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Do Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer?

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In 1993, Larry King propped a young man into the spotlight on a night when many extra had tuned into his show in expectation of political commentary. (It was the night after Inauguration Day in Washington, after all.) King introduced a young man from Florida who had filed a claim against a cellphone manufacturer, and a carrier of that cellphone brand. He claimed that radiation from their phones had caused or accelerated the growth of a brain tumor in his wife.

“The tumor was exactly in the pattern of the antenna,” a New York Injury Attorney remembers the man saying. In 1989, the man’s 31-year-old wife was diagnosed with a malignant astrocytoma, which is a brain cancer that occurs in about 6,000 American adults each year.

To the husband, the shape and size of the tumor unmistakably resembled a malignant shadow of the phone. He saw a hazy line swerving from the left side of her midbrain to the hindbrain, and like cloud watchers, assumed the shape was an exact replica of his wife’s phone antenna. According to him, his wife was known to hold her phone at exactly the angle shown in the images of the tumor.

She underwent surgery for the cancer, but it had little to no lasting effect. She died before she hit her 34th birthday. Her husband was convinced radiation from her phone was the cause.

This case was the first tort suit in the U.S. to claim a link between phone radiation and brain cancer; it illustrated the most complex conceptual problems in cancer epidemiology.

The Circuit Court was quick to discern just how complex the matter was. It empathized with the husband’s search for a tangible cause for his wife’s cancer, but it had to admit that there was too little information and scientific knowledge on the subject to pursue a case. The court rejected his case and told him he needed to supply testimony from an expert who had a deeper comprehensive knowledge of cellphones, brain cancer and any possible links between the two.

Information in such cases is hard to identify and link directly to an illness or injury. A Nassau County Personal Injury Lawyer commented that their office would be vigilantly watching for any and all news that affects their clients and the public at large.

If you have been injured, you may be entitled to receive just compensation for your injuries. Contact Stephen Bilkis and Associates for advice and guidance. We will ensure that your rights are protected.

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