Death... by Cig or Cell?

Wanted to say this up front... not sure if it's valid or not, BUT it's worth a conversation...

From "The Independent"

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Jeff's Take: I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. Never saw the point. However, if the iPhone was found to cause cancer I can honestly say I do not think I could give up the iPhone. Really. It's communicative hold on me is like crack... (trying to think of a creative joke paring up Blackberry/Crackberry, but I just can't get there...)

So tell me. Year is 2010, and the US Department of Health does find that cell phones do increase the risk of brain cancer... Could you give up your cell phone?

Comments

[Jon]

It's all about using the bluetooth headset, in my opinion. (I don't use 'em, but this might just make me start...)

[ttm]

Easily. In fact, I wish restaurants and airports had "no cellphone" sections. Call me quasi-Luddite.

Being the movie buff you are, have you noticed how the "afterglow cigarette" is increasingly being replaced by a panicked or delighted call to a friend? Or the ringing of a cellphone to ease the movie out of intimacy and back to "reality"?

Cigarettes and cellphones.
Health concerns and research.
Addiction.
Added taxes/revenue for the government.
Ways to distinguish yourself from the "non-user" as "sexy, cosmopolitan and nonchalant."

There are probably more correlations to be drawn...

Thanks for the very interesting post.