Another day, another major health scare that is a) entirely meaningless to most people's lives and b) likely not actually a problem at all Cell/mobile phones aren't linked to cancerpic.twitter.com/sbrJTEb2eS
You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
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
And when I say "entire lives", I mean it. This exposure started in utero and continued until pretty much until death
This was also whole-body exposure. The rodents were bathed in radiation for 9 in every 24 hours
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
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
Rodents exposed to more radiation survived longer, on average, than those in the control group Not something most media outlets reported!
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
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
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
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
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!
When we look at human studies, we see no link between cellphones and cancer at all
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
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
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
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
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.