Cell phones cause cancer in rats (again) (but probably not)

[SOdhner]

Headlines all over the place today: "Study finds cell phones cause cancer in lab rats!"

Here's the study: PDF of study!

There's some stuff that the attention-grabbing articles aren't pointing out.

• This hasn't been peer reviewed.
• The full data isn't available.
• The "increased" cancer rate is more like a normal cancer rate.
• The control group had a higher mortality.
• There's an odd gender imbalance.

This doesn't look like anything to get excited about, but now you can read the study and be prepared in case everyone starts posting it on Facebook and freaking out.

 

[macdoc]

does anyone still hold a phone to their ear?? how quaint.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

does anyone still hold a phone to their ear?? how quaint.

Only rats apparently.

 

[Giordano]

The results are just like a whole bunch of prior studies: sort of, maybe, maybe not, perhaps, more studies need to be done...

The issues that concern me with this, as with many prior, cell phone studies are:

The differences between the exposed and controls are very small and in relatively rare type cancer types, leading the researchers to have to compare tumor incidents of very small numbers. This places the statistics on the very edge of significance.

The effects are not clearly dose related (normally one would expect to see more tumors with higher doses, not the same or even less as in this study). And the effects are only seen with one group (males) and not another (females) making one think that it might just be a one time statistical fluke (looking at subsets for a statistically "significant" event may produce an event by chance that would not be seen in the larger population).

Exposed mice live longer than unexposed mice despite the enhanced tumor incidence.

Also of concern is that the lack of tumors in the untreated controls is, as noted above, statistically different from what is historically expected, whereas I think (based on a quick read) the tumors in the treated mice are what would statistically comparable to that historically expected from untreated mice. This too suggests something a little odd is going on.

Of course a conclusion that cell phones might have some ability to cause cancer might still be true. But even if this is true, the elevated risk is tiny compared to one's overall risk of developing some form of cancer from the rest of the causes in one's life. One should worry about avoiding lung, colon, breast cancer, etc. many fold more. And we accept much greater risks in exchange for convenience all the time (e.g. driving a car), so the convenience of a cell phone seems to be worth it even if it does prove to have a tiny elevated risk associated with its use.

 

[bigred]

Look at the upshot guys: we'd finally have a perfect excuse not to pick up the phone when she calls (again.....) ("Why are you calling again? Are you trying to kill me??")