The World Health Organization declared that mobile phones could be a cancer risk, but Sharon Begley says which brand of phone you own-and how you use it-could make a big difference.
The word "possibly" covers a lot of sins, so the decision by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, to classify cell-phone use as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" is about as illuminating as saying that you might possibly win the lottery: knowing something is possible doesn't tell you what the odds are.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Breast Cancer Breakthrough?
The Iarc announcement is therefore significant not for what the panel of 31 eminent scientists from 14 nations said, but for the fact that they said anything at all. The World Health Organization is, after all, the most respected body so far to express even mild concern about the health effects of cell-phone use.
The word "possibly" covers a lot of sins, so the decision by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, to classify cell-phone use as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" is about as illuminating as saying that you might possibly win the lottery: knowing something is possible doesn't tell you what the odds are.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Breast Cancer Breakthrough?
The Iarc announcement is therefore significant not for what the panel of 31 eminent scientists from 14 nations said, but for the fact that they said anything at all. The World Health Organization is, after all, the most respected body so far to express even mild concern about the health effects of cell-phone use.
- 6/1/2011
- by Sharon Begley
- The Daily Beast
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