Health Blog: Cell Phones Linked to Brain Cancer?

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Tips to reduce your exposure and risk

We love our cell phones but we also love our brains, and though an agency of the World Health Organization recently rocked the media world with their announcement of a possible link between cell phone use and brain cancer, but they also said the link was pretty weak. In fact, the same agency has previously named alcoholic drinks and night shift work as probable carcinogens.

Nonetheless, none of us really like risk (unless it’s connected with an adventure like skydiving, rock climbing or falling in love), so WellWise would like to offer a list of ways to reduce your exposure to cell phones’ “death rays,” so to speak.

Ten tips to lessen your chances of getting brain cancer from your cell phone:

1. Use wi-fi instead of 3G or 4G service for data. This dramatically reduces the microwave radiation.

2. Keep the phone away from your head by using Bluetooth, speakerphones or headsets. These emit far less radiation than a cell phone. (Though one wonders what keeping your cell phone in your front pocket while you are talking might do to other organs)

3. Buy an air-tube headset. These emit no radiation whatsoever. A search for “air tube headset” will bring up a whole bunch of sites.

4. Use VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) instead of wi-fi for phone calls. Google Voice or Skype service use wireless Internet instead of a cell phone-tower connection, emitting far less radiation.

5. Shorten the length of your cell phone conversations (duh).

6. Mitigate your voice call usage in low-signal conditions. The lower your signal strength the higher the emissions from your phone are in order to achieve a connection.

7. Switching your phone to airplane mode at night (especially if you sleep with your phone near your head) prevents any radiation emissions.

8. Use text services instead of phone calls. You can’t text if you’re not looking at the screen … try to do that with it up to your ear. SMS text messages and email data transmissions require a whole lot less radiation than voice calls (and they don’t annoy anyone within earshot).

9. The tighter or more remote space you’re in (elevator, closet, bus, out plowing your potato field), the more radiation your phone is likely to emit.

10. Avoid talking on the cell phone while on the move. When you’re moving, your phone will be searching for the strongest signal from the best tower, thus likely emitting more radiation.

Read more about the WHO cell phone report here