The idea is this: that mobile phones are used ubiquitously, and even though the type of radiation they produce can't usually cause DNA damage that leads to cancer, given enough phones and enough radiation it potentially could
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It's not easy to test this type of exposure in humans, so the scientists did it in mice Study is here https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/areas/cellphones/index.html …
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They exposed rats and mice to between 1 and 4 times the maximum dose that it is possible to get from a mobile phone, for 9 hours a day, for their entire livespic.twitter.com/4ddi9ZcisK
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And when I say "entire lives", I mean it. This exposure started in utero and continued until pretty much until death
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This was also whole-body exposure. The rodents were bathed in radiation for 9 in every 24 hours
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And, remember, they amount of this radiation was, at a minimum, as high as the absolute highest level of radiation that has been found to have been emitted by any cell phone on the market
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So what did this study find? Firstly, rodents who were exposed to higher levels of radiation lived longer Yes, you heard that rightpic.twitter.com/vgAA2BIwcM
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Rodents exposed to more radiation survived longer, on average, than those in the control group Not something most media outlets reported!
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There was also a small, but statistically significant, increase in the risk of several types of rare cancer in the exposed rodentspic.twitter.com/Egwv3O9IJ3
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From this study, we can conclude that exposure to mobile phone radiation at a level higher than most humans could possibly experience, for a third of a person's entire lifespan, might potentially cause an increase of a few percent in some rare cancers In rats
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It's important to note that studies in humans have so far not demonstrated a link between mobile phones and cancer in either the short or long termpic.twitter.com/nUz0tOsHLx
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If we look at rats, who are exposed to radiation literally hundreds of times higher than we could possibly get using a mobile phone, we see a tiny increase in risk that only happens in male rats
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It's also worth remembering that this radiation was the type used in 2G and 3G services, so it may not even apply to current phone technology!
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When we look at human studies, we see no link between cellphones and cancer at all
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Do phones cause cancer? It's very, very unlikely. Unless you spend your day bathing in them, you would be unlikely to get even a fraction of the dose of these rats
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Can radiation that is produced by phones cause cancer? That's a different question. Probably, in high enough doses, but even unregulated phones would be unlikely to give you a high enough dose
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It's also worth remembering that this study doesn't speak at all to the MAGNITUDE of the risk This is a very important point
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Would it change anything if mobile phone radiation caused a minute increase in the risk of an already rare cancer? Maybe? Probably? It's a hard question
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End of conversation
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