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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (4544)	3/22/2003 11:49:50 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12232

MQ + X = 2C Acoustic Neuromas found to be correlated with cellphone use. thisislondon.com <New mobile phone scare By Beezy Marsh, Daily Mail 17 March 2003 Mobile phones are at the centre of new safety fears after scientists found the first evidence of a link with brain cancer. Users who spend more than an hour a day talking on a cell phone are almost a third more at risk of developing a rare form of brain tumour, a study has found. The cancers were found most frequently on the side of the head to which the phone was held. Scientists found the cancer link with digital mobiles, old- style analogue mobiles and digitalenhanced cordless phones. The findings, published in the International Journal of Oncology, will renew health concerns among Britain's 47million mobile users. One expert said yesterday that another large-scale study would be needed to confirm the apparent link. Radiation from mobile phones has been shown to alter the workings of brain cells and affect memory. But the biggest British study three years ago, led by the Government's former chief scientific adviser Sir William Stewart, found that there was no evidence of a risk to human health. A report by the American National Cancer Institute in 2001 also failed to find a link between mobile phone use and brain cancer. The latest findings are the first to show a link between the instruments and disease in humans. In the study, lead researcher Professor Kjell Mild examined the medical records of 1,600 tumour victims who had been using mobile phones for up to ten years before diagnosis. Professor Mild, a biophysicist at Orebro University in Sweden, said the evidence was clear: 'The more you use phones and the greater number of years you have them, the greater the risk of brain tumours.' Scientists compared tumour sufferers with a control group who led similar lives but did not use mobile phones. They also compared sufferers with tumour victims who did not use mobile phones. The study found that spending more than an hour a day on the phone increased the risk of a type of tumour known as acoustic neuroma by 30 per cent. Such tumours occur in one of the nerves in the brain and can lead to deafness in one ear. They are usually curable by surgery. Although the cancer is rare, say numbers have increased from one tumour per 100,000 people in 1980 to about one per 80,000 today. Dr Richard Sullivan, head of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK, said: 'These latest findings appear to show a link and that warrants further investigation. 'We would need to see a large-scale study replicating these results before we could say whether they are significant. 'Certainly the study appears to be robust.' The National Radiological Protection Board said in a statement that it considers mobile phones safe in relation to cancer. 'Radio waves do not have sufficient energy to damage genetic material in cells directly and therefore cannot cause cancer.' > The last bit is true, but not true when the cellphone wave is absorbed at exactly the same spot as a simultaneously absorbed high energy photon which by itself would be an iota short of sufficient energy to do DNA busting. We are constantly absorbing all energy levels of electromagnetic radiation, so the addition of microwave energy boosts the effective energy of incoming high energy photons and moves more of them into the DNA smash-it zone. The boost only affects a few borderline photons, but there are only a few acoustic neuromas, so I guess the numbers add up. In Auckland, about 74% of people hold their cellphone at their right ear. Accuracy +/- about 2%. I've done quite a few counts over a couple of years. Therefore, 75% of acoustic neuromas should be on the right side if mobile phone emissions are the sole cause, which they aren't since there has been only a moderate increase since 1980 when cellphones didn't exist. In the same period, the average age of people has increased significantly, and older people get more tumours. So only 5% of the acoustic neuromas could be due to cellphones. So, of 1,600 patients, only 80 tumours could be due to cellphones. So there would have been 870 tumours on the right side and 790 on the left side. I wonder what the actuals were and my guess is that 70 more on one side wouldn't be statistically significant. If there are 1:80,000 people getting an acoustic neuroma, only 1:1,500,000 might be due to a cellphone. In New Zealand, that would be 3 people per year. That is not a significant threat compared with almost all other risks which people take to enjoy their lives, such as going in a 747, which is much more hazardous to health, if only due to high altitude radiation, let alone the prospects of crashing to doom. Mqurice

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (4544)	10/27/2004 6:20:29 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 12232

MQ + X = 2C More studies. Message 20692178 The Karolinska Institute said 150 people with acoustic neuroma and 600 healthy people participated in the study. "The risk of acoustic neuroma was almost doubled for persons who started to use their mobile at least 10 years prior to diagnosis," the Institute said. "When the side of the head on which the phone was usually held was taken into consideration, we found that the risk of acoustic neuroma was almost four times higher on the same side as the phone was held and virtually normal on the other side."> Extensive studies have shown that 77% of people at any one time are holding the phone in their right hand. So, of those 150 with a tumour, 115 had the phone in their right hand and 35 had it in their left hand. If the cause was purely due to cellphones, we should expect only 3 times as many tumours in the right side as the left, not 4. That's assuming perfect tumour formation on the side affected and no other causes of tumours. So already we can see that there's a statistical mistake in their analysis, or some of the usual randomness. But, these tumours weren't invented with cellphones. So how many tumours would normally be expected anyway with people who don't use cellphones and which side are they on? But they don't give us the data so we can take a close look ourselves. Anyway, since the acoustic nerve carries the sound, it seems more likely that the tumours are caused by the sound carrying than the radiation, since the nerves are being more heavily loaded and stressed than the other side. The also say the risk of acoustic neuroma was almost doubled for people who started using their mobile at least 10 years prior to diagnosis. I suppose those people were therefore older than the others who started using their cellphones more recently. Tumours afflict older people rather than younger, so that figures. Where's Tero Kuittinen when we need him? He's a brain guy. Let's see the data up close and personal. Journalistic summaries aren't much use. Mqurice