WHO panel warns that cell phone use may cause cancer

Saturday, June 04, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: cell phones, cancer, health news

(NaturalNews) Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a group affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO), say that mobile phones are a "possible" carcinogen that may be a cause of cancer. The findings, which support previous research on the subject, add to the growing body of evidence which suggests that the electromagnetic radiation emitted from mobile phones causes serious health problems.

"A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered ... to be credible," states the IARC. However, in the same train of thought, the agency claims that evidence is "limited" to suggest that mobile phone usage is linked to glioma or acoustic neuroma, two types of brain cancer.

In 2009, IARC published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that linked mobile phone usage to an 18 percent increase in brain tumor risk. And because it was observed that such tumors tended to form on the sides of brains where mobile phones were primarily used, the connection between the two is even more striking (https://www.naturalnews.com/027448_cell_phone...).

Another report issued in 2010 by the International Electromagnetic Field Cooperative (IEFC) also found a link between mobile phone usage and increased rates of brain tumors. Included in this report is a Swedish study that found a 420 percent increase in brain cancer rates among children who began using mobile and cordless phones as teenagers, as opposed to those that did not (https://www.naturalnews.com/028078_cell_phone...).

With all of this research now available and the latest announcement from IARC, one would think more people would be concerned about the risks involved with the excessive use of mobile phones and looking for less-risky alternatives or using hands-free devices at the very least. But because the period between when a cancer patient is exposed to this radiation and when he or she develops tumors typically spans several decades, some experts claim that the link between the two is inconclusive and are content to tell the public there is really little to worry about.

Sources for this story include:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110531/ap_on_he...