Bruce Armstrong says the science on mobile phones is “reassuring” for young people. Really????
The following article from The Conversation was sent to me today by a concerned reader. It was written in May 2012 by Bruce Armstrong, professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney and who is associated with the Cancer Council NSW. (See previous post on CCNSW). He also headed the Australian part of the Interphone study. I also find it concerning that Armstrong can give a “reassuring” message to young Australians about the risk of brain cancer and mobile phone use.
Excerts from The Conversation:
May 10, 2012:
Do mobiles give you brain cancer? The verdict”s still on hold
Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo is, to many of his patients, the “angel” who cuts where other surgeons fear to go. He feels strongly about the possibility that using mobile phones might increase the risk of brain tumours. He too often sees the coincidence between the ear to which a mobile phone has usually been held and a tumour in the underlying brain.
Other causes of cancer have been identified through such coincidences. But coincidence doesn”t make association and association doesn”t mean causation. Teo recognises this and wants more and better research.
Stepping back for a moment, what is the evidence that exposure to radio waves when using a mobile phone causes cancer?
SNIP
In the meantime, rigorous analyses of trends in brain tumour incidence in those who have used mobile phones most “” young and middle-aged adults “” are reassuring. There is, as yet, no upturn in brain tumour rates that can be plausibly linked to increasing use of mobile phones.
And under a photo of two young women holding their mobiles to their head:
Scientific evidence linking mobile phone use to cancer isn”t strong.
I’m sorry Armstrong but the evidence of brain cancer incidence IS NOT REASSURING for young mobile phone users. See the Microwave News Article: “Are Brain Cancer Rates Rising Among Young Adults? Striking Increase Cited at Congressional Hearing”.
Going by Armstrong’s line of reasoning should I re-advise my two sons not to be concerned about holding a mobile phone next to their head because a well known public health expert has stated that the evidence is reassuring? Looking at the latest youtube video from Dr. Teo I am not reassured for young people.
To give such advice to young mobile phone users is ingeniousness and is more suited to the spin put out by the trolls at AMTA.
Comments invited.
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