Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

This Device Can Double Your Risk of Getting a Brain Tumor

So what are we supposed to do? Abandon cell phones completely? Not happening.

I'm not saying these articles are BS, but they don't offer a practical solution.
 
I'd think more critcally...

May I suggest you look at the following regarding EMF:

http://www.skepdic.com/emf.html

Also note the following statement at the bottom of the website you linked to:

This site is provided at no charge and is open to the public for questions and discussion regarding issues with electromagnetic fields. Though the site will be monitored and offensive material removed, Mercola.com nor Ms. Vicki Warren are responsible for the information within the questions or discussions. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The products or procedures discussed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Whenever I see that statement I think they need to add one more line- "For entertainment purposes only".
 
Out of the newer phones is the iPhone4 or an Android phone known to be better with less radiation ? I thought there was a chart out for that ?
 
EMF will be a much bigger problem for Verizon customers as they will be holding the iPhone in much closer proximity to the brain.....

due to the fact Verizon customers will actually be able to maintain in call connectivity & the reduction in direct-to-voicemail missed calls.


So, Verizon = cancer!
fear.gif
 
In my opinion, I would take this article with a bit of a grain of salt. Although I know little about the author, I know the Dr Mercola on whose site the article is featured is widely regarded in many circles as a quack. Though he has a cult following, he has received multiple warnings from the FDA to stop promoting certain products.

At the very least, do your own research. You will find just as many "studies" of EMF causing cancer as studies of it not causing cancer. From my own knowledge of radio waves and EMF as a licensed HAM, I think we would see cases of other symptoms long before brain tumors if EMF actually was harmful, such as blindness (the higher frequencies such that 3G use are much more optimal for cooking your eyeballs than causing any cancer at close range). Given the wavelengths of frequencies that normal cell phones use, it really wouldn't make a difference if you stood at 2 inches or 10 feet from the source, so if it caused brain cancer, you are pretty much hosed no matter what you do if you use bluetooth or WiFi or anything with a radio in it.
 
ulbador said:
In my opinion, I would take this article with a bit of a grain of salt. Although I know little about the author, I know the Dr Mercola on whose site the article is featured is widely regarded in many circles as a quack. Though he has a cult following, he has received multiple warnings from the FDA to stop promoting certain products.
Click to expand...

Yes, a grain of salt the size of the rock of Gibraltar.

http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html
 
Ah the old cell phone and brain tumor stories...how many studies have been done on this by now?

It reminds a bit of the aspartame and cancer myth. Look...here's the deal if you tend to talk on a cell phone about 8 hours every day I would suggest you start using a landline more often. Most people aren't glued to their cell phone for hours and hours on calls every day, just like most people don't consume pounds of aspartame per day.

Cell phones have been commonplace for over 20 years now and I don't see people left and right getting brain tumors.
 
MarlboroLite said:
Ah the old cell phone and brain tumor stories...how many studies have been done on this by now?

It reminds a bit of the aspartame and cancer myth. Look...here's the deal if you tend to talk on a cell phone about 8 hours every day I would suggest you start using a landline more often. Most people aren't glued to their cell phone for hours and hours on calls every day, just like most people don't consume pounds of aspartame per day.

Cell phones have been commonplace for over 20 years now and I don't see people left and right getting brain tumors.
Click to expand...


Well...I'm not sure I really believe that if you use a cell phone you're automatically going to get brain cancer or damage your DNA (damn, that sounds bad!). At the same time it was years before people correlated the use of tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, opium, mercury, pollution, poor air, etc with health problems, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if there's some negative effects of holding a transmitter 6" from your brain. 20 years isn't a long time either, but OP, calm down, I probably wouldn't believe this guy if he told me I needed water to live. I'll be over here with my damaged DNA if you need anything.
 
my friend uses his phone i would say for about 3 hours a day (for his job). he has done this for the past 10 years and he doesnt have anything wrong. i sleep next to a wifi router every night which probably isnt good either. for phones however, they are not glued to your head during the day and when you sleep at night keep it 3 feet away and turn on airplane mode. i would say if your going to be on it a lot talking use the headphones with mic that came with it.

there are wireless signals flowing through your body 24/7 so i wouldnt worry too much because if these are bad then the whole world is doomed
 
The linked website blames electronics for everything with very little hard evidence. I don't waste my time worrying. you are far more in danger of texting from a phone while driving and then crashing and killing yourself and others.
 
The odds of getting a brain tumor due to cell phone use is about the same as dying in a car accident. It's obvious that the convenience outweighs the risk.
 
Interstella5555 said:
Well...I'm not sure I really believe that if you use a cell phone you're automatically going to get brain cancer or damage your DNA (damn, that sounds bad!). At the same time it was years before people correlated the use of tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, opium, mercury, pollution, poor air, etc with health problems, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if there's some negative effects of holding a transmitter 6" from your brain. 20 years isn't a long time either, but OP, calm down, I probably wouldn't believe this guy if he told me I needed water to live. I'll be over here with my damaged DNA if you need anything.
Click to expand...

The low levels of radiation are not known to be mutagenic agents (causing DNA to mutate).

However, high levels, ionising radiation, such as X/Y/Z-Rays are ionising, and should be avoided as much as possible.
 
I'm not worried as I always wear protective gear! (Oh and said protective gear also reduces most forms of Government mind-control.) ;)

ali2.jpg
 
and sweetened soft drink can increase ur risk of diabetes n pancreatic cancer

and bbq food, fried food are carcinogenic

suntanning - skin cancer

driving all the time increase ur risk of getting into an accident.

and the list goes on.
 
