For years the hippie who works in my local health food store has been urging me to stop putting my cell phone so close to my head. "You're gonna give yourself a brain tumor!" he would always worriedly whisper in my direction. I attributed the concern to his dead set belief in almost every conspiracy theory known to man – but he might have had a point.
A new study by the World Health Organization – a study conducted by "a working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries" which took data from 13,000 cell phones over a 10 year period – has deduced that cell phone usage may increase the risk of brain cancer – although there is no definitive proof as of yet.
"After reviewing essentially all the evidence that is relevant ... the working group classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans," a spokesperson for the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer explained this week, while other pro cell phone organizations cried foul.
"Possibly carcinogenic," those who love and profit from cell phones explain, doesn't really prove much, since certain "picked vegetables" and even coffee has been labeled that in the past.
When it comes down to it, I think it's pretty obvious that constantly holding a cell phone to your ear is probably not awesome for your body. And even if it's not proven that these phones cause brain cancer, there's a big chance that their long-term effects are slightly detrimental.
So, yes, there's definitely a middle ground between freaking out and completely ignoring this new study – try to find it.
[Hint: a headset will help.]
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