Maurice, you are right in that any photon, or nuclear size particle can cause changes in living cell DNA. When the affected cell divides it most likely dies, but if not, can survive in a changed non useful form. As this non-useful cell continues to multiply, cancer is born. Cells have to do a lot of multiplying before they begin to damage the body. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this takes years in most cases. The only way to determine if "the proposed cause" of the cancer is the problem is to do a statistical analysis of people suffering from the cancer, and relate it to exposure to a similar "proposed cause."
The studies I've have seen related to electric power lines show no statistical increase in the incidence of cancer among people exposed to electric fields. That doesn't mean that some cancers aren't initiated by them, just that the risk is similar to other environmental conditions.
However, on the radiated tomato front, zapped tomatoes are no more radioactive after being blasted, and therefore do not provide an "internal source" of radiation after being ingested. If a living tomato cell is mutated by the radiation, and then divides and becomes cancerous, the cancerous cells will be killed by being digested or will simply pass through the body as waste. They will not be absorbed into the body as a living cancerous cell. The only harm that could come from eating irradiated food would be if the atoms making up the food were "excited" (i.e. made radioactive) by the radiation, and remained that way until the time they were ingested, whereas they would provide a source of energy that could cause human cell damage when the tomato atom 'de-excites" by giving off an energy particle. Radioactivity is easily detected and thus "hot" tomatoes are easy to detect, and have not been found after being zapped. Extensive testing has shown that radiated food does not contain newly "radioactive atoms" after being exposed to the type of radiation being used to process foods, and is therefore safe for consumption.
Anyway, that's the difference between phones and tomatoes!
Caxton |
