USA TODAY
July 14, 1999
Cell phones and cancer: Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt
Technology
By Kevin Maney
There’s a hole in my head. There’s gotta be. Almost every day, I pick up a cellular phone, dial a number and hit "send." That turns on the equivalent of a miniature microwave oven, which fires out its powerful radio bleeps within a few inches of my skull.
I know what a microwave oven does to the inside of a yam. I figure my brain matter is pretty similar stuff. This concerns me.
Now, I realize the issue of whether cellular phone signals cause brain cancer or otherwise damage tissue has come and gone. Lately, it has pretty much disappeared from the media, apparently quelled by research reports that found no direct link.
But recently I stopped at a Silicon Valley gathering full of CEOs and venture capitalists. These are sharp, insightful individuals who know enough to make a billion dollars or two. In a small group, someone – not me, I promise – made a quip about his cell phone giving him brain cancer. The rest of the group jumped in, good-naturedly agreeing and sharing stories, all of them certain that every phone call courtesy of Nokia or Motorola or Ericsson could be hastening their demise.
Well, then, are they cutting back ? Are they ditching their cell phones ? Are they wearing lead helmets while calling ? No-ho-ho way. Cell phones are a fact of life. Better to keep using them and make dark jokes. For a moment, I thought I was back with my college frat brothers, tipping plastic beer cups skyward, knowing the consequences and yet defiantly pronouncing that it was a good night to kill a few brain cells.
Turns out a lot of people worry about cell phones. Maybe the headlines have faded, but the talk goes on. Try asking someone who has a cell phone whether he or she thinks it might be doing some damage. The answer probably will be yes. Paul Wiefels, who works at Chasm Group and is a mad cell phone user, voices our general feeling pretty well: "My sense is that where there’s smoke...".
The smoke first rose in 1993. David Reynard of Florida files suit against NEC, cellular operator GTE and a phone retailer, saying cell phone use contributed to his late wife’s brain cancer. Reynard went on Larry King Live. The issue exploded.
The telecommunications industry poured money into research. Results have been all over the map. Some studies have hinted there might be unhealthful effects. Others are inconclusive. Still others have found no effects. "I came away persuaded there wasn’t any evidence for an effect, and that there are lots of flaws in the experiments which seemed to show something," says Arno Penzias, retired head of Bell Labs and now a venture capitalist.
By 1995, Reynard’s suit was dismissed, and interest fizzled.
But this is all too familiar. The Beef Industry council funds research into red meat. "Igor, look! Our experiments! They show T-bone steaks LOWER cholesterol AND make you a hunk, a hunk of burning love! The Nobel is ours!" Tobacco companies fund research that finds inconclusive evidence that smoking causes cancer. Giant technology companies fund research that shows that electronic commerce is, like, really big.
We suspect. Doctors used to do Camel cigarette ads. Research takes awhile to get convincing. Action unfolds slowly when it might alter habits we like.
"It probably falls under the category of ‘information we would prefer not to know,’" Wiefels says.
Which is one reason adverse research results probably wouldn’t bring down the cell phone industry. As with smoking, we’ll either choose to take the risk or we’ll grasp at minor improvements.
Asked about the cancer question, I got this from communications consultant David Isenberg: "The new digital (phones) are way lower power than the former analog AMPS protocol," which is used in older cell systems. Less power should be safer. But you can hear in that the echoes of, "Low tar! Low nicotine!"
Or there’s this, from Chris Meyer of Ernst & Young: "If you go to Sweden and Norway, everyone is walking around with little Nokia earplugs inserted and the mike clipped on, carrying the phone in their pockets. This means the antenna is no longer near your brain and presumably solves the problem."
That’ll be fine, unless Sweden and Norway develop a major outbreak of butt cancer.
The research continues, though nothing seems to be popping.
In the meantime, we’ll keep murmuring about cell phones and cancer at parties and otherwise pushing it to the backs of our minds, slotting it in there next to global warming and Y2K.
Once in a while, the issue will surface, get hot, then go away again. "Net-net, "Isenberg says. "I don’t think a cancer scare is likely to disrupt the industry."
Although, it’s possible that 20 years from now, when you want to be really wicked, you’ll gather your friends and say: "Let’s go drink and smoke and make some cell phone calls."
________________________
E-mail: kmaney@usatoday.com
EMF Issues • EMF FAQ • Press Articles • Scientific • Press Releases • Products • About EMF Bio • ICS Website