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Incidences of breast and thyroid cancers have risen dramatically in recent years and two studies are adding to earlier evidence of the cause: cell phones.
According to a study from Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, cell phones operate at radio frequencies that “significantly increases the risk of breast cancer, especially in women 50 and older who use cell phones and laptop computers.”
The study surveyed accumulating evidence from various sources that radio frequency radiation breaks DNA’s helical structure and ruptures the membranes of mitochondria, the structures inside cells that generate energy.
Among the studies reviewed were some that linked breast cancer in teenage girls to their habit of keeping their cell phones tucked in their bras. One physician reported a cancerous breast mass that resembled the shape of a cell phone.
Men toting cell phones in the chest pocket of jackets likely risk the same fate, physicians have pointed out.
Another study centered at Orebro University Hospital in Sweden found a statistically clear connection between the use of hand-held smartphones and the increasing number of thyroid cancer cases in Scandinavian countries.
TRENDPOST: Smartphones pose another instance of a technology spreading like a pandemic before its consequences can be properly evaluated and predicted. From artificial intelligence to nanotech inside the human body, we continue to face unknown risks as innovations pick us up and sweep us along. Universities, governments, think tanks, and others need to put as much effort into assessing new technologies’ human and environmental risks as they do into promoting their usefulness.