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Pittsburgh Cancer Center Warns of Risk From Cell Phone
Use From:
Fox News07/23/2008 |
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PITTSBURGH - The head
of a prominent cancer research institute issued an
unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff
Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible
risk of cancer.
The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of
the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is
contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link
between increased tumors and cell phone use, and a
public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.
Herberman is basing his alarm on early, unpublished
data. He says it takes too long to get answers from
science and he believes people should take action now
especially when it comes to children.
"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't
wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the
side of being safe rather than sorry later," Herberman
said.
Herberman's advice is sure to raise concern among many
cell phone users and especially parents.
In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff
Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only
for emergencies because their brains are still
developing.
Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use
the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even
warns against using cell phones in public places like a
bus because it exposes others to the phone's
electromagnetic fields.
The issue that concerns some scientists though nowhere
near a consensus is electromagnetic radiation,
especially its possible effects on children. It is not a
major topic in conferences of brain specialists.
A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine
studies including some Herberman cites with thousands of
brain tumor patients and concludes "we found no overall
increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone
users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after
long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by
future studies."
Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the
same thing.
"If there is a risk from these products and at this
point we do not know that there is it is probably very
small," the Food and Drug Administration says on an
agency Web site.
Still, Herberman cites a "growing body of literature
linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse
health effects including cancer."
"Although the evidence is still controversial, I am
convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant
issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice
on cell phone use," he wrote in his memo.
A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the
director of the university's center for environmental
oncology.
"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette
with your brain," she said in an interview that she did
from her cell phone. "I don't know that cell phones are
dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
Of concern are the still unknown effects of more than a
decade of cell phone use, with some studies raising
alarms, said Davis, a former health adviser in the
Clinton Administration.
She said 20 different groups have endorsed the advice
the Pittsburgh cancer institute gave, and authorities in
England, France and India have cautioned children's use
of cell phones.
Herberman and Davis point to a massive ongoing research
project known as Interphone, involving scientists in 13
nations, mostly in Europe. Results already published in
peer-reviewed journals from this project aren't so
alarming, but Herberman is citing work not yet
published.
The published research focuses on more than 5,000 cases
of brain tumors. The National Academy of Sciences in the
U.S., which isn't participating in the Interphone
project, reported in January that the brain tumor
research had "selection bias." That means it relied on
people with cancer to remember how often they used cell
phones. It is not considered the most accurate research
approach.
The largest published study, which appeared in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006,
tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including
thousands that had used the phones for more than 10
years. It found no increased risk of cancer among those
using cell phones.
A French study based on Interphone research and
published in 2007 concluded that regular cell phone
users had "no significant increased risk" for three
major types of brain tumors. It did note, however, that
there was "the possibility of an increased risk among
the heaviest users" for one type of brain tumor, but
that needs to be verified in future research.
Earlier research also has found no connection.
Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has
studied cancer and cell phones in other research
projects partly funded by the cell phone industry, said
there are at least a dozen studies that have found no
cancer-cell phone link. He said a Swedish study cited by
Herberman as support for his warning was biased and
flawed.
"We certainly don't know of any mechanism by which
radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect
in cells. We just don't know this might possibly occur,"
Muscat said.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a type of
radiation that is a form of electromagnetic radiation,
according to the National Cancer Institute. Though
studies are being done to see if there is a link between
it and tumors of the brain and central nervous system,
there is no definitive link between the two, the
institute says on its Web site.
"By all means, if a person feels compelled that they
should take precautions in reducing the amount of
electromagnetic radio waves through their bodies, by all
means they should do so," said Dan Catena, a spokesman
for the American Cancer Society. "But at the same time,
we have to remember there's no conclusive evidence that
links cell phones to cancer, whether it's brain tumors
or other forms of cancer."
Joe Farren, a spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless
Association, a trade group for the wireless industry,
said the group believes there is a risk of misinforming
the public if science isn't used as the ultimate guide
on the issue.
"When you look at the overwhelming majority of studies
that have been peer reviewed and published in scientific
journals around the world, you'll find no relationship
between wireless usage and adverse health affects,"
Farren said.
Frank Barnes, who chaired a recent National Research
Council report looking into what studies are needed to
assess the health effects of wireless communications,
said Wednesday that "the jury is out" on how hazardous
long-term cell phone use might be.
Speaking from his cell phone, the professor of
electrical and computer engineering at the University of
Colorado at Boulder said he takes no special precautions
with his own cell phone. And he offered no clear advice
to people worried about the matter.
It's up to each individual to decide what if anything to
do. If people use a cell phone instead of having a land
line, "that may very well be reasonable for them," he
said.
Susan Juffe, a 58-year-old Pittsburgh special education
teacher, heard about Herberman's cell phone advice on
the radio earlier in the day.
"Now, I'm worried. It's scary," she said.
She says she'll think twice about allowing her
10-year-old daughter Jayne to use the cell phone.
"I don't want to get it (brain cancer) and I certainly
don't want you to get it," she explained to her
daughter.
Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the
University of Pittsburgh, sat in a bus stop Wednesday
chatting on her cell phone with her mother. She also had
heard the news earlier in the day, but was not as
concerned.
"I think if they gave me specific numbers and specific
information and it was scary enough, I would be
concerned," Loughran said, planning to call her mother
again in a matter of minutes. "Without specific numbers,
it's too vague to get me worked up." |
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