World of Science [الأرشيف] - Arabic Translators International _ الجمعية الدولية لمترجمي العربية

soubiri

02-18-2008, 06:30 PM

Study links heavy cell phone use to cancer Sci*en*tists claim to have found a link be*tween heavy cell phone us*age and can*cer of the sal*i*vary gland. The re*search*ers sug*gest peo*ple use hands-free cell phones to avoid a risk. The find*ings by Sie*gal Sadet*zki, an epi*demi*olo*g*ist at Tel Aviv Uni*ver*s*ity in Is*ra*el, and col*leagues ap*pear in the Feb. 15 is*sue of the Amer*i*can Jour*nal of Ep*i*de*mi*ology. The group found that heavy cell phone users faced a high*er risk of both be*nign and ma*lig*nant tu*mors in the gland.Peo*ple who used a cell phone heavily on the side of the head where the tu*mor de*vel*oped were found to have an about 50 per*cent high*er risk for de*vel*op*ing a tu*mor of the main sal*i*vary gland, or parot*id, com*pared to non-cell phone users, the re*search*ers wrote. The study was done on Is*ra*elis, which is a key be*cause Is*ra*elis adopt*ed cell phone tech*nol*o*gy early and use it heav*i*ly, Sadet*zki said.* Thus the ex*po*sure to phone radia*t*ion found in this study was high*er than in pre*vi*ous stud*ies.”This un*ique popula*t*ion has giv*en us an in*dica*t*ion that cell phone use is as*so*ci*at*ed with can*cer,” added Sadet*zki. The study in*ves*t*i*gated nearly 500 peo*ple di*ag*nosed with sal*i*vary gland tu*mors, and com*pared them to 1,300 healthy sub*jects. Par*ti*ci*pants were asked to de*tail how of*ten and how long they typ*ic*ally talked on cell phones.*The study al*so found an in*creased risk of can*cer for heavy users who lived in ru*ral ar*eas. Be*cause there are few*er an*ten*nas, cell phones in ru*ral ar*eas need to emit more radia*t*ion to com*mu*ni*cate ef*fec*tive*ly. Sadet*zki pre*dicts that, over time, the great*est ef*fects will be found in heavy users and chil*dren. Risks from cell phones have been hard to prove, mainly due to the long time it takes can*cer to de*vel*op, she said. “This tech*nol*o*gy is here to stay,” Sadet*zki said. “I be*lieve pre*cau*tions should be tak*en in or*der to di*min*ish the ex*po*sure.” She rec*om*mends peo*ple use hands-free de*vices, and hold the phone away from one’s body. Less fre*quent and shorter calls are al*so pref*er*a*ble, she added. Chil*dren may be more sus*cep*ti*ble, so par*ents should lim*it young*sters’ cell phone use and in*sist they use speak*ers or hands-free de*vices, she added. “Some tech*nol*o*gy that we use to*day car*ries a risk. The ques*tion is not if we use it, but how we use it.”* Pre*cisely how cell phones could af*fect the body is un*clear, but a re*cent Finn*ish Radia*t*ion and Nu*clear Safe*ty Au*thor*ity study found their radia*t*ion might subtly change the bio*chem*i*cal make*up of skin. That re*search ap*peared in the Feb. 11 on*line is*sue of the jour*nal BMC Ge*nomics*