# Are Cellular Phones the Asbestos/Tobacco of our time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 1, 2001, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cellular-phones-the-asbestos-tobacco-of-our-time/84708 "2001-10-01T02:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cellular-phones-the-asbestos-tobacco-of-our-time/84708/21 "2001-10-02T15:01:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > \*\*Quite apart from that, they tend to make you look like a mad man talking to yourself. \*\* 😃 There was a guy in the grocery store yesterday doing this. It looked like he was talking to himself, asking himself if he wanted breasts or thighs. I was giving him a real wide berth…then I noticed the little black cord going from his ear down his shirt to the phone on his belt. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cellular-phones-the-asbestos-tobacco-of-our-time/84708/22 "2001-10-02T17:53:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > Walkman and cell phone headphones work the same way. Electromagnetic is running down the wire from the device to your ear. Granted the source may be different, but the method of travel, and the end destiniation are identical. I know, but the idea is quite apart from the normal functions of the headphones, the phone may be also inadvertantly broadcasting the radiowaves it is using to transmit the call up the wire. So that while you are keeping the source of the radiowaves (the phone) away from your head, you are actually giving them a shortcut that is more much effective than the route through the plastic shell of the phone. Walkmans do not broadcast, or at least aren’t designed to, so the only thing coming up the wire is the electrical signals that drive the speaker/s. > [@](#): > > Has there been any documented cases of gas stations blowing up due to a cell phone? How about plane crashes? This was discussed at length recently in a paper I get. No-one could find an actual documented case of it happening, but people in the industry assured them it was a theoretical possibility. As for planes, you only have to consider recent events to list numerous cases of mobile (cell) phones being used on planes presumably without endangering the plane. But again, the industry considers it a plausible and real possibility. People have been thrown off planes and/or arrested for ignoring this. Personally I’d rather be safe than sorry on both counts. I also think that providing a nice conductive route between my phone and my inner ear isn’t too hot an idea either. But whether it’s enough radiation to be dangerous I don’t know. Again, I’d rather stick to what I feel to be safer and hold the phone to my head, at least that way there’s something of a gap and a skull between us. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cellular-phones-the-asbestos-tobacco-of-our-time/84708/23 "2001-10-03T00:15:19Z")
Look, if radio broadcasts were so dangerous, then (I’m going to shout here, bear with me) WHY DON’T PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH RADIO SOURCES GET CANCER AT HIGHER RATES? There are people (such as my dad) who work in the communications industry, or operate radars, or at power plants. They are exposed to radio emmisions hundreds of millions of times greater than what you get from a cell phone. If a small exposure to radio emmisions could cause an increase in cancer rates, then shouldn’t a radio emmision hundreds of millions of times more intense also cause an increase in cancer rates? But it does not. Exposure radio waves of any sort–even ones hundreds of millions of times stronger than a cell phone–does not increase the risk of contracting cancer. The only danger from radio waves is if they are in the microwave frequency. Then they could cook you. But even microwave radio emmisions don’t give you cancer. This is simple epidemiology, understood by freshman medical students. If you increase the dose, you increase the risk. Therefore, the people exposed the most are the people most at risk. But if the people with the maximum exposure show no increased risk, then the people with an exposure hundreds of millions of times smaller should have no increased risk. This is simply an example of a modern scare story, like spider eggs in Bubble Yum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cellular-phones-the-asbestos-tobacco-of-our-time/84708.md?page=1)