There has been a major development regarding the health effects of cell phone radiation. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has issued a news release indicating that after reviewing several scientific studies it has concluded that the radiation from cell phones and other wireless communication devices is "possibly carcinogenic (cancer-causing) to humans." This is "based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer associated with wireless phone use." The considerable significance of this characterisation is that it places cell phone radiation in the same carcinogenic category as the banned pesticide DDT, gasoline engine exhaust and lead. WHO had previously insisted that "no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use" and now appears to have succumbed to the pressure of the many scientific groups and individuals such as myself who have consistently argued on the basis of published scientific data that cell phone radiation was injurious to health.
For example, in a letter published in 2007, I cited a study by a group of Swedish scientists who examined over 900 cancer patients from 1997 to 2003 and found that those who have used a mobile or cordless phone for more than one hour a day over a 10-year period ran twice the risk of having gliomas. These results were published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health in 2006 and appear to have been completely ignored by WHO. Now that the organisation has awakened to the danger that was always evident from the data, I hope that it begins the promotion of education programmes worldwide in order to alert the over five billion cell phone users on the planet of the significant health risks involved and measures to reduce that risk.
Some of these safety measures include
• Limit the use of cell phones, restricting this to short calls and emergencies, and ignore advertisements encouraging you to do otherwise.
• Use land lines instead of cell phones whenever possible.
• When using a cell phone, use a headset or the phone speaker instead of placing the phone against one's ear.
• Do not carry a switched-on cell phone in your pocket.
• Do not sleep with a switched-on cell phone close to your head.
• Strictly limit the extent to which children use cell phones as the radiation is even more damaging to their soft brain tissue.
The cell phone has become an integral part of modern society but we have a responsibility to minimise the danger it presents.
Prof Stephan Gift
Via e-mail