PLEASE NOTE–This Sunday the NYT magazine will have an article called “Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?”. This looks like a concerted PR effort coordinated among various media (print, blogs, tv, as well) to CAST DOUBT. The author, Siddhartha Mukherjee, said on the Today Show this morning “as of now the evidence that moderate cell phone use has any link to cancer is very weak”.

Please know that all case-controlled studies looking at brain tumor risk from cell phone use show an increased risk (commonly a doubled risk) of getting a brain tumor after 10 years of heavy cell phone use. Like industry spin, the emphasis of the NYT article is deflecting from the real news–that there is risk with over 10 years of use when there is “heavy” use, which at the time of the research was what would be considered common or light usage today. Research published in the International Journal of Oncology by Hardell and Carlberg in 2009 showed when a cell phone is first used as a teenager or younger, there is a 680% increased risk of brain cancer. But, in another example of media supporting industry’s agenda, NBC’s Chief Medical Officer said, “We have, at least for now until something conclusive comes in, put this cell phone thing to rest”.

Unfortunately, it is very clear we can not trust the national media, who count on, and today very much need, revenue from the telecom industry. We expect these kind of spin doctoring stories to increase, as more and more facts about the risks of cell phone use keep coming out. The current flurry of spin is likely related to the recently published NIH study by Nora Volkow, PhD et al, published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which showed metabolic effects on the brain from cell phone use, specifically increased glucose levels. Dr. Michael Kundi, at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, in response to these findings said, “At present I can only think of an influence on tumor growth. Since a brain tumor utilizes excessive amounts of glucose, changes in glucose utilization may be a key mechanism to support tumor growth.”

Further analysis to follow.