Cell Tower Radiation of No Concern for Pregnant Mothers or Childhood Cancer?
A British study looking into childhood cancer found no link between pregnant women living near a cell phone tower and cancer for their children, all of whom were studied between the ages of birth and four years old. But that doesn’t mean what the industry interpreted it to mean as it immediately erected more cell phone towers in Britain.
In this study published online in the journal BMJ last week, young children with cancer were compared to children without cancer, to see if where their mothers’ proximity to a cell phone tower had any impact. Paul Elliott, MD, PhD, who led the study commissioned jointly by the telecommunications industry, points out that his study clashes against results of previous studies that did find a link.
With such a reassuring study find, why do we have researchers around the world warning that exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) radiation is most dangerous to children, especially while in utero, such as Magda Havas from Trent University in Toronoto, Dr. O. P. Ghandi of the University of Utah, and Dr. Lennart Hardell, M.D., Ph.D. of Sweden?
It is easy to misread the claim of the study to gather that cell phone towers’ radiation does not cause cancer in children—but that is not what it does or can assert. The findings say only that early childhood cancers didn’t seem to increase when subjects lived within 612 meters of a cell tower. And that is questioned by some, including Sam Milham, Jr. MD, MPH, because of his research finding much higher incidence of cancer in students in classrooms less than 100 meters from a tower. He thinks if the study were done looking at those living within a 100 or 200 meters, the results would be more significant.
Another doubt comes from researchers who’ve conducted long-term studies. This study published in BMJ does not speak to is those children’s risk of cancer beyond age four. The evidence so far is that the harm from low-level radiation comes with long-term exposure, which grows exponentially over time. People are at greater risk as the years of their lives increase.
John Bithel, retired research fellow from the University of Oxford, who wrote the accompanying editorial to the study, as reported a Fox News article, asserted that it might be more important to study cancers in adults “because any health effects are likely to appear only after years of exposure to cell phones and their base towers.” And he incidentally, is not even in the camp of those who give the issue much priority—yet even he can see how the study that reassured the Brits to erect more cell phone towers has done little to disprove risk.
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