Brain tumors take several years to even decades to develop and become apparent. This rise in tumors detected now could have been caused in the days of analog phones with radios that had vastly higher power output. Or, for that matter, analog cordless phones.
Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
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Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#12It is curious. I wonder why non-ionizing radiation causes cancer? Given we are constantly bathing in wifi signals and cellphone signals, I wonder what the effects will be?
Wlan has much lower transmission power then cellular.
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#13Source: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/aip/7910754/
The provisional pdf is full of Tracked Changes.
To clarify, GBM is the only kind of cancer that increased in frequency in the data they have. I'm less inclined to think that these "findings" are accurate and more to think it's a matter of accounting and data quality. (Not to mention the quality of the manuscript itself.)
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#14Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#15Maybe the paper addresses this, but don't most people hold the phone predominantly on one side or the other? Wouldn't the locations of the tumors be more on that side of the brain? And wouldn't that provide some pretty good support for the association?
I can't find the cite right now, but I recall there was a study some years back that found that heavy mobile phone users didn't have any higher rate of brain cancer than the general population, but among those who did get cancer, there was a strong statistical correlation between the side of the head where they most used the phone and the location of the cancer.
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#16"They analysed 79,241 malignant brain tumours over 21 years, finding that cases of GBM in England have increased from around 1,250 a year in 1995 to just under 3,000."
~2000 new cases per year in a country with 53 million people? I'll take my chances.
I'm fascinated how people obsess over the unproven and ultimately minuscule health risks associated with using a cell phone or drinking a glass of wine or eating chocolate or whatever. We know for a fact that smoking, overeating, and not exercising kill literally tens of millions of people each year, but it seems like most people can't be bothered to take those health risks seriously...
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#17Is anyone calling anyone these days? Mobile Phones seems to mostly be used for messaging and surfing these days.
That is what I thought as well, but on HN of all places I see people fretting about speech quality of mobile phones and networks and such. When I walk around in big cities I see people text and, especially in China, people leaving eachother voice messages via wechat.
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#18Is anyone calling anyone these days? Mobile Phones seems to mostly be used for messaging and surfing these days.
Tell that to my mom
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#19Maybe the paper addresses this, but don't most people hold the phone predominantly on one side or the other? Wouldn't the locations of the tumors be more on that side of the brain? And wouldn't that provide some pretty good support for the association?
I can't find the cite right now, but I recall there was a study some years back that found that heavy mobile phone users didn't have any higher rate of brain cancer than the general population, but among those who did get cancer, there was a strong statistical correlation between the side of the head where they most used the phone and the location of the cancer.
Maybe it has something to do with predisposition to their dominant side and not specifically the use of a mobile device.
Re: Mobile phone cancer warning as malignant brain tumours double
#20Is anyone calling anyone these days? Mobile Phones seems to mostly be used for messaging and surfing these days.
Good point - I hardly ever see anyone talking on their phones