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Cancer Center Warns Of Cell Phone Risks

hosted.ap.org — The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer

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insaincain02 83 days ago, made popular 82 days ago

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heysuburbia, on 07/24/2008, -4/+46And another medical university in Japan says the opposite:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23013780/

Life gives you cancer, either live in a bubble or die...

ARE YOU SCARED? Because you're on scare tactics!
- msaleem, on 07/24/2008, -1/+4The best way to go about tackling these studies is to see who they are sponsored by and who is funding them. I bet in a lot of cases that determines what the conclusions are.
  
  That's part of why Google want's to expose all scientific data sets. A lot of times if the results of the study aren't what the sponsor expected, they squash it and you never find out what happened (even proving the hypothesis to be false is very important to science).
- hiddencatch, on 07/25/2008, -3/+1so weird, cause i'm watching scare tactics as i'm reading this
- bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -1/+1Life DOES give you cancer. Just the list of KNOWN carcinogens in common products would make you ***** your pants and the suspected list is even higher. Cell phones are really the least of your concern.
mieprowan, on 07/24/2008, -0/+19This is the precautionary principle in action. There is no real way to know what new technologies/drugs/etc. will do to people except for trying them out on large numbers of us. You can choose to be one of the guinea pigs, or not. Unprecedented adverse effects aren't always ones that people could have or did imagine in advance.
- kat81, on 07/25/2008, -0/+3I'd like to give you an example to use: Artificial sweeteners. Took a good 20 years of over-using certain ones to notice a generation of people who suddenly had more cancer than the generation brought up before the overuse.
  - bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1To be more specific the metabolism of most artificial sweeteners produces small amounts of chemicals, the most damaging being methanol among others. The liver can deal with this for the most part but there is no question that it is highly toxic and carcinogenic. It's perhaps alarmist to suggest that it causes cancer in all circumstances but a packet of sugar isn't going to kill you and if it is then that's likely the least of your concerns.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1The public at large IS a test bed for everything the chemical industry has ever produced. While in general these things improve lives they are of questionable value in many products. It comes down to how much convenience you are willing to risk your health for but the problem is that none of these chemicals need to be proven safe before being used in common products unless it's being ingested as a drug or food additive. They are always removed from the market AFTER they start causing problems to human health and the environment.
diggstown, on 07/24/2008, -2/+26FTA: "The question is, do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."

So they have no evidence to prove that there is an adverse effect, there is plenty of research to show that there isn't an adverse effect, but they publish this?

Are you kidding me!?!? They don't know that anything is actually dangerous but they're issuing an official warning?

Clearly someone has an agenda here.
- louiebaur, on 07/24/2008, -0/+5For sure there is an agenda
- ralphthemagi, on 07/25/2008, -1/+3Damn anti-cellites.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2Newsflash.... NOTHING is safe until it's found out to be unsafe. Lead, mercury, and a host of other nasty chemicals used to be awesome until the health effects were known. And don't expect any company to be excited to let the public know that their licence to print money is a public health risk. I'm not suggesting cell phones cause cancer but don't expect the government or industry to protect you from something until people start dropping dead and even that won't stop a propaganda or green-washing campaign. People have such short memories.
  - ShakeWell, on 07/25/2008, -1/+1"NOTHING is safe until it's found out to be unsafe."
    
    ok
SHv2, on 07/24/2008, -0/+7What? I couldn't hear you. Can you repeat that?
Almadiel, on 07/24/2008, -1/+8We have become a society that responds more actively to imagined "possible" threats than we do to real known threats. Apparently science has become too mundane, and can't compete with sensational speculation.
Fangsinmybeard, on 07/24/2008, -3/+9IT must be significant, because no one can still explain why so many speed trap police officers ended up getting RF burns in their crotches , then later developing numerous forms of cancer in their crotches.
- Devilboy666, on 07/25/2008, -1/+8wat
- starmanfalls, on 07/25/2008, -0/+0Too bad they all didn't get cancer. Police officers are the enemy of freedom and free people in the USA. Absolute horrible group of assholes. The police do not serve anyone, except themselves and oh yeah MADD
roseyone17, on 07/24/2008, -8/+3if this is factual, it is a little scary
- ajb2015, on 07/25/2008, -2/+2really?
rearlgrant, on 07/24/2008, -2/+5The theory that vibrations cause cancer may have some scientific basis, but, as a girlfriend pointed out to me once, just like there are dummies in art, there are dummies in science... http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Odds_for_How_You_ll_Die
The most dangerous thing about a cell phone is the driver talking on it!

