Maine to Consider Cell Phone Cancer Warning

December 21, 2009

My Way

By Glenn Adams

A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.

The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation’s first to require the warnings.

Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors’ bills.

Boland herself uses a cell phone, but with a speaker to keep the phone away from her head. She also leaves the phone off unless she’s expecting a call. At issue is radiation emitted by all cell phones.

Under Boland’s bill, manufacturers would have to put labels on phones and packaging warning of the potential for brain cancer associated with electromagnetic radiation. The warnings would recommend that users, especially children and pregnant women, keep the devices away from their head and body.

The Federal Communications Commission, which maintains that all cell phones sold in the U.S. are safe, has set a standard for the “specific absorption rate” of radiofrequency energy, but it doesn’t require handset makers to divulge radiation levels.

The San Francisco proposal would require the display of the absorption rate level next to each phone in print at least as big as the price. Boland’s bill is not specific about absorption rate levels, but would require a permanent, nonremovable advisory of risk in black type, except for the word “warning,” which would be large and in red letters. It would also include a color graphic of a child’s brain next to the warning.

While there’s little agreement about the health hazards, Boland said Maine’s roughly 950,000 cell phone users among its 1.3 million residents “do not know what the risks are.”

All told, more than 270 million people subscribed to cellular telephone service last year in the United States, an increase from 110 million in 2000, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association. The industry group contends the devices are safe.

“With respect to the matter of health effects associated with wireless base stations and the use of wireless devices, CTIA and the wireless industry have always been guided by science, and the views of impartial health organizations. The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk,” said CTIA’s John Walls.

James Keller of Lewiston, whose cell phone serves as his only phone, seemed skeptical about warning labels. He said many things may cause cancer but lack scientific evidence to support that belief. Besides, he said, people can’t live without cell phones.

“It seems a little silly to me, but it’s not going to hurt anyone to have a warning on there. If they’re really concerned about it, go ahead and put a warning on it,” he said outside a sporting good store in Topsham. “It wouldn’t deter me from buying a phone.”

While there’s been no long-term studies on cell phones and cancer, some scientists suggest erring on the side of caution.

Last year, Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sent a memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff members warning of risks based on early, unpublished data. He said that children should use the phones only for emergencies because their brains were still developing and that adults should keep the phone away from the head and use a speakerphone or a wireless headset.

Herberman, who says scientific conclusions often take too long, is one of numerous doctors and researchers who have endorsed an August report by retired electronics engineer L. Lloyd Morgan. The report highlights a study that found significantly increased risk of brain tumors from 10 or more years of cell phone or cordless phone use.

Also, the BioInitiative Working Group, an international group of scientists, notes that many countries have issued warnings and that the European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for governmental action to address concerns over health risks from mobile phone use.

But the National Cancer Institute said studies thus far have turned up mixed and inconsistent results, noting that cell phones did not come into widespread use in the United States until the 1990s.

“Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn,” according to the Cancer Institute’s Web site.

Motorola Inc., one of the nation’s major wireless phone makers, says on its Web site that all of its products comply with international safety guidelines for radiofrequency energy exposure.

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Ted Kennedy Deathbed Confession

October 27, 2009

National Enquirer

As life slipped away, Ted Kennedy had a teary reunion with first wife Joan, downed his last Chivas and murmured:  “It was my fault…I’m going to tell Mary Jo that.”

Before Sen. Ted Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer on Aug. 25, he made a final conscience clearing deathbed confession, asking for forgiveness for causing the death of young Mary Jo Kopechne in the tragic Chappaquiddick accident 40 years ago.

“Mary Jo’s death haunted Ted throughout his life,” revealed a family friend. “He never made amends with her parents before they died, and it weighed heavily on him.”

But as he drifted in and out of consciousness in his final hours, Ted seemed to find peace as he spoke of seeing Mary Jo again and finally being able to tell her he was sorry for leaving her to die in the water.

The startling confession – as well as the poignant untold details of the 77-year-old senator’s final days and hours – was revealed exclusively to The ENQUIRER by close Kennedy family sources.

“Ted achieved his dying wish not to pass away in a hospital,” continued the family friend. “He died in his own bed, with his three dogs at his feet. And from a window, he was able to see his boat bobbing at the dock in the moonlight.

“He defied his doctors’ expectations and lived 14 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. It gave him a chance to reflect and say his goodbyes.”

One of the people Ted asked to see in his final days was first wife Joan.

“A week before he died, he sent her a message and she slipped quietly into his home in Hyannis Port,” divulged an insider. “Ted told Joan that before he died, he wanted her forgiveness for the way he’d treated her.

“He had always agonized over whether his behavior that night at Chappaquiddick and his continual drinking had anything to do with her becoming an alcoholic.

“He said he prayed Joan would be strong enough to beat her problems with alcohol.”

As Ted was too weak to attend the memorial service for his beloved sister Eunice Kennedy the rapidly fading Lion of the Senate was so disoriented from his morphine drip that Ted asked a family member: “Is it MY funeral that’s taking place?’”

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Pesticides Linked to Brain Cancer in Children

September 29, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

Children living with parents who use pesticides around the home are significantly more likely to develop brain cancer than children who are not exposed to such chemicals, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Researchers matched each of 400 fathers and 250 mothers who reported having been exposed to pesticide products — including insecticide, herbicide and fungicide — with a non-exposed person of the same sex, age and status. All participants lived in residential areas of Florida, New Jersey, New York or Pennsylvania. None of them lived in New York City. All were parents of children who had participated in the Atlantic Coast childhood brain cancer study.

The scientists further evaluated each participant’s level of exposure over the two years prior to the birth of their child by means of a phone interview featuring more detailed questions about home or work use of pesticides. Most “exposed” participants were exposed to pesticides through home use — such as garden or lawn care — rather than professionally.

The researchers found that children whose parents had been exposed to pesticides were significantly more likely to develop brain cancers, including astrocytomas and primitive neuroectodermal tumors. The risk of astrocytoma was especially increased by the use of herbicides.

Among “exposed” fathers, those who wore protective clothing or who washed immediately after pesticide use were significantly less likely to have children who developed brain cancer.

Prior studies have linked prenatal pesticide exposure to brain cancer, and the chemicals have also been linked to cancer in a number of animal studies. Researchers do not know exactly how the chemicals lead to cancer, but many pesticides are known to exhibit mutagenic, hormone mimicking or immune-hampering effects. The developing bodies of fetuses and children are especially susceptible to these effects.

Brain cancer is the second most common childhood cancer, after leukemia.

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