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Cell phones and cancer

ksbluesfan

Graduate Poster
ksbluesfan
Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
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Never heard of Dr. Oz before, but according to Wikipedia:

Oz and his wife, a reiki practitioner, are believers in alternative medicine....Appearing in surgical scrubs on the show's set in Chicago, Oz has promoted self-described energy based practices such as acupuncture on the show
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz)

Granted that's not definitive proof, but it should be a guide regarding Dr. Oz's overal credibility.
 
The only reason anybody knows Dr. Oz is because he was a regular on Oprah. I'm sure she picked him because he's a science-first kind of doctor.

None the less, there were studies that suggested a link. Even Bob Park acknowledges that. He doesn't agree, but he knows the studies exist.
 
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ksbluesfan said:
The only reason anybody knows Dr. Oz is because he was a regular on Oprah.
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You mean one of those fancy singers?

Oh, sorry, thought you meant Opera.
I'm sure she picked him because he's a science-first kind of doctor.
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My Irony meter just exploded.
None the less, there were studies that suggested a link. Even Bob Park acknowledges that. He doesn't agree, but he knows the studies exist.
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Actually, I think I've seen such studies myself, but they've either A: been flawed, or B: been un-reproducable.

From: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/conten...8156453940_1359&FIRSTINDEX=0&journalcode=jama
...use of handheld cellular telephones is not associated with risk of brain cancer

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16008077?dopt=Abstract
Currently, the balance of evidence from epidemiological studies suggests that there is no association between mobile phone radiation and cancer.
 
Even if there was such a connection (and I think the preponderance of evidence is that there is not) it is obvious that the effect is very, very small. There are many other things in the World with a higher potential risk of death. Don't drive, take public transit, go out in the street. You will be even safer hiding in your basement (unless the radon gets you :().
 
Stephan King wrote a novel called "Cell" in which a pulse on a Cell Phone turns people into homicidal,zombie like manaics who attack any normal person they see. (Yeah, it's King's Zombie Novel more or less).
You are in as much danger of that happening as of getting Cancer from a Cell Phone.
 
Oprah and Dr. Oz are part of the Great Endarkenment. They should be sent to Guantanamo and waterboarded until they see reason.

The study might have been the infamous Interphone study.

The Interphone researchers are split into three camps. One believes any increased incidence of tumours shown in the study is purely the result of the biases. Another thinks it really has found increased risks of certain tumours and wants to call for precautionary measures. A third group is just keeping quiet. One person who knows many of the scientists, but prefers not to be named, describes the relations between members of the three groups as “strained”—harsh language in the world of scientific research.
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Economist

Dr. Oz has convinced a friend of mine that she has to examine her poop everytime she has a bowel movement. He has a lot to answer for.
 
It's my understanding that high energy (ionizing) radiation can cause cancer and low energy radiation (non-ionizing) does not and that cell phone radiation of low energy radiation and thus does not cause cancer.

But visible light is radiation too. It's my understanding...correct me if I'm wrong...that visible light is lower energy than the dangerous stuff (UV rays, x-rays, gamma rays) and higher energy than cell phones, radio waves. Specifically, visible light is about a million times more energetic than visible light.

Isn't visible light hitting us constantly? If you look at something red then red visible light is striking your eye. But even if you're not looking at it, the light from it is still hitting your body. I mean, the thing is red even when you're not looking at it. And that goes for everything. If there are 50 things in the room with you and the lights in the room are on then even if your eyes are closed you are constantly being bombarded with radiation of the intensity of visible light. The light is still hitting your body. Right?

So why would adding a cell phone, which has waves one-millionth as powerful as all the waves of the other objects, be any more dangerous?

The only problem with my little theory is that there must be more to the cell phones than just the waves because they do generate a bit of heat when they're on (I think...I don't actually own one...not because I'm afraid of it giving me cancer but just because I'm a dinosaur).

So anyway, can someone that knows this subject better give me some enlightenment on these issues?
 
Beady said:
I've alrerady had prostate cancer, I used to smoke, I use a cell phone and I cast lead bullets. What are *my* odds?
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I don't know, but I'm afraid I might get cancer from posting in the same thread as you...
 
There are real dangers to using cellphones.
Primary amongst these are walking into lampposts, crashing cars and getting smacked by irate passengers on trains who have heard all they can stand of cellphone conversational drivel.
"I'm on the train."
I know. I'm standing beside you.
 
Number Six said:
It's my understanding that high energy (ionizing) radiation can cause cancer and low energy radiation (non-ionizing) does not and that cell phone radiation of low energy radiation and thus does not cause cancer.

But visible light is radiation too. It's my understanding...correct me if I'm wrong...that visible light is lower energy than the dangerous stuff (UV rays, x-rays, gamma rays) and higher energy than cell phones, radio waves. Specifically, visible light is about a million times more energetic than visible light.

Isn't visible light hitting us constantly? If you look at something red then red visible light is striking your eye. But even if you're not looking at it, the light from it is still hitting your body. I mean, the thing is red even when you're not looking at it. And that goes for everything. If there are 50 things in the room with you and the lights in the room are on then even if your eyes are closed you are constantly being bombarded with radiation of the intensity of visible light. The light is still hitting your body. Right?

So why would adding a cell phone, which has waves one-millionth as powerful as all the waves of the other objects, be any more dangerous?

The only problem with my little theory is that there must be more to the cell phones than just the waves because they do generate a bit of heat when they're on (I think...I don't actually own one...not because I'm afraid of it giving me cancer but just because I'm a dinosaur).

So anyway, can someone that knows this subject better give me some enlightenment on these issues?
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Oops, dumb typo by me at the end of the 2nd paragraph that someone pointed it to me. It should instead be

"Specifically, visible light is about a million times more energetic than the the EM waves used by cell phones." Or something similar.
 
The only problem with my little theory is that there must be more to the cell phones than just the waves because they do generate a bit of heat when they're on (I think...I don't actually own one...not because I'm afraid of it giving me cancer but just because I'm a dinosaur).
Click to expand...

That's mostly heat due to the resistance/reactance of the components (including the battery) conducting an electrical current.
 
Orac has this to say about cellphones and cancer:

Indeed, from a biological standpoint, a strong link between cell phone use and brain cancer (or any other cancer) is not very plausible at all; in fact, it's highly implausible. Cell phones do not emit ionizing radiation; they emit electromagnetic radiation in the microwave spectrum whose energy is far too low to cause the DNA damage that leads to mutations that lead to cancer. While it is possible that perhaps heating effects might contribute somehow to cancer, most cell phones, at least ones manufactured in the last decade or so, are low power radio transmitters. It is also necessary to acknowledge the possibility that there might be an as yet undiscovered biological mechanism by which low power radio waves can cause cancer, perhaps epigenetic or other, but the evidence there is very weak to nonexistent as well. Basically, based on what we know about carcinogenesis, a postulated link between cell phones and cancer is highly implausible. It's not homeopathy-level implausible, but it's pretty implausible nonetheless, perhaps approaching acupuncture-level implausible. Consequently, in the absence of much better evidence that suggests a mechanism or a "smoking gun" study linking cell phone use with cancer, I have a very hard time indeed managing to muster much enthusiasm about recommending more studies above and beyond the ones that are already being carried out, at least until we start to see some less confusing results. Yet recommend a lot more studies is exactly what this report does.
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http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/05/the_presidents_cancer_panel_steps_into_i.php#more]
 
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