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Cell Phone Radiation
If you talk on a cellphone all day, your head is being
zapped by waves of powerful radiation that could give you brain cancer. And the
risk is even greater for kids.
That’s not the crazy talk of a paranoid loony — it’s the disturbing conclusion
of a leading cancer expert who has worked with the National Academy of Sciences
and shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Georgetown Prof. Devra Davis, a renowned epidemiologist, says studies from
around the world have found that microwaves emitted by mobile phones, which act
like tiny radio stations, penetrate the brain’s protective barrier, shred your
cells’ DNA and set loose destructive free radicals, increasing your chances of
getting cancer.
The damage is greatest among the youngest and most frequent users and those who
keep the device pinned to their ears, she says.
“Years from now our grandchildren will look back and ask: Did we do the right
thing and protect them or did we harm them needlessly . . . blinded by the
addictive delights of our technological age?” Davis writes in her new book,
“Disconnect.”
The bottom line: “You should not be holding a miniature microwave radio next to
your brain for hours a day,” she told The Post.
Davis points to alarming studies in the US, Sweden, Greece, France and other
countries.
A team at the University of Washington, for example, found that just two hours
of radio frequency radiation splintered the DNA of brain cells in rats, making
the cells like those found in malignant tumors.
Another study showed that rodents exposed to phone signals two hours a day for a
week began leaking fluid from their brains.
In a third, rats that learned how to get out of a tank of water were given an
hour of radiation and put back in. They became confused and swam around in
circles.
Not all the studies were done on animals. Scientists in Moscow discovered that
children between the ages of 5 and 12 who were regular cell users suffered from
a host of learning and behavior problems.
Perhaps the most convincing evidence, Davis says, is the small-print warning
that now comes standard with every new G3, BlackBerry and Palm: Don’t hold it
against your body.
Or that England, Canada, Russia, Germany and Israel all officially discourage
parents from giving their children cellphones because of the health risks, and
France has banned sales to minors.
Still, Davis concedes that rock-solid proof of her theory is elusive — in part,
she says, because brain cancer can take 20 years or more to develop, so it’s
impossible to fully measure the problem.
“I’m concerned about the long-term effects,” she said. “If we insist on seeing
proof that an epidemic is already under way . . . we will condemn ourselves and
our families to lesser angels.”
Skeptics, such as Dan Krewski of the University of Ottawa and Swedish researcher
Maria Feychting, claim she’s got it all wrong.
“Overall, we’re not seeing evidence of an increased risk,” Krewski told a TV
reporter in May, when the results of what was hyped as a definitive study of the
subject were published.
The Interphone study, run by the World Health Organization’s cancer research
arm, brought together experts from 13 countries, including the US, Canada,
Britain and Germany, to track 13,000 cellphone users for a decade at a cost of
$24 million.
But the data was held up for five years while the researchers fought bitterly
over what it meant. Even the head of the study, Elisabeth Cardis, an
epidemiologist in Barcelona, hedged.
“We have not demonstrated conclusively that there’s a risk, but I think it’s
really important to note that that does not mean that there’s no risk,” she told
a Massachusetts radio station. “We have a number of elements in the study which
suggest that there might actually be a risk, and particularly we have seen an
increased risk of glioma, which is one type of malignant brain tumor, in the
heaviest users in the study.”
One problem, she added, was an ever-changing definition of “heavy user” — just
30 minutes a day in the Interphone study — and that so much of the information
the group examined was old.
“Interphone was basically carried out between 2000 and 2004, depending on the
country, and we asked about people’s long-term historical use of mobile phones.
We were asking about their use of the late 1980s, early 1990s, at a time when
mobile phones were used much less than today,” Cardis said.
Davis’ take is that just because we don’t know exactly how bad heavy cell use
can be doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start protecting ourselves.
“I don’t use a cellphone very much,” she said, “and when I can, I basically try
to find ways to reduce my exposure, either using a landline or using the speaker
of my phone.”
And that’s a point on which virtually all the experts agree — keep the phone
away from your head and away from your kids as much as possible.
“I’m not saying throw the things out,” Davis said. “But you can turn them off.” |
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