As well, it's not even possible to make a false conclusion based on correlation...
"More importantly, there was no evidence of increasing risk with increasing years of use or average minutes of use per day, nor did brain tumors among cellular phone users tend to occur more often than expected on the side of the head on which the person reported using their phone. Specifically, there was no indication of increased risk associated with use of a cell phone for one hour or more per day, for five or more years, or for cumulative use of more than 100 hours. These findings pertain to all three tumor types considered (glioma, meningioma, and acoustic neuroma)." http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/brain ...

Not blogspam. Ok presentation of data. http://www.revolutionhealth.com/conditions/cancer/ ...
Data @: http://www.cbtrus.org/
mattdanis, on 07/24/2008, -3/+15I thought the iPhone cured cancer...
- B1663r, on 07/25/2008, -1/+4No, it only offers eternal salvation...
- damian7, on 07/25/2008, -2/+2No, it is a cancer
- akula89, on 07/25/2008, -0/+3nope. causes cancer, cures AIDS.
  get your facts straight.
ordig, on 07/24/2008, -10/+7Good. People who talk on cell phones all the time deserve brain cancer.
- PainToad, on 07/25/2008, -7/+3You're either a hick, have no friends, or are not important
  - B1663r, on 07/25/2008, -2/+5I'm not a hic, I have plenty of friends, and am even mildly important. Habitually talking on your cell phone is akin to chewing gum with your mouth open.
- AJoseph, on 07/25/2008, -4/+3Dude, you're messed up... the fact that I share 99.999% of my DNA with you makes me contemplate killing myself on the off chance that reincarnation is real and I'll come back as something that's not even remotely related to you.
netneutrality, on 07/24/2008, -1/+8I sleep with my phone. And I never got dain-bramaged.
- Cuchanu, on 07/24/2008, -2/+8My phone is too small and has no vagina. Yours must be from Japan.
Nono1121, on 07/24/2008, -1/+22everything causes cancer
- dnields, on 07/25/2008, -2/+4Except cell phones.
Cuchanu, on 07/24/2008, -4/+3You know when the tumors start showing up maybe people will take it more seriously but considering how ape ***** most people are over their cell phones I don't see it changing too much. Besides with the incredible amount of radio waves invading our brains cell phones are just the icing on the cake.

I should sue cell phone providers and TV stations for their signals intruding my personal space.
- netneutrality, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2And next door's mal-encrypted wireless.
  - bjornski, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2An properly encrypted signal wouldn't affect you any differently.
- Speed, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2Except there is no evidence to suggest that cell phones cause cancer, and quite a bit of evidence to suggest that they don't.
  - Cuchanu, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1There is plenty of studies that go both ways. But there is no irrefutable evidence either way.
mdcraig62, on 07/25/2008, -2/+5EVERYONE STAY INSIDE AND DRAW YOUR CURTAINS! Oh wait, I forgot about radon...Mass suicide in 5...4...3...2...1...
Yambag, on 07/25/2008, -1/+10"Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data."
I bet money that data will not survive peer review. Considering how many billions of people around the world have cell phones, the cancer rate would have skyrocketed by now.
People are so afraid of radiation, but don't even bother to try an understand it. Guess what anything that moves emits radiation.
- ammundsen, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Yeah, but there could be some delay before the effects are seen. It generally takes years of smoking before cancer appears.
H0tKarl, on 07/25/2008, -4/+10We don't really know for sure if the sky is falling or not, but why risk it.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111 The sky!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's falling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pusod, on 07/25/2008, -2/+3Diggs a little late on this story. I count three days after I read it on cnn.com. Whats going on with this place!???
- bjornski, on 07/25/2008, -2/+1It can sometimes take over a day for a story to make it to front page.
  
  Quit whining.
  - bjornski, on 07/25/2008, -1/+1Why the diggs down?
    
    Know one of the only people who can get a story to the front page within 12 hours consistently? So you don't have to worry about "old news"?
    
    Your dreaded MrBabyMan.
    
    Your choice. Settle for something that might be over 12 hours old, or read MrBabyMan stories all day.
yourmanstan, on 07/25/2008, -1/+4"we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe" - herberman the idiot

Now i'm not going to do what everyone thinks i'm going to do and just FREAK OUT!
sugarazor, on 07/25/2008, -1/+6"He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields."

