I take anything the “news” tells me with a pinch of salt these days. Very little of it is actually useful or even important. If a murderer took his own life after that of his victim’s, then why report the crime on TV? Since the criminal is no longer a threat, reporting the story is not so much of a public service announcement, but more a sick form of entertainment.
Sometimes, however, there are actually stories that should serve the public such as this one from the Independent that states “using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer”.
Over the last couple of decades, smokers have been outcast by society because of the “deadly dangers” of secondhand smoke, but now there’s evidence that mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking!
What exactly is the risk of brain cancer?
A quick look at the National Cancer Institute website tells us that there were 6.4 incidents of brain cancer for every 100,000 people in the U.S between 1990 and 2002. The actual mortality rate was 4.5.
That’s just 0.0045%.
Although, “top neurosurgeon” Professor Khurana’s findings have not been proven or even peer-reviewed yet, if we’re to assume he is correct, then using a cell phone for 10 years will increase your chances of dying from brain cancer to 0.009%.
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos
So does this mean the chances of dying from smoking or asbestos poisoning is less than 0.009%? Well, I can’t comment on asbestos, but according to the article, there are three times more cell phone users than smokers, so with the information given, we should assume that the maximum risk of dying from cigarettes is 0.009% times 3, which is 0.027%.
Media spin makes me dizzy
Throwing fancy words like “top neurosurgeon”, “professor”, “evidence”, “definitively proven” at us, mixed with shocking assertions about “death”, is nothing more than media spin to make you believe this is a serious issue.
What we can see now, however, is that nothing here has been proven (the article itself admits this in a roundabout way), and even if it had, it shows that a) the risk of dying from brain cancer is only 0.009%, and b) the risk of dying from smoking (based on the information in this article) is only 0.027%, and we can only assume that the risk of dying from secondhand smoke is even lower than that!
This all makes me want to eat more gyoza!
Hat tip to Japundit.
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
Nick there is so much “Shi#” on the media these days and nothing is going to change that. Good news does not make for an interesting subject and humans love to hear bad news.
If I am wrong, why do most of us tune into the news everyday!! BBC, CNN, ABC and most of them mostly contain gory news about the world. I do think we need media however, the media in many cases makes it worst by actually reporting the hideous crimes.
Terrorists would be buggered if no media reported what they did. They too use the media to get their goals of spreading fear. If no fear was reported mmmm there would be no fear!!
This is not to say that we should close our eyes to what is going on but with reporting comes a great responsibility of not going too far. Media outlets do not care about what is right and what is wrong and are only in it for the money!!
Can you imagine the bosses at CNN thinking “mmmm that is not the right thing to print” naaaaa that is not going to happen simply because the more gory, the more interesting it is.
Why is Pro-westling so popular I wonder. It is obviously all bullshi# but humans like to see other humans in pain! Boxing is truly a blood sport yet millions is made from watching two guys try to give brain damage to each other.
Cell phones double the risk of cancer mmm now that makes for a great headline!! Way way more people die from choking on food, walking across the road, having sex even (Don’t give sex up because it is worth the risk!!) but this kind of stuff simply is not news worthy!!
Keith
Yes, but most people don’t realize it’s all fear mongering for profit. Few people have the time or patience to read beyond the headline or first paragraph, and certainly don’t read between the lines.
If just one person reads my post and thinks, “Good point! 0.009%? Wow, I didn’t think of that!”, then it would have been worth my time to write it.
…and you got on me about asking what the Kanji was for Made in China!!!
I couldn’t agree more with the fact the news is often sensational and morbid entertainment for many. But we’re talking about it – so they win.
I agree with Keith and think that it’s more likely that I’ll get hit by a bus that die of brain cancer from my cell phone (fingers crossed).
Yeah, perhaps my sarcasm doesn’t come across quite as it was meant to when I said “now there’s evidence that mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking!”. The main point I wanted to make was that 0.009% is so stupidly small that, like the gyoza, this really isn’t something we should be made to worry about. 😕
Yeah the media isn’t really a useful source of information. They are just there to sell papers and claiming that people’s cancer risk is doubled, makes a nice headline and sells a lot of papers!