Cell phones pose no long term health risk?

On Tuesday, we found a study which opined that frequent cell phone use can improve concentration, though it impairs overall brain activity. Today, The Independent has published a story citing a UK investigation into cell phone healthy safety. What they’ve found is nothing. That is, no evidence that cell phone use can adversely affect your health. But, as we’ve all heard throughout the years, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Studies are far-reaching, but far from complete. And already scientists have warnings against cell phone use.

In particular, children should not use cell phones (we agree). Their brains aren’t fully developed, and as such more prone to any damage potentially caused by cell phone usage. If it can impair their long-term health and there are no practical reasons for a child to have one, well, that should be self-explanatory.

The research, which is evenly co-funded by the Government and the mobile phone industry but is independently run, included 28 studies, of which 23 are complete. It found no association between short-term mobile phone use and brain cancer and studies on volunteers showed no evidence that brain function, including memory and reaction times, was affected.

So this stands in contrast to the reports published earlier this week. However, it seems that they’re not studying the exact same thing. Concentration was seen to improve in frequent mobile phone users not because of any radiation generated by the device, but rather the training of the brain to cut out distractions while on the phone. Likewise, brain activity was seen to decrease, we think, because talking on the phone is kind of mindless.

There was no evidence that use of the phones had biological effects on cells. Exposure to base stations also had no effect but a study of cancer incidence in children under five living near base stations is continuing.

That’s good to know, we suppose. However, the problem with all of these studies is that they don’t cover a long enough span of time. We’re seemingly safe in the short-term, but we still don’t know what’s going to happen to us 10, 20 years down the road. It’s not like we have precedent to fall back on.

Still, the more studies that emerge on this topic, the better. We need as much perspective on this as possible, since, you know, it’s kind of a big deal.

[The Independent]

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2 Responses

1. Ethan Says
   

   This was a most engaging read.
   I think that the brain cancer is caused by the uses of cellphone.

   
   Posted on September 14th, 2007 at 2:28 am
2. Study says cells cause hearing damage | Prepaid Reviews Says
   

   [...] suppose it’s the season for releasing scientific studies. Last week, it was one regarding cell phone use and brain function. Thankfully for heavy cell users, there was no correlation found between the usage of the former [...]

   
   Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 9:09 am

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