Now Half the World Has a Cell Phone -- Why That is a Brain Tumor Epidemic Waitin

[Guest guest]

Now Half the World Has a Cell Phone -- Why That is a Brain Tumor Epidemic

Waiting to Happen

_http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/06/14/now-half-the-wo

rld-has-a-cell-phone-why-that-is-a-brain-tumor-epidemic-waiting-to-happen.aspx

?source=nl_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/06/14/now-half-the-worl\

d-has-a-cell-phone-why-that-is-a-brain-tumor-epidemic-waiting-to

-happen.aspx?source=nl)

 

 

The number of mobile phone users worldwide soared to over 3.3 billion by the

end of 2007, a total penetration rate of 49 percent.

 

Africa showed the greatest increase, and more than two-thirds of all cell

phone rs now come from developing countries. Cell phones account for

nearly 90 percent of all telephone use in Africa. India and China added 154

million and 143 million new rs respectively.

 

The global annual average growth rate for cell phone rs currently

stands at 22 percent. However, subscriptions to mobile phone plans increased

at a rate of 39 percent annually in Africa between 2005 and 2007, and the rate

of increase in Asia over the same period was 28 percent.

Sources:

 

* _Daily Telegraph May 25, 2008_

(http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23755088-5001028,00.html)

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

 

I cannot think of a more dangerous situation than this. This is the reason

we are facing a _brain cancer_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/04/20/cell-phone-users-\

240-percent-more-prone-to-brain-tumors.aspx)

epidemic, which some scientists expect to grow to 500,000 cases by 2010, and

over a million cases in the U.S. alone by 2015. Every time you use a cell

phone, you are exposing your brain to dangerous and potentially cancer-causing

radiation.

 

Study after study has shown the connection between cancer and cell phone

use, and the information has been out there for a decade now. But cell phone

companies have done their best to deny, obfuscate, or downplay the danger. I

guess they would rather put half the world at risk than put even a dime of

their own profits at risk.

 

Ten Years of Known Danger

 

The dangers have been well known since at least 1998. In that year, Dr.

George Carlo released the results of a massive research project that had been

funded by the cell phone industry itself in an attempt to downplay cancer

fears.

To the industry’s dismay -- and also to their surprise, since they selected

him assuming he was an industry shill, rather than the honest scientist he

proved to be -- he came to the exact opposite conclusion from the one they were

hoping for. His results included findings of:

* A nearly 300 percent increase in the incidence of genetic damage

when human blood cells were exposed to radiation in the cellular frequency band

* A significant increase in cell phone users’ risk of brain tumors at

the brain’s outer edge, on whichever side the cell phone was held most often

* A 60 percent greater chance of acoustic neuromas, a tumor affecting

the nerve that controls hearing, among people who had used cell phones for

six years or more

* A higher rate of brain cancer deaths among handheld mobile phone

users than among car phone users (car phones are mounted on the dashboard

rather

than held next to your head)

These findings, which came well over a decade after cell phones were first

introduced (before that there was no safety research at all), caused a

shake-up in the scientific world. Soon, many more scientists confirmed Dr.

Carlo’s

findings.

 

In 2000, Swedish researchers found that cell phone users were almost two and

a half times more likely to develop tumors near where they held their cell

phone antenna than in any other portion of their brain. Similar studies were

conducted in subsequent years on ever-larger groups of people, always with the

same result.

 

An Italian study in 2002 found that radio waves caused leukemia cells to

replicate ferociously after long exposure. In 2004, the massive REFLEX report

on

DNA damage from radio waves found that cells exposed to electromagnetic

fields similar to those of cell phones showed a significant increase in single

and double-strand DNA breaks. If I wanted to, I could list a mountain of

research studies all pointing to the same conclusion -- exposure to cell phone

radiation can cause brain cancer.

 

The Industry Strikes Back

 

The cell phone industry, of course, has long since corrected the “mistakeâ€

it made with Dr. Carlo, and funded a number of studies purporting to prove

that cell phones are safe. For example, in 2006, they made sure headlines

blared reports that an epidemiological study had “proven†cell phones

can’t cause

cancer.

 

However, a cursory reading of the study shows that it excluded heavy cell

phone users from consideration, failed to differentiate between frequent use of

cell phones and almost no use, and declared an improbably low rate of

overall cancer that contradicts known statistics. After all that, it proudly

concluded that it had found no increased risk for cell phone use. Well, no

wonder.

 

Don’t be fooled by their lies. Holding a cell phone next to your head is as

foolish as drinking a bottle of pesticide.

 

Protect Yourself and Your Children

 

Dr. George Carlo and I have recently finished writing Wireless Deception,

which is the most up to date book in the world on this issue. It is currently

in final editing and typesetting stages and we hope to have it out by the

fall.

 

Even if you manage to avoid brain cancer, you may find yourself faced with

other health problems both major and minor, such as headaches and dizziness,

_Alzheimer’s disease_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/02/22/cell-phone-radiat\

ion-part-one.aspx) , _autism_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/11/27/how-cell-phones-m\

ay-cause-autism.aspx)

and even _impotence_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/11/09/cellular-phones-m\

ay-harm-male-fertility.aspx) .

 

At this point, you cannot completely avoid wireless radiation from all

sources; they pervade the environment. However, getting rid of your cell phone

altogether can help protect you. But even if you don’t want to take that

step,

you can still minimize your exposure and reduce your risks by doing the

following:

 

Children Should Never Use Cell Phones: Barring a life-threatening emergency,

children should not use a cell phone, or a wireless device of any type.

Children are far more vulnerable to cell phone radiation than adults, because

of

their thinner skull bones.

 

Reduce Your Cell Phone Use: Turn your cell phone off more often. Reserve it

for emergencies or important matters.

 

Use A Land Line At Home And At Work: Although more and more people are

switching to using cell phones as their exclusive phone contact, it is a

dangerous

trend and you can choose to opt out of the madness.

 

Reduce or Eliminate Your Use of Other Wireless Devices: You would be wise to

cut down your use of these devices. Just as with cell phones, it is

important to ask yourself whether or not you really need to use them every

single

time. If you must use a portable home phone, use the older kind that operates

at

900 MHz. They are no safer during calls, but at least they do not broadcast

constantly even when no call is being made.

 

Use Your Cell Phone Only Where Reception Is Good: The weaker the reception,

the more power your phone must use to transmit, and the more power it uses,

the more radiation it emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves

penetrate into your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full

bars and

good reception.

 

Turn Your Cell Phone Off When Not In Use: As long as your cell phone is on,

it emits radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making a

call.

 

Keep Your Cell Phone Away From Your Body When It Is On: The most dangerous

place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is within about six inches of the

emitting antenna. You do not want any part of your body within that area.

 

Use Safer Headset Technology: Wired headsets will certainly allow you to

keep the cell phone farther away from your body. However, if a wired headset is

not well-shielded -- and most of them are not -- the wire itself acts as an

antenna attracting ambient information carrying radio waves and transmitting

radiation directly to your brain. Make sure that the wire used to transmit the

signal to your ear is shielded.

 

The best kind of headset to use is a combination shielded wire and air-tube

headset. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the information to

your head as an actual sound wave; although there are wires that still must be

shielded, there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head.

 

 

Related Articles:

 

_Cellular Phone Industry Just as Health-Harming as Big Tobacco?_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/03/26/cell-phones.aspx)

 

_More News on the Dangers of Mobile Phones_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/09/mobile-phones-par\

t-two.aspx)

 

_Cancer Cell Study Revives Cell Phone Safety Fears_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/11/06/cell-phone-safety\

..aspx)