Terahertz

Every so often a number of stories pile up in my “I have opinions I want to express about this piece of news” list. Today’s theme is stories of interest to skeptics.

Cell phones are safe

This first story adds to the growing list of evidence demonstrating the safety of wireless technology. Further study is always worthwhile, but at this point I think we can conclude that there is little to worry about from our handheld cellphones. Over one-third of a million people were involved in this study.

The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cellphones and cancer found no evidence of any link, suggesting that billions of people who are rarely more than a few centimetres from their phones have no special health concerns.

…

In the latest research, published online Thursday in the journal BMJ, researchers updated a previous study examining 358,403 cellphone users aged 30 and over in Denmark from 1990 to 2007. They found cellphone users did not have a higher cancer risk compared with those without cellphones.

The best bit comes right at the end of the article.

"There are a lot more worrying things in the world than mobile phones," [Researcher Hazel Nunn] said.

Steve Jobs, skeptic

The next story discusses a new biography of Steve Jobs.

A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life — giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple "corrupt" and delaying cancer surgery in favour of cleansings and herbal medicine.

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. To me he sounds more like a cynic.

What we find is a picture of Steve Jobs who decided upon the name Apple while on a pure-fruit diet, refused science-based treatments for his cancer, and one who was disgusted at religion.

The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at age 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.

Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.

I’ve previously admitted my own lack of admiration for Jobs, and this picture does little to improve my opinion of the man.

The international fight over mercury

Finally, a skeptical battle in recent years has been over unfounded fears that the preservative thiomersal in vaccines is toxic. This fear has driven many parents to opt their children out of critical vaccines, in some cases causing outbreaks of whooping cough or measles.

The key contention is that thiomersal is derived from mercury, a known toxin. While the additive is completely safe, some parents still falsely believe that it can cause autism. Knowing the potential health and environmental dangers of mercury, the United Nations is now considering banning on the substance.

The danger here is that without the preservative, vaccines will have very short shelf-lives. This means that many poorer nations without the facilities to produce vaccines will face steep costs making vaccines available to their population.

Let’s hope that a deal can be worked out to balance the need to protect the environment with the need for a safe supply of vaccines around the world.