WHO Finding Adds to Debate Over Mobile Phones, Brain Cancer
05 June 2011
The World Health Organization says signals from cellphones are possibly carcinogenic
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
The World Health Organization has added to the debate over the risk of brain cancer from mobile phone use. Last week the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer listed the signals from wireless devices as "possibly carcinogenic." This finding puts cell phones in the same risk group as the pesticide DDT -- but also in the same group as coffee.
A group of thirty-one scientists from fourteen countries made the finding. The announcement came at the end of a meeting at the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France.
The concern is that extended contact with radiofrequency electromagnetic fields may increase a user's risk for glioma. Glioma is the most common form of brain cancer.
The scientists spent a week examining existing research. Dr. Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California led the group.
JONATHAN SAMAT: "We also carefully consider the sources of exposure of populations to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, the nature of these fields as they come from various devices, including wireless phones, and we look carefully at the physical phenomenon by which exposure to such fields may perturb biological systems and lead to cancers."
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