Cell Phone Use, Cancer Risk Unknown
By Doug Pullen, El Paso Times, Texas
Aug. 4–Some people don’t know what they’d do without their cell phone. Terri Rutter is one of them.
"That would be awful," said the Upper Valley homemaker and graduate student. "It would be very hard to function."
Theresa L. Byrd manages.
"I find them incredibly irritating. I hate to listen to other people’s conversations, or students texting in class," said Byrd, an associate professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas at Houston’s School of Public Health in El Paso.
Cell phones are back in the news, and not just because Apple rolled out a new version of the iPhone.
A Pittsburgh cancer institute director last week advised his 3,000-member faculty and staff to take precautions when they or their children use cell phones.
His concern: There isn’t enough research out there to determine whether the phones pose a health risk.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, advised his faculty and staff in a memo to use headsets and speakerphones instead of holding phones to their ears, and he suggested that children should use them only in emergencies because their brains are not fully developed.
"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," he told the Associated Press.
The controversial memo has people, including Rutter, revisiting the issue of cell phone use and potential cancer risks.
"When I heard about it at first, it alarmed me, but I was glad I had taken the time to think about this ahead of time," said Rutter, who has one of six cell phones in her family, which includes four boys between the ages of 14 and 22.
She doesn’t use a Bluetooth ear attachment and won’t as a precaution, she said. She holds the phone to her ear only when she’s talking on it, but spends between 45 and 90 minutes a day talking on her electronic nerve center.
Rutter’s more of a text-messager. She uses her iPhone mostly to text with her kids, two of whom are in college. She also talks to friends and family members on the phone, trolls the Internet, checks her planner or looks up addresses or other contact info.
"I always have it with me," she said.
Not Byrd. "I keep mine in the car for emergencies or to call the office if I’m running late. I generally don’t have long conversations," she said.
Though she wasn’t very familiar with Herberman’s memo, she agrees with his basic sense of caution.
"I do restrict my cell phone use only because I don’t think the evidence is complete. Why take a risk?" she asked. "I use my cell, but I don’t use it extensively. I prefer a land line."
Herberman pointed to a "growing body of literature" linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer, according to the AP. But some cancer and health experts suggest he’s worrying people unnecessarily.
"On the one hand, it’s important to be prudent and have an appropriate level of caution," Dr. Michael Thun, an epidemiology research executive for the American Cancer Society, told WebMD, "and on the other hand, it’s important not to sound false alarms, because they, too, have unintended consequences. If you sound too many of them, nobody believes anything you say, and if there is not a problem, they distract attention away from real problems, of which we have a lot."
It may be too early to tell whether there really is a problem. There isn’t a vast body of research yet. Cell phones have been in use for about 20 years, but have exploded in the marketplace over the past decade as they’ve gotten smaller and more functional.
Thun told WebMD that only two of 17 studies on the use of cell phones and brain cancer suggested a link, but criticized both for using methodologies that were "weaker" than some larger studies.
Cell phones emit a type of electromagnetic radiation called radiofrequency energy, or RF, according to the National Cancer Institute. Cell phones emit low levels of RF when in use and very low levels when on standby, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site.
Herberman also warned about exposing children to electromagnetic radiation since their brains are still developing and the possible risks are not known.
The Pew Research Center reports that 86 percent of people ages 18-29 own cell phones, according to the AP, which also quoted a 2004 Kaiser Family Foundation report stating that 36 percent of kids 11-14 and 21 percent between ages 8 and 10 have cell phones.
Rutter said there are practical reasons for giving her kids cell phones. She can reach them in an emergency and keep tabs on the younger ones.
"It’s great. When the kids hit their teen years or pre-teen years, they are great because you can always find them," she said, noting that she routinely text-messages her kids.
"I was talking with three different kids today at the same time," she said.
Byrd believes it’s wise to "err on the side of caution" in the matter.
"The problem you have in cancer of any kind is that often we’re not completely sure of the risks … early on," she said. "We weren’t sure about smoking and lung cancer. They had to make a recommendation based on knowledge that wasn’t complete. Once it was, we had trouble getting people to listen."
It’s too early to tell what researchers will find in this relatively new field of study. Byrd said that if anything, the Pittsburgh director’s actions will raise awareness.
"Trying to stop a behavior that we can’t prove is risky is very difficult," she said. "But it might be able to get people to think about their amount of use and how they are using it."
HOLD THE PHONE: Among the suggestions listed in a memo from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute:
–Limit children’s use of cell phones to emergencies.
–Limit use in public to reduce others’ exposure to radiofrequency energy.
–Don’t hold the phone to your head; use a headset or speakerphone.
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