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With 270 million Americans and 4 billion people around the world using cell phones - and more signing up every day - a strong link between mobiles and cancer could have major public-health implications. As cell phones make and take calls, they emit low-level radio-frequency (RF) radiation. Stronger than FM radio signals, these RF waves are still a billionth the intensity of known carcinogenic radiation like X-rays. (See pictures from an X-ray studio...
...maximum for cell-phone-signal exposure is intended to prevent RF radiation from heating tissue to the point that cells are damaged. Cell-phone RF radiation's "effect on the body, at least at this time, appears to be insufficient to produce genetic damage typically associated with developing cancer," Dr. Robert Hoover, director of the National Cancer Institute's Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, testified at a 2008 congressional hearing...
...body of research is far from conclusive. In 1995, Lai co-wrote a study showing that a single two-hour exposure of RF radiation - at levels considered safe by U.S. standards - produced the sort of genetic damage in rats' brain cells that can lead to cancer. Though subsequent researchers - often funded in part by the wireless industry - failed to replicate Lai's results, a 2004 European Union - funded study reported similar findings...
...radiation increases the chances of developing brain cancer, it should show up in long-term studies of cell-phone users. But many epidemiological studies have found no clear connection, including a 2007 Danish Cancer Society study of 421,000 cell-phone users, which led many in the media to conclude that mobiles are harmless. To date, "peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a risk," says John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA, a global wireless association. (See how to prevent illness...
Also, the study looked only at tumors that were diagnosed by 2002 - not long after daily use of cell phones became widespread. Brain cancers can take several decades to develop, so it might be many years before a measurable bump in cancer rates shows up. "The latency period we have is far too short," says Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer researcher at Israel's Gertner Institute whose epidemiological studies have found some connections between cell-phone use and salivary-gland tumors. "And today, people are using the phone much more heavily." (See TIME's special report "How to Live...