The debate about cell phones and cancer is reignited
by ANDREW DINICOLA
Staff Writer
The connection between cell phones and cancer has been disputed ever since cell phones became popular. Most scientists argue that there isn’t enough evidence to bring up the argument that extensive cell phone use can cause cancer.
However, the debate of this undying topic was brought up at a panel for the World Health Organization, the first big health organization to hold this discussion.
The myth that cell phones can cause cancer originated when there was a discovery that they give off a weak form of energy called non-ionizing radiation. Upon this discovery, an uncountable number of tests were performed to see if this radiation could be harmful to humans.
The results were that the radiation was linked to three different types of very rare tumors that are very highly unlikely to be developed just from cell phone use.
In 2010, a study was conducted in 13 different countries to see if cell phone use affected certain individuals, and if that there was a higher risk of brain tumors.
The International Journal of Epidemiology stated that there is no bond between cell phones and brain tumors, but those who did use cell phones excessively had a 40 percent higher chance of being diagnosed with the brain tumor glioma.
In this day and age, nearly every pre-teen or teenager has a phone by the age of 12 or 13 in the United States. Since most of the U.S. adults have a cell phone for business or just for recreational use, there is no question that majority of the population uses their cell phone excessively and that there is a small, but increased risk for brain tumors to develop.
So what course of action should be taken to warn those of excessive cell phone use? Nothing, in fact, the bond between the two isn’t even confirmed yet because scientists are still arguing all the time that the radiation emitted from the cell phones is too weak to cause any damage, and is unrelated to brain tumors.
However, another reasonable course of action is to use a Bluetooth headset. Bluetooth uses a wireless communication system so that it too possibly gives off the same radiation as cell phones do. Scientists have not studied these headsets like they have cell phones, and therefore information about Bluetooth being related to cancer is inconclusive.
Certain people are always going to make a fuss about cell phones causing cancerous tumors, and there are always going to be investigations about the same topic because it will always come up in society. Though there is no true evidence to suggest that there is a direct link between cell phones and cancer, those who are users should be cautious and not talk on the phone five hours a day.