Growing Evidence That Cell Phones Create Tumors

Lafayette Real Estate Broker Alan Marks, 57, had a grand mal seizure last year after 20-years of intense cell phone use.

At the time, he estimated a cell phone up to his head for at least 10,000 hours over those 20 years.

One prominent doctor went on record that Marks' cell phone use likely caused his golf ball-sized, malignant brain tumor, called an oligodendro glioma, which is adjacent to where he held his cell phone.

Surgeons removed as much cancer as they could, but now give him 5, maybe 8 years to live. “It's painful,” said Ellie Marks, Alan's wife. “It's horribly painful, yet I want people to know that this is for real.”

About 90 percent of people in the Bay Area press cell phones regularly to their heads. Some scientists say evidence of long term harm from such intense use is growing.

“We discovered that cell phone radiation does damage DNA,” said Prof. Henry Lee, a Univ. of Washington researcher.

Berkeley researcher Lloyd Morgan says telecommunications industry studies are biased and flawed. Other studies suggest a cell phone cancer epidemic.

“There is going to be hundreds of millions of people potentially getting brain tumors caused by cell phones across this planet,” said Morgan.

The FDA and the American Cancer Society disagree, saying there's no clear proof of significant risk.

Still, consumers are becoming cautious.

“These (cell phones) are relatively new,” said Larry Blackwell of Alameda. “We don't know for sure, and there's probably a monetary incentive not to find out.”

The Cetecom laboratory in Milpitas tests cell phone safety in specially shielded rooms using a standardized plastic head -- nicknamed Sam -- and a special liquid that simulates brain tissue.

Production cell phones are then set to full power and put up to Sam's ear, which is a probe measures the heating energy.

“The FCC currently requires only the monitoring of the heating effect,” said Heiko Strehlow, a Cetecom engineer.

Strehlow says there are at least two other effects -- on the human nervous system and a carcinogenic effect of radiation -- that are not tested.

“Whenever I know I'm having a long phone conversation I for example use a headset,” said Strehlow.

Even though he has a tumor, Marks still uses his cell phone, also with a headset.

“It's shocking to me that with all the good studies that are out there, there are good studies there are high quality studies, that the united states government is not warning its citizens,” said Ellie Marks.

European health officials now warn children to avoid using cell phones. And what promises to be the best study yet, World Health Organization’s study, is expected in December.