Great, now I gotta worry about second-hand cell phones? You're going to die someday, might as well die talking on a cell phone while smoking a cigarette and eating raw hamburger. Seriously though, call me when this has any sort of evidence besides, "well I think there's a possibility that maybe it might cause cancer!!!!"
JasonCox, on 07/25/2008, -1/+4Well, we're *****.

Hmm? Oh, this just in, a new government study so chocolate cures cance- oh, wait, now apparently cell phones plus chocolate equals instant dea- hrm? Ok, just ***** it. Everything is bad for you, we get it. Now go piss off while I stick my head in the microwave so I can glow in the dark.
PainToad, on 07/25/2008, -1/+6This has been said since the early 90s, and yet I don't see everyone with Brain Tumors.

I call Funding Grab attempt....yet again.
ralphthemagi, on 07/25/2008, -7/+2I'm surprised that anyone even doubts this. It seems as obvious to me as the fact that smoking causes cancer. Sure, it's not as pronounced... but if you smoke one cigarette you aren't going to get cancer either.

When you need an unlimited phone plan because your cell phone is taped to the side of your head for 8hrs a day... are you really going to be surprised when you get a brain tumor? OMG I HAD NO IDEA! I HAVE CANCER! WHAT? NO I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU! HOLD ON, I'M ON THE PHONE. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Disillusion, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2Isn't this the second time this has been on the front page today? wtf
fireinhole8, on 07/25/2008, -2/+2so the 80s ARE coming back. WOOT! where's my legwarmers?

god this has been around forever. ***** that
sonofinterest, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2How about Wifi? I have my router right next to my head here at my desk. Doomed!
- mugicha, on 07/25/2008, -0/+8I've got my router strapped to my balls. Do you think I'm at risk?
tnoy, on 07/25/2008, -2/+5I thought the iPhone cures cancer.
CCSprinter11, on 07/25/2008, -0/+4Yeah, like a little cancer threat is going to convince people that they *don't* need to be constantly connected. What is this, the stone age?
dasamps, on 07/25/2008, -4/+1Why are there people who think the sky is falling?

Cell phones don't give you cancer.

The warming the Earth is currently experiencing is normal, caused by the sun, and not caused by carbon dioxide or any other "greenhouse" gasses.

I'm a college student. I read a few books and did some other research. How do people that assert these ridiculous ideas feed, bathe, or dress themselves each day? Maybe they want to be a hero that badly?
- Antialias, on 07/25/2008, -2/+3How could the warming of the earth be caused by the sun when we've been experiencing low sun activity for the past few years?
- bjornski, on 07/25/2008, -3/+4George Bush was a college student too.
  
  It doesn't mean a lot.
- dasamps, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2Have you bothered to actually look at the figures?
  The temperature in the past year or two has, in fact, decreased (making global warming not happening?) with a marked decrease in solar activity over the last year or two. The Little Ice Age also coincided with a period of decreased solar activity. When you take into account the modulation of several solar cycles (one of which was recently discovered) it perfectly explains when each ice age occurred. Previously, no one had any idea why ice ages came on uneven, ever changing intervals. Not to mention the fact that from ice core samples, two different isotopes have been measured. The abundance of a heavy isotope of oxygen (indicator of how cold the Earth was) and a specific isotope of beryllium (indicator of the amount of cosmic rays the Earth received). If you graph the two abundances, it is easy to see that an increase in this beryllium isotope happens at the same time a decrease in the oxygen isotope occurs (for those with no brain power: more rays from the sun = hotter planet). But then, you would have had to pick up a book to know some of this.
  
  Good job believing whatever the hell is on the internet.
  
  Yes, well I am a college student with above a 3.0...I believe Bush was a C/D student.
- dasamps, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1icecap.us for some good information.
- bjornski, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2Well written, thanks.
  
  The only point I was making was saying "Yeah, but I'm a college student!" doesn't hold a lot of weight.
  
  Your grades and statement show you're not in that camp. Kudos.
  - dasamps, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I understand. It's just ridiculous sometimes how people get ideas in their head and are unwilling to hear anything else. I used to believe in global warming at one point....
deadbaby, on 07/25/2008, -1/+5Seems like an evolutionary thing to me. It seems like the people who have to compulsively talk on cell phones hours at a time are generally the type of people who would benefit society if they died of brain cancer. It's a win-win situation.
PainToad, on 07/25/2008, -1/+2Haven forbid someone has to talk to another person, would smoke signals suit you better. We wouldn't want to disturb you royal
soldeejay, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2I was in culinary school a while back and someone asked the teacher about non-stick pans, saying something like "I heard that if any of that scratches off and ends up in your food that it may be a cause of cancer, what do you think about them?"
The teacher responded "Well, they have their uses, and in those situations I will continue to use them. There are plenty of things in life that could kill me, I doubt it will be a frying pan."
tomarocco, on 07/25/2008, -0/+5Duct tape oughta fix that
Lunarbunny, on 07/25/2008, -0/+3There are much scarier forms of electromagnetic radiation in this universe; radio waves aren't even as high energy as visible light; simply the fact that they can penetrate deeper is probably the only reason anybody is scared.

