Colon and rectal cancers – often called colorectal cancers – are the third most common cancers and the second leading cause of deaths from cancer across the globe.1 While they are usually found in older people, younger people have been increasingly affected over recent decades. Recently researchers suggested that this might have something to do with where people carry their mobile phones.
In a paper presented at the 36th Annual Conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, De Kun Li reported the results of a study he and his team conducted on 100 volunteers. In it, he looked at the link between carrying a mobile phone below the waist and people’s risks of colorectal cancer.2
The results showed a clear association.
- People with the most hours of carrying mobile phones below their waists had over four times the risk of early onset colorectal cancer compared to people with the least hours.
- People who carried their mobile phones on the same side of their body on which their tumour was located had over 12 times the risk of early onset colorectal cancer.
- By contrast, people who carried their mobile phones on the opposite side of the body from the tumour had just over one and a half times the risk of early onset colorectal cancer.
‘A longer duration of cellphone carrying below the waist is associated with an increased risk of EOCRC [early onset colorectal cancer],’ the researchers said.
They pointed out that carrying a mobile phone in a pocket causes ‘extensive exposure’ of the colon and rectum to radiofrequency radiation.
How could this affect the body?
The authors say that epithelial cells of the intestine are extremely sensitive to this radiation.
For years, researchers have been advising men not to carry mobile phones in their pockets to avoid irradiating their testes, given the harmful effects of mobile phone radiation on sperm.
The current study suggests this may be good advice – and not just for protecting men’s sperm.
- Colorectal cancer,
- 25 August 2024, ISEE 2024: 36th Annual Conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, Is Cellphone Carrying Below the Waist (Exposure to Non-Ionizing Radiation) Contributing to the Rapid Rise in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer?, De Kun Li, Jeannette Ferber, Andrew Hirst, Roxana Odouli, Charles Quesenberry, and Thoedore Levin, ISEE Conference Abstracts, Volume 2024, Issue 1.
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