The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer. The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don’t find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now – especially when it comes to children. No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman’s advice is sure to raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents.
In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing. Herberman cites a “growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer.” “Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use,” he wrote in his memo. A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university’s center for environmental oncology. “The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain,” she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. “I don’t know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don’t know that they are safe.”
Why all the cell phone hate?
So if it’s a policy you support, you’re all in favor of pushing this line of argument. But when they come after something you like, then you get all whiny. I would say children are more at risk from radio waves going around their head than some cigarette smoke.
>>Why all the cell phone hate?
Why not? There’s nobody more obnoxious than a cell phone user. Not even an ex-smoker. Not even a CURRENT smoker!
Why would anyone call this “cell phone hate”? It seems like a straight-up scientific result to me.
I also accept the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. That doesn’t mean I hate cars.
So I guess you don’t own or ever use a cell phone.
#4. I dont own or use a cell phone.
Mustard also tells the neighborhood children to stay off his lawn.
Just do what we did. We bought our daughter a Trac Phone, and she has to buy the minutes. She is rarely on the phone, but it is there in case we need to get in touch with her. Heck, she even limits her texting because that uses time too.
Don
This is not a scientific finding. This is a guy saying some unpublished data supports the notion that cell phones cause cancer.
All the published studies for the past few years fail to show a connection between cell phones and cancer.
This is FUD, pure and simple.
#4 – Caligula
>>So I guess you don’t own or ever use a cell phone.
Sure I do. But I don’t use one in public (except in case of emergency).
Watching (and having to listen to) these morons parade around with a cell phone tumor on their head (and now, even worse, the trashy bluetooth users) makes me nostalgic for the days of the rotary-dial phone.
It is indeed hard to imagine a group more worthy of brain cancer than those who constantly blather on cell phones.
Yes, I have one. I use it when necessary, but I have no desire to ramble on about nothing in public like so many do. My plan (no longer offered, but I’m grandfathered in) gives me 20 daytime minutes a month. I’ve gone over exactly twice in the past 3 years, and one of those was when I was on a road trip for several days. I actually get far more wrong numbers and spam calls every month than legit calls I make or receive.
Mobile Phones. A good friend of mine and I are in a tiff right now. He came over to the house and during a conversation he took a call. After 30 secs I got up and started watching TV. After 3 minutes he asked me why I left the room. I said–why not, he stopped talking to me, what was I supposed to do, hold my breath?
There should be an “important” ringtone, and a “not so important” vibration code system so that those being called could treat people they are actually with with respect.
I have never had a phone call that couldn’t wait, others seems to lead more exciting lives.
#11. I do the same. And then they look at me like I’m being rude.
Cell phones operate at frequencies approximately .5 to 2 GHz. Although the power is very low, non-ionizing radiation is produced. Non-ionizing radiation is known to cause cell damage and can lead to cancer.
I know for a fact that a 1KW microwave focused beam at 100 feet is a big problem with immediate results to living tissue.
Cell phones produce .5 to 3 watts; Bluetooth operates at around 2.5 GHz at an output power ranging from 1mw to 100mw.
The question is; how much power is needed at what range over how much time to cause significant damage?
I don’t know, and I don’t spend time worrying about it, but there is a chance of tissue damage over the long haul.
I’ve always been suspect of cell phones, and actually own one, but use it as little as possible. When you hold a cell phone up to your ear, and your head is between the cell and the tower, the cell is transmitting directly through your skull. That can’t be good.
[The signal between the cell phone and the tower is not stronger than in any other direction. – ed.]
There are several scientific studies in Europe that have been stifled by the cell phone providers, that have shown this. I only use my cell in speakerphone mode, or with a wired headset.
Though this study is not yet published, it will be.
The cell phone providers/manufacturers have already started shouting that there needs to be more study, just as the tobacco lobby is saying the same thing.
Within 15 years, there will be a lot of brain cancers, you just wait and see.
Does this mean I shouldn’t put my face right up against the glass door of my microwave machine while making popcorn?
I’ve notice my eyeballs do seem to dry out a bit and my ball point pen sparks a little when I do that but I haven’t felt anything yet.
I guess it’s a good thing that kids like texting more than talking on the cell phones if this turns out to be true.
With reference to my #14 post, ed, that’s not what I said. I never said that the signal was stronger one way or another. I said that the cell phone transmits a signal directly through your skull, which I find hard to believe is not harmful.
Here’s the thing.. even if cell phones are dangerous, children are better apt at traumatic injuries than adults are.
BECAUSE a child’s brain is still development, there’s really nothing there to damage in the first place. Young people heal better, and cope with damage much easier than adults would when they are already mature. There’s more to damage in a mature adult than a child given the same type of injury or trauma.
There’s a story of a boy who lost HALF his brain from I believe a gun head shot and survived it, and is living a moderately normal life. If an adult had this same injury, he would be bed ridden or comatose for the rest of his life… if not dead.
Anti tech is alive and well.The old farts who are afraid will die soon anyway.The new age is here enjoy your brain cancer.
#17
“I guess it’s a good thing that kids like texting more than talking on the cell phones if this turns out to be true.”
Folks tend to hold the phone near their lap when texting which places the phone and resulting RF radiation closer to the reproductive organs….. Non-ionizing radiation is KNOWN to cause sterility if it’s strong enough for long enough…..
Question is again; does a cell phone radiate enough to cause damage and if so how much for how long at what frequency.
I have over 30 years experience with electronics, radio, and radio frequency interference, but I don’t claim to know the answer.
Either way, it helps the over-population problem.
All Cell Phone Users are Guinnea Pigs in the Long Term Test of whether Cells and Microwaves right over your ears will COOK YOUR BRAIN !!! Just like Corporate America likes it !!! Free Testing, even while they are pulling OBSCENE PROFITS !!! And they have the Government STONEWALLING THE PUBLIC ON THE DANGERS !!! CEOs WETTEST WET DREAMS !!!
Wrong. The modern digital cell phone puts out 200 milliwatts. You are thinking of the old AMPS phone that we used to mount in our cars. They put out 3 watts. If a handheld cell phone put out 3 watts of output, 2 things would happen. First your battery would last about 5 minutes and second, your face would probably melt off.
#23
My figures come from a chart that I can’t seem to locate again at the moment, but the Wikipedia article on Mobile phone radiation and health shows similar figures. I make no specific claims.
You _might_ feel some slight warming from 3 watts, but your face wouldn’t ‘melt’.
I knew a guy (idiot) that would hold his hands around an HF transmitter antenna insulator to warm his hands, warm is all he got (and maybe sterilized!) and that was 400watts PEP.
I personally knew of a case in Turkey at a NATO transmitter site where the sheep farmer leased his land to NATO for the antenna farm. He then builds a house under an antenna because he noticed it was warmer there in the winter time. I have a photo somewhere at home that actually shows a guy wire running in his window and out the door (no door, just an opening). About a year later he was trying to sue NATO because ALL of his sheep were sterile, no doubt he was sterile too, but didn’t know it. This was a 50KW HF transmitter for teletype, so it transmitted 24/7.
Granted these two incidents were with HF 5 to 50 MHz VS more modern Gigahertz frequencies. The higher the frequency the greater the danger.
That was an obvious exaggeration on my part. Not meant to be serious. It still would be a lot of power to have right next to your head.
#19 “BECAUSE a child’s brain is still development, there’s really nothing there to damage in the first place.” LOL! Ain’t it the truth! Right up to and beyond the teen years!