Do cell phones even emit enough energy to ionize atoms with enough regularity to cause a real problem?
paulhendrixson, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2What is with our Western culture? We can't have anything useful without it being the next big killer or causing some unknown disease. Do we just feel the urge to constantly live in fear of everything?
- bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1I think the main problem is that too many people think of the world in terms of black and white when it's all shades of gray. The risks and potential benefits need to be objectively weighted rather than ignoring the existence of them.
  
  Pluming greatly advanced the roman civilization but it may have contributed to lead poisoning. Did that mean it was without merit?
kat81, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2And yes, this was already on Digg http://digg.com/health/Cancer_center_issues_warnin ...
And I must again remind people of various artificial sweeteners that they no longer use because it took a generation or so of over-use to realize the risk. Sometimes it takes 20-30 years of a generation overusing something to finally see the risks.
We'll know for sure in 20 years, when the teens today are 30-40 and maybe their generation has a 10% increase in the occurrence of brain tumors.
hokie47, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2I sometimes wonder if it is worth the risk. I mean here I have the phone in my pocket next to my balls for around 14 hours a day.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1In that case I hope you don't own a laptop or happen to actually USE IT on your lap.
Diggnabbit, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2I've got to say, this is probably not even true as others have pointed out.

But, even if it is true, so what? It's not like we're going to stop using them. There are plenty of technologies that carry a particular risk of death (cars, airplanes, etc.). We still use them because as a society we find them worth the risk/loss. Frnakly, cell phones are the same way. We value them so much that we're not going to give them up over something like this.
ismellfunny, on 07/25/2008, -1/+1im getting sick of wired's sh1t
quiggibub, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2EVERYTHING has the possibility to make you sick and kill you. No exceptions at all whatsoever. If that scares you, you're better off dying now and letting everyone else live their lives without you shouting at them they're going to catch a disease and die.
FireSlash, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Buried. This is just dumb. The article even goes as far as to claim the EM field could harm people near you. Considering the abundance of EM field emitting objects in our day to day lives (Like, oh, I don't know, a CD player), I think your friend's cell phone is the least of your concerns.
davilliu417, on 07/25/2008, -4/+1YES !!THIS IS true !!the cell phone is bad for our health !
!`!~! and the radiation will make the Cancer !
! IN THE WEB SITE#【BIGBISEXUAL.C O M】# you will know more about the realation that Cancer with cell phone !
but we can ues cell phone few ,we will health!!!
umbrellainabin, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1here we go again
tekkitan, on 07/25/2008, -0/+0DUPE
pencilneck, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1I hear that Big Cellphone is covering up the truth about how bad the cancer problem is. Big Cellphone controls the government as well. Besides, this is old news...again. According to ABC, we all need to be ***** terrified of playgrounds because the surfaces get hot in direct sunlight! Holly ***** news! ***** in the sun gets hot!?!
Roshani, on 07/25/2008, -1/+1i do use mobile phone too randomly and use to get headache but then i kept my cell of during night. So added this tip on my blog.http://www.healthtip.info/
health119, on 07/25/2008, -1/+0health talk MY blog

http://www.all-healthtalk.com/
lektroluv, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Damn it! I JUST saw a Penn & Teller episode where they told me I was safe!
adamk0310, on 07/27/2008, -0/+21. How many of you know someone who had a car accident while talking on a cell phone?
2. How many of you know someone who died from brain cancer due to talking on a cell phone?

Prioritize, people!
englander, on 08/05/2008, -0/+0For those who think that this is a real risk, or that there is a plausible correlation between tumors and cellphone usage, you can start using preventive measures like:
1. Keep the phone away from your body when you are not using it
2. Switch sides when using the cellphone for extended periods
3. Limit your conversations on the cellphone

For more tips, you can visit this webpage:
http://www.tiphub.com/ViewTopic.php?topicId=91
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Cancer Center Warns Of Cell Phone Risks

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