"Yes, cellphones are risky. Here's why"
Abstract from a USA Today Article; Apr 30, 2001;
Abstract:
Unfortunately, the GAO auditors' draft seems to stop far short of being the clarion call that might have spurred Congress to finally
get the U.S. government as involved as some European governments already are in safeguarding cellphone users. The GAO draft doesn't
recommend federal funding for much-needed independent research, according to a report last week by correspondent Jeffrey Silva in RCR
Wireless News, a trade publication.
Nor does the draft fulfill a specific requirement of
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who requested the study along with Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. Lieberman asked the GAO "to clarify
what (health) risks may or may not exist" for users. The draft fails to do that, Silva reports. The GAO focused only minimally
on lab experiments that showed cellphone radiation caused genetic changes in human blood cells and animal tissue -- changes cancer
experts consider a diagnostic marker of "high risk" for developing tumors.
* The studies were small and examined the wrong type
of brain tumors. Tumors in almost all patients were located in interior regions of the skull that couldn't be reached by cellphone radiation,
which penetrates only two inches inside adult skulls. In other words: The statistical studies only proved that tumors that couldn't
be reached by cellphone radiation weren't caused by cellphone usage. That's hardly reassuring...
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