Bad news, AT&T. While you’re also the world’s largest cellphone carrier, you might have just become the world’s largest brain cancer provider, too. According to the World Health Organization, cellphones may increase cancer risks in humans. However, the debate seems to be over just how high your cancer risk becomes when you use your cellular telephone. Some doctors believe the risk is so slight as to not really matter, while others (specifically the 31 attending the WHO meeting and who voted to change cellphones to carcinogens) believe that the changes in brain physiology caused by cell phones are enough to worry.
“The evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion . . . that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer risk,’” said Dr. Jonathan Samet, an epidemiologist at the University of Southern California and the chair of the WHO committee (International Agency for Research on Cancer) that altered the cellphone classification.
Cellphones were moved into the “possibly carcinogenic to humans” category, where it joins such common exposures as gasoline fumes, dry-cleaning fluid, talcum powder, pickled vegetables, and coffee. It is believed by the WHO that cellphones cause a very slight risk in glioma, which is a very rare form of brain tumor.
No word on whether eating cellphones can cause stomach cancer.
Tags: WHO, World Health Organization, Jonathan Samet, University of Southern California, cellphones, cellular telephones, cellphones linked to cancer risk, cellphones cause brain cancer, glioma, possibly carcinogenic to humans, International Agency for Research on Cancer