“The evidence was reviewed critically, and overall evaluated as being limited[*] among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma, and inadequate to draw conclusions for other types of cancers”

“[...] there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”

The [*] being (emphasis mine):

“'Limited evidence of carcinogenicity': A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer for which a **causal** interpretation is considered by the Working Group to be credible, but chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.”

Doesn't stop it from causing a lot of hype though. :/

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Ah, finally, being a physicist has some use in real life :)

“Kroc, I love that chart! It has very little to do with the paper that is currently being hyped though. The radiation chart maps ionising radiation, but nobody is claiming that mobile phones are radio active. They are just saying the phone might be carcinogenic.”

To the best of my knowledge, the scientific consensus nowadays is that cancers are caused by mutating DNA, and we know two things which can make one's DNA structure change : ionizing radiation (electromagnetic waves bring sufficient energy to break the DNA's molecules) and chemical reactions (with tobacco, benzene and stuff like that).

Quantum physics tells us that unless non-linear optics come into play*, electromagnetic radiation can not cause ionization until you get light frequencies in the UV and beyond (X, gamma...). Sunlamps use UV to burn people's skin, that's why they may cause cancer.

Microwaves and radio waves have a lower frequency than infrared light, so they have a lower frequency than UV. Notice that if microwaves were dangerous, then visible light and the infrared light emitted by our own hot body should be dangerous too : we should probably avoid direct contact with ourselves.

In short, no physical phenomena known as of today may cause cellphones to cause cancer. Of course, the situation may change tomorrow, considering how limited our knowledge of cancer is. But as of today, the only statistical evidence of cell-phone induced increased cancer rates we know if is for people calling more than 45min every day : if you do not use your cell much, there is no reason to worry.

Besides...

“I do use one It makes my parents a lot happier to know I have it with me when I take the bike to school. I do not worry about brain cancer a lot though, I rarely make any calls. It sits in my pocket or is used to send text messages.”

Actually, assuming that cellphone waves were dangerous, this is more dangerous than putting it next to your head :) As you mentioned, your brains are protected by a pretty strong barrier, the skull, but your testicles on the other hand...

*You'd need emission powers much stronger than any modern phone can emit for that, I think. At the lab scale we need very powerful lasers and hard to produce experimental conditions to see them. As the graphic above mentions, eating a banana would probably be more dangerous.

Well, I'm currently reading the "Summary of Data Reported and Evaluation" part.

What I read from it is that there is a very small amount of worthwhile data about the effects of exposure on human, that the methodology is dubious and that the risk of selection bias is high. There doesn't seem to be a lot of conclusive evidence in there, although I have to admit that I have read quite fast (LaTeX documents make my eyes bleed, especially on a computer screen).

Will anyone actually read it ?

“They have a 429 paged publication ”

I think that this is a good topic to stay up to date on. I realize that there are good arguments on both sides of the table. I tend to try to be cautious, and cell phone radiation will probably fall under this category for me. Either way, it might not be such a bad idea for me to break a little dependence from my mobile gadgets. I look forward to staying up to date on the findings.

http://cellphoneradiation.qapacity.com/

“I realize that there are good arguments on both sides of the table.”

Sorry, but this is not true. Cell phones do not emit ionizing radiation, so it is _impossible_ for the _radiation_ to cause cancer.

That said, there are a number of other ways that electronic devices could cause cancer or other medical issues. For example, laptops sitting on one's lap can toast the skin and even (in rare cases) cause cancer in these areas.

These studies that demonstrate (weak) statistical links between cell phone use and cancer may simply show correlations with no causation behind them. Similarly, I'm sure you could find a link between television usage and obesity, even though watching television obviously doesn't make one obese.

The report’s title and last page pretty much sum it up for me.