"Do Cell Phones Cause Salivary Gland Tumors?"
A summary of studies found no acute effects of cell phone radiation,
like nausea/headaches/ dizziness/fatigue,
but they were just looking at the short-term effects,
not considering any of the data
on the potential long-term effects.
No acute effects, so future research efforts
should concentrate on possible chronic effects.
I’ve explored the studies on brain tumors
and on the effects of the auditory nerve in the ear,
but that’s not all there is on the side of your head.
There’s your brain, your ear, and your parotid gland,
the big salivary gland right next to your ear.
About 1 in a thousand people develop salivary gland cancer
in their lifetime, so the question is:
does cell phone use increase the chances
of parotid gland tumor development?
Well, if you have 100 people drool into a test tube,
the saliva of those who use a cell phone
more than an hour a day does appear to have
significantly less antioxidant capacity
than those who talk less.
So, considering the major protective role
of antioxidants to protect against free-radical-induced DNA damage
that can lead to cancer,
this could be a potential route by which cell phone
increases salivary tumor risk.
But this was just an observational study.
Maybe those who are on their phones all day
tend to eat worse diets than those who talk less?
This study is a little more convincing.
They found that saliva taken from the salivary gland
on the side of the head they were using
the phone on had higher levels of inflammatory markers
compared to saliva taken from the same person,
but just from the non- phone side of their head.
Now this increase in inflammation isn’t necessarily
from the cell phone radiation, but may just be from the heat
generated by the phone.
Just pressing anything warm against your face
for an hour a day might not be good for your glands.
Does the increased oxidation and inflammation
actually translate out into cytogenetic abnormalities,
meaning cell and chromosomal abnormalities in your mouth?
Those who use cell phones a lot do appear
to have an increased number of broken eggs
in their tongues.
What?!
That’s a rather playful description of a cytogenetic abnormality
associated with cancer.
OK, but what we really care about
is cancer cancer.
“Does cell phone use increase the chances
of parotid gland tumor development?”
This is the first systematic review ever published
to evaluate that, and…
cell phone use does appear to be associated with increased risk.
This is a good time to explore absolute versus relative risk.
If you were asked whether you’d be willing
to take a daily pill to reduce your chances
of dying from a heart attack by 50%
you might jump at it, but if you’re so young
and healthy that your risk of that is only like 2 in a thousand
over the next 10 or 20 years, then taking those 5,000
or so pills may not be worth it for you,
to go from 2 in a 1000, to 1 in a 1000.
50% sounds great, but if you’re talking a really
rare event then it’s less exciting.
So, even if cell phones did increase risk 28%,
then a lifetime of cell phone use would only increase your risk
of getting such a tumor from a 1 in 1,400 chance
to about a 1 in 1,100 chance.
If you want to reduce your risk, though,
both the heat and cell phone emissions
are largely a local phenomenon, so you can use of a speakerphone
or headset to reduce exposure,
or you can do more texting.
Basically, until we know more, the adoption of such precautions
is not unreasonable, particularly among young people;
something that concerns some researchers enough
to recommend young children consider minimizing
their use altogether.