer. The articles were turned into a series of books with lurid titles like Currents of Death. Brodeur had zero background in science but he managed to arouse the anti-science monster that had been in hiding since World War II. The media, trained to give both sides of the story, even if one side is the babbling of an idiot, was no help. It did not end until 1996 when the National Academy of Sciences, persuaded that the public would not accept an argument based on quantum mechanics, released a three-year study that found no effect of EMF on the human body. Almost overnight power lines stopped causing cancer. The anti-science monster had been chained, but it was still alive.

2. EPIDEMIOLOGY: FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF NATURE TAKE PRECEDENCE.
With the abrupt emergence of cell-phone technology a decade ago, the anti- science monster talked its way out of bondage. Devra Davis, who is not quite a scientist, but has a PhD in something called Science Studies, has donned the mantle of Paul Brodeur to write Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family. What's missing is what was missing from Paul Brodeur: the universe is governed by quantum physics. Einstein pointed out a century ago that electromagnetic radiation behaves like units of energy called photons equal to Planck's constant times the frequency. They don't cause any trouble unless their energy matches some natural excitation. There isn't much to excite until they reach the energy of molecular vibrations in the microwave region. This is the part of the spectrum used in cell phones, so in principle your cell phone might cook your goose, but it would take a very long time. At even higher frequencies you reach the red end of the visible spectrum, then yellow, green and finally blue. Not until you reach the extreme blue end of the visible spectrum is there a problem. At that energy, photons can eject photoelectrons, creating mutant strands of DNA that can become a cancer. This is the lowest energy at which an incident photon can induce cancer. Photons of this energy are about a million times more energetic than a microwave photon, but cannot penetrate very deeply and therefore induce only skin cancers. However, in the last few days there have been reports that children exposed to cell phones radiation while in the womb have an increased risk of behavior problems several years after birth. At this point we can expect a wilder and wilder claims of effects from cell phone radiation.
Bob Park can be reached via email at http://[e-mail]

Been attacked by any powerlines lately? :shrug:

--imm

[Cronus Protagonist]

25. I see, it must be the chemtrails then

Damned these black airplanes spewing chemtrails over the cell phone users....

[SidDithers]

32. Good post...

Facts are good.

Sid

[FLPanhandle]

34. +1

Without science we are one step away from blaming our cancers on the local witch.

[AdHocSolver]

33. There are various issues involved with the dangers of cell phone usage.

Electromagnetic radiation can be dangerous. The microwave oven that cooks your food uses EM radiation.

The EM radiation penetrates the molecules of the material being heated and "vibrates" them to produce heat. This is what happens in a microwave oven, which produces anywheres from 500 watts to 800 watts depending on the size of the oven.

Microwave ovens use door seals to prevent radiation leakage and safety switches to turn off the oven when the door is open, because, at those power levels, the escaping energy could literally "cook" a part of anyone standing near enough to the oven.

Cell phones use microwave energy to communicate with the phone company's "base" stations. They operate at anywhere from a half watt to about two watts. The depth of penetration into a person depends on the frequency and power level being emitted by the phone.

Normally, this low of a wattage would be benign, since the energy level of the signal dissipates rapidly with distance. However, most people hold the cell phones right next to their heads. This is where the problem occurs. The person's head is right within the strongest part of the radiation field.

I suggested a long time ago that people who use cell phones a lot should get an earphone so that they can keep the cell phone away from their bodies. The effects of radiation exposure are accumulative. Using a cell phone infrequently and for only short periods of time should not pose a health hazard. Unfortunately, observation indicates that many people keep their cell phones "glued" to their heads.

[Dappleganger]

35. What about texting?

Our kids pretty much only text.

[Donnachaidh]

37. IIRC, the studies were for brain cancer and how it grows due to phone usage

Earlier studies did show that the tumors grow in the area the phone comes closest to. As to texting - :shrug:

[Dappleganger]

38. Well I hardly ever use my cell phone...

and have had breast cancer twice and thyroid cancer, but I know that it's mostly genetic in my case.

[AdHocSolver]

41. If they hold the cell phone at arms length while texting, it shouldn't be a problem.

However, if they hold the cell phone close to their faces, the radiation, over time, could induce cataracts in their eyes.

The problem is the radiation from the antenna. If you don't see an external antenna, then the antenna is built into the case.

Aside from possible cancer, cell phone radiation is suspect in producing cataracts, even when held to the ear.

[hobbit709]

36. And the chances of you getting killed by a texting driver is about 1,000,000 greater.

[Curmudgeoness]

40. I got an email today where they popped popcorn with cell phones.

Now, I really would have to be there to see this firsthand to be absolutely sure it happened. But it is scary as hell from what I saw of these "experiments" that people did using their cell phones.

[AdHocSolver]

42. No way could you pop popcorn with a cell phone.

A cell phone doesn't produce enough power.

Microwave ovens produce anywhere from 500 to 800 watts, whereas a cell phone outputs around one-half to two watts.

Another bit of nonsense on the Internet.