Cell phones seem to be the topic of the day (see my post made earlier this morning).
Last year I got a new PDA phone. Soon after getting it, I ended up on a long chat with a friend (about an hour), and before I was done, it felt as if I had burned my inner ear. After that, it always bothered me to use the phone. Sometimes it still feels as if my inner ear isn’t “right.” I finally traded that phone in for a different, non-PDA phone with a lower frequency rating, one that doesn’t feel hot to the touch in the area of the ear piece after using for a short while.
For quite a while there has been talk about whether or not cell phone use might contribute to brain cancer or Alzheimer’s. I know someone who never talks on her cell phone without an ear bud because of the suspected dangers. One of her parents had Alzheimer’s, and she doesn’t want to take unnecessary risks. Seems smart to me. Especially when my left ear feels a little achy.
Now this report via Fox News about a UK Government study:
A mass study of the long-term impact of mobile phones is to be undertaken amid fears that people who have used them for more than ten years are at greater risk from brain cancer.
More than 200,000 volunteers, including long-term users, are to be monitored for at least five years to plot mobile phone use against any serious diseases they develop, including cancer and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Professor Lawrie Challis, who is in the final stages of negotiation with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry for the £3 million that he needs to fund the study, told The Times that research has shown that mobiles are very safe in the short term but that there is a “hint of something” for people using them longer.
In an interview, Professor Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, and chairman of the government-funded mobile telecommunications health research programme, emphasised that the “hint” was just that. One European study has found a slight association and using a mobile for more than ten years. The few long-term users developed more acoustic neuroma brain tumours which were found close to the ear used for phoning.
One of my daughters and several of my friends don’t even have land-line phones any more. They are always on their cell phones. Makes me wonder…
-rlh-
