Cell Phones and Cancer, Political Anniversaries and the Regulation of the Day
A new study finds no link between cell phone use and brain cancer.
News outlets assemble their 2009 “year in review” features.
The state of Oregon forbids tents on public beaches.
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.
1. HEALTH
A new study finds no link between cell phone use and brain cancer.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Michael Fumento on the lack of medical evidence linking cell phones and cancer:
“On average, it’s believed it takes about 20 years for a brain tumor to appear after the initial insult. But that’s spread over a wide bell curve of a few years to 40 years. Five to 10 years, if using a large enough population, is enough for trends to start showing up. Yet the four Scandinavian countries [included in a recent study] had a mobile phone network since 1981, two years before the service launched in the U.S. So there’s been plenty of time for tumors to show up. All that’s appeared is crummy science perpetrated by the usual anti-technology cell-out doomsayers.”
2. POLITICS
News outlets assemble their 2009 “year in review” features.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on the year’s big political anniversaries:
“The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall was widely remembered this past November, the 20th anniversary of one of the most momentous events in the history of human liberation. But as this year draws to a close, bear in mind that 2009 is the 20th anniversary of something even grander in the saga of Communism’s collapse: the culmination of a remarkable series of Soviet Bloc revolutions, all unexpected, all surprisingly peaceful, and all amazingly swift. A popular joke at the time summed up the length of those revolutions this way: Poland—10 years; Hungary—10 months; East Germany—10 weeks; Czechoslovakia—10 days; Romania—10 hours.”
3. REGULATION
The state of Oregon forbids tents on public beaches.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Ryan Young on why regulating such things is a distraction from important matters:
“A beach would not be my first choice for a place to spend the night. It would be cold and wet, especially in Oregon. Sand would get into all kinds of places I’d rather it wouldn’t. But is a law necessary? Before the tent ban, was there an epidemic of cold, wet, and sandy people on Oregon’s beaches, who would gladly turn to safer, more comfortable accommodations if only a law would nudge them in that direction?
Or should the Solons of Oregon turn their attention to more important matters?”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.