18 March 2010

Risk vs Reward...


After reading the TIME Magazine piece on cell phones please respond to the following. Do you believe in the possibility of them giving off small doses of radiation that may cause cancer? If so, would you consider giving up your cell phone? In addition, would you be willing to risk your health to enjoy anything in life that may end your life prematurely? - Question proposed by Mike & Dave in Period 4.

20 comments:

rflattery said...

it is definitely true that cell phones give off radiation, however there is no proof that it can cause cancer. also there is no way that i would believe people would actually consider no longer using their cell phones. its how we communicate and the majority of the united states doesnt know how to live without them. so no i would not stop using it for that reason. I am a believer in doing what you want and live your life the way you please, however you should way out the consequences of your actions before you act on them. if you think its worth it then by all means go for it.

ebrummett said...

I do believe that the cell phone radiation can give you cancer, but they say that basically everything you do can kill you or give you cancer. so yes i believe it but i don't really care because I'm going to die one day and if it's going to be from my cell phone then so be it. If my cell phone doesn't give me cancer then something else will and kill me.

emily76 said...

i do believe that the cell phones could give off a small dose of radiation and may be able to lead to cancer. however there is no proof yet that leads us to that, also i believe that anything gives off harmfull things, like microwaves, or tanning. i would not give up my cell phone after knowing this. i dont think i would becasue it could always be a chance but there could also be a chance of not getting it. i would risk it and enjoy my life, anything out there can kill us basically everything can so why worry about the possibilities if you dont know the facts.

jake said...

Cell phones are definitely worth the risk. Theyre 100x more useful than dangerous. But since it will take many more years before anyone will be able to see a correlation between cell phones and cancer, just use your crackberry a little less. It's not your life, its a tool. Anything in excess can be dangerous.

yelda17 said...

Cell phones may cause cancer, but whos gonna listen and not use their phones? Cell phones are not just a communication device they are now everything from a planner to internet to cameras. Many people need their cell phones in order to live thier life, i doubt they'll give it up. Also, if people wanted to believe the whole "dont do it, it'll give u cancer" controversy they would stop smoking. But since they wont so why should they waste their time and give up something so valuable?

R Amorim said...

I do not really believe that this can cause cancer. Maybe if you use your cell phone day and day out or keep it against your skin all day but otherwise I'm sure that youd be okay. Id rather take the risk untill theres at least studies to prove it than play it safe and live an inconvenient lifestyle. I think that most people would agree.

Andre M said...

I do believe in the possibility of cell phones giving off small doses of radiation because there has already been some evidence to support this. In addition, some countries have even taken steps to notify consumers of the risks. I do not have a cell phone, but if I did, I would not completely give it up. Instead I would just minimize the use of it. I actually am willing to risk my health to enjoy things in life that could end my life prematurely because you never know what can happen to you. Therefore, it is best to enjoy the moment while it lasts, but not to exactly live like your dying. In other words, enjoy the present but also consider the future.

DGopie21 said...

I know for a fact that cellphones do give off radiation. But the question is what are the chances that your gonna get cancer from it? I think some people would actually think about giving up thier cellphones but not actually doing it. Cellphones are very important to alot of teens its a good way to communicate with friends and family ect very quickly. This means no i wouldnt stop using my cellphone even if these statements are proven to be true. I feel like i should live my life the way i want too and if it having fun and im happy when i young in the long run it wouldnt really matter to me that much if im old.

MCastagna said...

I think that people are jumping the gun on the cell phone causing cancer thing. If cell phone use causes cancer then X-rays would practically fry us and would exist today. Maybe in 10-20 years we will be able to see if they actually turn out to cause cancer but for now I don't think there is enough data. When it comes to the convenience vs. risk part of this question, I would take the convenience. Everyone is going to die sometime, you can try and prevent it as much as you want but it is inevitable. You might as well just enjoy your life while you can and do what makes you happy. If you want to smoke/drink/ do drugs, go for just make sure you don't hurt other people in the process. My great grandfather lived to be 92 years old, he was a strong healthy man his whole life. For the last two years of his life he was confined to a wheel chair and couldn't remember his own children. I would rather die early after living a good enjoyable life, then live to be 90 and go like that.

Octaviaaa said...

I belive that cell phones giving off radition and causing cancer is true because i have heard about that not from the article we just read but in other articles as well. I most likely wont give up my cell phone because im sure its a small possibility that some one could get cancer from this. I mean if they use their phones 24/7 yes, they have a high chance but i barely use my phone. i mainly text. I am willing to risk my health because like i said its probably a small possibility, that one might get cancer.

michellepatnode said...

