The World Health Organization announced yesterday that the frequencies of radiation emitted by cell phones may possibly increase the risk of developing cancer. While it was encouraging to hear a major health organization finally recognize that there may be a link between cell phone use and risk of developing brain cancer their committee stopped short of telling people what is known about the effects of non-ionizing radiation on the human body.

It has been 16 years since Drs. Lai and Singh of the University of Washington reported their finding that a single 2 hour exposure to cell phone radiation at a level lower than that generally regarded as safe by the Federal government caused breaks in DNA. DNA breaks are known to be a major factor in the development of cancer. Lai and Singh’s work has since been validated by other researchers in the U.S., Europe, and China.

Despite the known mechanism by which cell phone use can trigger cancer and in the face of studies showing up to a 7-fold increase in brain tumor in children and young adults who use cell phones the most governmental panels will say is that there is a “possible” risk and that more research is required to prove that a connection exists.

We are today in exactly the same place in the cell phone/cancer debate that we were in the cigarette smoking/cancer debate half-a-century ago. In the 1950s and even into the 1960s it was possible to find reports of studies in major medical journals claiming that cigarette smokers were as healthy as non-smokers. Only after decades of waffling and a host of studies showing an increased risk of lung cancer in cigarette smokers did governmental agencies accept that a link existed.

Since inflammation is the initial phase of most cancer development it should not have taken decades and innumerable deaths to conclude that inhaling hot, noxious gasses that inflame the throat, voice box, and bronchial tubes would increase the risk of cancer down the road. It is just as foolhardy to repeat the process and wait decades until an epidemic of cancer is upon us to tell people that exposure to radiation from cell phones causes the type of DNA damage that leads to cancer down the road.