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A 29-Year Study Has Found No Link Between Brain Cancer and Cellphones
Gizmodo ^ | Thursday May 5, 2016 11:50pm | By Chris Mills

Posted on 05/06/2016 11:39:23 PM PDT by Swordmaker

A 29-Year Study Has Found No Link Between Brain Cancer and Cellphones If, and by how much cellphones increase the risk of brain cancer is a long and disputed argument. No one study is going to settle anything, but one statistical analysis of data in Australia hints at cellphones being reasonably safe.

The study examines the incidence of brain cancer in the Australian population between 1982 to 2013. The study pitted the prevalence of mobile phones among the population—starting at 0 percent—against brain cancer rates, using data from national cancer registration data.

The results showed a very slight increase in brain cancer rates among males, but a stable level among females. There were significant increases in over-70s, but began in 1982, before cellphones were even a thing.

The data matches up with other studies conducted in other countries, but Australia is a particularly excellent example—all diagnosed cases of cancer have to be registered by law, creating consistent data to work with.

By the nature of the multiple variables, large samples and very long lead-time for cancer to show up, the cellphone-brain cancer conversation is always going to be contentious. But studies like this are increasingly showing that if you really want to be safer, forget your cellphones, and look both ways crossing the road.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: applepinglist; brain; braincancer; cancer; cellphones
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To: Swordmaker
Sponsored by Verizon?
21 posted on 05/07/2016 4:40:00 AM PDT by GOPJ (Imagine the shrieking MSM outrage if Trump supporters had tried to flip a car... David French)
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To: Swordmaker

Kind of like global warming...somebody thought it and somebody believed it.


22 posted on 05/07/2016 4:40:03 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ( Anything FREELY-GIVEN by the government was TAKEN from someone else.)
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To: ThePatriotsFlag

Cell phones are a major reason the glaciers are melting.


23 posted on 05/07/2016 4:41:19 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Democrats are mean-spirited racists who don't care about our children.)
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To: Lib-Lickers 2

Birth will result in death!

We need to fund a government program to assist Planned Parenthood in minimizing the risk of birth!


24 posted on 05/07/2016 4:58:18 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (Remember...after the primaries, we better still be on the same team!)
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To: Swordmaker

Why go back to 1982? Seems it would skew results to when cell phones were not carried on person.


25 posted on 05/07/2016 5:12:38 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Vaquero
No. I talk on phones.....hands free... I personally have no problems doing this as I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I pull over to dial the number, then set the phone in my lap and continue to drive again. I need a phone holder on the door--sometimes, it slips off my lap.

26 posted on 05/07/2016 5:26:39 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

27 posted on 05/07/2016 5:27:32 AM PDT by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: Bobalu
The way to do this is to amass an enormous amount of data about a large group of people who have brain cancer and look for unique things they have in common.... your cause may be found there. This study looked at just one possible cause for 29 years, not a good approach IMO.

There are multitudes of studies like that, and, in general, they are not very helpful. For one thing, at the threshold of significance--P-value < 0.05--one out of twenty statistically significant findings is just plain false. For another thing, those studies only look at statistical correlations; I think we are all aware by now that correlation is not causation. For example, if a study finds that obesity correlates with the incidence of a specific kind of arthritis, does it mean that obesity causes arthritis, that arthritis causes obesity, or that some underlying condition causes both?

Although many many physicians conduct correlative studies such as you described, they really are very poor science. While physicians love to publish these studies as if they are definitive, they are, at best, indications that there may be something worth researching further.

28 posted on 05/07/2016 5:40:29 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: MarvinStinson

Not one of the test dummies developed cancer.


29 posted on 05/07/2016 6:17:06 AM PDT by databoss
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To: Nifster

“Brain cancer rates had not in Australia. Tough fact”

The bottom line is that there is no known biological mechanism by which RF energy from a cell phone can cleave DNA and hence cause an increase in cancer. The only observable impact RF energy has on people is tissue heating, which can happen through other, normal biological mechanisms as well. Doesn’t mean they should stop looking, but it does mean they aren’t likely to find anything.

Like the anti-vaxers and global warming - correlation is not causation, even if the data is fudged to show a correlation that isn’t really there.

It’s about politics, money, and sociopathic regulators, not science or a search for truth.


30 posted on 05/07/2016 6:32:54 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: Swordmaker

I thought leftism was brain cancer.


31 posted on 05/07/2016 8:03:19 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Flick Lives

LOL!


32 posted on 05/07/2016 9:49:17 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (San Andreas is "locked and loaded",)
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To: MarvinStinson

That’s because the 57 year old author of the study died from brain cancer before he could complete his findings while phoning them in from home. /s


33 posted on 05/07/2016 9:52:11 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: Raycpa
Why go back to 1982? Seems it would skew results to when cell phones were not carried on person.

Simple, to see what the brain cancer rate was when people were NOT exposed to ionizing radiation from cell phones held up against the head. Since there were none in 1982 to 1992 or so, it is a good control period to examine the rate of brain cancer rates against for similar periods later where people DID hold ionizing devices up against their heads. If the rates of brain cancer development are the same between a period when they did not hold ionizing radiation emitting devices against their heads and when they did, then it is most likely the ionizing radiation devices are not causing any increase in brain cancer.

34 posted on 05/07/2016 3:08:25 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue..)
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To: Swordmaker
Simple, to see what the brain cancer rate was when people were NOT exposed to ionizing radiation from cell phones held up against the head.

What ionizing radiation is being emitted by cellphones?

35 posted on 05/07/2016 6:35:03 PM PDT by RansomOttawa (tm)
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