World Health Org Study Says Mobile Phones ‘Possibly Carcinogenic’

By on May 31, 2011 in News 24

Last week I was at the BookExpo trade show and a couple of dubious characters manning an outlying booth tried to sell me an ugly looking sticky thing to place on my iPhone and supposedly cut down harmful radiation. They measured the radiation coming from the iPhone on some sort of scanner and of course the needle jumped off the scale. But their device, whatever it was, made my iPhone ugly so I didn’t buy it.

I might have to track them down in the wake of what seems like a convincing study that the radiation from cell phones really is hazardous for humans. Labeling them as “possibly carcinogenic,’’ a panel of 31 WHO scientists deems them to be in the same category of harm as certain dry cleaning chemicals and pesticides.

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  • Simiantongue

    Telecommunication corporations are going to make them pay for coming clean about this, betcha.

    I remember years ago when I first thought that holding a device next to your head that transmits electromagnetic radio waves in the microwave range didn’t sound like a very good idea. My job at the time required that I have one though. I would never hold one up to my head, cell phones didn’t have speakerphone options at that time either. It caused problems with my boss and more than a little ill concealed snickering from some co-workers too. I had a bit of a reputation I’ll admit, what with my cell phone “radiation” fear and ranting at length about the evils of asbestos. (Asbestos lol, so you know this was quite some time ago) One guy named Gary got my goat on that subject more often than not. “C’mon” he’d say, “Do ya think they could sell these phones to hundreds of thousands of people if they gave you cancer?” (It was only hundreds of thousands to at about that time lol)  I remember at least once my response was “They sell lots of shit that gives people cancer.” But he wouldn’t have any of it.

    Don’t get me wrong i’m not being some self righteous prick now saying “I told him so”. It’s just that sometimes common sense is overridden with rationalizations like Gary’s. He obviously didn’t want to be snickered at like I was. But it does seem pretty obvious that holding microwave transmitters against the side of your head is counter intuitive. So Gary had no other option than to deny completely the possibility that it could be harmful at all. He wove some narrative where corporate America couldn’t possibly hurt people, even unintentionally because they couldn’t stay in business if they did. I think he really believed that too. Funny sort of world we live in, just saying.

  • Simiantongue

    Telecommunication corporations are going to make them pay for coming clean about this, betcha.

    I remember years ago when I first thought that holding a device next to your head that transmits electromagnetic radio waves in the microwave range didn’t sound like a very good idea. My job at the time required that I have one though. I would never hold one up to my head, cell phones didn’t have speakerphone options at that time either. It caused problems with my boss and more than a little ill concealed snickering from some co-workers too. I had a bit of a reputation I’ll admit, what with my cell phone “radiation” fear and ranting at length about the evils of asbestos. (Asbestos lol, so you know this was quite some time ago) One guy named Gary got my goat on that subject more often than not. “C’mon” he’d say, “Do ya think they could sell these phones to hundreds of thousands of people if they gave you cancer?” (It was only hundreds of thousands to at about that time lol)  I remember at least once my response was “They sell lots of shit that gives people cancer.” But he wouldn’t have any of it.

    Don’t get me wrong i’m not being some self righteous prick now saying “I told him so”. It’s just that sometimes common sense is overridden with rationalizations like Gary’s. He obviously didn’t want to be snickered at like I was. But it does seem pretty obvious that holding microwave transmitters against the side of your head is counter intuitive. So Gary had no other option than to deny completely the possibility that it could be harmful at all. He wove some narrative where corporate America couldn’t possibly hurt people, even unintentionally because they couldn’t stay in business if they did. I think he really believed that too. Funny sort of world we live in, just saying.

    • lj

      its like Office Space. with cell phones. you made it, Simiantongue, you made it

      • lj

        i wonder if your story will happen again with somebody else in ten years with the pg&e smart meters. I don’t  really trust either side in that argument but its controversial as shit here in california to say the least.

    • Padraig

      I was in the fire-protection industry and in the late 60s and early 70s and we were continually in contact with that stuff, lo and behold ten years later there were dudes in silver suits handling it like it was nuclear waste, i know that WHO could have warned us earlier from later reading, guess it wasn’t convenient just then

  • lj

    its like Office Space. with cell phones. you made it, Simiantongue, you made it

  • lj

    i wonder if your story will happen again with somebody else in ten years with the pg&e smart meters. I don’t  really trust either side in that argument but its controversial as shit here in california to say the least.

  • Jecht

    Wow. In Russia the’ve been saying that for years. The same thing was with smoking – its harmfulness was proven here in like 1980-s.
    It’s kinda wierd that you recieve this news just now.

    Although the country’s still pretty fucked up

  • Jecht

    Wow. In Russia the’ve been saying that for years. The same thing was with smoking – its harmfulness was proven here in like 1980-s.
    It’s kinda wierd that you recieve this news just now.

    Although the country’s still pretty fucked up

  • Anonymous

    Maybe carcinogenic. They are still uncertain about whether there is any danger or how much is there. I haven’t seen any long term studies actually proving anything. Regardless, if it is true, than either they will adjust the frequencies involved or possibly people will say who cares because you HAVE to have a cell phone, even if it is a bit dangerous.

  • SF2K01

    Maybe carcinogenic. They are still uncertain about whether there is any danger or how much is there. I haven’t seen any long term studies actually proving anything. Regardless, if it is true, than either they will adjust the frequencies involved or possibly people will say who cares because you HAVE to have a cell phone, even if it is a bit dangerous.

    • IDK

       http://youtu.be/-9DuCzGLohc

      • SF2K01

        Seriously? Never ever trust news at 11, your center for fear mongering and misinformation.

    • Andrew

      I don’t have a cell phone.

  • IDK

     http://youtu.be/-9DuCzGLohc

  • Andrew

    I don’t have a cell phone.

  • Anonymous

    Two eggs fry in a black iron skillet -filmed in black and white.

    “This is your brain on cellphones -any questions?”

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Two eggs fry in a black iron skillet -filmed in black and white.

    “This is your brain on cellphones -any questions?”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4K3KM67XITZTXUE45K42KS4OEE brian

    I wonder if they’ll start banning talking on the phone in public places now……Ya know ‘second hand phoning’ may just as well cause Cancer too! ……….Actually I might be in favor of banning phone talking in public places….but for different reasons. I just find it annoying. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4K3KM67XITZTXUE45K42KS4OEE brian

    I wonder if they’ll start banning talking on the phone in public places now……Ya know ‘second hand phoning’ may just as well cause Cancer too! ……….Actually I might be in favor of banning phone talking in public places….but for different reasons. I just find it annoying. 

    • Padraig

      that is a very scary analogy-but just unlikely enough to be true, play on peoples fear of death and they will give up any freedom

  • Anonymous

    Seriously? Never ever trust news at 11, your center for fear mongering and misinformation.

  • Padraig

    I was in the fire-protection industry and in the late 60s and early 70s and we were continually in contact with that stuff, lo and behold ten years later there were dudes in silver suits handling it like it was nuclear waste, i know that WHO could have warned us earlier from later reading, guess it wasn’t convenient just then

  • Padraig

    that is a very scary analogy-but just unlikely enough to be true, play on peoples fear of death and they will give up any freedom