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World Health Organization Says Cellphones Cause Cancer ... Oh, And They're Killing Off the Bees As Well
The World Health Organization just issued a report stating that cellphones are "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
Specifically, WHO found "an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use".
The
WHO report notes that a previous study showed increased risk with
increased cellphone use, and recommends taking actions - such as using
hands-free equipment - to reduce exposure to the electromagnetic fields
produced by cellphones.
CNN points out:
The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.
***
The
type of radiation coming out of a cell phone is called non-ionizing.
It is not like an X-ray, but more like a very low-powered microwave
oven.
"What microwave radiation does in most simplistic terms is
similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the
brain," Black said. "So in addition to leading to a development of
cancer and tumors, there could be a whole host of other effects like
cognitive memory function, since the memory temporal lobes are where we
hold our cell phones."
***
Results from the largest
international study on cell phones and cancer was released in 2010. It
showed participants in the study who used a cell phone for 10 years or more had doubled the
rate of brain glioma, a type of tumor. To date, there have been no
long-term studies on the effects of cell phone usage among children.
"Children's
skulls and scalps are thinner. So the radiation can penetrate deeper
into the brain of children and young adults. Their cells are at a
dividing faster rate, so the impact of radiation can be much larger."
said Black of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
***
Manufacturers of many popular cell phones already warn consumers to keep their device away from their body.
It should be noted that WHO's findings are not strictly limited to cellphones. Specifically, the report discusses:
radio frequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices.
As such, the WHO report may give ammunition to those who oppose non-essential rf em fields, such as California residents who oppose the installation of "smart meters" by the local power company.
The
smart meters wirelessly beam electric usage information to the power
company. The utility installed the smart meters on all customers' homes
(without their consent) in order to save the cost of having workers
manually check electric meters.
For those who are surprised that an electromagnetic fields can affect the human body, you are behind the times. As I noted last month:
It
is well-known that humans and animals have many electric currents
inside of us, and that we interact with electric fields and electric
currents outside of our bodies. For example, the pumping of our hearts
is driven by an electrical system, and EKGs measure the electrical activity in our heart:The
[EKG]works mostly by detecting and amplifying the tiny electrical
changes on the skin that are caused when the heart muscle "depolarizes"
during each heart beat.Electrocution can kill by disrupting the heart's electrical system.
Our brains are also largely electrical systems, and EEGs measure electrical activity in our brain:
Electroencephalography
(EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced
by the firing of neurons within the brain.[2] In clinical contexts,
EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical
activity over a short period of time ....Both EKGs and EEGs use sensors on the outside of our bodies (on the skin) to measure electrical activity occurring inside our bodies.
Some
animals can directly sense electric currents and electric fields of
their prey, or produce electricity to stun or kill their prey. As
About.com notes:Electric
fields are used in numerous ways by animals. Electric eels and some
rays have modified muscle cells that produce an electric charge strong
enough to shock and sometimes kill their prey. Other fish use weaker
electric fields to navigate murky waters or to monitor their
surroundings. For instance, bony fish and some frogs have a lateral
line, a row of sensory pores in the skin, that enables them to detect
electrical current in water.The California Academy of Sciences points out:
Sharks are almost as precise as the best physics laboratories in the country when it comes to sensing tiny electric effects.
They can use this "sixth sense" to find food and even mates, since all
living animals create their own electric fields. When a fish swims, or
even moves its gills, it creates a change in the surrounding electric
field that sharks can detect ....There are many other examples of our interaction with electromagnetism.
Bad for the Bees
Cellphones aren't just potentially hazardous to us.
As Digital Trends recently reported:
Researcher
Daniel Favre of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has found
that wireless signals cause honeybees to become so disoriented that
they finally just die. [Link] Favre’s team conducted 83 separate experiments that tested bees’ reactions to a nearby cellphone.
The team found that honeybees made 10 times the amount of noise when a
cell phone made or received a call than they did when the phone was in
off or standby mode. As Fast Company
reports, this noise (generally known as “worker piping”) usually
signals the bees to leave the hive. But when the reaction is triggered
by a cellular signal, the bees just became tragically befuddled.
