By David Jones

7/7/11

Does using cell phones cause cancer?

Over the past few years numerous "studies" have been done by various groups. In just the past few months two of them have been released that contradict each other in many ways.

So we went to the "horse's mouth", the American Cancer Society. According to its website, they have looked at over thirty of the studies they, in summary, found the following:

Copied from the American Cancer Society:

"In summary, most studies published so far have not found a link between cell phone use and the development of tumors. However, these studies have had some important limitations that make them unlikely to end the controversy about whether cell phone use affects cancer risk.

First, studies have not yet been able to follow people for very long periods of time. When tumors form after a known cancer-causing exposure, it usually takes decades for them to develop. Because cell phones have been in widespread use for less than 20 years in most countries, it is not possible to rule out future health effects that have not yet appeared.

Second, cell phone usage has been and is constantly changing. People are using cell phones much more than they were even 10 years ago, and the phones themselves are very different from what was used in the past. This makes it hard to know if the results of studies looking at cell phone use in years past would still apply today.

Third, the studies published so far have focused on adults, rather than children. Cell phone use is now widespread even among young children. It is possible that if there are health effects, they might be more pronounced in children because their nervous systems are still developing and their lifetime exposure will be greater than adults, who started at a later age."

This article by American Cancer Society offers much more information than the summary that is referenced above. If you have other concerns, such as using cell phones with pacemakers, or just want more facts and figures, please click on their link above.