Cancer from your mobile: Do you believe in it?

Needler · 24-07-2011 03:42AM #1

Every now and then a study comes out about this but many are inconclusive. Perhaps the mobile phone industry is paying for these studies to become inconclusive because the industry suffer quite badly if it was proven that mobile phones cause cancer.

I'm not sure what to believe myself. I could take the latest study that says phones do/don't/maybe cause cancer or I could wait for the next one to come out which has a more favourable result

starbelgrade · 24-07-2011 03:44AM

Everything gives you cancer these days.

Overheal · 24-07-2011 03:46AM

I reckon all the radio and microwaves we've started transmitting all over the spectrum in the last century have had to have had some impact. Not just on us but on the environment. But does that mean your cell phone is giving off enough or any ionizing radiation to give you cancer? I don't know.

later12 · 24-07-2011 03:51AM

I know this is ridiculously anecdotal - and I only mention it because I haven't looked into the *actual* evidence. But whenever I was dating, I always had a far greater incidence of headache, which I felt was related to how much time I spent with my ear to the phone.

Now perhaps people will conclude that there were other externalities at play here, personally I felt my headaches were strongly related to the actual phone use, but I may be quite wrong on this.

As for the cancer morbidity, I don't know...

Needler · 24-07-2011 03:55AM

later10 wrote: »

But whenever I was dating, I always had a far greater incidence of headache,

I heard these stories about people getting headaches from phones before from people I know but I'd say in your case it was the women wrecking your head

wonderfulname · 24-07-2011 03:56AM

Quite frankly nobody knows, they haven't been around long enough for us to see if there is in fact an effect that can be directly attributed to their use. This is back in the limelight after WHO published a report a few weeks ago saying they are a possible carcinogen, just like just about everything else then...

seanybiker · 24-07-2011 03:56AM

Needler wrote: »

I heard these stories about people getting headaches from phones before from people I know but I'd say in your case it was the women wrecking your head

grrrr way to go robbing what i was gonna say.

Capt'n Midnight · 24-07-2011 04:05AM

4 billion people use mobile phones and so far no one has shown a definitive link.

Phones do get warm in use.
Holding anything up to your ear will also make it feel warmer, and if you persipire it will be wetter, both conducive to the growth of microorgaisms.
When was the last time you sanitised your phone ???

If you want to reduce the radiation from mobile phones
- simply setup more masts so the phones and masts don't have to shout as loud to communicate with each other.
- Ban the sale and use of any device that claims to block mobile phone radiation as the phones will just ramp up the power to break through any barrier.

Cars kill nearly one person a day , they aren't banned

we haven't banned exposure to sunlight either.

one of my weaknesses is burnt toast

And we've done nothing about the threat from cosmic rays

Oxygen is mutagenic and we still allow it :pac:

cgordonfreeman · 24-07-2011 04:31AM

I always keep my phone in my left pants pocket.

Now I have no left testicle*.

Coincidence?

*Because of cancer
I voted no by the way.

vampire of kilmainham · 24-07-2011 06:03AM

i dont give a a fcuk anyway

Capt'n Midnight · 24-07-2011 12:57PM

wonderfulname wrote: »

Quite frankly nobody knows, they haven't been around long enough for us to see if there is in fact an effect that can be directly attributed to their use. This is back in the limelight after WHO published a report a few weeks ago saying they are a possible carcinogen, just like just about everything else then...

update

Actually there are overfive billion mobile phones subscriptions. Almost every adult has one at this stage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10569081 -six billion by middle of next year

We don't know if any of the five billion mobile phone users will catch cancer from the phone. We do know that in all likely hood 650,000,000 of them will probably die of cancer because that's what causes 13% of deaths worldwide.

Possibly more lives are saved by being able to ring the Samaratins or a close friend for a chat than the threshold of detection of a cancer effect even if you could find one. Also a lot of lives are saved by being able to ring the emergency services while away from a landline and having the triangulation from a base station, a lot of lives have been saved in poorer countires by using mobile phones with a text app / java app to collect medical data for central processing, rural health practicioners can get diagnosis and treatment quickly and cheaply.

It is very likely that cancer is one of the lower risks of using a mobile phone. Car crashes and accidents caused by distraction in their use are statisticaly proven. Probably more people have been killed by having a phone fall under the brake pedal than could be detected as having a higher cancer risk.

BTW bluetooth uses higher photon energy radiation than mobile phones. BUT it uses less of it and besides that radiation has lower energy photons than than the radiation emitted by all objects at room temperature. Einstein got his 1903 Nobel prize for the photoelectic effect, ie. photons of a higher frequency have more energy and can cause greater effects than those of lower energy. So when you sunbathe you are esposing your self to about 500 Watts of high energy radition, that is proven to cause cancer.

Mike 1972 · 24-07-2011 01:00PM

Phones -Possibly (but only with heavy use) but unlikely
Masts -No way

Anyone who protests the construction of mobile phone masts while owning a phone themselves is an idiot.

