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Death by mobile phone

We've forgotten: are they dangerous this month or not?

US says cell phones won't kill you

From the info in this article, you can't draw any info that phone use is or isn't related to cancer.

Eg.
I'll do a control group of people that play Russian roulette (aimed at their foot) and still have a foot. The other group will be people that play Russian roulette (aimed at their foot) and have a hole in their foot but still play. Both groups play for the same amount of time and pull the trigger equally as often. The article implies that this would mean there is no link between Russian roulette and holes in feet.

So, either I'm completely wrong, the published paper is doing more than what was reported, or you missed a great opportunity to show people making up data to support their arguments.

Jim T.



I have been following the cell phone study as well. It should be noted that the study only published the results of the affect of analog phones, or phones running in analog mode. Since nobody that I know still uses analog, I would be much more interested in finding out about the affect of digital signals on my melon. My understanding is that the two signals have a very different affect on organic tissues at higher signal strengths, but there has not been any long term (or short term as far as I know) studies on digital cell phone use.



Joel Mauldin



The researchers, from the American Health Foundation, found that there was very little difference between the mobile phone habits of a group of cancer patients and a control group who had used their phones for about three years.



Is this *really* what they've been comparing? If so, I can't see how it's a statistically meaningful exercise. I'm no expert, but isn't it a bit like taking a bunch of lung cancer patients, and a control group of other smokers, and going on to conclude that there's no link between cancer and smoking because the smoking habits of the two groups are much the same?

The point is that similar patterns of smoking induce cancer in some people but not in others (hence the Sun readers' argument that smoking isn't bad for you "because my grandad smoked like a chimney and lived to be 153" etc.). Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick, though.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Martin

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