Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Cell phones, saccharin, and cancer

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 31:  A man speaks on his mo...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The New York Times reports today that a World Health Organization panel has found cell phones are "possibly carcinogenic." The panel did no independent study itself, but reviewed a number of existing studies.

The headline in the Times read "Panel Adds to Debate Over the Cancer Risk of Cellphone Radiation," and although it is buried on page 12, still sounds fairly scary. But, as usual with scientific studies and conclusions drawn from reviewing such studies, the scariness dissipates quite a bit.

The main reason for the WHO panel classifying cell phones as possibly carcinogenic was some data that showed a higher risk among heavy cell phone users of developing a rare type of brain tumor called a glioma. A 13 country study published last year, called Interphone, found no overall increased risk of developing cancer from using cell phones but it also reported that there was a 40% higher risk of developing gliomas among the heaviest cell phone users. It is also true that gliomas tend to be relatively rare and seem to be connected to chromosome instability, so one should not look at the percentage and think that there is a 40% chance one is going to develop glioma from using the cell phone too much.

These scientific reports always remind me of the days when saccharin, or Sweet 'N Low, was the bogeyman. Thirty-four years ago this past March the Food and Drug Administration banned it based on scientific studies. Talk about over reaction. The amount of saccharin given to the lab animals has been compared to a normal adult drinking 800 diet sodas a day for a lifetime. (See post on TCSDaily.com by Elizabeth M. Whelan on March 9, 2007) Today, saccharin and Sweet 'N Low are widely available and turned out not to be as evil as we were told them were.


So let's not get too heated up about the WHO panel's finding. Many scientific studies, when presented in the media, seem like the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, truly frightening, but in the end turn out to be like that "man behind the curtain" that we're not supposed to pay any attention to.
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