Calibos · 24-07-2011 01:11PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Phones -Possibly (but only with heavy use) but unlikely
Masts -No way

Anyone who protests the construction of mobile phone masts while owning a phone themselves is an idiot.

I die a little inside when I see another protest about masts. As someone said earlier, we want more masts not less so that the transmitter power can be turned down even lower.

I have always asked people to consider the fact that these cancer blackspots and resulting protests never seem to occur around masts in more affluent/educated areas only in more deprived areas. ie. diet and lifestyle are the prime factors in these cancer blackspots not a phone mast.

CrazyRabbit · 24-07-2011 01:13PM

Reading those studies gives you cancer.

Einhard · 24-07-2011 01:15PM

later10 wrote: »

I know this is ridiculously anecdotal - and I only mention it because I haven't looked into the *actual* evidence. But whenever I was dating, I always had a far greater incidence of headache, which I felt was related to how much time I spent with my ear to the phone.

Or more likely down to the fact that you had a girlfriend nagging you over every little thing!:D

Pj! · 24-07-2011 01:17PM

later10 wrote: »

But whenever I was dating, I always had a far greater incidence of headache

We all get that.

Biggins · 24-07-2011 01:18PM

I don't know what to believe - but I'm very hesitant about accepting reports supplied by the phone makers testers, that say they might support they paymasters statements that their products do no harm - and I'm not just talking about phones.

DHYNZY · 24-07-2011 01:22PM

I read a while back that mobile phone use lowers Alzeimers progression, the radiation zaps the plaque that builds up on the brain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8443541.stm

After all the concern over possible damage to health from using mobile phones, scientists have found a potential benefit from radiation.
Their work has been carried out on mice, but it suggests mobiles might protect against Alzheimer's.

wonderfulname · 24-07-2011 01:24PM

Mice with mobiles! Savage...

robman60 · 24-07-2011 01:30PM

I wouldn't be all that surprised really.

Also, does anyone else here get a really sharp pain in your ear after talking on the phone? It's been happening me for quite a while now and I'm beginning to wonder what it is.

landsleaving · 24-07-2011 01:33PM

http://snipsnip.it/a81t42k420s

Cat Melodeon · 24-07-2011 01:34PM

I'd be skeptical about a link until there is hard evidence, but at the same time, I don't keep my phone in my pocket and I use a hands free set when possible. My family is riddled with cancer of all sorts, no point in taking chances that can be avoided.

theboss80 · 24-07-2011 01:35PM

The Cancer App

Agricola · 24-07-2011 01:49PM

Everything in moderation = much less lightly to get cancer.

Same for phones Id say. Cut down your daily use as much as possible, maybe cut some people of mid sentence from time to time. You'll buy yourself afew extra years.

Kensington · 24-07-2011 02:00PM

Don't really believe it.

We're at greater risk from cancer these days due to lifestyles - poor diet, poor exercise, smoking.

Besides, most people would think nothing of planting a laptop with WiFi on their laps for a few hours, or the fact their WiFi router and all their neighbours are on all day, every day, always transmitting, unlike a phone.

wonderfulname · 24-07-2011 02:03PM

Kensington wrote: »

Besides, most people would think nothing of planting a laptop with WiFi on their laps for a few hours...

Curse you...

saa · 24-07-2011 02:04PM

I don't think its a good idea to point blank believe they can't, there isn't any clear evidence so I'm guessing the risk is rather low (fingers crossed). Using aerosol deodorant or having sex is more of a high risk activity statistically so I'm wary, keeping an open mind to new information about it but still haven't thrown out my phone, yet.

GhostInTheRuins · 24-07-2011 02:12PM

Yeah I believe it. In fact I'm convinced that it was using an old ****ty nokia 6610 for the last 7 years that gave me a brain tumour right behind my right ear.

Coincidence and just bad luck? Possibly, but I don't think so.

Radharc na Sleibhte · 24-07-2011 02:20PM

One day i had my phone in my trouser pocket.
Felt a massive tingle in my sack.
Next thing i get a text message.

Naikon · 24-07-2011 02:32PM

No real credible evidence in support of this theory. I am going to say "No".

Zapho · 24-07-2011 02:35PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Anyone who protests the construction of mobile phone masts while owning a phone themselves is an idiot.

It amazes me just how many people protest masts, but :
1. Don't actually know what they look like and how small they really are.
2. Don't realise how many there are around them anyway.

My favourite NO O2 MAST HERE sign was placed on a tree just outside O'Briens Bridge, Co Clare - right across the road from a GIANT cross-country ESB pylon. You could have put the O2 mast on the pylon and never even noticed it, that pylon was hideous!

I voted no, btw. There hasn't been an increase in cancer rates following the world wide adoption of the mobile phone - even in the early and mid 90s when the phones had more powerful radios than they do now. I've been very interested in this debate as I used to work a bit in telecomms but now work in the biomedical industry.

Cancer from your mobile: Do you believe in it?

Do you believe phones cause cancer? 181 votes

Comments