A new study from the NIH shows a low incidence, but an incidence none the less, of tumor formation in rats due to exposure to cell phone radiation.
Where is your cell phone, usually? If you are like most people your cell phone is either on your waist, in your pocket, or somehow on your person. But is it a good thing to have our cell phones so close to us so much? Or even our bluetooth headsets for that matter? A recent study done by the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institute of Health, found a link between cancers in rats and cell phone radiation.
Using more than 2,500 rodents for this study. They exposed the rats to radiation that is emitted by our cell phones for 9 hours a day for 2 years straight. To me, this is similar to having our cell phones in our pockets or on our waist for 9 hours a day while we are at work. And if you are like me, most of us have had cell phones since the late 1990s or early 2000s.
The findings showed that “low incidences of two types of tumors - seems to support earlier findings from epidemiological studies, which found the same types of tumors in humans, and which led the International Agency for Research on Cancer to classify radiation as a possible human carcinogen, back in 2011. The tumors found were gliomas (in the brain), and schwannomas (of the heart).”
Even with this information we are, yet again, at a stalemate as to the safety of cell phones since the study in question only shows low incidences of cancer in the rats. However, let’s not gloss over that it shows an incidence of cancer in rats.
So what is to be done then? We have already had a bill in 2010 come up in California that would require the cell phone companies to list cell phone radiation information. There has been a back and forth about the safety of cells phones for years with 39 countries asking the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and others to develop stricter controls on cell phone radiation. But places like the CDC say there are no issues with cell phone radiation.
What this all means to me is that I need to watch where I keep my cell phone, and keep track of how close it is to myself and my son as well as limiting my time with my cell phone. Even though everything can be accessed on my phone, I need to put my phone down more. The Environmental Working Group made a great guide to Safer Cell Phone use that you can access here.
In short, we need to consider where we keep our cell phones, and how often we use them.
Source: Yahoo Finance