Do cellphones cause cancer?

You’ve probably heard that cell phones could cause cancer. Are we developing cancer from cellphones? The world health organization labeled phone radiation possibly carcinogenic in 2011. A current understanding of radio waves says that generally, phones shouldn’t give you cancer but we are still doing research to find out if it’s true in practice. 

The radiation sounds really scary but you shouldn’t necessarily be scared by it. The FM radio waves that are being generated that’s also radiation, visible lights are also radiation. Phone radiation is similar, the problem is there is a second type of radiation that actually does harm people that are known as ionizing radiation. So things like X-rays and some Ultraviolet light, ionizing radiation can damage your DNA which can eventually lead to cancer according to the theory of the American Cancer Society. Phone radiation is non-ionizing, meaning it does not damage your DNA. So if it does cause cancer then it’s through some mechanism we don’t know about yet.

There is even a big study in 2016, seen that phone radiation given cancer to a bunch of rats. So what’s the deal? Shouldn’t we know by now whether carrying a cell phone all time is going to kill us? Well, the answer is Yes and a No. Okay, so what happens with the rats in the study that caused cancer after being exposed to the phone radiation? Do they prove there is a link? That study from the National Toxicology Program found that the more radio waves rats were hit with the more instances of heart and brain cancer turned up. The American cancer society thought it was a good study that shouldn’t be ignored but there were a lot of flaws in its findings, for instance, the rats who got cancer actually lived longer than rats who didn’t also rats aren’t people. More findings came out in early 2018. The food and drug administration said evidence showing a link between phone radiation and cancer made a big impact on the US. The agency concluded that taken together, all this research has given us the confidence that current safety limits for cell phone radiation remain acceptable for protecting the public health.

Scientists are also looking at the rates of brain cancer. They have been dropping for a decade which could be a good sign but they also say it could be another decade or more for the effects of phone radiation actually shows up. We are surrounded by phone signals all day long and right now you might be in a room filled with Wi-Fi signals gets all the radio frequency radiation.

So, for now, you no need to be alarmed, what scientists haven’t rolled out a link between phone radiation and cancer the evidence suggesting the link is still inconclusive. Still, if you are worried then there ways to reduce the exposure like using a headset.