Musician Sheryl Crow, who has survived both breast cancer and a non-cancerous brain tumor, recently stated that she believes that cell phones may have caused her tumor. An article
in People magazine stated:
Crow is not alone. Many people believe that cell phone use can cause or contribute to brain cancers.
The history of cell phone concerns among the public is closely tied to the history of media coverage, as mass communication (books, magazine articles, television programs, etc.) has been identified as a primary driver for the fears. Concerns over cell phone safety trace directly back to an earlier (and unrelated) public health concern over electromagnetic fields, or EMFs.
For example, Larry King devoted a segment on his top-rated CNN show on Aug. 9, 2000, to the case of a man named Larry Reynard, who told a story about how his wife had developed brain cancer several months after first using a cell phone.
Both King and Reynard missed the fact that brain cancers generally take years — not months — to develop, and that Reynard’s wife probably had the cancer before she began using her cell phone. If using a cell phone for only three months is enough to cause brain cancer, nearly every American adult should be afflicted with the disease.
Physicist Robert Park, in his book Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, notes that dormant public fear about EMFs resurfaced in the late 1980s:
While concern over the potential harm of cell phones is widespread, the vast majority of scientific research does not support the idea that cell phones are dangerous. Repeated scientific studies have failed to find good evidence supporting the position that EMFs or cell phones damage human health.
The following is a typical conclusion published in a scientific journal about the links between EMFs, cell phones and health:
Scientists doubt that cell phones and EMFs can harm the body for several reasons, including: 1) Electric fields induced in the body by cell phones are usually much weaker than the fields that occur naturally inside the body; 2) The heat produced in body tissue by EMFs is far lower than normal body temperature; and 3) The electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones are not strong enough to break the molecular and chemical bonds in human cells.
While many people claim to be concerned about cell phones, few are actually willing to give them up. Some consumers have chosen to use earpieces instead of holding the cell phones to their heads as they speak; others have purchased special so-called “EMF shields” that can be inserted into cell phones and allegedly block harmful electromagnetic waves (though scientists and consumer groups say that the devices are worthless).
There far greater risks associated with cell phones, especially distracted driving while talking or texting.
Credit: Corbis Imagees
