Are cell phones risky?
Cell phones are everywhere. There are over six billion cell phone subscriptions
worldwide - nearly one for every man, woman, and child on the planet.
And many people claim they can no longer live without them.
But are they safe?
Is it possible that something so near and dear to us could be risky?
And if so, what kind of risk would it be?
For starters,
Most cell phones these days use lithium- ion batteries, which, as a previous Risk
Bites explored, can present a fire risk if you abuse them.
But so long as you don't treat your phone like a racketball, you're probably
okay.
Then there's the non-ionizing radiation.
Like other wireless electronic appliances,
cell phones use high-frequency radio waves to do their thing.
These radio waves allow the phone to communicate with satellites, computers,
and other phones, which in turn allow us to communicate with each other.
What makes cell phones different from other wireless appliances is that we
have a habit of holding them next to our heads.
So it's perhaps not surprising
that researchers have asked if there is any risk associated with extended exposure
to cell phone radiation.
To put it bluntly, they want to know: can cell phones give you brain cancer?
Researchers in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, and other
countries have been looking into the question since cell phones first hit the
market in the nineteen eighties.
For years, they have tracked cases of phone usage and brain cancer across time
and geography.
After decades of research and massive studies using hundreds of thousands of
people from multiple countries, the answer
is a resounding: probably not.
In two thousand and eleven,
the World Health Organization pulled together a group of experts from around
the world
to review the available data on cell phone radio waves and cancer.
Their conclusion?
The vast majority of evidence shows no increase risk associated with cell
phone use. However,
a slender few reports did find a slight association between cell phone use
and cancer.
So, the WHO, being a cautious body, declared cell phone radio wave emissions
to be
possible human carcinogen.
What does this mean?
Simply that the isn't enough evidence to be sure either way - we can't say that cell
phones are unsafe.
But we can't say that cell phones are one hundred-percent entirely safe yet either.
That may sound scary, but before you cancel your phone subscription, consider that
this category of possible carcinogens also includes coffee and pickled
vegetables.
Surprisingly,
the best studied risk associated with cell phones comes not from the phone
itself, but from the distraction it causes to drivers
We'll dive into that another time.
But until then,
don't forget to subscribe and stay safe.
And whatever you do, don't watch Risk Bites while driving!