Do you think cell phones can cause cancer?

Almost everything "can cause cancer" with enough exposure. Whether is it likely to cause cancer in any individual is a more difficult question.

Don't know about cancer, but observing the behavior of users, there is no doubt in my mind they cause mental retardation.

Much likely indeed, which is why I recommend not to eat more than 1 a month.

Of course they can.! And for all we know, unicorns may exist on some planet somewhere!

No, cell phones do not cause cancer. Cancerous cells cause cancer.

No, cellphones don't cause cancer, just graph cellphone usage (whatever measure you choose to use, number of cellphones per capita, number of cellphone usage per capita, etc) against cancer rates and you'll immediately see there's no correlation... just like there's no correlation between smoking and cancer, in fact with smoking rates dropping and cancer rates remaining fairly steady it's pretty clear that smoking is just a scapegoat.

... and that's what worries me about this entire thing. Global organisations like WHO are quick to point fingers at things like cellphone use and smoking, but slow to talk about the emission levels from factories and poor ratio of food quantity to food inspectors (8 000 food inspectors for 120 million tons of food eaten per year in the U.S.). In all likelihood the primary cause of cancer is what we eat every day, and ironically the legislation is just getting more and more relaxed, with substances that were found dangerous and banned in the 1960's being allowed in food today.

You don't need exotic theories about cellphones and tobacco that never quite stood up to scientific scrutiny, just look at the food you eat, there's a wealth of data from as far back as 50 years ago showing cancer-causing properties in many of the substances used in food today.

Since there is absolutely no theory of why they should cause cancer, and the epidemiological evidence actually indicates that the causation if there is any, must be the other way, I would say no. If anything it is cancer that causes cellphones.

researchers found that cell phone users had reduced risks for glioma and meningioma overall, and they found no evidence of increasing risk with progressively increasing number of calls, longer call time, or years since beginning cell phone use.

National Cancer Institute (http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones)

In most studies patients with brain tumors do not report more cell phone use overall than the controls.

American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cellular-phones)

Overall, it remains true that there are no known well-documented effects leading to health risks for weak induced currents at ELF and non-thermal RF fields levels.

WHO (http://search.who.int/search?q=%22cell+phones+and+cancer%22&ie=utf8&site=default_collection&client=_en&proxystylesheet=_en&output=xml_no_dtd&oe=utf8)

So, yeah, in my former-Alaskan governor's heart, I 'know' they cause cancer. I agree with Farmboy: this isn't an opinion question.

Everything is in moderation. If you talk for extended time, or you do business on the phone, maybe hands free cell phone is a good alternative. Actually hands free is alot more comfortable when your on the road or public transit.

Mine caused cancer of the soul... now there is no turning back.

I found this article link about cell phone and brain tumors

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-no-link-between-cellphones-idUKTRE76C5SV20110714

I think there was a recent study suggesting there maybe a link. But it was about the same level of probability that coffee causes cancer.

Considering the signal in modern phones is quite weak and also considering that nobody has worked out how RF could cause cancer - I think I'll stick with my phone.

Judging by the way some folks act with these silly toys I'd say They are already mindless so Shogunai to that one!

No, cellphones don't cause cancer, just graph cellphone usage (whatever measure you choose to use, number of cellphones per capita, number of cellphone usage per capita, etc) against cancer rates and you'll immediately see there's no correlation... just like there's no correlation between smoking and cancer, in fact with smoking rates dropping and cancer rates remaining fairly steady it's pretty clear that smoking is just a scapegoat.

Wow. That's, um, not correct science at all.

But to answer the question - I'm sure they "can" cause cancer but so can pretty much anything. The current scientific thinking is they don't cause cancer, so it doesn't really matter if I think they do or not.

I answered "I don't know"............ and after reading everybody's posts, I still don't know.

Yes, it's possible, but more research is needed.

If you eat enough of them, aye

pawatan Jul. 19, 2011 - 10:25AM JST

No, cellphones don't cause cancer, just graph cellphone usage (whatever measure you choose to use, number of cellphones per capita, number of cellphone usage per capita, etc) against cancer rates and you'll immediately see there's no correlation... just like there's no correlation between smoking and cancer, in fact with smoking rates dropping and cancer rates remaining fairly steady it's pretty clear that smoking is just a scapegoat.

Wow. That's, um, not correct science at all.

Correlation is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for causality.

