Opinion: Cell phones tucked in bras causing cancer
By Devra Lee Davis
For many young women today, tucking cell phones in the bra has become a cool, hip way to have simple access to these essential devices. Most of us have no idea that cell phones are small microwave radios that should not be kept directly on the body.
The ways some people are using their phones today could increase their risk of developing breast cancer and other diseases tomorrow. A cell phone’s microwave radiation seeps directly into soft fatty tissue of the breast.
It’s too late for Andrea X, a young, active mother of three from Southern California. For more than six years, this vegetarian and runner drove her children everywhere, with her cell phone tucked snugly into her sports bra. She used her hands-free headset and was on the phone for four to five hours a day. Often her chest or ear would redden, but she thought little of it. This spring she developed a malignant tumor right where her phone had sat on her breast. No one in her family has ever had breast cancer.
Devra Lee Davis is an epidemiologist, author and public health advocate. Davis’ new book is “Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family.” To learn more, go to www.environmentalhealthtrust.org.