Be Smart

Come July 1, you can get a ticket for Talking While Driving in California. But no matter where we live, we all know we shouldn't drive while talking on cell phones because it increases the risk of accidents. An exception in California is car talk with a Bluetooth connection, but even hands-free phone time can be risky. Suppose you get distracted from driving because you're carrying on a Bluetooth argument with your cell service provider about mystery phone charges? Or with your kid for running up those charges?

But there's another potential danger from cell phones. What health risks, if any, might come from cell phone radiation? Especially risk of brain tumors?

I first wrote about this topic 8 years ago. While it's usually pleasant for a writer to discover that an ancient article is not yet out of date, this time it's a bit dismaying. In the year 2000 we didn't know for sure whether cell phone radiation could cause brain tumors. Now that cell phones are in the hands of maybe a billion people (and, more to the point, held to their ears only an inch or so from the brain), it's worrying to realize that nothing much has changed. We still don't know for sure.