May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Did you know brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among those under 40, and that every cellphone sold today tells you to keep the phone a certain distance from the body?

Brain cancer registries around the world are starting to see an uptick in brain cancer rates.

In 2011, the World Health Organization announced that the type of radiation emitted by cellphones is a possible carcinogen.

Just this month, over 190 international scientists from over three dozen countries issued a letter calling for the WHO, the United Nations and governments around the world to tighten regulations around the electromagnetic field exposure coming from these handheld devices.

Berkeley, California, recently became the first U.S. city to mandate that cellphone carriers inform citizens of this potential danger.

Terence Young, MP, a Canadian lawmaker, is working on a bill to label all devices that emit this form of wireless radiation. This would include iPads and Wi-Fi. The Maine Legislature is also deciding, yet again, if warning labels should be placed on cellphones.

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I would have never come across this information had my husband not suffered with his own battle with a brain tumor. Now let me ask you something: Were you aware of the danger?

I would like to publicly thank former state Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, for her past efforts in 2009, when she introduced the very first cellphone warning label bill in the U.S., and for her continued work to help educate the citizens of Maine on this emerging public health risk.

Kristen Cobb

Portland


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