Patch Poll: How Afraid Are You About Getting Cancer from Your Cellphone?

The results of a major study of nearly 360,000 cellphone users in Denmark that found no increased risk of brain tumors with long-term use was widely reported last week.

However, the New York Times reported that although the data, collected from one of the largest-ever studies of cellphone use, are reassuring, investigators noted that the design of the study focused on cellphone subscriptions rather than actual use, so it is unlikely to settle the debate about cellphone safety. A small to moderate increase in risk of cancer among heavy users of cellphones for 10 to 15 years or longer still “cannot be ruled out,” the investigators wrote.

An accompanying editorial in the British Journal of Medicine, which reported on the Danish study, noted that the results must be viewed in the context of about 15 previous studies on cellphones and cancer risk, including those that did detect an association between heavy cellphone use and certain brain tumors, the New York Times said.

One of those is the study the World Health Organization released about five months ago, which concluded that cellphones are “possibly carcinogenic," CNN reported. And last year the New York Times reported a 13-country study called Interphone also found no overall increased risk included that participants with the highest level of cellphone use had a 40 percent higher risk of glioma, an aggressive type of brain tumor. (Even if the elevated risk of glioma is confirmed, the tumors are relatively rare, and thus individual risk remains minimal.)

Have these studies influenced how you use your cellphone?

Last week's poll

Should there be a ban on eating while driving? A total of 72 percent of Patch readers who answered said no; 28 percent said yes.

Among the reasons for 72 percent voting against a ban are the opinons that there is no need for more government interference in our lives but there is the need to multitask in today's world. Some of the 28 percent in favor of a ban said it is important to keep the roads safe with drivers doing nothing else but driving.