I have been suspecting possibilities of it for a long time, with people increasingly getting cancer, and increasingly using cell phones. It doesn't take much work to put 1+1=2. I'm guilty, because I use the cell phone a bit. But I've seriously cut down over the last year or so ... I actually let it go to voicemail at certain times. People have thought I was being rude, but "me time" is a concept that everybody has lost thanks to the OBSESSION with cell phones. Not the technology itself, but the obsession to keep in touch.
One of my friends is older. He uses a cell phone only when needed as well, and prefers landline. The only time I use landline (because mine has a lot of static in it), on the other hand, is when my cell can't get a signal. But I do miss not having to worry if people can hear me clearly.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Ed Yourdon.
I’m kind of curious about (and a little disturbed by) the recent news that the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has reversed its previous position that cell phones are safe, and has added them to the list of big, bad potential cancer-causing concerns (PDF).
Cell phones are now up there with lead, engine exhaust, coffee, and chloroform. I mean, call me crazy, but I feel a lot safer placing a call on my iPhone (maybe with a nice cup of Joe in the other hand) than I would snacking on the paint chips from my grandparent’s window sills, or breathing in the black cloudy fumes billowing from a belching tailpipe.
My first reaction to the news was incredulity and slight annoyance. Remember how, in the late 70s, Sweet’N Low was demonized as cancer causing (only to be removed from the list in the U.S. around twenty years later), while in the mid-80s much scarier sweeteners like aspartame were shadily rubber-stamped by the FDA?
Doesn’t everything cause cancer? Don’t we have enough to be afraid of? What’s up with the focus on cell phones? It just doesn’t sit right with me.
A few of my thoughts and questions on the issue
As a nurse, my first question is, how real is this threat? What should I tell my clients when they ask?
Doesn’t fear of cancer cause anxiety? Anxiety is a health issue in and of itself. Cancer is a serious, heartbreaking disease. We’ve all lost loved ones to it. So we worry a lot about it, and stress worsens health.
Will saying cell phones may cause cancer have any positive impact at all on public health? Will it change people’s behavior with cell phones?
If you thought prying a cup of coffee or a cigarette out of someone’s hand is hard, just try prying away someone’s Android phone! It has been interesting, in the past four years so, watching the request to turn off cell phones in certain public situations go from being viewed as normal and understandable, to being considered a ridiculous and rude imposition.
Does anyone stand to benefit from the decision to call cell phones out as possibly carcinogenic? If so, how? Of course, there’s the non-cynical answer of an increase in public awareness of a potential hazard. On the dark side, possibilities include attention, press, political axe-grinding, and money. Who loses and who gains (besides possibly the lawyers)?
Cigarette companies knew their product caused cancer way before they admitted it. That’s known. Costly lawsuits did arise. What are the legal and financial implications of adding cell phones to the list of carcinogenic hazards? Why now? Who will be suing who? What impact will this announcement have on the tech economy?
It hasn’t really been proven that cell phones actually cause brain cancer. We would expect to see a huge upswing in brain cancer cases to match the huge upswing in cell phone use. If such a cause were completely evident, we’d be seeing some very different news stories today, stories that involve a lot less “may”, “might”, and “possibly”.
