What are risks to the public of every-day use of cellphones?

Everyone takes calculated risks every day. The cars we drive, the food we eat, the activities we choose.

Last week the California Department of Public Health issued a warning on the potential hazard of cellphone radiation, raising the question of just how dangerous routine cellphone use is for adults and children. The concern was heightened when a separate study by Kaiser Permanente published the same week said that pregnant women exposed to the type of radiation produced by cellphones have an increased risk of miscarriages.

The assault on science by the Trump administration makes it more important than ever that scientists and the tech industry be as clear as possible about what we know regarding the risk of daily cellphone use by children and adults — and about what we don’t know.

Cellphones have not been proven conclusively to pose a health risk. That is widely agreed upon among researchers. But more long-term studies are necessary to know for sure. California is playing it safe and urging caution, which is reasonable. But the clearer agencies can be about what we know and don’t know, the less vitriol will be aimed at scientists when solid conclusions evolve.

The ultimate source in the United States on health risk issues is the Centers for Disease Control. Its assessment is:

“In the last 15 years, hundreds of new research studies have investigated whether health problems can be linked to cellphone use. Some of these studies have suggested the possibility that longterm, high cellphone use may be linked to certain types of brain cancer. These studies do not establish the link definitively. Scientists will need to conduct more studies to learn more about this possible risk.”

The tech industry calls the fears unfounded. A statement by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week said that the FDA, FCC, World Health Organization, American Cancer Society and other organizations agree “the scientific evidence shows no known health risk due to the (radio frequency) energy emitted by cellphones.”

The fear for many people is that radio-frequency energy, or radiation, from cellphones may pose a cancer risk. But cellphone radiation, unlike Xrays or gamma rays, produces such low energy that it cannot cause the ionization usually associated with cancer risk.

Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, doesn’t see it that way. Moskowitz cites peer-reviewed research showing incidences of tumors in rats exposed to the kind of radiation emitted from cellphones.

It’s that kind of worry that caused the state to suggest users carry their phones in a bag or backpack, rather than in a pocket, and use headphones instead of holding a phone to your ear.

Cellphones are here to stay. The state recommendations are a case of the state trying to err on the side of caution. Stay on top of the science and act accordingly.