The CellPhone Debate

[Bigbear]

Greetings All - a very good friend, concerned about my AN woes, sent me the following (text below) with the strong encouragement to totally stop using a cellphone.  There's some information here not particularly related to AN's but I would be interested to hear from the community:  Is there a correlation between cellphone use and AN's, in any real way?  Are we really damaging ourselves by using these damned things?

peace to all

Frank


…just finished reading the book "Cell Phones: Invisible hazards in the wireless age" by Dr.George Carlo and Martin Schram.

 
1. Cell phones cause damage to the blood brain barrier. This barrier is essential to maintain healthy brain function as it prevents toxins from entering the brain.
 
2. Microwave radiation from cell phones causes genetic damage to blood cells.
 
3. Microwave radiation from cell phones causes micronuclei to form in blood cells..this is a known marker for cancer.
 
4. Genetic damage is found at a 1.0 radiation level, which is below the recommended  FCC's 1.6 safety guideline. Which would suggest if phones operate according to government guidelines they are causing damage.
 
5. Acoustic Neuroma is a rare benign tumor of the inner ear. The more years of cell phone use the more likely acoustic neuroma will occur. The accoustic nerve is within the 2-3 inch penetration zone of the radiation plume.
Neuro-epithelial tumors are 2.4 times more likely if using cell phones and occur on the same side of the head that the cell phone is normally used.
 
6. The further you are away from the cell tower the stronger the signal must be from your phone to send and receive. People who used early versions of cell phones have had more exposure to radiation from their cell phones as cell towers were not always close by.
 
7. The amounts of radiation from a cell phone in a single call can vary by  factors of 10-100 depending on the location of the cell tower. Radiation is higher when ringing or dialing.
 
8. Fatal accidents while driving using cell phones increased substantially according to cell phone usage:
usage less than 1 min per day: 5 fatalities per 100,000
usage up to 3 min per day: 10 fatalities per 100,000
usage more than3 min per day: 12.5 fatalities per 100,000
 
9. Pacemakers can be negatively affected by cell phones unless shielded.
 
10.Reported to Dr. Carlo : Dr.Om Gandhi found rates of penetration of radiation is shockingly higher in children's heads. Average specific absorption rate of radiation (measured in milliwats per kilogram, or mW/kg) 
Radiation inside brain:
7.84 in an adult
19.77 in a 10 year old child
33.12 in a five year old child.
Radiation absorption rate in the fluid of the eye:
3.3 in an adult
18.38 in a 10 year old child
40.18 in a five year old child
Radiation absorption rate in the lens of the eye:
1.38 in an adult
6.93 in a 10 year old child
15.6 in a 5 year old child
Radiation absorption rate in the connective tissue of the eye:
1.77 in an adult
9.8 in a 10 year old child
19.69 in a 5 year old child
 
11. For years now it has been clear to me that damage occurs with these devices. I have been seeing damage in my clients fields caused by cell phones, laptops and other such devices (remember cordless land line phones are just as bad as they too have to remotely transmit to the phone).Laptops operating on WiFi expose people to RF (radio frequency) radiation. We have a problem. Pregnant women should be particularly careful of where they carry their phones. I see so many with phones on in handbags right by the developing child. Those of you who carry phones on your body are exposing that part to radiation. We are not just talking about radiation to the head. The hip, liver, heart..wherever that phone sits while on is causing damage.
 
12. It is also clear that many of the new shielding devices currently on the market that attach to phones or are worn as jewelry do not give protection they suggest in their literature. Many of these devices do more harm than good and give folks a false sense of security.
 
13. Many head sets actually increase exposure as the wire to the cell phone acts as an antenna and accelerates the radiation into the ear.
 
14. Whether you use a cell phone or not, just like second hand smoke, you are being irradiated by towers and other's cell phones especially in airports, internet cafes etc.
 
13. My suggestion is to limit the use of all devices that harm the human field. Just like the tobacco industry the cell phone industry has not told the truth. When Dr. Carlo the researcher for the cell phone industry found that damage was caused the industry let him go. At least he has taken the brave step to let us know what he found. For which I am grateful.
 

[Joef]

This has be debated to death .... how did people AN's just 20 years ago .. the year counts are about the same .. 

does it hurt? .. it might .. but you are more at risk using a cell while driving than getting an AN !

[zjane]

I tell ya I totally think cell phone had something to do with my AN!  I was doing on-call support for 5 years for a mission critical system and used Nextel non-stop.  Yes the ones with the walkie talkie.  Well a lot of times, my computer monitor would flicker, before the phone rings. Other times my car radio would make clicking noises before the phone goes off.  Just imaging those radiation going into my poor head!

Now we use the speaker phone all the time and I use blue tooth in the car.