I believe that cell phones do give off radiation, but so do alot of other things, such as microwaves. But will I stop using a microwave? No, I think it depends on how close you get to this. As what the article said, the radiation vents off when your talking on your cell phone and you have it up to your ear. It says that it is best to talk on speaker, and that no radiation occurs while texting. I will, and have been risking my health with talking on my cell phone, because I dont't believe it will give me cancer, and I mostly use speaker, if so.

kamil k said...

As the article said, some cell phones give off some radiation, but i dont think that they cause cancer. Cell phones haven't been out for that long for us to find significant effects such as cancer. I think that in the future, it will be more apparent to see side effects of cell phone use, if any. But for now, large numbers of people will continue using cell phones because they are important in the 21st century.

JuliBieber said...

I do believe that cell phones give off radiation, that may lead to cancer. However, the amount is so small that it won't effect you for many years. Therefore, I believe the conveience is definetly worth the risk. There are so many things that scientists and doctors believe cause cancer that I'm not worried about my phone. If my phone doesn't kill me, something else will.

Kelsey Cronin said...

I do believe that there is a slight possibility of cell phones giving off small doses of radiation that may cause cancer. Wile although I believe this, I also feel it is a very slim chance of someone really getting cancer from cell phone radiation. Having said that I probably would not consider giving up my cell phone. As for me being willing to risk my health to enjoy anything in life that may end it i would have to say it would depend on what the risk was. For example this whole cell phone thing does not bother me that much but say it was a sure 100% fact that cell phones caused cancer then yes i would give it up. As any thing it depends on the situation.

vithier04 said...

I believe that cell phones do give off radiation which can then lead to cancer. But at the same time I would not give off my cell phone up because there just aren’t enough facts to confirm it. And just like Yelda said cell phone now a days are used in our every day life. We use them for planners, cameras, internet; no one would give it up. People have been talking about all these so called cancer causing explanations like if you drink Gatorade or PowerAde, so when do we start believing what is true and what isn’t? And lastly even if they did find evidence that phones caused cancer I don’t think no one in the world would give up there phone just because they really don’t care, there not concerned about that. For example people would have never thought smoking cause cancer and now that they do know they still do it.

EA.Polska23 said...

I agree with most people that cell phones do give off some radiation, but i think that no one is really going to go to crazy yet, since there are no proven cases that someone has gotten cancer from using a cell phone. I think that until that happens everyone is going to keep using there cell phones but most people especially teenagers are texting wich keeps the phone away from there head. So people are going to keep using there cell phones for a while until someone is proven to have gotten cancer from a cell phone.

ccardoso9 said...

I believe that it is true that cellphones can give you cancer due to radiation. Most people would not bother to take the time and realize that. Cellphones are a big part of our daily lives because of communication with one another. I will still use my phone because I cant live without technology but I am starting to wonder if I use it a little to much and that it can affect my health.

Gfreethy31 said...

Yes i definitely believe that it is true that cell phones give off radiation, but not enough that it can give cancer. If it is proven to give you cancer, i wouldnt stop using my cell phone all together, but i would try any use it less then what i already do. Cancer runs in my family, and i would have a greater risk of getting it. So if using my cell phone less would help prevent me from getting the type of cancer you could get from cell phones, i would.

Shaw said...

I believe cell phones do give off radiation. Just about everything gives off a small amount of radiation and at the same time just about anything can give you cancer. I believe this is just another way to play on the fears that people today have of premature death. I wouldn't stop using my phone for this reason. I agree with what ryan said about how you should do what you want and live your life the way you want. The chance of something ending my life prematurely isn't going to stop me from doing something. If you lived your life never doing things because you would risk your life you would not do anything, you would sit at home all day. You only live once and you should live to the fullest extent, it's necessary to take a few risks.

Jerimee said...

Yes do believe cell phones can give off some harmful radiation but i cannot see this as something that would stop me from using it completely. There is not enough evidence to say that cell phones can definitely contribute to cancer so for that reason im not going to stop using it. Just because it could possibly hurt me i am not going to stop using the most convenient piece of technology i own. Cell phones today can do it all and to stop using it because of possibly harmful radiation seems foolish to me. Maybe because of this i will text instead of call sometimes but that's as far as i will go as to trying to avoid this problem of radiation.