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Are cell phones safe? Researchers gather to find the answer
by Jaspreet Kaur - September 14, 2009 - comments
Whether cell phone usage harms health or not still needs to be proved with a concrete evidence
Washington, September 14 -- Whether cell phones are dangerous for our health or not has been a question of debate for scientists. Almost 600 studies have been done so far to determine the effects of cell phones on the health, but every time contradictory results have come up.
Many scientists have got together here for three days till Tuesday this week to share research and chart a plan for future studies that look at the effects of cell phone usage and its link with health.
Many trustworthy organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Cancer Institute, have said that there is no solid data to substantiate the belief that using cell phones can harm your health.
The Interphone study, which began over ten years ago and involved 13 countries was supposed to come up with some concrete evidence. But the publication of this report is being put off for quite some time now as researchers are unable to decide how the data should be interpreted.
Some countries have published their own study results linking brain tumors with cell phone usage. But more research is needed before coming to a definitive conclusion.
Scientists to study how absorbed radiations affect health
As of now, researchers have concrete statistics that reveal the amount of radiation humans absorb through cell phone use. Work in this field has been done by scientists like Niels Kuster, a radiation expert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Om Gandhi, a professor and researcher at the University of Utah.
One of the major findings of Kuster’s research was presented on Sunday, the first day of the conference. It points towards the fact that children absorb double the amount of radiation from cell phones as compared to adults. This is because the size of their faces and heads is much smaller.
Researchers now want to work on how radiation absorbed into the body affects electrons, chemical reactions, and consequently alters the functioning of the human body.
Frank Barnes, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was quoted as saying, “From here you build a chain that then points to health effects.”
Researchers having divided opinion
Some researchers believe that there is enough information to be “concerned”, while others think it is too early to panic.
Michael Thun, vice president emeritus of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research for the American Cancer Society, who is attending this week’s conference, said that nothing can be surely said whether the cases of brain cancer have gone up with cell phone usage.
Since cancer takes a lot of time to become noticeable in the body, it would not be correct to say as of now if there are any long-term effects of using a cell phone, Thun added.
But he did say that effects of cell phone on health need to be determined because, “The wireless industry is advancing very quickly, and it’s certainly important to track. There are three to four billion people using this technology throughout the world, so it’s an important question to answer.”