The French may have only just jumped on the
no-smoking-in-bars bandwagon, but they are leading the charge against health risks associated with cell phone use. Earlier this week, France's Ministry of Health issued a statement
warning the public against excessive cell phone use. French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin (pictured) also went on France 2 TV and rehashed the well-worn theory connecting cell phone use and cancer (cell phones emit small amount of radiation).
While she stopped short of actually telling people to stop using their cell phones entirely, Bachelot-Narquin did say that people, especially children, should curtail their long-term proximity to phones by avoiding making calls if there's poor reception or by keeping phones away from their bodies (presumably by using a wireless
Bluetooth headset).
Bachelot-Narquin acknowledged that the link between cell phone use and cancer remains specious, but cited studies in which it was found that people who used analog cell phones for more than ten years were more likely to develop tumors. What she didn't mention is that most people in countries like France and the U.S. no longer use analog phones and instead now use digital phones, and those haven't been around for much more than ten years.
So, the jury is still out on whether newer cell phones pose health risks or not.
But a statistic pointed out by BetaNews may shed some light on cell phones and cancer: Finland, the country with the highest per capita cell phone use in the world, listed tumors as the second biggest cause of death (23 percent) among men and women alike.
So maybe the French are on to something, or maybe they're just trying to one-up us on the banning of addictive activities that annoy other people. Regardless, cutting back on cell-phone-use certainly seems to be the flavor of the month (or the New Year), as evidenced by
this New-York-City-woman's recent New Year's resolution.
One thing is certainly true: The questions around cell phone use and cancer are not likely to go away any time soon. And don't get us started on
all the other gadgets that might be making you sick.
From
Reuters and
BetaNews
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