Dialogue with the Doctors About Cell Phones
89.1 KHOL Interview July 31, 2017
Listen to an interview with Dr. Devra Davis from the Environmental Health Trust regarding the upcoming scientific panel “Dialogue with the Doctors About Cell Phones, Wireless and Your Health: A Scientific Update with Practical Recommendations.”
Listen online at http://www.891khol.org/dialogue-with-the-doctors-about-cell-phones/
UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT typed by Barb Payne
89.1 KHOL Interview July 31, 2017 with
Dr. Devra Davis & Theodora Scarato of the Environmental Health Trust
Interviewer:
You are tuned in to 89.1 KHOL. This is Brennan. I’m joined by Dr. Devra Davis. She’s the President and Founder of the Environmental Health Trust. I’m also joined by Theodora Scarato. She is the Director of Educational Programs, also with the Environmental Health Trust. And they are here to talk about an event happening tonight at the Teton County Library from 6:00 to 7:30: Dialogue With Doctors About Cell Phones, Wireless, and Your Health: A Scientific Update With Practice Recommendations. Thanks for joining me.
Dr. Davis:
Thank you for having us.
Interviewer:
So as cell phones start to become a bigger part of our daily lives, and have been for almost 30 years now, what do we know about the hazards that come along with them?
Dr. Davis:
Well in fact, cell phones have not been as essential to our life 30 years ago as they are now. We radically have changed the way we use them. And what we know is that a cell phone is a two-way microwave radio. That means it’s sending and receiving microwave radiation, actually, 900 times a minute. Whether you’re using it or not, so long as it’s not on airplane mode, you are getting microwave radiation from the phone. And research has now been done showing that men who keep cell phones in their pocket have a lower sperm count. Just last week, a story broke about the reduction in sperm count in men all over the world. One of the factors that has to be looked at in this reduction in sperm count is certainly the increase of cell phone radiation.
Interviewer:
Now, are there any new studies with research that proves that wireless radiation negatively affects one’s health? Any research that you are personally involved in?
Dr. Davis:
Well, as I… I was a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the U.S. Government’s National Toxicology Program. They just released a study, a year ago—the largest animal study ever done—that found that when animals were exposed under controlled conditions to the same type of radiation that we get exposed to from cell phones—which is pulsed digital radiation—those animals developed significantly more highly malignant, very rare tumors of the brain and an unusual configuration of tumors of the heart. Now, that U.S. Government testing Program is generally the gold standard for testing. And other studies have been done also showing that you can get damage to the DNA from cell phone radiation. The problem we face is that we’re basically trying to study something that we’re in the middle of—like trying to drive a bus and examine it at the same time. And what we are doing right now with our children, it’s what we’re most concerned about at Environmental Health Trust—in that people are unaware that a cell phone is not a toy, although that is what the manufacturers say, and should only be used by children for emergencies. For example, Steve Jobs didn’t give his kids access to iPads and things like that when they were little. And Bill Gates would not let his children use a cell phone until they were 14. Now I know that’s very different; most parents are shocked to hear that. But you have to ask yourself, “What… what does Bill Gates know about cell phone radiation, and why did he put that limit on his children?”
Interviewer:
What if the iPad is on airplane mode and it’s using the Wi-Fi, is it still giving out that same radiation?
Dr. Davis:
It’s less. But in fact, the safest way for a child to use an iPad is on a table. It’s called a “tablet” because it belongs on a table. It’s tested eight inches away from a large adult male body. And the safest way to use any wireless device—for a child or an adult—is on airplane mode without connection to the Wi-Fi.
Interviewer:
Now let’s talk about some ways to safely use your cell phones. What are good… what is a good practice to have to have a healthy relationship with your device?
Dr. Davis:
If you have to keep it next to your body for any length of time, put it on airplane mode unless of course you need to hear the phone ring—because “airplane” means you’re not going to get that signal, a connection. If you have to carry the phone, try to carry it… in the winter it’s great, just put it in the furthest distance off your body, in your puffy jacket; but for the the summertime it’s more of a challenge. And I get in the habit—as I’ve done here—of taking it out, it’s on airplane mode, if I need to be connected turning it back on again. It is a software and hardware challenge. And I’m confident that this industry is going to be meeting that challenge.
