A Call Of Cancer!

Following an unpublished data, Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute claimed that excessive use of mobile phones could increase the risk of cancer, especially in children.

Herberman cautioned mobile users against the dangers of using mobile phones. He warned his faculty and staff to minimize the use of cell phones to cut down the risk of cancer through a note that he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff members.

He insisted that people should not wait for a study or a research to reveal this fact because a study might take a long time to confirm this truth. It’s time to wake up and take some stern actions. He advocates precaution is better than cure.

Particularly, parents need to watch out their child’s too much indulgence in mobile phone. A growing child has a brain that is still in developing stage, electromagnetic rays of the cell phones naturally harm the growth process of the brain and over all body as well.

It’s an issue of worry for the parents, they should explain their children about the harmful effects of the phones they use.

Herberman accepted, "Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later."

No other concerned institution or even FDA has expressed a concern about the effects of mobile phones on humans, till date.

But the initiative taken by Herberman will surely arouse some curiosity, awareness and anxiety among the parents and the mobile phone users.

Radiofrequency energy emanated by the cell phones is a kind of an electromagnetic radiation but its link with the formation of tumors in the brain and its effect on the central nervous system is yet unclear, the National Cancer Institute said.

Future studies can throw some light on the subject but a study can take weeks, months or even several years to reach a conclusion.

He advised adults to keep the phones at quiet a distance from their heads, when mobile phones are not in use. Even while conversing on the phone they should always try and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset.

In fact, Herberman goes to the extent of saying that cell phones should only be used by children and adults in case of emergencies.

But what can be done about Generation X which is addicted and captivated by the private gadgets, may it be a mobile phone or anything else?

The use of phone in public sphere should also be avoided as the other people present around the mobile phone user also get exposed to the harmful radiations/waves emitted by the phones.

On contrary there are few studies which do not support this notion and define it as a ‘sheer myth’. For instance, studies conducted last year in France and Norway second this view of ‘sheer myth’.

Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has conducted many studies on cell phones and cancer holds, "We certainly don't know of any mechanism by which radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect in cells. We just don't know this might possibly occur."

But Herberman still took a stand and remarked that there are sufficient data, on the basis of which it can be said that a long-term use of cell phone certainly augments the risk of cancer in the growing children.

For now he suggests that precautions should be taken to lower the risk of health hazards like cancer.