Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Cell Phones, Cancer, and Fearmongering Assholes

That's it. I've had it. Man is inherently evil. God is dead. People are sheep-like, gullible, and there is no hope for our species. Seriously, what is this crap about cell phones causing cancer?? Who started this?? Give me a name, oh Jesus, just give me a name. I'll be glad to go over and stab he or she in the fucking face. Here's exhibit A:

In other words, we may today be "poisoning" a new generation of cancer victims -- young people now in their 20s and 30s who routinely spend several hours a day with a cell phone pressed against their head, emitting radio frequency energy into their brains at close range.

It may be 2020 or so before the epidemic emerges. And, of course, it may not happen at all.


Seriously, who are these people? Has anyone considered the scientific logistics here? The "ultrahigh" radio frequencies in question here are in the 1800 MHz range. To get cancer you have to be able to cause chemical changes in your DNA, which means you have to be able to excite electrons and break chemical bonds. These kinds of reactions require minimum energies that correspond to light frequencies of around 10^9 MHz. These are UV rays (that actually do cause cancer) and they're about a million times more energetic than the radio waves in question.

Point is, it doesn't matter if your head becomes a "resonator" for the radio waves. Your DNA will not care. Your DNA will instead worry about the plethora of other carcinogens in your body that are actually dangerous, like, say, reactive oxygen species.

All of this would hardly matter, except that it does. The U.S. Supreme court refuses to throw out cell phone cancer lawsuits, worried parents are being exploited, and scientists are wasting money.

Whoever you are, O Disseminator of Misinformation, face it: you're just an anti-corporate hypochondriac fearmongering asshole. And you deserve to be stabbed in the face.