Cancer News Information

When a cell phone is used, it emits a radio-frequency energy in the form of a non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation which can be absorbed into the human tissues of the person that is using it. Although, the amount of this energy greatly depends on the technology of the phone that is being used at the time, the amount of use, the distance between the phone's antenna and it's user, and how far away the nearest phone tower is situated.

Radio-frequency energy (electromagnetic radiation) can be placed into two categories: ionizing (x-rays, radon, and cosmic rays), and non-ionizing (radio-frequency and power-frequency) where the exposure to ionizing radiation has been known to increase the risk of developing cancer.

Although studies have been made, the problem is that technology is constantly advancing, which makes not only researching the industry difficult, but almost impossible to gain conclusive results when studies are taken. Because of this, no consistent link has yet been made between cell phone use and cancer, such as: those associated with the brain, surrounding nerves, and nearby head and neck tissues.

However, one study did reveal that when a cell phone was used for 50 minutes or more, the brain tissues on the side of the head that the phone was used, metabolized more glucose than on the other-side. Although, these results are still in a preliminary stage, and are considered inconclusive as to what this metabolism actually means, or as to what effect it might have on a user.

For the development of cancer to occur, it is generally accepted that some kind of damage to the DNA structure must be caused first; however, there is no actual conclusive information resulting that non-ionizing (radio-frequency) energy is actually harmful to human beings. Known case studies tend to imply that non-ionizing energy has yet to cause the development of cancer in animals.

Other findings include:

1. Case-control studies where cell phone use was compared between two groups of patients with certain types of cancers and those without, and cohort studies where over a long period of time comparisons were made between the use of cell phones with cancer patients and the non-use resulted inconclusive.

2. A study conducted by a consortium of researchers from 13 different countries (considered to be the largest of its kind into the connection of cell phone use and cancer development) also yielded inconclusive results; however, it was noted that non-users of cell phones probable had a reduced risk of developing brain cancer.

3. A study in Denmark also yielded inconclusive results after more than 350,000 cell phone users were cross-examined from the Danish Cancer Registry for a brain cancer connection.

4. A study in the United Kingdom concluded that although the use of cell phones increased between the period of 1998 to 2008, no actual increase of brain related cancer or such were reported.

5. Various U.S. case-control studies including military studies taken on Navy technicians who were exposed to contact with radio-frequencies for long periods of time, also yielded inconclusive results.

Conclusion:

Reasons behind these constant inconclusive results, may include: the rapid advancement of technology, the change in which the technology is used, inaccurate information being applied to studies, inaccurate reporting, morbidity/mortality among study participants, and of course, detrimental findings connected to the cell phone industry simply not being released, or covered-up.

Therefore, there remains the possibility that a connection between cell phone use and cancer could be expected to be revealed within the coming years.