To be totally honest, I stopped listening about a minute ago
A major international study into the link between cell phone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive.
A 10-year survey of almost 13,000 participants found most cell phone use didn’t increase the risk of developing meningioma — a common and frequently benign tumor — or glioma — a rarer but deadlier form of cancer.
There were suggestions that using cell phones for more than 30 minutes each day could increase the risk of glioma, the study by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said. But the authors added that “biases and error prevent a causal interpretation” that would directly blame radiation for the tumor.
{ AP/Star Tribune | Continue reading }
The latest volley in this fray was released yesterday in the form of a new report of the results of an ongoing study examining whether there is a correlation between cell phone use and cancer. For once, news reports seem to be getting it right in that the results are “inconclusive.” Of course, I would have been shocked if the results had been conclusive. Based on this study, there are two things I can say with confidence. First, it will settle nothing, and, second, it will be attacked by those who, despite all the evidence against it and the incredible implausibility of a link between cell phones and cancer, deeply believe that there is just such a link. No doubt such attacks will include a mention that part of the funding for the study came from the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum (MMF) and the GSM Association, both industry groups. True, the funding from these organizations went first through a “firewall mechanism,” but that won’t stop the criticisms.
related { Cellphones now used more for data than for calls. }