And watch out for those really dangerous, high energy cosmic rays! Your body is being penetrated by billions daily. Better live inside an underground building with 10' lead walls.

I'm not denying that depositing energy into your brain is completely harmless, but so many things daily are far, far more dangerous. Traveling on an airplane exposes you to a not insignificant amount of (cosmic) radiation. Radon gas present in many dwellings. Riding in a car. I could go on...
 
Darthdingo said:
I know we have all seen articles like this before, but this Doctor is very respected, and I think paints a pretty clear picture. A lot of our electronic devices, such as cell phones, and long computer use, can be extremely harmful to our bodies.
Click to expand...

Who cares; and who talks on the phone anyway. I'm more likely to get tumors on my fingers since that's where my phone is most of the time.
 
There have been some studies showing heating of tissue from the type of EMF used by mobile phones, but although detectable it is very minor. The physics just doesn't lend itself to mobile phones causing that much damage, and as others have pointed out there are commonplace risks that we all accept that have a higher probability of causing us harm.
 
The life of a scientist is very difficult if you do not work in business. Even with tenure how they spend their time and funding is heavily scrutinized. Where at best they could get fired; or worse go to jail for embezzling college and state funding. This puts many scientists in a position to report wild claims with little data to show their work. Unfortunatly, these claims scare people and make front pages in magazines. Often 90% of other scientists can not recreate the data, or results, though it usually takes 15-20years for other scientists to prove to the public that the previous results were false.

Often after they are disproved, but not publicly known the results are called pseudo science or journalism science. But in reality it's merely philosophy with extra attention. Such examples of these are: positive use of cigarettes, dangerous effects of cannabis, global warming, hot food is carcinogenic, etc.

You get more harmful radiation by standing outside on a sunny day after a large snow storm for 1 hour then you would talking on a cell phone for 2 years straight, even if you ignored ultraviolet A,B, and C.
 
a practical solution

Darthdingo & TheyCallMeSaint, and any others interested in a practical solution...

The evidence of a health risk from exposure to cellphone radiation is mounting up. Most experts point to cumulative exposure which will just take time to confirm as people use their phones much more, and for many years.

There are practical solutions out there - one is tawkon (www.tawkon.com). It's a mobile app that you can download to monitor and avoid exposure to cellphone radiation. tawkon helps you protect yourself by knowing when you're actually exposed to high levels of radiation, shows you which rooms in your house/office are good places to talk, and helps you avoid exposure in with simple actions that the app prompts just when radiation levels peak.

Unfortunately it's not available on the iPhone because Apple rejected it. If this is important to you, you can help them get onto the iphone by signing their petition (www.tawkon.com/tell-apple).

Of course this may be less relevant for Mac users, but if people you care about have BlackBerry or Android phones, they can use tawkon today...

Full disclaimer: I work with the guys at tawkon. Having said that, I am also a happy tawkon user and have given it to my family members too because I know it's the real deal based on serious technology, and because it's a practical, useful tool.
 
The evidence isn't there

Despite attention-grabbing headlines re: cell phones and radiation, there is no reliable scientific evidence that they cause cancer. Same goes for so-called "WiFi allergies".

If you want to review this manufactured controversy, go to Science-Based Medicine for honest & scientifically balanced reviews of some of the evidence.

BTW, Joe Mercola's website is NOT a source of scientific information. But if you want the latest pitch on remote healing, the absolute evil of vaccines, the magical memory of sugar and water (that's how homeopathic remedies are supposed to work: the molecules "remember" what they've bumped into), and other forms of magical thinking -- go for it.
 
Yeah, skimming through the article as someone who is at least mildly trained in the area of physics and RF design... this is a load of bull. Certain claims are flat out wrong, or misleading.

It talks about ionizing radiation, but radiation doesn't become ionizing until you are in the UV range. The reason you can get a sunburn is because of our planet's imperfect UV shield of an atmosphere (and the damage we've done to said shield). It also is what causes you to tan. That's the real effect of ionizing radiation right there. It's quick, not slow.

It says that modulation of the signals has an effect on how it impacts the body. This is also bunk. Either a photon has the energy to do damage (UV+) or not. Modulation of a signal over time doesn't change the impact of that single photon unless your signal winds up being high enough frequency to create these high energy photons in the UV+ range.

It claims that non-ionizing radiation can cause DNA breaks. If the photon can't even knock out an electron (which is the definition of ionizing) from an atom that is on it's own, it's not going to be able to break chemical bonds that are some number of electrons holding two atoms together. It needs to be able to kick out the electron to disrupt the bond. The various chemical processes and even the common cold do more damage to your cells than non-ionizing radiation. Your body is built to be able to repair some level of DNA damage on a daily basis.

The only person calling DNA a "fractal antenna" is this individual. He makes the mistake of calling DNA conductive because electrons can move around within the molecule (which doesn't alter the molecule unless an electron is kicked out and not replaced, nor is it conductive in the same sense that an antenna is).

I've also seen a panic because of the term "microwaves" and how we cook food with it, therefore it can cook our brains too. The catch with that is: Microwave ovens cook by heating the material. And to accomplish this, it is designed to reflect any emitted photons back into the chamber and to operate in the 800-1200 watt range. That's a lot of energy to be dumping into 2 cubic feet or so, and its not allowed to dissipate as more and more energy keeps getting poured in. So the food is cooked by heating, not by radiation damage. By contrast, a phone emits under a watt, in all directions. Nothing focusing it, and at that level, any kinetic energy it adds to tissue is easily re-radiated out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back