A Belgian health products distributor plans to introduce a new stick-on cell phone chip that somehow counters the effects of heat and radiation in cell phones that some studies say could cause cancer.
The company, called Omega Pharma, will start selling its E-waves phone chip in pharmacies throughout Belgium starting tomorrow, and will eventually make the product available in other countries.
The launch is being sold in a sea of unanswered questions, including the following:
1. Do cell phones really cause cancer? In the past 20 years, we've gone from nobody using cell phones to everybody using them. Where's the brain-cancer epidemic?
2. Is this new chip yet another quack fix designed only to profit from public fears about cell phones?
3. Will anyone else besides the company test this product?
4. Is the chip itself safe? How does it work? Why should we trust it?
If this thing sells, which it might, what does that say about public fears about cell phones? What should the handset makers do to counter these fears?
When will someone do a real study that proves statistically significant increases in actual cancer, rather than just the likelihood of cancer?
