Cell phones are everywhere. There are over six billion cell phone subscriptions

worldwide - nearly one for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

And many people claim they can no longer live without them.

But are they safe?

Is it possible that something so near and dear to us could be risky?

And if so, what kind of risk would it be?

For starters,

Most cell phones these days use lithium- ion batteries, which, as a previous Risk

Bites explored, can present a fire risk if you abuse them.

But so long as you don't treat your phone like a racketball, you're probably

okay.

Then there's the non-ionizing radiation.

Like other wireless electronic appliances,

cell phones use high-frequency radio waves to do their thing.

These radio waves allow the phone to communicate with satellites, computers,

and other phones, which in turn allow us to communicate with each other.

What makes cell phones different from other wireless appliances is that we

have a habit of holding them next to our heads.

So it's perhaps not surprising

that researchers have asked if there is any risk associated with extended exposure

to cell phone radiation.

To put it bluntly, they want to know: can cell phones give you brain cancer?

Researchers in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, and other

countries have been looking into the question since cell phones first hit the

market in the nineteen eighties.

For years, they have tracked cases of phone usage and brain cancer across time

and geography.

After decades of research and massive studies using hundreds of thousands of

people from multiple countries, the answer

is a resounding: probably not.

In two thousand and eleven,

the World Health Organization pulled together a group of experts from around

the world

to review the available data on cell phone radio waves and cancer.

Their conclusion?

The vast majority of evidence shows no increase risk associated with cell

phone use. However,

a slender few reports did find a slight association between cell phone use

and cancer.

So, the WHO, being a cautious body, declared cell phone radio wave emissions

to be

possible human carcinogen.

What does this mean?

Simply that the isn't enough evidence to be sure either way - we can't say that cell

phones are unsafe.

But we can't say that cell phones are one hundred-percent entirely safe yet either.

That may sound scary, but before you cancel your phone subscription, consider that

this category of possible carcinogens also includes coffee and pickled

vegetables.

Surprisingly,

the best studied risk associated with cell phones comes not from the phone

itself, but from the distraction it causes to drivers

We'll dive into that another time.

But until then,

don't forget to subscribe and stay safe.

And whatever you do, don't watch Risk Bites while driving!