Cellphones - Do they cause cancer?

[Ree]

This is a point brought up in a thread at CS. There has been much debate, and at one point, gbm even posted a link to a study on that issue.
http://time.blogs.com/daily_rx/2006/12/cellphones.html

I am simply starting this thread so members have a place to discuss it, away from the CS board if it does become a hot topic.

[AFPheonix]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...cancer_uk.html

Thus far, no.

There does seem to be a clear connection between loud, boorish behavior and cell phones, however. Whether the cell phones cause said behavior or just enables it, the verdict is still out

[rahmota]

I recall some briefings and stuff when I was a tech for SPCS about that so we could assure customers (and probably a few of us) about it. I don't have any links to this stuff. Though I'm sure the CDC might have somethign on their website.

[Will-Mun]

No. Cell Phones do not cause cancer... Period.

Maybe... MAYBE the old Mobile Phones from the 80's and 90's (the giant brick phones) caused cancer. And even THAT is inconclusive. But the cell phones today do not.

The wavelengths that cell phones produce are too FAT to penetrate the human skull, they'd just bounce off...

[Greenday]

Of course cell phones cause cancer! As does too much Vitamin C, and plenty of other stuff. Just typing this reply is giving me cancer.

It seems like every day, they are finding something new that gives you cancer.

[AFPheonix]

Some of that is due to the fact that we're living long enough that cancer can be a cause of death now.
It really wasn't all that long ago that our life expectancies were anywhere from 30 to 40 years less than they are now.

[Boozy]

AFPheonix has it right...I hear a lot about how microwaves and cell phones etc cause cancer. One post over at CS actually claimed that cancer could be cured if people stopped eating processed food.

This is a result of a misunderstanding of what cancer is. Cancer (and for our purposes I can oversimplify here) is a "mistake" in the molecular structure of our cells. Over the years, our bodies "correct" literally millions of these mistakes. Your body is preventing cancerous cells from spreading right now. The longer we live, the more likely it is from a statistical standpoint that our bodies will miss something. This is why the average cancer patient is in their 60's or 70's.

Its no surprise that there's been an explosion of cancer in this century. People are now living long enough to get it. Of course, certain habits such as tobacco use are going to cause molecular damage and thus cancer, but its wrong to assume that everything we do in modern society is unhealthy. All you have to do is look at the phenomenal increase in expected lifespan in the 20th century to know that we are living far healthier lives on average than we would have 100 years ago.

Its just bad logic. People see that a) a lot of people are getting cancer, and b) a lot of people are using cell phones. If you don't understand how cancer works, you don't understand how cell phones work, and you don't understand how basic logic works, you could draw the wrong conclusions.

[NightAngel]

Cel phones may not cause cancer but they do seem to cause stupidity, obnoxiousness and car wrecks.