What's the one thing you're never without? How about your mobile phone?
Have you ever wondered if keeping your phone so close to your body can cause cancer? Then you're not alone.
We got a message from Verify viewer, Tatanisha Stevenson who, like some women, keeps her phone tucked in her bra strap. And so, she wants us to "verify if this is safe for me? Does it cause breast cancer? I’ve done some research, but it seems inconclusive."
For answers, I looked at large research studies about the link between phones and cancer. And I spoke with Dr. Joseph Spigel. He's a radiologist who specializes in breast cancer at Baylor University Medical Center.
“Does it cause breast cancer?” I asked Dr. Spigel?
“All evidence says no. That's it. All well done evidence says no,” he said.
Let's start with the kind of energy a mobile phone transmits, called RF waves. Phone manufacturers, like Apple, publish the amount of RF energy their products transmit.
But according to the American Cancer Society, RF waves are weak and, "don't have enough energy to cause cancer by directly damaging the DNA inside cells."
"Just like the light. From the light there. That's a type of energy. Or radiation. It's a low energy radiation. Infra-red, heat are all low energy radiations,” Spigel said.
So, contact with the body is not an issue. Let's move on to the cancer research, starting with the largest study out there. It's called Interphone.
Researchers collected questionnaires in 13 countries. Most analysis of the data shows "no statistically significant increases in brain or central nervous system cancers"
Another is called the Danish Study. It cross-referenced 360,000 mobile phone customers to reports of brain tumors in Denmark. It found no link.
And there's the Million Women Study, from the UK. Through questionnaires of phone users, it also found no connection between cancer and phone use.
“Would you tell a patient it's okay to keep it in her bra?” I asked.
“At this point, I would say there is no evidence for causing any problem and it has been extensively studied,” said Spigel.
The US Food and Drug Administration agrees, writing, "we believe the current safety limits for cell phones are acceptable for protecting the public health."
So, to answer the question… does a mobile phone in your bra, or in contact with your body, cause cancer? The research says no.