So, what about a cell phone signal makes bees suicidally crazy? As
Favre’s report explains: “Worker piping in a bee colony is not frequent,
and when it occurs in a colony, that is not in a swarming process, no
more than two bees are simultaneously active…The induction of honeybee
worker piping by the electromagnetic fields of mobile phones might have
dramatic consequences in terms of colony losses due to unexpected
swarming.”
It’s the “dramatic…colony losses”
part that everyone should be concerned about. Honeybees are responsible
for pollinating about 70 percent of the 100 or so crops on the entire
planet that humans use for food.
So-called “colony collapse disorder”
among the world’s bee population has been recorded since 1972. But it
wasn’t until 2006 that the drop in the bee population took a nosedive,
with beekeepers noting a 30 to 90 percent loss of their bee colonies,
up from 17 to 20 percent in previous years.
Favre’s study corroborates a 2008 report that showed that honeybees
would not return to their hive when a cell phone was placed nearby,
which sparked the theory that wireless signals are the problem.
(There are a number of other reasons bees are dying, as well.)
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Either way, no friends...
Try baking soda under your arms and in your crotch Rainman, works like a charm.
And if you really want to have some fun, rinse those areas in vinegar afterwards!
ror! :-)
Wow... this is a very real problem. The cell phone companies have... since day one offered you the disclaimer that a cell phone should not be used near the body and recommend they not be held to the ear. Some said as far away as 9 inches! How many of you are following that recommendation? But you go ahead and leave it on, as it sits near the family jewels.
Being huge amount of our population, including children use them, this is a timely piece. Being that we have problems with weather, destruction of food crops and speculation on commodities creating food shortages, understand that BEES pollinate 70% of the world's food crops.
I shake my head when I read some of the nonsense people write here... and all in the name of being such open and knowledgeable commenters...
As Red said in The Shawshank Redemption...
"Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'..."
the problem is that we let our paranoia take the upper hand and start believing the craziest theories. We like to think in terms of linear cause and effect where in fact there is often little evidence of any.
There's no wide spread cancer epidemy resulting from cellphone use. Bee colony collapse may very well have other causes, such as fungal/viral/parasitice deseases and pesticides which to me sounds more plausible. And why would only bees be affected by cellphones? Why not other insects or birds?
Where's the extraordinary evidence?
Firstly, it isn't crazy. There has long been thought to be a link... between the towers and cancer. And the studies have shown children are more susceptible. If you look at the brain images, you will see the waves permeate deeper into the brain.
Not everyone is as susceptible to cancer. Those who eat well, exercise, sleep,take anti oxidents, reduce toxins, live in less toxic area, do not have lifestyles that make them more prone, etc... will always be less at risk.
I do not care what you think is more plausible. Youy are entitled to that opinion, but the imagry of the waves heating the brain was enough for me.
Seeing bees get confused when they are precise and rely upon each other for life and we rely on them, is enough for me. Sadly, the extraordinary evidence you seek will be evident in another decade. it is your choice whether you wish to believe it or not ... before the evidence is in...
Birds and other insects may have sensory effects as well, but we perhaps haven't been as aware of it as we have the bees. We are also very ignorant of their sensory devices and what they may be sensitive to.
"There has long been thought to be a link..." Sure. But is there a definite link?
"Not everyone is as susceptible to cancer. Those who eat well, exercise, sleep,take anti oxidents, reduce toxins, live in less toxic area, do not have lifestyles that make them more prone, etc... will always be less at risk." So it's living stressful lives that causes cancer!
"I do not care what you think is more plausible. Youy are entitled to that opinion, but the imagry of the waves heating the brain was enough for me." Your brain is more likely to heat up from thinking than from cellphones.
"Seeing bees get confused when they are precise and rely upon each other for life and we rely on them, is enough for me." Are you a biologist specialized in bees, and have you seen this happening to bees yourself? Or is this an image that you have?
"Sadly, the extraordinary evidence you seek will be evident in another decade. it is your choice whether you wish to believe it or not ... before the evidence is in..." So I should start buying into something when there's no evidence. Sounds like religion...
Today, my parents saw 30,000 bees swarm out of their house chimney. The local beekeeper who came to collect them said they were some of the strongest bees he had ever seen. He thinks there are 20,000 still left in the chimney and expects them to swarm again once they have replenished themselves.
Are we sure that bee populations are really collapsing or is this another 'global warming story'? I also seem to remember being told not to keep my mobile in my pocket about 10 years ago as it caused testicular cancer. That story seems to have gone away too.
"Are we sure that bee populations are really collapsing or is this another 'global warming story'? I also seem to remember being told not to keep my mobile in my pocket about 10 years ago as it caused testicular cancer. That story seems to have gone away too."
Hey,this guy I know, well he bought this like Q-Ray bracelet thing, and at first I told him I thought it looked pretty cool like those giant calculator watches from the 80's, but he like totally says he feels 700% better than he did before he started wearing it and I absolutely believe him because, like you, I'll believe anything if it means I don't have to do anything to effect positive change except make sure the displacement of my vehicle's engine is at least 10 or more litres,and buy lots of made in China cheap chunks of plastic and cadmium; I like totally just KNOW they would never sell the US anything that could hurt anyone.
On a side note: when is the last time you saw a urologist about that third lump in your sac? Meh, it`s probably just a cyst...
Lots of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
I can't believe that people automatically link CCD to cellphones...
Did you see any of the bees with a cellphone or an iPad?
I rest my case.
They got this exactly backwards. Cell phones don't cause brain cancer -- brain cancer causes people to go out and buy cell phones.
Cell phones don't kill people! People kill people!
I told my wife that hearing her rattle on the cellphone was giving me brain cancer.
Now I have proof!
The conclusion of the report was that more research was needed because they couldn't find conclusive evidence... So I'll just keep calling.
Then again I would like to stick my cell phone to the man for obvious tinfoil related reasons...
Well geez, why on earth do you wear YOUR tinfoil hat in the first place if not to protect the genes in your brain from being scrambled by high frequency standing waves?
can we make tinfoil hats for the bees?
hey pal, do I look like a fucking entomologist? I'm a Frog for ghod's sake; I EAT bees... and tinfoil gives me indigestion.
Jesus Christ you latch on to every half-baked piece of pseudo-science.
GW, do you believe your own article? Will you personally stop using cell phones? If not, why did you even bother posting?
Hey, AR15AU, AKA Lone Gunman, before you commit suicide I thought you might like to know that you can see the ''Hearings on the Hill'' about this, if you search for them on CSPAN's web page. I saw a few hours of it live last year, if I recall. This really affects the kids much more, if I recall. Also, I noticed from my own experience, I have seen more than a few cases of cancer among Air Force pilots, Vietnam War Vets that have passed do to brain cancer etc... Anyway, if you are spouting off, without hearing sworn testimony etc..., come on. If you have and you are in this field of study, please, by all means, offer a link or something. That would be much better than looking (assuming) like a suicide, would it not? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7haPWqgC0IM
When you feel the need to tell your psychiatrist why you're not going to see him/her anymore, you still need help.
This is neither pseudoscience, nor does it mean we have to stop using cell phones. Rather, we need to do a detailed study to find the offending frequencies, and reallocate those to other uses, and move compensate the owners of that spectrum with more (ie the same useful amount) elsewhere.
This won't be simple, but bees are extremely important in many ways. I didn't think that cell phone radiation could cause any problems, because the frequency was such that it didn't really interact with flesh or water. Thing is, it seems likely now that it CAN interact with base pair binding, which is a totally different type of bond (ie a series of partial bonds) from those affected by ionizing radiation.
Of course, the effect on humans can't be that great, or we would have seen a spike in brain tumors over the last ten years.
But yes, much of what he talks about is pseudo-science. Just not this. It just happens to hit on a famous conspiracy theory/urban myth, which is apparently at least partially true. The evidence in the case of the bees is much more compelling, and the difficulties caused by it much more pressing.
If you can't live without a cell phone I suggest you seriously take a step back and assess your life.
Amen.
Are there any positive habits of thought that come from cell phones? The primary use seems to be to keep idiots from being alone with their thoughts and having to realize they have none.
How delightfully witty, and how depressingly true.
For all those out there who just "can't" live without a cell phone, get over yourselves --- you're not that important.
I'm going to have to go ahead and DISAGREE with your there.
Cell phones are the most important technological development since the internet. You can get unlimited amounts of information from practically any location, and you have a safety net if you are ever in an accident, lost, or broken down on the side of the road. It's not just about texting your BFF. It's about communication, which is the most important part of being a human.
They have also demonstrably had a highly negative and corrosive effect on our social interactions, our patience, our civility, and our ability to plan ahead and postpone gratification. I see almost nothing positive, in a social sense, having come from the widesspread use of cell phones, and a great deal that is negative. Go ahead and call me a Luddite if you will, but I deplore and condemn the advent of the cell phone, God's gift to the terminally short-sighted, scatterbrained and self-absorbed.
It seems to me that you are talking about kids, who have ALWAYS been like that. At least now the adults can use their damn phone once in a while.
Truth is, cell phones allow for a larger amount of social interaction, which in reality increases all positive aspects of communication. I don't really see it having a negative effect on our ability to plan or to postpone gratification. It allows us to be more productive, to get more done with less. This is a positive development. If it wasn't, people wouldn't use them. That's the way the market works.
Could do without the tracking and the little wiretap in my pocket, but what do you do? Just use a burner if you don't like that.
Interesting points and food for thought, tmosley, as always --- even at one of the rare occasions in which you and I happen to disagree.
Well said....
Using speakerphone or a headset eliminates any potential risk to your brain, although in your case why worry about what you don't have. Hold the phone away from any body part you do not want cooked and there is no problem as radiant energy weakens with increasing distance from the source. Anyone can see this themselves with a flashlight. It's called The Inverse Square Law, science guy.
What are the brain tumor symptoms and how much do they vary depending on where the tumor is located?
Thanks
<a href="http://www.bodyvibrodynamic.com/">vibration plate</a>
So you believe they cause cancer and cause bees to go extinct but you are still totally going to use them, just on speaker phone. Wow.
Hey, thanks for paying enough attention to try to put (very tiny) words in my mouth while ignoring (a) the basic science in my reply and (b) me calling you out as an ignoramus. You just keep swinging your troll cock around the Internet sir, there can never be too much of that!
+38.22
Ha! "Troll Cock"! too funny :P
It is not so much the use of cell phones as the spectrum frequency they use to transmit and receive data. The problem is that there has not been much research done to test the environmental hazard of using different spectrums likely because no one has thought to test for it. However, don't go looking for the telecoms to voluntarily come forward in favor of testing given the billions they've sunk into infrastructure. Telecom bailout anyone?
The problem is that people are easily led to believe all kinds of things. Of course research has been done, google it. It doesn't require telcos to fund scientific research...
Sure... if FM Radio causes cancer too... that would be something the broadcast media industry wouldn't want to admit, now would it?
And heck, bluetooth might cause cancer.. Nobody at Nintendo will be paying to find out, I'm sure. Same with all those hands-free earpiece makers cashing in on the current GSM / CDMA scare.
If radar causes cancer, then everytime you walk into Whole Foods and those sliding doors open, its like a mini chest x-ray. The greedy execs at Whole Foods will never fund a study to disprove that.
Wow, this is a really remarkable display of scientific ignorance.
The reality is that until very recently, the main sources of time-varying electromagnetic (EM) fields were animals themselves and fields generated by solar winds. Consequently, it is reasonable to assume that all evolution has happened under conditions of isotropic space, meaning that space is electromagnetically the same in all directions and biologically relevant molecules are free to rotate and translate in all directions. But in the presence of man-made EM fields, that assumption is no longer true and this has really profound implications. So, for example, polar molecules in a field rotate to align with the field and this has implications for things like receptor binding efficiency and intracellular signaling mechanisms which require rotational freedom to function properly.
As pointed out by duo, frequency is a very important parameter; if you force a system at its natural frequency, you can get really dramatic results. e.g. a tuning fork kind of effect. Since everything vibrates, it is predictable that stimulation at the natural frequency will have effects. It's not the energy per se, it's the frequency and the energy together that determine vibrational coupling. Given the right combination, molecular bonds can be broken, including DNA. Now just because people don't drop dead immediately, this is hardly proof of a lack of significant effects. I haven't looked at the bee data, but I know that some fish and birds use EM fields for navigation. There may be more than one thing happening with the bees, but the cellphone relation seems plausible and worth further study.
BTW, those automatic doors use ultrasound, not radar.
Ok, so why do they set off my radar detector in K band?
Most of the older ones use ultrasound, as it's perfectly good for detecting at distances up to 30 feet. Also, some doors use sensor pads in front of the door. But after poking around I see there are some newer high-end ones that use radar frequencies, which just goes to show how little these companies care about your health. Probably they would claim they use them to comply with ADA, never bothering to inform their customers that they're getting exposed to radar frequency energy every time they walk through a door. Obviously they are lower power than for military applications, but coupled with the fact that short, yet possibly frequently exposures would make it almost impossible to determine a cause and effect relationship to any possible health outcome is disconcerting to say the least.
Thanks for the tip. Note to self: don't shop at stores with automatic door openers; most of them are corporate chain stores anyway.
be careful or AR15AU will label you a witch!
hahaha.... That would be a compliment in my book, unless we're talking about the Monty Python Holy Grail world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g&feature=related
This is much bigger than just cancer causing cell phones, which is bullshit by itself. The big picture is FEAR FEAR FEAR..
The object of this game is to scare as many people away from cell phones as possible, using the cancer fear card. The ones who choose not to adhere to the status quo, will be penalized somehow, (fee's, taxes to pay for the other idiots that think they have cancer from a cell phone, after all, it's not their fault.) So, what was accomplished? Well, it would appear that a wide swath of the population has been rendered unable to communicate electronically. Without said communication, protests and rally's or anything of the sort would become extremely difficult to organize. Are you following me? End result: Personal communication has been severely comprimised, if not rendered useless. Check.. A) No communication. Trying to get out of the country without being seen? No way, boat, plane, train, aint happening.Check.. B) all escape routes have been blocked or comprimised. Still following along? Little Hillary (i haven't seen my hubby's cock near me in years) Clinton is quietly organizing global hand gun banning. GLOBAL. Check.. C) Disarm the citizens.
I think you get the drift.
www.prisonplanet.com
Prepare yourself, you will be glad you did.
I guess I'm a little more glass half full than you. I only think they released this concern so as the governments will have basis for more regulation. Watch, there will be a newly identified frequency which does not cause harm, but there is a 1 cent tax per minute to regulate the band. Or there will be regulated shielding required which will require added cost and inspection fees.
The frequencies of microwaves are close to the natural frequencies of biological molecules themselves. The resonance frequency of DNA is very close to the millimeter waves. They don't have to ionize to do damage.
ARShole, are we to assume that you latch onto the science sponsored by the Mobile Phone lobby and the FDA?
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm212273.htm
All I'm saying is take the number of brain cancer deaths worldwide and divide by the number of cell phone users worldwide. After pressing enter in CALC, you may proceed to step two - throwing the article into the garbage.
Are you a PR troll for the cell phone companies, or just someone who lives in the woods with guns? It looks like you are purposely trying to skew the facts with bad math, and if there is one thing I like about Zero Hedge is that it focuses on facts. The ratios you should be comparing are the number of people using cell phones that have cancer vs the number of people not using cell phones who have cancer. Heck, you can even do this same study by looking at specific types of cancer, and correlating each given type of cancer to cell phone use vs no cell phone use. Finally, you have to factor in time, because cancer is something that (a) probabilistically occurs, and (b) something that can be dormant until certain biological changes occur throughout a person's lifespan.
There's an App for that.