In anticipation of San Francisco's cell phone radiation disclosure ordinance, which was approved earlier this summer and will take effect in Feb., Paul Fisher, MD, talked cell phones and brain cancer on KGO's Ronn Owens Show today. Fisher's take? Despite people's concerns (and the first-of-its-kind ordinance), there's little evidence that radiation from cell phones is related to brain tumors:
[There have been] numerous studies to date, and nothing thus far has shown any danger.
Fisher, a neurologist with Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, hypothesized that people's concerns stem from a "holdover fear" of electromagnetic radiation in the 1980s, and from a very small, but very vocal, minority of researchers "saying they think there’s something there." He also discussed results of a recent Scandinavian study that found no meaningful increase in brain tumors from the last 30 years (during which time cell phones were introduced).
There are a number of reasons to avoid being on a cell phone for hours and hours, Fisher said, "but none that are linked to brain tumors."
Previously: A cell phone is not a microwave oven or a nuclear reactor,
European consortium to study long-term health effects of mobile phones and Inaccurate self-reporting of cell phone use could skew assessment of health effects
Photo by Mediatejack
