Cell Phones Cause Cancer

One evening while watching the news with my family there was a short segment stating that talking on the phone causes cancer. When I heard this claim I immediately knew the statement was incorrect. In my head I knew there would have to been a reason why scientist associated cell phones with cancer. One principle of critical thinking we can use to test this claim is the principle of correlation vs. causation. We need to ask ourselves does cell phones cause cancer, or is there a third variable responsible for causing cancer? According to the National Cancer Institute they state that cell phones emit radio frequency energy (radio waves), which can damage tissues in the ear. This statement can be true but it does not prove it causes cancer, it's just a hypothesis. Also, according to the National Cancer Institute "The number of cell phone users has increased rapidly. As of 2010, there were more than 303 million subscribers to cell phone service in the United States. Over time, the number of cell phone calls per day, the length of each call, and the amount of time people use cell phones has increased." Also, just because many cancer patients reported using cell phones we cannot draw conclusions that cells phones cause cancer, maybe, these cancer patients all were long time smokers and that is the reason why they suffer from this disease. For many years scientist have proven and provided extensive evidence that smoking does indeed cause cancer. Another concept we can use to provide an alternative explanation is the idea of Nature vs. Nurture. In other words genetics could be another important variable responsible to cause cancer. In addition, the other side of the idea involves nature, a possibility could include an individual exposed to extreme amount of sunlight develops skin cancer throughout their life due to their environment. The cause of cancer does not only include cell phone use it can be influenced by other variables including environmental or genetic factors. Using the principle of correlation vs. causation is the most useful for evaluating this claim.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones