Can WiFi cause cancer?
WiFi
operates in the 2 to 5 GHz range - part of the microwave portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum. This is in the same part of the spectrum
where cell phones operate so I may refer to WiFi or cellphone
electromagnetic radiation interchangeably. These are radio waves - no
different than those used to broadcast television programs - except that
they are higher in frequency. They aren't nearly as high a frequency as
visible light - and no one worries about getting cancer from visible
light (ultraviolet light, on the other hand, causes skin cancer - but
this is the minimum energy necessary to cause ionizations that can cause
breaks in strands of DNA - which is the mechanism by which cancer cells
can be created). There is no credible evidence that non-ionizing
radiation has any adverse health effects at all. There is no
radiobiologic mechanism that could explain such an association - and
absolutely no scientifically valid evidence that this has ever happened.
I
have treated patients with cancer for over thirty years as a board
certified radiation oncologist and I am familiar with every carcinogenic
agent known to man - I'll tell you with absolute certainty that radio
waves cannot harm you (unless perhaps you were in the path of a
multi-megawatt microwave beam in which case they might cook you - but as
far as I know, there is no likelihood that this danger even exists).
There
has never been (and will never be) a randomized trial assessing the
cause and effect relationship between radio frequency emissions and
neoplastic disease. In order to have a randomized study, half of the
randomly selected subjects would need to avoid cellphone use and that's
not going to happen.
Humans have been exposed to man-made radio frequency radiation for over 100 years and we have always been exposed to microwave radiation from the Cosmos.
For
example, the latency period for radiation induced malignancies is, on
the average say 20 years, but epidemiologic studies of large groups of
people (that only require a few thousand patients to reach stastistical
significance) exposed to ionizing radiation start showing an increase above baseline by seven years. So conservatively, there should be at least a few excess cases of glioma, caused by cellular (or WiFi) electromagnetic radiation by now.
See this reference which looks at all the reported cases of gliomas caused by ionizing radiation
(where we have a plausible explanation for cause and effect). Millions
of people have received brain irradiation and only 73 cases of radiation
induced gliomas have been reported.
We do have evidence that cellphones (or WiFi) do NOT cause an increase in brain tumors.
Look at the time period over which cellphone use became common - say
over the last twenty years. During that time, the incidence of brain
tumors has remained absolutely flat. With over four billion people using
cellphones (or WiFi) today, if there was any influence on the
development of brain tumors, we would be seeing that by now.
The
data from the National Cancer Institute below shows no increase in the
incidence of primary brain tumors over the period of time that cell
phones have been in use.
Say
someone found a potential association between carrying coins in your
pocket and the risk of a particular type of tumor. It would set off a
frenzy of activity among a group of people who were convinced that this
association was real. They would lobby for a law requiring that warning
signs be placed on change machines. The effect would snowball until some
people would demand that the government stop minting coins.
So lets review
- There is no biologic mechanism to explain why non ionizing radiation (like the cellphone's emission of radio waves) could induce any type of tumor
- We do have a mechanism to explain the association between ionizing radiation and tumor induction, but out of millions of people who have received radiation therapy to their brain, only 73 radiation induced gliomas have been reported in the world's literature.
- For radiation induced neoplasms in general, epidemiologic studies can show an increase in the likelihood of tumors with only a few thousand people over a time period less than ten years
- At least something on the order of millions (if not billions) of people have used cell phones for over two decades now and there is no evidence that the incidence of brain tumors has increased over that time period
Now lets
get down to why this sort of irrational belief takes hold and, among
other things, prompts five questions on this subject (at least that I
have seen) in the time that I have been reading Quora (less than two
months).
We have essentially no control over
whether we live or die - except that we should avoid dangerous behaviors
like smoking, becoming obese, not wearing seat belts, texting while
driving, etc. Otherwise, over a trillion cells carry on countless
biochemical processes that we have no control over. One out of four
people will get cancer - beyond avoiding foolish behavior, we can't
influence that risk.
Since we have this
subconscious, ever present fear of death (see below*), we employ magical
thinking to give us a false sense of power over it. When we create
artificial threats to our survival in our imagination - and then avoid
practicing behaviors that make us vulnerable to those threats - we feel
we have some power over whether we live or die. These are also know as
superstitions.
Primitive cultures made
sacrifices to imaginary gods so they wouldn't destroy their village -
Children learn to avoid stepping on cracks - The germaphobe may engage
in compulsive had washing - and some people avoid putting their
cellphone right next to their skin.
If
you are interested in “No Nonsense” answers to serious medical
questions, please follow me. (>200 answers on cancer, medicine and
human behavior.)
Read my Quora answer on the Fear of Death.
And how our fear in general subconsciously drives our behavior.
Below
are answers that I have given to variations of this cell phone question
since mid-January, when I started being active on Quora. (They contain
some redundant information since, obviously, I have much the same answer
each time)
Source : https://www.quora.com/Can-WiFi-cause-cancer
