Joining the dots

A leading British newspaper, The Independent, has reported that a major study undertaken by researchers from the National Toxicology Programme revealed a link between mobile phone use and cancer. The report is a thorough peer reviewed study conducted by the US government and represents a significant development in the long-running debate over how mobile phones impact users.

While we have suspected this all along, this study only makes us understand the dangers of excessive mobile phone usage. In this study, researchers exposed male rats to radio frequencies which are commonly emitted by mobile phones. Following the exposure, “low incidences” of two types of tumours were found in the animals’ brains and hearts.

Tumours were not found in rats not exposed to the frequencies. The study was conducted on more than 2,500 rats at various intervals over a two-year period.

In a report released alongside the study, researchers said that given the widespread global usage of mobile communications among users of all ages, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting from exposure to radio-frequency radiation could have broad implications for public health.

The study which cost the US government $25 million is believed to be one of the largest and most detailed analysis of mobile phones and cancers.

In the report, Ron Melnick, a former National Toxicology Programme researcher, who reviewed the results told the media that “Where people were saying there’s no risk, I think this ends that kind of statement.” This study goes in line with the age-old belief that anything in excess is bad for you. And what we have seen over the years is that mobile phone usage has reached such excessive levels that it is now difficult, almost impossible, to try and curtail this practice.

In the past, the scientific community has been at odds on the issue since it was first raised in the early 1990s. While former studies have also suggested a link between cancer and mobile phone use, they have been critiqued for either methodology or having small sample sizes. But if we look at statistics in Pakistan, it seems the rise in mobile phone usage is indeed contributing to the rise in cancer cases.

According to minister Saira Afzal Tarar, annually some 150,000 new cancer cases occur in men and women of all ages in Pakistan, and eight per cent (around 12,000) of those afflicted die every year. Tarar, our minister of state for national health services, regulations and coordination — cited the World Health Organisation while sharing the statistics. What Tarar did not elaborate is the fact that the number of cases has risen significantly over the years, and that the number quoted reflects that rise.

Apart from how we spend our hours, another area of concern is what we eat. This also affects our health in ways that we are not aware of. Representatives of a leading company that promotes Genetically Modified (GM) crops visited our offices recently and tried to argue over how GM crops would help bring a green revolution in Pakistan. I was unaware that GM corn is already being produced in Pakistan, which among other things, also ends up in our chicken feed. So, unknown to us, we are already consuming GM food through our consumption of poultry. This is worrisome.

The only green revolution that I am aware of took place with the help of an American, Norman Borlaug, a biologist. Borlaug led the introduction of high-yielding wheat varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan and India. In Pakistan, wheat yields increased from 4.6 million tonnes in 1965 to 7.3 million tonnes in 1970. By 1968, Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat production. Yields were over 21 million tonnes by 2000. Since the 1960s, food production in Pakistan has increased at incredibly faster rates than the rate of population growth and the production of wheat reached 25 million tonnes mark.

But now we are told that the population is overtaking our food production. So at the cost of our food security, we will now have to sow GM crops to ensure that our people are fed and that famine or food shortages do not break out. In some ways this is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. It seems we are damned either way.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2016.

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