[Patti UT]

The debate goes on.   Here's my 2 cents...
   I have never been a heavy cell phone user, and I always used it on my non AN side.  But my concern is that if cell phones do cause problems, using one on my non AN side now, my only good ear, makes me worry about my hearing on tha side.  Luckily, as I said, I am not a heavy user, so hopefully I am safe.  I do however, and always have used the cordless phone very heavily. Wonder if there are any studies about cordless phones.
   I do have to say though, whenever I see someone walking around with the new cell phones that hook directly onto the ear, I cringe and think, how could you wear that, don't you know it could  possibly cause tumors.
  My kids are at an age where they want cell phones and also, IPOD's.  I have not caved in on this yet as I don't want them piping music directly into their ears and I figure the fewer years of cell phone use the better.  Guess I'm just sensitive to anything that could damage the hearing.

Patti UT

[matti]

I was diagnosed and had surgery in 1998 and had never used a cell phone.


Cheryl

[Mark]

As Joef said, this issue has been debated ad nauseum and I'm sure will continue to be. There is certainly a correlation between exposure to low levels of radiation and some degree of cell mutation which can be associated with cancer or other benign or abnormal growth. I think you could probably find a number of other very respected scientific opinions that might frame the somewhat alarmist tone of the facts listed within a context of what "normal" background radiation levels are, e.g. flying in a plane, etc. However, I would agree that even beyond cell phones our society today is exposed to a lot more radiation through technology than ever before. Is it truly harmful, I don't know, but suspect it will play out over time.

At the end of the day, the rubber meets the road with this statement:

5. Acoustic Neuroma is a rare benign tumor of the inner ear. The more years of cell phone use the more likely acoustic neuroma will occur. The accoustic nerve is within the 2-3 inch penetration zone of the radiation plume.
Neuro-epithelial tumors are 2.4 times more likely if using cell phones and occur on the same side of the head that the cell phone is normally used.

As my ex-wife, the college professor epidemiologist would probably say, until you see a significant increase in AN occurrences you can't really assign the cause to a new factor ( i.e. cell phones). Currently, the stated figures are about 1 in a 100, 000, so in the US that equates to 2500-3000 per year. My understanding is that ratio and total have not moved in decades unless someone has seen something more updated. Given probably 200 million or more people have cell phones glued to their ears in this country ( let alone the world) and cell phone use has been pretty common for at least 10 years, and AN's grow roughly 2mm / year - one would assume based on the assertions by Dr. Carlo that there are maybe 10-20-30 thousand people with 1-2 cm AN's walking around waiting to be diagnosed. It remains to be seen if that is true, but I would think the graph would have started going up by some amount by this point if his ( and other's) theories are correct.

So while I can't argue the doctor's conclusions, I have trouble buying into from an evidence based perspective. In the meantime I do use my cell minimally and the speaker phone whereever possible  

Mark

[Jim Scott]

This one, again.   

While too much radiation is harmful (duh!) and we all probably receive too much of it in our everyday life, I simply do not accept the premise that frequent cell-phone use causes acoustic neuroma tumors.  My main reason for this opinion is the fact that acoustic neuroma tumors were first discovered over 100 years ago.  More recently, we have members such as Cheryl ('matti') that were diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma tumor almost 20 years ago, well before cell phones were invented.  Personally, I've never owned a cellphone and have used one only about 8 times in 5 years, yet I had a 4.5 cm AN (at age 63).  For me, this inescapable fact makes the issue moot, yet I know that some AN patients (or their friends and relatives) will insist on blaming cell phone usage as the 'cause' of their AN.  That is their choice to make but I believe that conclusion to be erroneous and I cannot give it any credence.

Jim

[Obita]

I never use my cell phone, so count me out. 

Joef started a very interesting thread a while back re:  what caused your AN?  Here is the link if you new people are interested:  http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=713.0  It was a very interesting thread.  If anyone else thinks so, post a reply to it so it comes back up front.

If I remember right, no one mentioned cell phone use.  There sure were a whole lot of people that had been hit in the head though.

Kathy

[ppearl214]

count me out as well.... heck, my microwave oven prolly gave me my AN...... hoping one of these days, dr's/scientists will truly find the reason why these dang things develop and grow.

Phyl

[Battyp]

I still hold to the theory that any one who finds themself with a life altering medical malady is genetically predisposed and certain things can help speed up the process.  Wouldn't it be interesting to do MRI's on newborns and repeat them every 5 years or so to see if when an an devlops.  I was told I probably had mine growing since I was born.  They have no way to know what causes them. I did talk on a old style cell phone a lot on the same side I had my an occur but know I had issues relating to an AN when I was in my teens just know one knew. It is one of those mysteries of life. I have asked my son to limit his cell phone use just in case 

[matti]

Phyl - How many times have I told you to stop stickin your head in the microwave 

Cheryl

[Windsong]

i know, this is an old debate..... but i acciidentally saw this while looking for something else (totally diiferent lol) and when i saw that there was a blurb about cell phones and Ans specifically, ( see the chart for that) i thought I may as well post it for anyone really looking at that.....

http://www.rfcom.ca/epi/cell.shtml

cheers,
W.

[leapyrtwins]

I don't think it's cell phone related.  I just purchased one 2 years ago and rarely use it.  Plus when I do use it, it's always with my right ear and my AN was in the left.  I think an AN's just something that happens - no particular cause.