Cell phones - Carcinogenic or Not?

In Unveiling the Apocalypse, I note how near field communications (NFC) technology in cell phones is set to replace the use of credit cards in the near future, bringing us one step closer to a "cashless society" and making it extremely difficult to buy or sell without owning such a device. Since NFC in cellphones is conducted over the worldwide web (www), which in turn has the numerical value of six-six-six in Hebrew, I argue that this technology has already fulfilled the prophecy of the mark of the Beast, and we do not need to wait until the fabled New World Order forcibly coerce the inhabitants of the world to be microchipped with RFID implants. If the use of cell phones as a means of economic transaction is to be equated with the mark of the Beast, then the Book of Revelation may forewarn of a future cancer epidemic related to mobile phone use:


"So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast..." (Rev 16:2)


(For those who need a recap, see the earlier posts Hebrew 666? the Mark of the Beast and NFC technology and the Mark of the Beast, which note the similarities between the original meaning of the prophecy of the mark of the Beast and the present day use of modern social communications technology).
There is some debate amongst scientists as to what extent cell phone use can induce various types of cancer. The vast majority of these studies focus on the develop of brain tumours caused by microwave radiation. The highest profile scientific study of recent years was the controversial 2006 Danish mobile phone study, which concluded that cell phones posed no discernible risk in inducing brain cancer. However Dr George Carlo, an independent leading epidemiologist called this research into question, by claiming that the Danish study was sponsored by the cell phone industry itself (via the CTIA), and that the data was manipulated to put a favourable light on mobile phone use - much in the same way the tobacco industry funded scientific research which downplayed the effects of cigarette smoke and lung cancer. These insights throws the recent Danish study published in October 2011 into doubt also (which similarly found no definite link between cell phone use and cancer).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has never definitively provided an answer, but recently indicated that cell phones were "possibly carcinogenic" (see here), after some of their own research appeared to suggest that heavy usage was linked to glioma - a malignant type of brain cancer (see here). Below is an abstract from a press release circulated by the WHO on this issue:


Lyon, France, May 31, 2011 ‐‐ The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use. IARC classifies adiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans. (See the full press release here)

The simple truth is that the long-term effects of heavy and prolonged mobile phone usage is still an unknown quantity. Brain cancers are recognised as the slowest to develop, so the fact that there is a lack of observable genetic mutations in cell phone users today, does not prove that sustained use over a long period will not result in a cancer outbreak in the future. Since there is already some preliminary evidence that mircowave raditation from cell phones can result in certain types of cancer, there is a strong possibility that we are sitting on a cancer "time-bomb". In the case of cigarette smokers, there can be a thirty to forty year period before the smoker will develop cancers related to their habit - so it is quite possible that it would take a similar length of time before cell phone users begin to develop symptoms of heavy microwave radaition exposure.
It wasn't too long ago that links to power lines and cancer were similarly being brushed aside, before the statistical data emerged to prove otherwise. Below is an extract from an article on New Scientist on this topic:

Children living near overhead power lines may have an increased risk of leukemia but the association may not be causal, UK researchers say.

The confusing message, which comes from the largest study to date - of over 29,000 children with cancer - is that since "there is no biological mechanism to explain the higher risk", the results, "although statistically significant, may be due to chance".

The study - a collaboration between the Childhood Cancer Research Group at the University of Oxford and National Grid owners, Transco - looked at cancer data in England and Wales between 1962 and 1995, for children aged up to 15 years old.

They were able to map how far each child lived from a high voltage overhead power line. Comparing the children who had cancer with a control group of 29,000 children without cancer but who lived in comparable districts, found that children whose birth address was within 200 metres of an overhead power line had a 70% increased risk of leukemia. Children living 200 to 600 m away from power lines had a 20% increased risk. (Gaia Vince "Large study links power lines to childhood cancer" New Scientist. See the full article here).

Although the statistical evidence certainly indicates a link between the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced by power lines and childhood leukemia, scientists are still at a loss how to explain the exact causation. But just because science can't explain something doesn't necessitate that it doesn't exist - rather that we have not the sufficient knowledge to understand these processes. The exact same scenario can be transposed to the correlation between EMFs generated by cell phones and a link to brain cancer. So in the mean time, it is advised that cell phone users limit their usage to hands free devices or texting in order to curb their exposure to microwave radiation.