Unhealthy Mobiles? Part 2 | Articles | the bombsite

So what have we learned from the last 2 posts? Well firstly figures don’t always say what you think they do. You may have been wondering how so many people came to have more than 2 legs. That’s because 2 is the norm whereas, unfortunately, there are people who have lost one, or maybe both of their legs which means that the average is less than 2.

The second case shows that statistics can be completely misconstrued unless we know all of the relevant information and that wise, old newspaper hacks will deliberately sensationalise a story by leaving important facts out of their articles.

And now we return to my original post about the mobile phone (cell) radiation warning. Since that warning was given I have been listening to the leading scientist responsible for the study that prompted the warning. She was totally surprised that such an action had been taken based on her study results and she explained what her results meant, if anything.

The newspapers reported that the results showed that there was twice the risk of contracting a tumour behind your ear if you used a mobile phone. And that was basically all they said. But twice what exactly?

Well it transpires that you have a 1 in 100,000 chance of getting one of these tumours anyway. Nothing you can do about it. That’s life. So if you use a mobile you could increase that risk to 2 in 100,000 and I would suggest there are other things with a far better chance of killing us than that. But why am I talking about killing? Because you might get a tumour? I should point out that these tumours are benign and pose no immediate medical threat however, over a fairly long period of time they can grow and eventually they may put pressure on the brain, at which point they have to be removed. I did say it would take a fairly long period didn’t I?

So how much do you have to use a mobile to get this bonus? According to our scientist you would have to be a regular user over a period of 10 years. Yes that does say ten years! So after that length of time you stand a 2 in 100,000 chance of developing a benign tumour which, if you get one, will take several years to develop to a stage where it needs attention. Well apart from all the other things that could kill you it seems you could actually die of old-age first.

So now that you’ve got the risk involved in perspective here’s the really good bit we weren’t told about. Our scientist tells us that the study was based on a very small sample and that the results could not be considered as significant and the report actually said that. If any action were to result from this study, she suggested that it would be to carry out a similar study based on far larger sample. In her experience larger studies tended to reduce the figures indicated in a pilot and in some cases found no differential at all.

It occurs to me that I can’t rely on mobiles to kill-off all those one-handed drivers on our streets. Oh well! There’s always the chance that they could hit a lamp-post!