Cel Phones and Radiation

I have written elsewhere about the risk of excess radiation from CT scans, but what about from cel phones and cel phone towers, wireless routers, microwave ovens and so on? This week the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer released the results of a major 10-year-long study into whether excessive cel phone use contributes to two types of brain cancer (meningioma or glioma — the latter is the deadlier one).

The results were inconclusive. (For a May 2011 update see at bottom)

The subject of radiation is highly polarizing of course.  Cynics’ heads explode when they hear about it; the worriers among us imagine the worst.  Yet, whether you believe it or not, the subject is a valid one since there is so little scientific data either way and it’s regarded much more seriously outside the U.S. (which did not participate in the study).  Curiously, the cel phone industry itself contributed almost a quarter of the funding.

So, do modern cel phones emit generally more or less radiation than the old phones?  I have read of both being the case.  San Francisco is looking into passing a law requiring cel phone companies to disclose emissions (story here). Either way, there is now so much radiation bathing us, is the overall risk still unacceptably high?  Texting and hands-free sets keep the phone away from the head, which sounds like a good idea.  Should we keep phones out of our pockets?  Should wireless routers be at the opposite end of the house from where we sleep? These questions are all new and we are going to have to find answers.

In my own view, in previous centuries bacteria and viruses were the unseen threat and now we have replaced them with an electromagnetic unseen threat. In both cases the risk level is a matter of degree and exposure to things we initially knew nothing about.  We can’t really avoid them but we can minimize risk.

In both cases the risk to the body is literally at the “cellular” level.  Bacteria and viruses invade human cells and set up shop.  Our chemical environment has reduced the threat but replaced it with another kind of threat - many cleansers have proven carcinogenic.  Electromagnetic radiation, on the other hand, may have a slightly different impact - it doesn’t invade like bacteria or chlorines.  Instead, it may affect DNA communications between and within cells - genes, proteins, hormones and so on.  This is already turning into a massive area of study with fighting words from both academic camps.

Update May 31, 2011: the WHO has now upgraded the threat and stated that cell phones could be associated with an increased risk for glioma, a type of brain tumor. CNN story here.