Mobile phones negative for cancer…for now

Technology has allowed a lot of “incurable” medical maladies to now become curable. But has technology also brought us the likelihood of cancer?

Study after study research on whether mobile phone usage is likely to cause cancer. The results of some studies show that it does, but some studies also show that there is no causal connection. Now comes another study that affirms the latter set of studies and “debunks” the alleged myth that is the causal connection of mobile phone usage and cancer.

Professor Bernard Stewart, an Australian cancer specialist from the University of New South Wales, has devised a five point system that lists the risk of cancer from proven and likely, to inferred, unknown or unlikely. His research was published in the Mutation Research Reviews journal.

According to this risk ranking system, smoking, alcohol and exposure to sunlight are the leading risk factors, whereas using a mobile phone was far less likely to cause cancer. But the study does not fully establish the risks associated with the long-term mobile phone usage. (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD80708.htm)

But how do you weigh the conflicting studies? It must be remembered that while the result of Professor Stewart’s research is thus, there is also a line of studies that says otherwise. I guess it’s up to us to determine which line of studies to give credence to.