In simple terms if you argue that X causes cancer and there is a 100% increase in X then there should be some increase in cancer rates (all other things being equal). If there's no decrease in cancer then the theory is manifestly false. Cancer rates remained relatively steady over the last three decades while cellphone usage increased dramatically (from virtual non-existence in the 1980's to nearly 90% of the population... hell, some hobos even have cellphones).

Pointing out that the hypothesis that "Cellphones cause cancer" fails the most basic scientific test, namely a correlation between the two phenomena, is "correct science" (or rather correct basic scientific method). Even allowing for a 30 year time-delayed effect there's still no evidence that a rise in cellphone use causes a rise in cancer rates.

Frungy, the problem surely is that all things are not equal though. As you said in your previous post smoking rates have been dropping but the cancer rates have remained steady, while at the same time mobile phone use has been increasing, so that's one possible explanation why it seems cancer rates have not changed right there. If both smoking and mobile phone usage caused cancer then as smoking rates decreased cancer rates would have fallen but the "slack" was taken up by phone usage so the overall cancer rate stayed the same. I wish you were right about the smoking though!

It depends on what survey you are based your answer on. Apparently, there are both surveys claiming that cell phones may cause cancer, and other ones insisting that there is no absolute truth behind this assumption and it is not scientifically proved. Therefore, the only answer seems to be the "i don't know one".

It depends on what survey you are based your answer on.

That's right. I'm pretty sure Japanese studies will show that Korean, American and European phones cause cancer, but Japanese ones are completely safe. Vice-versa for studies undertaken in other countries.

oikawaJul. 19, 2011 - 10:43PM JST Frungy, the problem surely is that all things are not equal though. As you said in your previous post smoking rates have been dropping but the cancer rates have remained steady, while at the same time mobile phone use has been increasing, so that's one possible explanation why it seems cancer rates have not changed right there.

A fair enough point, except that the decline in smoking is gradual (actually stepped) while the rise in cellphone use is an asymmetric curve. In other words if one was compensating for the other there would be unexplained spikes in the cancer rate during periods when the decrease of smoking didn't match the increase in cellphone usage (and with 30 years of data the possibility of a time-delayed effect is accounted for).

In short there's a mismatch between the observed phenomena and the hypothesis. There isn't space here to discuss factor analysis and similar statistical techniques, but the "cellphone use causes cancer" hypothesis just doesn't hold up statistically... and for that matter neither does the very extreme version of the smoking hypothesis currently proposed by WHO and the U.S. government. I'd happily concede that smoking carries an elevated risk of lung cancer, but the current hypothesis is that ALL lung cancer is attributed to smoking... a ridiculously extreme position that cannot be sustained.

The simple fact is that scientific method seems to be coming second to political and social agendas, and WHO's recanting of their position has been preceded by nearly 15 years of violent opposition to the position in academic circles where people have repeatedly pointed out that WHO was completely wrong. Likewise WHO's position on smoking has been widely criticised academically, but WHO has yet to alter their position. WHO was also wrong about HIV prevention and drastically over-stated the efficacy of condoms in preventing infection, with disasterous results in many African countries. Oh, and not to mention their recent scare tactics in terms of bird flu and swine flu, both of which were far less severe than WHO made out, and while they were screaming about panic the rest of the medical community was being ignored when it said that people should calm down because swine flu was no more deadly than the regular strains of flu.

WHO has in fact been wrong so many times in the recent past that it is becoming increasingly clear that they're totally unreliable and counter-productive. In my book WHO rates below wikipedia in terms of accuracy.

Readers, smoking is not relevant to this particular discussion.

Frungy, thankyou for the reply.

The simple fact is that scientific method seems to be coming second to political and social agendas

I certainly agree with that.

I am part of a British study into long-term cell phone usage and cancer. The first results have been that cell phone use does not cause cancer, but the tests will continue for decades.

But let's face it, even if it did cause cancer, it is worth the risk. A bit like drinking too much.

Cell phones may cause cancer, but they also reduce the time it takes to get an ambulance in an emergency. I think they are a net positive to people's overall health.

There was a recent study suggesting there maybe a link.as well as cigarette smoking, microwave, Teflon coated cookware, sunbathing... the list goes on....

If you wanna ignore these warnings, it is your personal choice.

Listen to these warnings, and go with moderation..As you are the only one you've got.

All Japanese food these days and water and air can cause cancer, so why not Cell Phones?

Yes but not always...cellphones are the cancer of society,and the human race is the cancer of Earth.

Depends where you put your mobile - and for how long you keep it there.

Everything in moderation!

If they did do you think we would be told about that ?