Do cellphones cause cancer? Most health authorities do not think so, but a new federal study could reignite the controversy over this issue.手机致癌物吗?大部分身体健康专家不这么指出,但是美国联邦政府的一项新的研究有可能新的引起关于这个问题的争辩。The preliminary study, released Friday, found that radiation from cellphones appears to have increased the risks that male rats developed tumors in their brains and hearts. But there are many caveats and some experts are debunking the study.周五发布的这项可行性研究找到,手机电磁辐射或许减少了彦鼠患上脑部和心脏肿瘤的风险。但有很多必须说明的地方,而且有些专家并不尊重这项研究。Who conducted the study? Are they credible?谁展开了这项研究?他们可靠吗?The study is from the National Toxicology Program, an interagency group in the Department of Health and Human Services whose job it is to assess the possible risks of chemicals.这项研究是美国国家毒物管理局(National Toxicology Program)做到的,它是美国公共卫生与公众服务部(Department of Health and Human Services)的一个跨部门机构,其职责是评估化学物质的潜在风险。
How was the study done?研究是如何展开的?Rats lived in special chambers where they were exposed to different levels of radiation of the type emitted by cellphones for nine hours a day, every day. The exposure started before they were born and continued until they were about 2 years old.大鼠住在类似的房间里,每天拒绝接受九小时有所不同强度的电磁辐射,电磁辐射类型与手机电磁辐射完全相同。从出生于前仍然持续到大约2岁大。
What did they find?他们找到了什么?About 2 to 3 percent of the male rats exposed to the radiation developed malignant gliomas, a brain cancer, compared with none in a control group that was not exposed to radiation.大约2%至3%受到电磁辐射的雄鼠患上了恶性胶质瘤——它是一种脑部癌症——而没受到电磁辐射的对照组没此类病例。About 5 to 7 percent of the male rats exposed to the highest level of radiation developed schwannomas in their hearts, compared with none in the control group. Schwannomas are tumors that occur in cells that line the nerves. The authors concluded the brain and heart tumors were “likely caused’’ by the radiation.受到最低强度电磁辐射的雄鼠有约5%至7%患上了心脏神经鞘瘤,而对照组中没此类病例。
神经鞘瘤是由周围神经的神经鞘所构成的肿瘤。作者们指出,脑部和心脏肿瘤“有可能”是电磁辐射“导致的”。What about female rats?那雌鼠呢?Oddly enough, the incidence of tumors in females was minimal, barely different from the control group. It is not clear why the results would vary between the sexes, which is one reason some experts are questioning the findings.奇怪的是,雌鼠的肿瘤发病率极低,与对照组完全没差异。
有所不同性别经常出现有所不同结果的原因未知,这一点也令其有些专家对研究结果产生批评。What are other caveats?还有什么必须我们告诉的?Even for males, the differences between particular groups of rats and the control group were not statistically significant. Another anomaly was that the rats exposed to the radiation lived longer on the whole than animals in the control group. And schwannomas can occur all over the body, not just the heart, but the study did not find increased rates in other organs.即便就雄鼠而言,某些组与对照组之间的差异从统计学角度谈也不是很显著。还有一个反常现象,受到电磁辐射的大鼠的寿命,总体而言精于对照组。
而且,神经鞘瘤有可能在全身各处发作,不只是心脏,但是这项研究没找到其他器官的神经鞘瘤再次发生比例增高。Also it was unusual that the control group had zero tumors. In previous studies at the National Toxicology Program, an average of 2 percent of rats in control groups developed gliomas. Had that happened in this study, there would have been virtually no difference between the exposed rats and the controls.另一个反常情况是,对照组几乎没肿瘤病例。在国家毒物管理局之前的研究中,对照组平均值不会经常出现2%的神经胶质瘤。
如果某种程度的情况经常出现在这项研究中,那受到电磁辐射的大鼠与对照组之间实质上没差异。“I am unable to accept the authors’ conclusions,” said one reviewer of the study, Dr. Michael S. Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lauer, whose comments were in an appendix to the report, said it was likely that the findings represented false positives.“我无法拒绝接受作者们的结论,”这项研究的一位评议人迈克尔·S·劳尔博士(Michael S. Lauer)说道。他是国家卫生研究院(National Institutes of Health)的院外研究副主任。
劳尔的评审意见经常出现在这份报告的序言里。他说道,这些找到有可能是错误判断。
