Cell Phones and Cancer Risks
As there has been a rise in use of cell phones and smart phones over the last couple of decades, there has also been a rise in concern over cancer risks from cell phone use. I was curious about this issue as well, so I did a little research.
The following statement is straight from the WHO website printed this past June.
“While an increased risk of brain tumors is not established, the increasing use of mobile phones and the lack of data for mobile phone use over time periods longer than 15 years warrant further research of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk”
This statement is based on an article published by the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer)
Here is a more detailed article that explains the IARC’s decisions and opinions. You have to register to see the entire article though.
Lastly, here is the main study on the relationship between cell phone use and cancer used by the IARC to make their decision.
If you do not feel like reading all of these articles, here are the main points I gathered from the articles. Out of all the research and studies performed, the only findings were that there was an increase in the chance of brain tumors for the most heavy cell phone users. The most heavy users in the study used cell phones for more than 30 minutes a day for either 10 or 15+ years (I don’t exactly remember which). One article also discusses how 3G (3rd Generation) cell phones emit on average 100 times less RF energy than 2G cell phones.
The IARC and WHO determined that more studies need to be done on cell phones in the future to find out more, but there is inadequate information to determine anything now. The IARC classified EMF-Radiofrequencies as a Class2B carcinogen which means “the agent is possibly carcinogenic to humans”. After reading all of these articles, I personally am not very worried about getting cancer from cell phones (especially after reading about how much more RF energy was emitted by the older cell phones). Though I think the risks are minimal, it is certainly not a bad idea to use speakerphone whenever possible and to avoid excessive lengthy conversations on cell phones in the future.
