Raise awareness of environmental health issues in order to better protect our children and future generations.

20 July 2017

Celebrities, Cell Phones, and Brain Tumors

Sheryl Crow


Read what Australian neurosurgeon Gautam (Vini) Khurana says about brain tumor incidence and then the article which follows about a 17-year-old girl who spent hours talking on her mobile phone each day and died from a malignant brain tumor.  Each and every one of us has a responsibility to warn about potential risks of heavy cell phone use, especially parents, in order to protect their young children. 





Statement from Australian neurosurgeon Gautam (Vini) Khurana:
WEEP News, 28 May 2013

“I believe that in the present decade, a significant increase in primary brain tumor incidence will be detected internationally. The first indication of this phenomenon may be the plethora of high-profile individuals diagnosed with primary brain tumors in the last few to several years: Senator Ted Kennedy, professional golfer Seve Ballesteros, Cable television host Eleanor Mondale, director and producer Dan Curtis, broadcaster Stan Zemanek, high profile attorney Johnnie Cochran, celebrated pilot Dennis E. Fitch, inventor Robert Moog, political pundit Robert Novak, US Senator Arlen Specter, renowned cancer surgeon Professor Chris O’Brien, baseball pro Gary Carter, journalist David Shaw, Stock broker Rene Rivkin, actress Elizabeth Taylor, actor Mark Ruffalo, actor and musician Martin Kemp, singer Sheryl Crow, rock star Doc Neeson, corporate leader Holly Ann Norwick (partner of Chris Gardner, who was played by Will Smith in film The Pursuit of Happyness), actor / model Rona Newton-John (sister of singer and Grease star Olivia Newton-John), actress Valerie Harper (star of the Mary Tyler Moore Show) . . . 

"Will the incidence of primary brain tumors/brain cancers among high profile people (e.g., celebrities) be an early surrogate marker for the increasing incidence of these tumors in the general population?"

"A significant increase in primary brain cancer incidence in Australia has been reported (see http://www.brain-surgery.us/mobilephone.html for the peer reviewed reference and the Public summary); that study was based on rigorous methods and definitions."

'Our daughter died of a brain tumour. We blame her mobile'
by LECH MINTOWT-CZYZ, Daily Mail (Note:  the article was published a number of years ago.)

A teenage girl who spent hours talking on her mobile phone each day has died from a brain tumour.
Samantha Miller, 17, spent hundreds of pounds a month on 'topup' cards to pay for calls to her friends.
Her parents are convinced her constant mobile phone use triggered the tumour that killed her.

Less than a year after she bought the phone Samantha started complaining of headaches, ringing in the ears and a numb face.

Doctors diagnosed a malignant brain tumour and after a 15-month battle with the disease she died two weeks ago.

She will be buried next Wednesday, the day she should have celebrated her 18th birthday.
Her parents, Janet, 39, and Phil, 58, believe her phone is to blame.  The family, including Samantha's four brothers and sisters, have stopped using mobile phones.  'Samantha was glued to her phone day and night chatting to friends and her boyfriend,' her mother said.  'She was a real chatterbox - very lively, healthy and outgoing - and that phone never stopped ringing.  'But she suddenly started getting headaches and went downhill very quickly. It was heartbreaking to watch.  'We are convinced she died because she spent so much time on the phone.'

Samantha, who was studying hairdressing and beauty therapy at a college in Street, near Glastonbury, Somerset, bought her handset nearly two years ago.  In January 2001 she was referred to Yeovil hospital where she was diagnosed with a highly malignant and advanced tumour.  The specialist asked Mrs Miller and her husband, a retired coach driver, if Samantha had a mobile phone.  However he was reluctant to blame it outright for her illness. In March last year surgeons at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, operated to remove the tumour and this was followed by a course of radiotherapy.  But it returned in January and persisted despite a further course of chemotherapy.

Samantha spent her final weeks in a wheelchair and paralysed down her left side.

Her mother said: 'I have lost a beautiful daughter. It is too late for her but I want others, especially children, to be aware of the dangers.

'Samantha was an extremely popular and bubbly girl, I could not believe how many friends she had. She was always on the phone to them.  'The phone had an antenna and where she held it to her head was where the tumour appeared.  Holding a phone so close to your ear means all the radiation is going straight into the brain.  There needs to be more research - everyone has a mobile phone these days and I don't want anyone else to die as a result.'

After she was diagnosed, Samantha's two brothers Simon, 19 and Gary, 12, and sisters Jenny, 15, and Mariah, eight, stopped using mobile phones.

Research by Dr Alan Preece at Bristol University has supported the claims of those who believe mobile phone radiation is not safe.  A study of volunteers showed the emissions heat up the brain and alter reaction times.  In another study, Dr Preece used squid to argue that human brains can be altered by electrical impulses.  The squid changed colour when exposed to mobile phones, violently flashing through the spectrum. They also showed slower reaction times.

Simon Best, of mobile phone emission pressure group Powerwatch, said the Millers' story was becoming all too common.  'The amount of evidence that shows that mobile phone use is damaging is growing by the day,' he said.  'And as more and more people use their handsets for longer we expect cases like this to grow rapidly.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-123198/Our-daughter-died-brain-tumour-We-blame-mobile.html

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