I just finished reading The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Devra Davis. As a longstanding epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute in the United States, Davis has been involved in large studies on tobacco, asbestos, coal fumes and many toxin-related cancer research initiatives.

Her book is basically an overview of how industries have systematically polluted the scientific research literature with bogus studies saying that their products are safe, manipulated governments to change the way their products are regulated, infiltrated the legal system and insurance providers to make it more difficult for claims to be made against them – and how all these efforts have made life more difficult for those crusading to clean up our world, not to mention the people whose lives were taken by these poisons.

The textbook on manipulating science was written by the tobacco companies in the 1950s. I found it fascinating to learn that they provided major funding to the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health. This was a means of infiltrating the experts and the thought leaders, but they also infiltrated the clinical research itself.

As an example, consider one review of 165 studies done on the health risks of a particular substance. What would you say if 85 of the studies showed that the substance caused cancer, while 80 studies found no association? Most epidemiologists would say that more research is required. But what if I told you that every single one of the 80 negative studies was funded by the industry that makes this substance?

The substance in question is cell phones.

The telecommunications industry is creating scientific confusion in exactly the same manner that the tobacco industry created confusion in the 1960s. This was over 20 years after they had clear evidence, as confirmed by confidential internal documents, that cigarettes cause cancer.

I look forward to watching an interview with Dr Davis this Sunday evening (September 26) on CBC’s The National. This woman was a member of the academic establishment for decades. She knows what she is talking about. If her book is any indication, I can tell you she does not pull any punches. I encourage you to watch it if you can.

Apparently, insurance companies do not believe that cell phones are safe. They now increasingly refuse to insure cellphone manufacturers against health claims. Their decisions are not based on the research paid for by the telecommunications industry. They paid for their own independent research, which confirms several other studies in which cellphone radiation clearly damages DNA. This, according to current thinking, is what causes cancer.

I know this is a bitter pill to swallow. Everyone has gotten used to using their cell phone every day. But if you are one of the unlucky ones at some point in the future, don’t say we didn’t warn you. Here is our advice:

- Do not keep your cell phone on your body – keep it in a purse or handbag.

- When you must have a conversation, use earphones with a microphone so that you do not have to hold the phone beside your brain.

- Find out how much radiation your phone produces and get a simpler, safer phone if you can. The radiation emitted is measured in SAR units, and can be found on many websites. The lower the SAR the better.

- Anyone under 25 years of age should exercise special caution. The younger the person, the more vulnerable the brain.

- Current evidence suggests that the longer you have been using a cellphone, the greater your risk. Do not wait to change your habits.

- Contact your MP to ask for stricter regulations. Federal limits in Canada allow 100x more radiation to be emitted than limits in many countries, including Sweden, Norway, Germany, Russia … even Kazakhstan.

Modern medicine does not yet acknowledge that the cumulative burden of toxins in the environment may be linked to the increased incidence of allergies, autoimmune disease, cancer and diseases of chronic inflammation that are the hallmark of the modern era. This is of profound importance because toxins impair the normal function of the immune system and the nervous system. Cellphone radiation should be considered one of the toxins that may affect human health.

One parting thought: why is it that millions of dollars of meticulous research is required to prove that drugs are safe, but all other substances are allowed to be dumped into our environment unless millions of dollars of meticulous research can prove that they are dangerous?

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