Cellphones cause cancer?

There is a rumor that cell phones (no matter who makes it) can possibly cause cancer. I wonder if anyone has done a correlation between cellphone use and the increase in cancer cases. Surprised their have not been ads in the media about this.

[tokenuser]

Originally Posted by computoman

There is a rumor that cell phones (no matter who makes it) can possibly cause cancer. I wonder if anyone has done a correlation between cellphone use and the increase in cancer cases. Surprised their have not been ads in the media about this.

This hits the news from time to time, but the latest research is that the rumor is a crock.

Here is the latest fact sheet (5/2010) from the NCI.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/f...isk/cellphones

What? Don't trust the government?? How about ScientificAmerican (a popSci writeup of the current research).
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ou-hear-me-now

[tehboris]

However, mobile phones do use microwaves to communicate, the same microwaves that microwaves use to cook food. The key difference been the amount of energy put in to them. Still, you'd probably be better off avoiding using the phone for longer periods of time near your head.

I'm not saying it will cause any harm, I'm just saying it's not a good idea to walk around with a microwave transmitter next to your head.

[tokenuser]

Originally Posted by tehboris

However, mobile phones do use microwaves to communicate, the same microwaves that microwaves use to cook food. The key difference been the amount of energy put in to them. Still, you'd probably be better off avoiding using the phone for longer periods of time near your head.

I'm not saying it will cause any harm, I'm just saying it's not a good idea to walk around with a microwave transmitter next to your head.

That's perpetuating the myth. They use radio frequencies to communicate, not microwaves. A microwave is just a radio frequency with a very specific frequency. The frequency that cell phones operate at have been shown to not put out enough energy at any frequency that does harm at a cellular level. It is true that they do overlap in spectrum (1GHz-100GHz is where a microwave works, while a Cellphone tops out at 1.9GHz), but that says nothing about the other part of the equation - amplitude.

The whole argument about cellphones heating up while you use them being caused by microwave emissions is flawed too. Cellphones for the most art live in a power save (standby state). Like a computer, they get hot when doing work. If you put your hand over your ear the area under your hand will get hot. It radiants heat. The cellphone is doing the same thing.

[masherscf]

The idea that if a lot of something is bad then little amounts of the same must be a little bad has been debunked for awhile.

Small amounts of some poisons administered over time can create an immunity. Small amounts of weak virus enhance are regularly injected into small children to help them fight desease. Shit, we need water to live and too much of it will kill you.

Cellphones emit small amounts of radio frequency radiation. That fact that large amounts of this radiation will fry your brain is not proof that small amounts are harmful at all.

Not saying that cellphones aren't all going to kill us. I'm just saying that we'll have to wait twenty years to find out.

[revision3fan]

Originally Posted by tokenuser

That's perpetuating the myth. They use radio frequencies to communicate, not microwaves. A microwave is just a radio frequency with a very specific frequency. The frequency that cell phones operate at have been shown to not put out enough energy at any frequency that does harm at a cellular level. It is true that they do overlap in spectrum (1GHz-100GHz is where a microwave works, while a Cellphone tops out at 1.9GHz), but that says nothing about the other part of the equation - amplitude.

The whole argument about cellphones heating up while you use them being caused by microwave emissions is flawed too. Cellphones for the most art live in a power save (standby state). Like a computer, they get hot when doing work. If you put your hand over your ear the area under your hand will get hot. It radiants heat. The cellphone is doing the same thing.

I don't think there are any good studies of the physiological effects of long term microwave exposure - especially low-power exposure, i.e. standby mode on a cellphone with occasional talk time.

Microwave ovens operate around 2450 MHz, 2.45 GHz, in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical band. The ISM band is also used by 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi and 2.4 GHz cordless phones. (That's the reason why microwave ovens interfere with these particular Wi-Fi and cordless devices). Many of the early cellphone studies from the 1980s dealt with radiation in the 850 MHz (in the US) band. The US opened up the 1900 MHz band in the mid-1990s. When Wi-Fi devices became common in the 2000s, the radiation studies did not keep up.

The 2450 MHz band is good at heating liquid water, fat and sugar. There was a British doctor that warned against children placing Wi-Fi laptop computers on their laps due to radiation concerns.