Comments on: Cancer doc urges cell phone precaution

Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sends list of precautionary measures to faculty and staff.

[JRG1392]

My question is what does that mean for bluetooth??

[word123]

Australian neurosurgeon V. Khurana also warned about mobile phones (www.brain-surgery.us/mobph.pdf), and he recommends also minimizing bluetooth use.

[iPhotographer]

I know a former patient of V. Khurana. He isn't an expert, merely a surgeon who, hoping to gain notoriety, published a report based on other people's hard work. It was a very bias document that in the end, didn't amount to anything new. This academic is no different.
There is an element of risk in everything we do. When you think of the tremendous numbers of people who now use mobile phones, they would seem to be quite safe. I would guess more people die in car accidents, from food allergies and so on, far more.

[bgnm]

Dr. Herberman has provided further evidence of how unscientific the medical profession is. Two facts: 1) not one credible study has shown a correlation between any detrimental effect and cell p hone usage (or any other low level EM field, for that matter); 2) no one has even postulated a credible interaction mechanism between an EM field and the human body that could result in a carcinogenic effect. Thermal deposition is too minute. Thirty years ago, alarmists were warning us that microwave ovens were going to kill us. In the early nineteenth century, it was well known that the human body could not survive traveling at 50 mph. Sounds like Dr. Herberman is creating rationale for a research project. Unfortunately, aided by the scientifically illiterate media, he has created fear and trepidation in the minds of the equally scientifically ignorant masses.

[bcarryer]

Look People...This isn't rocket science nor is it brain surgery. In fact it is pseudo-science. No respectable scientist would make claims based on "unpublished data". Let's see...the maximum energy from cell phone radiation is about 300 GHz. The radiation energy from your average light bulb is about 10 MILLION TIMES this. The intensity of UV rays are about 1 BILLION TIMES this. The radiation energy of x-rays are about 10 TRILLION TIMES this. "Published Research" as far I know shows that dangers of cancer result from exposure to UV waves or better, but not having access to this "Mystery Data" what do I know? It is truly ashame that a doctor of "respectable" position isn't capable of grasping basic highschool physics.

[open-mind]

300 GHz? That's a frequency measure, not an energy measure.

[misfire99]

It's all about money. He can't publish anything in a peer reviewed journal so he comes out with this memo and gets his name in the news. Then maybe he will get hired again or have his funding renewed. He's just a scammer with an MD after his name.

[misfire99]

It's all about money. He can't publish anything in a peer reviewed journal so he comes out with this memo and gets his name in the news. Then maybe he will get hired again or have his funding renewed. He's just a scamer with an MD after his name.

I just did a medline search on his name. He only has one published work and his name is way down on the list. Here is the pubmed ID

PMID: 16888034 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This guy should be brought up for disciplinary action.

[jamalystic]

If this is the case then , how comes some doctors are using mobile phones to monitor healthcare according to this blog: Doctors Unplugged: Monitoring Healthcare With Cellphones(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=147482&F_src=flftwo). I think this guy has to be ashame of himself and i'm upset that we are giving too much undue attention!!

[Qwedeare]

I would like to thank you. You have shared the same part of mind, and I would like to add that KNOWELDGE IS THE ONLY TREATMENT FOR IGNORANT.

[not1975]

Wow, this is a particularly bad peice of science news. FoxNews and CNN would be very proud...

Utlimately, this guy is making claims without evidence, which means what he is saying is worthless. Science is based on evidence, authority != truth.

Also, the beginning of this article is inaccurate. This is not a legitmate science controversy. There is no legitmate evidence showing that cell phones are dangerous. There isn't even a known mechanism: microwaves are non-ionizing and can't break the bonds in DNA or other cells and can't cause cancer!

When this guy puts his evidence where his mouth is, well, *that* might be another story.

[Marie7399]

I don't know about the scientific validity of these claims, but from personal experience I agree that the radiation from cell phones can have an effect on our health. I had a large brain tumor removed from my cerebellum 6 years ago. I do not attribute it's growth to cell phone usage, however now whenever I use my phone for more than a few minutes, I begin to feel throbbing and sometimes shooting pain in the same area. This does not occur at any other time except for when talking on the cell phone. I switched to a blue tooth device about 2 years ago hoping it would help, but had the same experience. Now I use my phone only when I have to, and almost always on speaker phone if at all possible. I also agree that it sounds strange, and I can't "scientifically" prove it of course, but I can't seem to tell my head that!

[3rdalbum]

Marie, it's a psychological effect caused by your phone ear heating up. Your ear heats up because it's in close contact with an object, not because the phone is shooting high-frequency gamma rays into your head :-P

Switching to Bluetooth doesn't help because you've already got into the pattern of expecting the pain when on the phone.

If the "scientist" believes that Bluetooth is harmful, then he's an even bigger fool. Mobile phones have a range of 500 metres. The Bluetooth transcievers in the earpieces have a range of 10-50 metres. It's an order of magnitude lower in frequency and power. Of course, wireless networks run at the same range and power - where's the public health warning on this? What's next - smartcard readers are going to kill us through cancer of the hand?