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By Root 941 0

studies related to cell phone safety—or, more precisely, studies that try to determine if there is any “biologic effect” from cell phone radiation. The most prominent of these is a recent, $24 million UN-sponsored study covering thirteen thousand users in thirteen nations for more than a decade. That study was deemed “inconclusive,” but it did find that “frequent cell phone use may increase the chances of developing rare but deadly forms of brain cancer.”16 Specifically, the study found up to “40% higher incidence of glioma among the top 10 percent of people who” used their phone the most.17 That qualification may give you comfort, at least if you don’t think of yourself as one of those sad souls glued to their cell phones. But don’t get too comfortable yet, because the study was conceived more than a decade ago, when “heavy use” was actually quite moderate by today’s standards: thirty minutes a day put you in the highest category for the purposes of this study.18 Indeed, as Dr. Devra Davis writes in her book Disconnect (2010), there’s a very general problem with the established standards for cell phone usage: “Today’s standards… were set in 1993, based on models that used a very large heavy man with an eleven-pound head talking for six minutes, when fewer than 10% of all adults had cell phones. Half of all ten-year-olds now have cell phones. Some young adults use phones for more than four hours a day.”19

The concern that I want to flag, however, begins, again, when one looks at the source of these studies. Dr. Henry Lai of the University of Washington has examined 326 of these radiation studies. His analysis divides the studies into those that found some biologic effect and those that did not. Good news: the numbers are about even. Fifty-six percent of the studies found a biologic effect, while 44 percent did not. Not great (for cell phone users), but perhaps not reason enough (yet) to chuck your iPhone.

But Professor Lai then divided the studies into those that were funded by industry and those that were not. Once that division was made, the numbers no longer seemed so benign. Industry-funded studies overwhelmingly found no biologic effect, while independent studies found overwhelmingly that there was a biologic effect.

BIOLOGIC EFFECT NO BIOLOGIC EFFECT

Industry Funded 27 69

(28%) (72%)

Independently Funded 154 76

(67%) (33%)

Lai’s work is careful, but it has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Its conclusions, however, have been supported by important peer-reviewed work. In a paper published in 2007 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers reviewed published studies of controlled exposure to radio-frequency radiation. They isolated fifty-nine studies that they believed meaningful, and divided those into ones funded by industry, funded by the public or charity, and funded in a mixed way.

Their conclusions are consistent with Lai’s. As they wrote, “studies funded exclusively by industry were indeed substantially less likely to report statistically significant effects on a range of end points that may be relevant to health.”20 This conclusion added “to the existing evidence that single-source sponsorship is associated with outcomes that favor the sponsors’ products.”21

So how do these facts affect your view of cell phones?

Again, some will conclude that cell phones are dangerous. Some will continue to believe that they are safe. But the majority will process these facts by concluding that they are now no longer sure about whether cell phones are safe. The mere fact of money in the wrong place changes their confidence about this question of science.

3.

These two stories rely upon an obvious intuition—that money in the wrong places makes us trust less. My colleagues and I at Harvard wanted to test that intuition more systematically. Can we really show that money wrongly placed weakens the confidence or trust that people have in any particular institution? And if it does, does it have the same effect regardless of the institution? Or are some institutions more vulnerable