Young boy playing on phone

Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF5ArGid5QE

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, U.S house of representatives, claimed that cell phones are frying your brain. He was giving a small speech in the form of a youtube video to bring awareness to the affects cell phones are having on children and stating that children and adults should limit to cut the use of cell phones. Dennis Kucinich said that there has been many “peer-reviewed” studies of cell phones causing brain damage. “There’s enough studies out there that point out the possible adverse health risks out there that any parent who loves their child in any way would not let their child use a cell phone,” said Kucinich. The video shows pictures of what look to be the brain getting worse with the use of cell phones, but doesn’t explain what is happening in the photos, how much phone usage, and what kind of phones. The congressman compares cell phone companies to cigarette companies in a leading cause for cancer, although cell phones do have a risk of cancer, that risk is close to none. Watching this short clip you can tell that the Congressman doesn’t know very much on the subject, and hasn’t done any fact checking on it.

Cell phone usage daily has little to no effects on the brain.

Cell Phone vs. Brain

Using your phone can cause cancer? No one would ever have thought this, until a television report linked cell phone usage to a women that had a brain tumor. Brain tumor cases have grown with the use of cell phones, so some have connected the two. This and the fact that cell phone and technology usage has greatly increased in recent years have led people to believe that cell phone radiation has an impact on your brain and could lead to cancer. The type of tumor people are worried about in this case is the most common type of brain tumor, gliomas. Brain tumors are a leading cause of cancer, so you can see why people are concerned about this issue. The cause of concern is not that the radiofrequency radiation given from a phone will give cancer, it's that it will heat tissues and cause a tumor that leads to cancer. The truth is, that normal or even high use of a cell phone will not cause any big problems to your health. Cell phones do emit energy and radiation, but it doesn’t give off enough to even heat up your skin. Radiofrequency is seen as harmless because of the very low amount of energy it gives off. Although it is very little, it does give off some radiation. Talking on the phone with your phone to your head, raises concern with radiofrequency. There are a lot of factors that contribute though to raise any concern at all, like how much you talk on the phone. You would need to talk on your phone for hours a day every day of the week to get a small amount of radiation. Another factor is that you need to be very close to a cell tower or there will be no radiation whatsoever, but very little is given off even close to the towers. The farther away from the tower, the harder your phone has to work for the connection hence the more radiation the farther you go. Radiofrequency radiation has not be proven to have cancerous effects on the body. In truth, because phones are changing and upgrading every day and they are new, there hasn’t been any long term studies on the effects they have on people. Cell phones have not been around long enough yet to determine any serious consequences of using them often. Researchers have done studies though on people with growing tumors that use phones and people without phones and they have not found any correlations with the use of the phone and the tumor growth.

In conclusion, Congressman Kucinich did not do enough research linking cell phone use to brain damage. If he would have done any research he would have realized the fault in his statements. He stated that it was a huge problem and could have given a lot of people a cause for worry, when in reality what he was saying was false. Kucinich put in graphs and photos with no context and stated that he got his information from “sources” but didn’t give any evidence. Cancer isn’t the threat, a brain tumor is what he is scared off. Phone usage gives off radiation but not a great amount, many factors go into the amount of radiation. Cell phone usage does not have any major effects on the brain. Even though rumors like these are spread, using your cell phone can continue to be a source of entertainment, help, and communication for you every day!