No link to cancer in large-scale mobile phone study

PARIS (AFP) - The largest study of its kind found no link between long-term use of mobile phones and increased risk of brain tumours, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported on Friday.

Danish researchers found no evidence of enhanced risk among more than 350,000 mobile-phone subscribers whose health was monitored over 18 years.

(Yonhap News)

Earlier research on the possible link between cell phone use and cancerous tumours has been inconclusive, partly due to lack of long-term data.

In June, the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

The new study follows up an earlier investigation that compared the cancer risk faced by all mobile phone subscribers in Denmark -- some 420,000 people -- with the rest of the adult population.

Patrizia Frei, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Danish Cancer Society, and colleagues examined health records from 1990 to 2007 for 358,403 cell phone subscribers.

Overall, 10,729 tumours of the central nervous system were diagnosed.

But among people with the longest mobile phone use -- 13 years or more -- cancer rates were nearly the same as for non-subscribers.

"The extended follow-up allowed us to investigate effects in people who had used mobile phones for 10 years or more, and this long-term use was not associated with higher risks of cancer," the study concluded.

The findings, however, could not rule out the possibility of a "small to moderate increase in risk" for very heavy users, or people who have used cell phones for longer than 15 years.

"Further studies with large study populations where the potential for misclassification of exposure and selection bias is minimised are warranted,"

the researchers said.

In a commentary, Anders Ahlbom and Maria Feychting from Sweden's Karolinska Institute said the new evidence was reassuring but called for continued monitoring of health registers.

There are about five billion mobile phones registered in the world, a figure that continues to rise sharply along with the average amount of time spent using them.

The IARC does not issue formal recommendations, but its experts pointed in June to a number of ways consumers can reduce possible risk.

Texting and using hands-free sets for voice calls lower exposure to potentially harmful radiation, compared to device-to-ear voice calls, by at least 10-fold, they said.


http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111021000846

Jobs refused cancer treatment too long: biographer

(Reuters) - Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs revolutionized multiple industries with his cutting-edge products but he was not the world's best manager, biographer Walter Isaacson said.

Jobs changed the course of personal computing during two stints at Apple and then brought a revolution to the mobile market but the inspiring genius is known for his hard edges that have often times alienated colleagues and early investors with his my-way-or-the-highway dictums.

"He's not warm and fuzzy," Isaacson said in an interview with "60 Minutes" on CBS on Sunday. "He was not the world's greatest manager. In fact, he could have been one of the world's worst managers."

"He could be very, very mean to people at times," he added.

Jobs loved to argue but not everyone around him shared that passion, which drove some of his top people away. While his style had yielded breakthrough products, it didn't make for "great management style," Isaacson said.

In one of the more than 40 interviews that Jobs gave the biographer, the technology icon said he felt totally comfortable being brutally honest.

"That's the ante for being in the room. So we're brutally honest with each other and all of them can tell me they think I'm full of s**t, and I can tell anyone I think they're full of s**t," Jobs said. "And we've had some rip-roaring arguments where we're yelling at each other."

Isaacson's biography "Steve Jobs," which hits bookstores on Monday, reveals that Jobs refused potentially life-saving cancer surgery for nine months, was bullied in school, tried various quirky diets as a teenager, and exhibited early strange behavior such as staring at others without blinking.

The book is expected to paint an unprecedented, no-holds-barred portrait of a man who famously guarded his privacy fiercely but whose death ignited a global outpouring of grief and tribute.

Isaacson said in the interview that the reality distortion theory that had always been associated with Jobs stemmed from the Apple co-founder's belief that he was special and that the rules didn't apply to him.

'MAGICAL THINKING'

"He could drive himself by magical thinking," Isaacson said. "By believing something that the rest of us couldn't possibly believe, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't."

Jobs, who has revolutionized the world of personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet, digital publishing and retail stores, would have liked to conquer television as well, Isaacson said.

"He had a few other visions. He would love to make an easy-to-use television set," said Isaacson, speaking of Job's last two-and-a-half years of life. "But he started focusing on his family again as well. And it was a painful brutal struggle. And he would talk, often to me about the pain."

Jobs, in his final meeting with Isaacson in mid-August, still held out hope that there might be one new drug that could save him. He also wanted to believe in God and an afterlife.

"Ever since I've had cancer, I've been thinking about (God) more. And I find myself believing a bit more. Maybe it's because I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn't just all disappear," Isaacson quoted Jobs as saying.

"Then he paused for a second and he said 'yeah, but sometimes I think it's just like an on-off switch. Click and you're gone," Isaacson said of Jobs. "He paused again, and he said: And that's why I don't like putting on-off switches on Apple devices."

(Editing by Anshuman Daga)


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-apple-jobs-idUSTRE79J7RB20111021

술 마시려 끼니 굶는 `음주 거식증`..위험천만!

저녁 술자리를 위해 칼로리 섭취량을 줄이는 식사습관이 건강에 해로운 것으로 드러났다.

미 국 미주리 대학 연구팀은 대학생들을 대상으로 음주와 식사습관에 대한 설문조사를 진행한 결과 응답자 16%가 술자리가 있으면 칼로리 섭취량을 줄이기 위해 식사를 제한한다고 답했다. 특히 여학생들은 다이어트와 술값 등의 이유로 남학생보다 3배가량 더 많이 이런 식습관을 유지하는 것으로 나타났다.


그러나 연구팀의 빅토리아 오스본 교수는 "이런 `음주 거식증` 이 오히려 육체적, 정신적 장애를 유발하는 해로운 조합이며 여성들을 알코올 중독으로 몰고 갈 위험이 있다"고 경고했다.

끼니를 거르고 술을 마시게 되는 음주 거식증이 계속되면 집중력, 학습능력, 의사결정 능력의 저하를 비롯한 인지 장애를 장단기적으로 유발할 수 있다는 것.

오 스본 교수는 "뇌에 영양이 제대로 공급되지 않는다는 문제와 별도로 많은 양의 알코올을 섭취하는 것 자체가 위험하다"면서 "여성은 남성과 알코올 대사 방식이 다르기 때문에 주요 장기가 해를 입을 위험이 더욱 크다"고 말했다. 이어 "나중에 만성 질환에 걸릴 위험도 더욱 커진다"고 덧붙였다.

이 같은 소식에 누리꾼들은 "어, 내 이야기인데.. ㅠ.ㅠ" "밥도 어느 정도 먹고 술을 마셔야겠군요" "건강이냐, 다이어트냐.. 이것이 문제로다" "몰랐던 사실인데.. 앞으론 조심해야겠네요"라는 등 다양한 반응을 보였다.


http://www.edaily.co.kr/news/NewsRead.edy?SCD=DH34&newsid=01646566596415216&DCD=A00710&OutLnkChk=Y