December 6th, 2006
Largest study ever declares cell phones safe!
Scientists tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users including 52,000 users who have used cell phones for 10 or more years. Some even started using cell phones 21 years ago when the phones were analog models that emitted far greater energy than modern digital models.
They matched phone records to the famed Danish Cancer Registry that records every citizen who gets the disease, and reported Tuesday that cell phone callers are no more likely than anyone else to suffer a range of cancer types.
The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the largest yet to find no bad news about the safety of cell phones and the radio frequency energy they emit.
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"There's really no biological basis for you to be concerned about radio waves," said John Boice, a Vanderbilt University professor and scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md. "Nonetheless, people are."
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Among 420,000 callers tracked through 2002, there were 14,249 cancers diagnosed - fewer than the 15,001 predicted from national cancer rates. Nor did the study find increased risks for any specific tumor type.
As more and more scientific evidence mounts demonstrating cell phones are safe, the hysteria over RF (Radio Frequency) energy mounts. Schools in the UK have started to ban the use of Wi-Fi over the unfounded objections of a few individuals.
The truth of the matter is, a Cell phone at 10 millimeters away (distance from your brain) is about 8,000,000 times stronger than a Wi-Fi access point that is 10 meters away. A ubiquitous cordless 2.4 GHz cordless phone is about 1,000,000 times stronger under those same distances comparisons. This is due to the inverse square law of physics that dictates EM (Electromagnetic) sources 1000 times further away are 1/1000^2 in strength. 10 millimeters which is the distance from the cordless phone to your brain is 1000 times closer than an access point that is 10 meters away. I find it very difficult to believe that someone who has almost certainly used a cordless phone or a microwave oven without incident would have a nasty allergic reaction to a distant Wi-Fi access point that is 1,000,000 times weaker.
Loading ...George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
