Though the evidence is contested, indeed many will argue highly contested, research studies on the effect of mobile phone use on cancer, especially those funded by the industry, continue to suggest there is no danger. Indeed, some scientists argue that non-ionizing radiation typical of cell phone use could not cause cancer. The problem is that not every study suggests there is no correlation.
Regular use of mobile telephones does increase the risk of developing tumors, a new study by Israeli researchers published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds.
An extract of the report reported by
The risk was still higher if users clamped the phone to the same ear, did not use hands-free devices or were in rural areas.
The study included 402 benign and 58 malignant incident cases of parotid gland tumor diagnosed in
The research was led by Dr Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer and radiation expert at the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in
Note that levels of usage identified as dangerous were 22 hours a month. As with many other studies, the potential danger has to be kept in perspective: sometimes it takes really unusual dosages of an irritant to trigger a negative result. In this case, we are talking about 44 minutes of use in a 30-day month. That won't appear excessive to many dispassionate observers.
Some researchers (such as Friedman and Richter)point out that there is a high degree of potential conflict of interest in the funding of studies showing that cell phone usage is safe.
Studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association during 2001, for example, found a strong association for studies whose authors had an economic conflict of interest and also reported there is no danger from cell phone use. The association between industry-funded research and findings of "no threat" were associated with a greater than 99.9 percent level of confidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment