Cell phones and wifi: Is Your Health on the Line? -Women's Health

Is Your Health on the Line?
-by Sascha de Gersdorff, Women's Health, Nov 10, 2010.

The new communication devices (cell phones, SmartPhones, iPhones, Blackberries, Androids) are pretty hard to resist.

But the safety of these devices is not yet assured. De Gersdorff offers practical advice on reducing electromagnetic exposure or radiation exposure for those of us who have a hard time abandoning the devices altogether.

The post I wrote, in reference to an article by Dr. Hyla Cass, cites two recent books on the subject. De Gersdorff in this article draws our attention to another book, by Kerry Crofton, Wireless Radiation Rescue: Safeguarding Your Family from the Risks of Electro-Pollution, 2010.

Dr. Hyla Cass on recent studies on cell phone radiation and related medical risks

Both Cell phones and electromagnetic fields are more dangerous than widely assumed, as growing numbers of news reports and academic studies are pointing out.
Hyla Cass, M.D., "Are Cell Phones and Wi-Fi Hazardous to Your Health?," Huffington Post, October 13, 2010.
She cites two recent books, Ann Louise Gittleman's "Zapped: Why Your Cell Phone Shouldn't Be Your Alarm Clock and 1,268 Ways to Outsmart the Hazards of Electronic Pollution." and
Devra Davis' "Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family."
Key excerpts in Dr. Cass' Huffington Post article:

The UK's BioInitiative Report of July 2007 (updated in 2009) describes hundreds of studies that link EMF exposure to Alzheimer's disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), brain fog, cardiovascular disease, miscarriage, infertility, insomnia, learning impairment, as well as anxiety and depression. Wireless technologies -- like cell and cordless phones -- produce microwaves that increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, leading to changes in brain chemistry. Even low-level EMFs can cause brain cells to leak.

That's not all: Although actual tissue heating does not occur, EMFs also cause breaks in DNA, speed up cell division, disrupting the orderly process of chromosome matching and detaching, and activate stress protein or heat shock proteins. And as Anne Louise Gittleman writes in Zapped:

"Most disturbing of all, the Swedish National Institute for Working Life found that people using cell phones for 2,000 hours -- a total most of us could easily rack up over the years -- had a 240 percent increased risk for malignant brain tumors on the side of the head where they usually held their phone."

A related study from the Mercury News:
Chris O'Brien, "Why cell phones may be more dangerous than we think": updated, October 10, 2010:
An excerpt from this article reads,

Several players at the heart of this debate converged on San Francisco last week. CTIA-The Wireless Association had
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its annual trade show, which it promised would be the last in the city because of the new disclosure law. Marks organized several protests outside the event. And noted epidemiologist Devra Davis, a visiting professor at Harvard University, arrived for several speaking engagements about her recently published book, "Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How To Protect Your Family."

"When I first heard that there could be problems with cell phones, I didn't believe it," Davis said. "I wrote the book because I was stunned to find out I was wrong to assume that these things had to be safe."

For many years it was believed the low levels of radiation generated by cell phones and towers had no effect on human biology. Now a small but growing number of scientists and health activists are challenging those findings.

UK-US study: cell phones AND cordless phones users risk brain tumors

"Cellphones Cause Brain Tumors, Says New Report By International EMF Collaborative"
August 26, 2009, from MedicalNewsToday.com
*Cell phones do pose dangers to users
*Children and young adults are at greater risk from use of these phones
*Telecom industry-funded studies paint too sanguine a picture of the health risks

A new report, "Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone," was released today by a collaborative of international EMF activists. Groups affiliated with the report include Powerwatch and the Radiation Research Trust in the U.K., and in the U.S., EMR Policy Institute, ElectromagenticHealth.org and The Peoples Initiative Foundation. Download the report.

The exposé discusses research on cellphones and brain tumors and concludes:

- There is a risk of brain tumors from cellphone use;
- Telecom funded studies underestimate the risk of brain tumors, and;
- Children have larger risks than adults for brain tumors.

This report, sent to government leaders and media today, details eleven design flaws of the 13-country, Telecom-funded Interphone study. The Interphone study, begun in 1999, was intended to determine the risks of brain tumors, but its full publication has been held up for years. Components of this study published to date reveal what the authors call a 'systemic-skew', greatly underestimating brain tumor risk.

The design flaws include categorizing subjects who used portable phones (which emit the same microwave radiation as cellphones,) as 'unexposed'; exclusion of many types of brain tumors; exclusion of people who had died, or were too ill to be interviewed, as a consequence of their brain tumor; and exclusion of children and young adults, who are more vulnerable.

Lloyd Morgan, lead author and member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society says, "Exposure to cellphone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled. Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cellphones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia. The public must be informed."

International scientists endorsing "Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern" include Ronald B. Herberman, MD, Director Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; David Carpenter, MD, Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany; Martin Blank, PhD, Associate Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University; Professor Yury Grigoriev, Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, and many others.

Source
Radiation Research Trust

Now, did cell phone use contribute to Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy's brain cancer?