Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'
Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation
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Independent Minds
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.
The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.
It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.
Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.
Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.
He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this will be "definitively proven" in the next decade.
Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.
"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.
Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".
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Comments
Time to try and give up the habit.
Do Wi-Fi enabled routers and wireless phones emit a similiar sort of Wave?
I've just got my latest phone through Mobiles Please, http://www.mobilesplease.co.uk
Regardless, I will absolutely, under no circumstances put a cell phone to my ear and I am extremely weary of even using an ear piece. I get very paranoid when someone sits next to me on a bus or train and they are talking on a cell phone. And every so often, someone will hold a phone to my head, delighted that the person on the other end wants to say "hi." Tell them to take a rain check.
I don't know whether or not my experiences are an individual case, but I've been on websites and forums where people have voiced eerily similar experiences. This leads me to believe that there are indeed adverse risks to cell phone use that have (for obvious reasons) not made it to mainstream awareness.
I don't intend to scare anyone with this post, and I am sure the majority of people have experienced no ill side effects. I am only voicing my own personal experience.
Ever since then I am yet to find a good phone. Everything since has been getting cheaper in price and quality (making them more dangerous than ever).
Protect yourselves and avoid the budget priced, mainstream handsets - unless you prefer a slower, more drawn out suicide.
It is crue that radio waves, especially short waves, are dangerous to human health. If one compares this to te microwaves, which have been proven dangerous to human health also on the same scientific basis, than one cannot concluded: that radio waves in technology, especially short waves, improve life and / or lifestyle.
It is up to not only the manufacturers but also up to global public health organisations.
Looks like, the old ways of living, are more healthy than the "modern way(v)s"..
"Electropollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced this century." - Dr. Andrew Weil
mobiles
One day, I noticed my left side of ear started to feel numb while I was on the phone. The area of numbness extended gradually. Very soon, my entire face numb. I went to see doctors. I was given tests. All reports came out normal, but the numbness was there. So doctor said not to use cell phone for a while.
After a couple month, the numbness went away. Now I am not able to use cell phone more than 15 minutes or I will fell the inside of my entire skull numb.
People still think I am funny and not taking seriously.