[escepticos] New York Times - magufos??

[Eduardo Gallo]

Nada, que no hay manera... y siguen empeñados en que los teléfonos móviles provocan cáncer... ¿y qué más da eso? Y encima lo publican en el New York Times...http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/03well.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1212659276-nyIoMd+L4Al7LK03NHcuwg
Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer









By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: June 3, 2008












	 What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t? 
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King
that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe
practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave
antenna away from your brain.” Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery
at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of
cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it
to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a
neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used  an earpiece.Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor
that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’
remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones
and cancer. That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society.  The theory that cellphones cause brain tumors “defies credulity,” said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.According to the Food and Drug Administration,
three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful
effects. CTIA — the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade
group, said in a statement, “The overwhelming majority of studies that
have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that
wireless phones do not pose a health risk.”The F.D.A. notes,
however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites
was about three years, so the research doesn’t answer questions about
long-term exposures. Critics say many studies are flawed for that
reason, and also because they do not distinguish between casual and
heavy use.Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of
energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA
damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to
explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.But
researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science
can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns
have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the
radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent
studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone.Like
most research on the subject, the studies are observational, showing
only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal
relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone,
a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and
several in Europe.Some of the research suggests a link between
cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid,
a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma,
a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All
these cancers are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk,
the risk is still very low.Last year, The American Journal of
Epidemiology published data from Israel finding a 58 percent higher
risk of parotid gland tumors among heavy cellphone users. Also last
year, a Swedish analysis of 16 studies in the journal Occupational and
Environmental Medicine showed a doubling of risk for acoustic neuroma
and glioma after 10 years of heavy cellphone use. “What we’re
seeing is suggestions in epidemiological studies that have looked at
people using phones for 10 or more years,” says Louis Slesin, editor of
Microwave News, an industry publication that tracks the research.
“There are some very disconcerting findings that suggest a problem,
although it’s much too early to reach a conclusive view.”Some
doctors say the real concern is not older cellphone users, who began
using phones as adults, but children who are beginning to use phones
today and face a lifetime of exposure.“More and more kids are
using cellphones,” said Dr. Paul J. Rosch, clinical professor of
medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. “They may be much
more affected. Their brains are growing rapidly, and their skulls are
thinner.”For people who are concerned about any possible risk, a
simple solution is to use a headset. Of course, that option isn’t
always convenient, and some critics have raised worries about wireless
devices like the Bluetooth that essentially place a transmitter in the
ear.The fear is that even if the individual risk of using a
cellphone is low, with three billion users worldwide, even a minuscule
risk would translate into a major public health concern.“We
cannot say with any certainty that cellphones are either safe or not
safe,” Dr. Black said on CNN. “My concern is that with the widespread
use of cellphones, the worst scenario would be that we get the
definitive study 10 years from now, and we find out there is a
correlation.”well en nytimes.com
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