UPMC becomes first in nation to warn about cell phones, cancer

The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute issued an advisory this morning detailing… The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute issued an advisory this morning detailing precautions to take to avoid the potential health risks of cell phones, the first time a U.S. hospital has issued such an advisory.

“Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use,” said UPCI director Dr. Ronald Herberman in the memorandum.

“The most recent studies, which include subjects with a history of cell phone usage for a duration of at least 10 years, show a possible association between certain benign tumors (acoustic neuromas) and some brain cancers on the side the device is used,” he said.

The advisory, which was collaborated by a 23-member committee including three doctors from the University of Pittsburgh, listed 10 precautions that cell phone users should take, including avoiding usage in areas with a weak signal and not allowing children to use cell phones unless in emergencies.

Arlan Mintz, director of UPMC’s adult neurosurgical oncology program, said that the advisory needed to be issued now, despite the lack of concrete evidence.

“If there’s some evidence that suggests an increased use of brain cancer among cell phone users,” he said, “do we take a strong stand now, or do we wait until we have an established link and maybe it will be too late?

“We should be prudent and precautious, it’s probably the right thing to do,” he said. “Brain tumors don’t happen overnight.”

The advisory called on cell phone manufacturers to address the health risks their products might be causing.

“It is their responsibility to provide appliances and equipment with the lowest possible risk and to constantly evolve their technology in this direction,” said the advisory.

Mintz said that cell phone companies have usage data that, if made available to researchers, might prove a correlation between degrees of usage and brain tumors, a link that Mintz said is inevitable.

“We eventually figured out that smoking caused lung cancer, and some of the tobacco companies still deny it,” he said.

While the advisory specifically warned about children being exposed to cell phones, college students are not in the high-risk demographic.

“The problem with children is the skin over the scalp, the muscle and bone are thinner, so the penetration of the electromagnetic fields into the brain is going to be larger,” said Mintz. “The penetration of a college student is going to be very similar if not the same to someone who’s 30 or 40 or 50.”

The advisory said that its purpose was not to advocate for the total elimination of cell phones, but to serve as fair warning to their users.

“Our society will no longer do without cell phones. None of the members on the expert committee has stopped or intends to stop using cell phones. This includes [Pitt Med professor] Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, a 16-year survivor of brain cancer,” it said.

“However, we, the users, must all take precautionary measures in view of recent scientific data on the biological effects of cell phone use, especially those who already have cancer.”

In addition to Herberman and Servan-Schreiber, UPCI Canter for Environmental Oncology director Devra Davis represented Pitt on the committee. Of the 23 doctors on the committee, two were from the United States and not from Pitt.

Similar advisories have been released in Europe, but this is believed to be the first to be released by a major healthcare group in the United States.

This is the list of advice the advisory provided to limit exposure to cell phone radiation:

1. Do not allow children to use a cell phone, except for emergencies. The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

2. While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the cell phone away from the body as much as possible. The amplitude of the electromagnetic field is one-fourth the strength at a distance of two inches and 50 times lower at three feet.

Whenever possible, use the speaker-phone mode or a wireless Bluetooth headset, which has less than 1 percent of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone. Use of a hands-free earpiece attachment might also reduce exposures.

3. Avoid using your cell phone in places, like a bus, where you can passively expose others to your phone’s electromagnetic fields.

4. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times. Do not keep it near your body at night, such as under the pillow or on a bedside table, particularly if pregnant. You can also put it on “flight” or “off-line” mode, which stops electromagnetic emissions.

5. If you must carry your cell phone on you, make sure that the keypad is positioned toward your body and the back is positioned toward the outside so that the transmitted electromagnetic fields move away from you rather than through you.

6. Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting a few minutes, as the biological effects are directly related to the duration of exposure. For longer conversations, use a landline with a corded phone, not a cordless phone, which uses electromagnetic emitting technology similar to that of cell phones.

7. Switch sides regularly while communicating on your cell phone to spread out your exposure. Before putting your cell phone to the ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up. This limits the power of the electromagnetic field emitted near your ear and the duration of your exposure.

8. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, as this automatically increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.

9. When possible, communicate through text messaging rather than making a call, limiting the duration of exposure and the proximity to the body.

10. Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR is the “specific absorption rate,” which is a measure of the strength of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). SAR ratings of contemporary phones by different manufacturers are available by searching for “SAR ratings cell phones” on the Internet.