Cell Phones and Cancer

In May 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled radiation emitted from cell phones as “possibly carcinogenic”, and research supporting this conclusion was published subsequently. So, is it time to get rid of your cell phone? The scientific evidence so far is weak and inconclusive, but it should not be ignored completely. Hence the cautious label “possibly”. Interestingly, low and intermediate exposure to radiation appeared to decrease the risk for cancer. Only high exposure increased it. But we need to be careful: “... the effects that the researchers are looking for here may not be observable for 20 or 30 years. It could be similar to what was seen with cigarettes and cancer in which several decades of smoking behavior in patients were often necessary to uncover the linkage.”

Children and adolescents should be careful about excessive cell phone use, since their brains are smaller and still developing and more susceptible to radiation.

And just when we thought, we had a reasonable answer... along comes another study that seems to completely contradict the results and recommendations of the WHO meta-study above. This study shows no correlation between cell phone use in kids and cancer.

The caution, however, is that there are no longitudinal studies out there. Kids and teenagers who grew up using cell phones just have not reached their 40s or 50s and we don’t know if and how radiation from cell phones will affect them later in life.