Robin Young of NPR's Here & Now almost spoiled my lunch interviewing a politician who believes cell phones cause cancer. I wrote the letter below to complain.
I was disappointed, maybe I should say shocked, to hear the nonsense about cellphones in today's program. It is FALSE that "the jury is still out on whether cell phones cause cancer," as Robin Young stated. There is no known physical mechanism by which microwave photons can break DNA in a way to cause cancer. Clinical research for almost 2 decades has failed to find any correlation between cell phone use and cancer. Fabricated and anecdotal evidence of the type cited in your program can never replace hard science.
To take the argument further, a reckless piece such as today's calls into question "Here & Now" as a source of thoughtful news and commentary. It is a slippery slope. Now you endorse crackpot theories about electromagnetism, the listener fears that tomorrow you will bring someone speaking for homeopathy, the next day creationism, and what will come next? Trade protectionists? Flat earthers? Erich von Däniken?
For some science on the subject, please read the article "Einstein didn't win the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity. He won it for showing that you don't need to worry about radiation from your cell phone" at the following address:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/08/30/ED16179.DTL
5 comentários:
it's funny.
I've always thought he won his Nobel for sticking out his tongue to a journalist.
hugs
sgold
That's because they didn't have cell phones then ;-)
votem:
http://rwer.wordpress.com/poll-procedures-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/vote-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/
sgold
Votei! mas quero lembrar que o Ig Noble http://improbable.com/ig/ é um prêmio sério que celebra o pensamento diferente, e que faz você primeiro rir e depois pensar. Não deve ser concedido a quem simplesmente publica trabalhos errôneos.
Recently some research made to the news: http://bit.ly/8N7rmo
It was about a test that showed that apparently some cellphone-like EM waves protected mices' memory. The researchers think that this could lead into something to help people with Alzheimer.
And there's also this article stating that conclusions of researches on cellphones/cancer depende on who runs the research:
http://bit.ly/aoBVhy
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