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Mesothelioma has a specific and distinctive set of symptoms, so people took notice and look for a root cause. Hypothetically, if EMF radiation were to cause a

Mesothelioma has a specific and distinctive set of symptoms, so people took notice and look for a root cause. Hypothetically, if EMF radiation were to cause a wide range of low-level effects such that common diseases had increasing prevalence rates over time, how would we be able to link that back? Cell towers are ubiquitous, there's no non-exposed control group that epidemiologists can easily compare to.

bsder 8y ago
> there's no non-exposed control group that epidemiologists can easily compare to. Incorrect. Time of onset is a control. Look at the results on breast cancer from when they stopped giving post-menopausal women hormone replacement therapy. Different countries and areas of the country get different generations of cell phone and towers at different times. While there may not be a huge amount of funding going into this, the result of finding an effect between cell phones and biology would be so huge, that researchers in relevant fields very much pay attention. If someone they thought they could get any correlation, even with massive p-hacking, someone would publish it.
- smallnamespace 8y ago
  Time of onset only helps you if populations are relatively immobile, or latency time is relatively short. If latency time is decades long (not unreasonable for brain cancers, for example, which are very slow growing), then every brain cancer survey will pick up people who moved in from other areas and were exposed at different times and rates, considerably lowering the signal-to-noise ratio. Also relevant: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-cell-phone-radiation-with-cancer/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-...
ryacko 8y ago
The Amish. Their water and soil is no less contaminated by other factors, so the only thing left is far reduced EMF exposure.
- saul_goodman 8y ago
  Believe it or not, some Amish communities do use cell phones. We look at their selective use of technology as a general ban on all new technology when it's more nuanced than that. But certainly some groups do reject cell phones some some sub-groups could be a partial control group.
- mmmeff 8y ago
  Nah, most amish communities are surrounded by normal folks and have pretty good cell coverage. A better control group would be communities around radio telescopes where cell towers can't be built for fear of interference with research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Q...

bsder 8y ago

> there's no non-exposed control group that epidemiologists can easily compare to. Incorrect. Time of onset is a control. Look at the results on breast cancer from when they stopped giving post-menopausal women hormone replacement therapy. Different countries and areas of the country get different generations of cell phone and towers at different times. While there may not be a huge amount of funding going into this, the result of finding an effect between cell phones and biology would be so huge, that researchers in relevant fields very much pay attention. If someone they thought they could get any correlation, even with massive p-hacking, someone would publish it.

smallnamespace 8y ago
Time of onset only helps you if populations are relatively immobile, or latency time is relatively short. If latency time is decades long (not unreasonable for brain cancers, for example, which are very slow growing), then every brain cancer survey will pick up people who moved in from other areas and were exposed at different times and rates, considerably lowering the signal-to-noise ratio. Also relevant: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-cell-phone-radiation-with-cancer/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-...

ryacko 8y ago

The Amish. Their water and soil is no less contaminated by other factors, so the only thing left is far reduced EMF exposure.

saul_goodman 8y ago
Believe it or not, some Amish communities do use cell phones. We look at their selective use of technology as a general ban on all new technology when it's more nuanced than that. But certainly some groups do reject cell phones some some sub-groups could be a partial control group.
mmmeff 8y ago
Nah, most amish communities are surrounded by normal folks and have pretty good cell coverage. A better control group would be communities around radio telescopes where cell towers can't be built for fear of interference with research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Q...