How did the controversy arise?
There are currently over one hundred million cell phone users in this country. Along with the increase of cell phone usage, there has been an increase in the number of brain tumors diagnosed each year in the United States. Since cell phones emit electromagnetic energy, which in certain circumstances has been linked with causing tumors, and since the cell phones are held directly against the head, many people fear that the two statistics might be linked.
In the early 90s, public concern over the possible dangers of electromagnetic energy increased based on reports of a possible link between power lines and a type of blood cancer called leukemia. In the past few years, exhaustive scientific research has proven this association to be false, but at that time, the answer was still unclear, which heightened public suspicion. The possible link between cell phones and brain tumors then got a media boost when David Raynard appeared on Larry King Live to discuss his lawsuit against the cell phone industry for the death of his wife, a frequent cell phone user, from a brain tumor.
Despite public concern, most of the evidence against cell phones can be classified as either "guilt by association" or confusing "correlation" with "causation". In other words, just because two events happen at the same time, it does not mean that one caused the other.