The amounts of radiation that rats were exposed to might be higher than what cellphone users typically experience, though toxicology studies often use higher doses to make sure to detect any effect that might exist.这些大鼠受到的辐射强度有可能低于手机用户一般来说受到的电磁辐射,不过毒物学研究一般都是用于更高剂量,以保证检测到任何有可能不存在的影响。So we can just dismiss this study and go on using our phones?所以,我们可以不理会这项研究,之后用于手机吗?Not totally. As the authors of the report write: “Given the extremely large number of people who use wireless communication devices, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting from exposure to the RFR generated by those devices would have broad implications for public health.” RFR refers to radio-frequency radiation.并不几乎是这样。就像那份报告的作者们写出的:“用于无线通讯设备的人数量众多,那些设备产生的射频电磁辐射就算只是严重提升发病率,也不会对公共身体健康导致普遍影响。”Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, issued a statement on Friday that called this study “good science,” and called for further research because the animal research used very high signal strengths.周五,美国癌症学会(American Cancer Society)的首席医疗官奥蒂斯·布劳利博士(Otis Brawley)公开发表了一项声明,称之为这项研究是“杰出科学成果”,倡议展开更进一步研究,因为动物研究所用的信号强度很高。
But he said, “The NTP report linking radiofrequency radiation (RFR) to two types of cancer marks a paradigm shift in our understanding of radiation and cancer risk.”但是他说道,“国家毒物管理局的报告将射频电磁辐射与两种癌症联系一起,标志着我们在解读电磁辐射和癌症风险方面经常出现思维模式的改变。”Dr. David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany, said he thought the study provided backing for the human epidemiological studies that suggested cellphone use was associated with an increased risk of gliomas and acoustic neuromas, a type of schwannoma. “I think this is real,’’ he said, suggesting people used wired earpieces to talk on cellphones.大卫·O·卡彭特博士(David O. Carpenter)是纽约州而立大学奥尔巴尼分校(Albany)身体健康和环境学院(Institute for Health and Environment)的院长。
他说道,他指出这项研究为人类流行病学的研究获取了反对,指出用于手机与神经胶质瘤及听神经瘤(神经鞘瘤的一种)的风险减少有关。“我实在这是知道,”他说道。他建议人们在相接打电话时用于有线耳机。What have other studies found?其他研究找到了什么?Dr. Carpenter’s view is not the prevailing one. Many studies have been conducted, including some very large ones like the Million Women Study in Britain, and a Danish study of more than 350,000 cellphone users. There also were studies examining the effects of these radio waves in animals and cells growing in petri dishes. The results are reassuring. There is no convincing evidence of any link between cellphone use and cancer or any other disease.卡彭特的观点不是主流观点。
之前有过很多研究,还包括一些很大规模的研究,比如英国的百万女性研究(Million Women Study),以及丹麦对逾35万手机用户展开的研究。还有些研究是检验这些无线电波对动物以及在皮氏培养皿中生长的细胞的影响。这些研究的结果令人宽慰。
没令人信服的证据指出,用于手机与癌症或其他疾病之间不存在联系。Also, the incidence of brain cancer in the United States has remained steady since 1992, despite the stark increase in cellphone use.另外,从1992年至今,美国的脑部癌症发病率一直很平稳,尽管这期间手机使用量急遽下降。The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, rates cellphone radiation a “possible’’ human carcinogen, based on limited evidence in both people and animals. It gives the same rating to coffee and pickled vegetables.世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)的国际癌症研究机构(International Agency for Research on Cancer)基于人和动物身上的受限证据,将手机电磁辐射列入“有可能”对人类有致癌作用的物质,与咖啡和咸菜归属于同一级别。But don’t we know that radiation causes cancer?但是,怎么会我们不告诉电磁辐射致癌物吗?Ionizing radiation, the powerful type from nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and X-ray machines, is strong enough to knock electrons off atoms and damage DNA. That can cause cancer. But the radiation from cellphones, called radio-frequency radiation, is nonionizing and not known to damage DNA.核武器、核电站和X光机产生的反感的电离辐射不足以把电子从原子中释放出,伤害DNA。
那不会致癌物。但手机电磁辐射是射频电磁辐射,不是电离辐射,会伤害DNA。
So what happens now?接下来不会怎样?The findings released Friday are preliminary and part of a larger study, so more data will be coming out, probably next year. The existing report will also be reviewed further by more experts.周五发布的找到是可行性试验,是一项更加大规模研究的一部分,所以不会经常出现更加多数据,很有可能明年发布。现有的报告也将由更好专家更进一步评审。
本文关键词:手机,辐射,究竟,能否,致癌,老鼠,实验,cellphones,千亿体育官网登录入口
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