Interviewer:
If you’re just joining me, I’m speaking with Dr. Devra Davis from the Environmental Health Trust. And we’re discussing an event happening tonight at the Teton County Library: Dialogue With The Doctors About Cell Phones, Wireless, and Your Health: A Scientific Update With Practical Recommendations. It’s going to be happening tonight from 6:00 to 7:30 at Teton County Library’s Ordway Auditorium. Now let’s take a moment to talk about the discussion tonight at the Teton County Library. What will be on the table, and who are some of the other guest speakers?
Dr. Davis:
We’re very fortunate to have one of the world’s most distinguished cancer epidemiologists, Professor Anthony B. Miller from the University of Toronto, who works for the World Health Organization as a Senior Advisor and did, in fact, review their recommendations when the World Health Organization said that cell phone radiation is a possible human carcinogen, in 2011. We also have the former Chief of Cancer Prevention for the World Health Organization, Dr. Annie Sasco, who is going to give us an update on what we now know about cell phone radiation since the IARC evaluation—that’s the International Agency for Research on Cancer evaluation—in 2011. She’s going to talk about why we have new data from human studies indicating that cell phones actually do significantly increase the chance you’ll get the same highly malignant brain tumor that we found in rats in the studies done in animals by the U.S. Government. Then we also have Professor Iris Udasin, who is an occupational medicine board-certified physician who was in charge of the studies of the 9/11 survivors from the catastrophe that struck out country at 9/11. Dr. Udasin, who currently treats patients from that, is going to talk about her clinical experience with people who have combined exposures to toxic chemicals and wireless radiation and why she has come to conclude that the combination of these two things can be especially dangerous.
Interviewer:
Theodora, did you want to add anything on your work with this subject?
Ms. Scarato:
Well, with wireless being ubiquitous now, it’s… I found it, as a parent, hard to believe that it was never properly tested for long-term safety. And what I’m working at with the Environmental Health Trust is looking at what other countries are doing in terms of policies, because a lot of countries clearly recommend that we reduce exposure in all the ways that Dr. Davis has talked about: keeping the phone away from your head. But with teenagers who are using cell phones all the time, they are communicating constantly on this platform—which seems wonderful in some ways but then there are all of these other issues like addiction, and bullying, and using the phone too much and not going to sleep, sleeping with the cell phone. But a lot of us are aware of those issues but not so much about the radiation issue. And so this adds another piece to using technology more responsibly.
Interviewer:
I read that Belgium is not allowing children under a certain age to have cell phones?
Ms. Scarato:
They have banned the sale of cell phones that are made for young children. And so they have specific phones which can’t be sold in the country.
Interviewer:
It’s always interesting to see where United States is on banning certain products throughout the country. It seems like we’re behind on a lot of things.
Dr. Davis:
Unfortunately, on this issue United States is behind. And I’ll give you an interesting paradox we discussed at our meeting in Israel which we’ll be discussing tonight at the Library. We heard in Israel from some high-tech companies who are developing technologies that are probably going to be used now to treat John McCain for his brain cancer. This involves the use of electromagnetic fields that can block the development of cancer cells. There’s other technologies we heard about that are being used to open membranes with cell phone-like radiation—it weakens membranes—and then you can put chemotherapy more directly into the brain tumor. So if you can find biological effects from cell phone and other electromagnetic fields, we need to stop and ask, “If it’s doing that biologically in medical applications, what about us?” And that’s where we have really fallen short. United States today is, quite frankly, behind countries in terms of their regulations and recommendations. We’re behind India.
Interviewer:
Yes. Well, Dr…. Devra, Theodora, thanks for coming into KHOL and talking about this issue. Once again, tonight: Dialogue With The Doctors About Cell Phones, Wireless, and Your Health. Teton County Library 6:00 to 7:30 at the Ordway Auditorium. Thanks for coming in.
Dr. Davis:
Thank you, Brennan, for following this issue. We appreciate it.
Ms. Scarato:
Thank you.
Interviewer:
You’re listening to 89.1 KHOL Jackson.
[end of interview]
