[ RadSafe ] [Fwd: [riskanal] 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List]]

[Maury Siskel]

A friend sent this article and I hope radsafers will seriously(?) enjoy 
the reasons to smile. Here are a couple peeks --:

4. Carcinogenic cellphones. Some prominent brain surgeons made news on 
Larry King 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/larry_king/index.html?inline=nyt-per>’s 
show this year with their fears of cellphones, thereby establishing once 
and for all that epidemiology is not brain surgery 
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/brain-surgery/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier> 
— it’s more complicated <http://www.fumento.com/media/cellphone.html>.

As my colleague Tara Parker-Pope has noted 
<http://nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/03well.html>, there is no known 
biological mechanism for the phones’ non-ionizing radiation to cause 
cancer 
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/cancer/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier>, 
and epidemiological studies have failed to find consistent links between 
cancer and cellphones.

It’s always possible today’s worried doctors will be vindicated, but I’d 
bet they’ll be remembered more like the promoters of the old 
cancer-from-power-lines menace — or like James Thurber 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/james_thurber/index.html?inline=nyt-per>’s 
grandmother, who covered up her wall outlets to stop electricity from 
leaking.

Driving while talking on a phone is a definite risk, but you’re better 
off worrying about other cars rather than cancer.

8. The Arctic’s missing ice. The meltdown in the Arctic last summer was 
bad enough, but this spring there was worse news. A majority of experts 
expected even more melting this year, and some scientists created a 
media sensation by predicting 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html> 
that even the North Pole would be ice-free by the end of summer.

Cheers,
Maury&Dog   (Maury Siskel  maurysis at peoplepc.com)
___________________

> SCIENCE [in NYT] | July 29, 2008
> Findings: 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List
> By JOHN TIERNEY
> A list of 10 things not to worry about on your vacation.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29tier.html?ex=1218254400&en=0a757ab9302dfd37&ei=5070&emc=eta1