In 1993 eminent public health scientist, Dr George Carlo was hired by the cell phone industry to examine the health risk of cell phones. This twenty five million dollar, seven year pivotal study was intended to prove that cell phones were safe. Dr Carlo’s study was thorough and conclusive, proving just the opposite of what the cell phone companies wanted. In fact, Carlo found a strong connection between cell phone use and brain tumours, neurological disease and genetic damage. He say's, because we still don't know the true health risks that we must exercise caution.
Dr Carlo told us, "It's very similar to the problems we had with the tobacco industry, but the difference here is that in the United States, we have now two hundred and eight million people using cell phones. Around the world, at last count, I think at last count, there were one point nine billion people using cellular or mobile phones. So we've never had, ever in history before, penetration of a consumer product like this. And because of the litigation ongoing in the United States the cell phone industry knows that they will lose a couple of these lawsuits and when they do, they are probably going to turn to the government for some kind of bailout. So that the institutional arrogance they are exhibiting is born of the fact that so many people use cell phones, so much of retirement investment funds that are in place are tied to telecommunications stocks, they feel they are almost untouchable. So at the end of the day they feel that they're gonna have a government bailout here in the United States, that will probably follow them around the world."
When asked about this opinion on Disney and Sprint in the USA actively targeting children, he went on to say, "Well this is really grotesque. We have companies like the Disney Corporation which built it's reputation on being friendly to kids who have partnered with Sprint here in the United States. And in this partnership, Disney is not only selling phones but they are also a carrier of signals so that people who have the Disney phones would actually pay the Disney Corporation for the minutes. And what is most grotesque about this is that they are targeting children between the ages of eight and twelve years old. They have actually named them the 'tweener' market. So we have not only this very gross marketing tactic aimed at children, but we also have the problem that the scientific studies, the epidemiological studies that have been done thus far are really studies of adults who have used the phone for 500 to 1000 minutes a month, maybe over a period of ten to twelve years. And those studies are showing us a doubling or tripling in the risk of brain cancer and eye cancer. When you start talking about a child, eight or nine years old beginning use, by the time they are nineteen to twenty years old, they will have used the phone for ten years, and we have no idea what type of risk that's carrying. The projection that we do have indicate that we are putting these children in unbelievable danger.
But what have the studies told us about heavy phone usage in an adult population? Dr Carlo told us, "the studies that have been published so far, studies that have been done in the mid 1990's and early 2000's. So back then there wasn't such widespread use of cell phones. And you're right, that's not a lot of time on the cell phone. We did a study here in Buffalo, New York, where we looked at teenagers and their cell phone use patterns. The average teenager in Buffalo uses his cell phone twenty six hundred minutes a month. And the behaviour patterns are very different. Many of these children leave their phones on at night and put them under their pillow, so that they can receive text messages from their class-mates during the night. And this is the kind of thing that's unprecedented, we have no idea how to estimate how big the risk really is with this type of usage.
And finally, what is the science telling us of moderate users, only using fifteen to twenty minutes a day; what we would consider a typical adult usage? He went on to say, "we have conducted or constructed epidemic curve projections based on the epidemiological studies that have been published to date, and what they tell us is that today there are between 30,000 and 50,000 new cases of brain and eye cancer attributable to cell phone use. By the year 2010 the projections say that number is going to near 500,000 cases of brain and eye cancer every year attributable just to cell phone use. Those numbers are unprecedented. It's true that they are driven by the fact that in the world there are 1.9 billion people using cell phones, but we have never had this type of impending risk facing society. It is unprecedented and I fear unprecedented in terms of the danger it represents".
And finally, what is the science telling us of moderate users, only using fifteen to twenty minutes a day; what we would consider a typical adult usage? He went on to say, "we have conducted or constructed epidemic curve projections based on the epidemiological studies that have been published to date, and what they tell us is that today there are between 30,000 and 50,000 new cases of brain and eye cancer attributable to cell phone use. By the year 2010 the projections say that number is going to near 500,000 cases of brain and eye cancer every year attributable just to cell phone use. Those numbers are unprecedented. It's true that they are driven by the fact that in the world there are 1.9 billion people using cell phones, but we have never had this type of impending risk facing society. It is unprecedented and I fear unprecedented in terms of the danger it represents".
