Your cell phone doesn’t give you cancer, 18-year Danish study shows

You’re as likely to get cancer from using your cell phone as from drinking coffee. Say what? That’s right, cell phone radiation is not dangerous.

The results of a an 18-year study by researchers in Denmark, tracked the incidence of certain cancers among cell phone users, and found that cell phone owners, and those who did not own cell phones were equally likely to get cancer.

The study, which was led by the Danish Center for Cancer and Epidemiology, had the following conclusions:

Of the 358,403 mobile phone owners looked at, 356 gliomas (a type of brain cancer) and 846 cancers of the central nervous system were seen – both in line with incidence rates among those who did not own a mobile.

Even among those who had had mobiles the longest – 13 years or more – the risk was no higher, the researchers concluded.

The World Health Organization put cell phone usage in the same category as coffee, which cannot be positively linked to incidence of cancer, but cannot be disproven either.

In the U.S., cell phone radiation is measured in the Specific Absorption Ration, or SAR, which tracks the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using the handset. CNET recently published a list of the 20 best and worst phones available in the U.S. for their radiation output, with the Motorola Bravo as the worst offender, and the Samsung Blue Earth emitting the least radiation.

That doesn’t mean that cell phones can’t be deadly. While the link between cell phone usage and cancer looks increasingly unlikely, a study about cell phone usage and deaths behind the wheel would likely have a very grim conclusion.

H/T: BBC

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