Since cell phone technology began to proliferate in the 1990s, there have been periodic public scares about the electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones being responsible for drastically higher rates of brain and other cancers in users.
Even now, after several large and definitive studies, suspicion of a link is persistent, and news of the harmlessness of the phones slow to disseminate. The latest study to find no correlation between cell phones and cancer might be another nail in the coffin of the rumors, but will likely not abolish them completely.
Recent Epidemiological Study
Though many studies have been done in the past, the latest paper, entitled "Brain Tumour Risk in Relation to Mobile Telephone Use" and published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, utilized a massive sample of over 12,000 people from thirteen nations, all of whom were regular cell phone users, and about half of whom were also brain cancer patients.
Though the authors of the paper stated that a very slightly elevated risk of glioma was found at the very highest levels of exposure, they were quick to point out that this was probably a statistical anomaly; they recommended further research, but overall, they wrote, they discovered "no increased risk" of brain cancer among frequent cell phone users.
Electromagnetic Radiation
Despite the typically cautionary tone adopted by the paper, Bernard Leikind goes so far as to say, in a recent article in Skeptic magazine, that it is for all intents and purposes impossible for cell phones to cause cancer. It is true, he states, that cell phones emit negligible amounts of electromagnetic radiation, just as power outlets, microwave ovens, and hair dryers do.
However, the amount of this radiation is far from sufficient to cause the breaking of covalent chemical bonds within human cells that could lead to cancer. No one seems to worry about getting cancer from the electrical wiring in the walls of buildings, he points out, so why worry about cell phones in particular?
X-Rays, Gamma Rays, UV Rays
Perhaps some of the confusion — aside from cell phones being a relatively new technology that people are still leery of — arises from the fact that some forms of electromagnetic radiation can indeed cause cancer. Gamma rays, X-rays, and ultraviolet rays (as from the sun) emit enough high energy photons to break bonds in molecules such as DNA.
But these types of radiation emit energy at amounts greater than 480 kilojoules per mole. In contrast, simple green light — which does not break covalent bonds but is only sufficient to bend the rhodopsin molecules in the human eyes that allow them to see the light — emits energy at 240 kilojoules per mole. Cell phones fall far, far below even the harmless energy emitted by green light; in fact, the radiation emitted by a cell phone amounts to less than .001 kilojoule per mole.
Cell Phones and Thermal Agitation
Panicked news reports about cell phones sometimes mention the fact that they increase molecules' thermal agitation, thereby heating the body and somehow causing damage that way. Again, it is true that electromagnetic radiation causes agitation and thus heat, but the amount of heat generated by a cell phone amounts to no more than a couple of watts at most; the human body itself generates roughly 100 watts as it goes about an average day.
Sensationalistic media coverage notwithstanding, seemingly all the evidence points to the fact that cell phones cannot cause cancer, and are no more dangerous to people than a radio or a toaster oven are.
Sources:
Bernard, Leikind. "Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?" Skeptic 2010: 30-34. Print.
Michael, Shermer. "Can You Hear Me Now?" Scientific American Oct. 2010: 98. Print.
Jenny Ashford - Jenny Ashford is a writer and graphic artist from central Florida. Her main area of interest in her Suite 101 articles is science, with a ...
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