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  • 2016-12-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Do Coil Mattresses Cause Cancer by Amplifying Radio Waves? (en)
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  • A July 2010 guest post on a Scientific American blog incorrectly reported the results of a Swedish study that, in turn, made the largely speculative hypothesis that some forms of cancer are more frequent on the left side of the body because the right side (which is most people’s preference for a side to sleep on) gets protection from the myriad electromagnetic FM and TV radio waves already present in the environment due to the dampening influence of the metal coils in a mattress. As described in the study’s abstract: For reasons that remain unclear, the Scientific American blog post (which remains uncorrected), came to the opposite conclusion of what the study was trying to argue, holding that coil-spring mattresses amplified, rather than attenuated, waves of electromagnetic radiation: The original study came up with their explanation by 1) compiling data from the Swedish Cancer Registry on the incidence of left versus right breast cancer for the period of 1970–2006; 2) performing a literature review to see if there was a common preference for what side of the body people like to sleep on; 3) plotting cancer incidence and FM transmitters together; and 4) looking at the incidence of left versus right breast cancer in a country—Japan—without metal springs in their beds for comparison. Their review found a slight preference for both genders to sleep on the right side, a slightly higher probability that breast cancer and melanomas develop on the left side, and higher cancer rates in places with more than one transmitter. They also found no preference for either side with respect to cancer in Japanese individuals. Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) does not consider radio wave transmissions a risk factor for cancer in the first place, the paper presented speculation based on deeply imperfect data with equally imperfect conclusions. It made no direct investigation into the mechanisms its authors proposed. More to the point, however, the claim presented in the Scientific American blog post was not even an accurate portrayal of the authors’ speculative hypothesis. No scientist is actually suggesting that a passive, unelectrified network of coils could somehow amplify a signal without the input of power. But peddlers of pseudoscience and misinformation frequently cite this erroneous analysis (and not the study itself) as evidence for the harms of electromagnetism. Dr. Mercola, prolific purveyor of misinformation and supplements, had this to say about the study (which he clearly did not read): [Y]our box spring mattress actually acts like an antenna; attracting and amplifying whatever radiation might be zipping through your bedroom. You may want to lose sleep over a doctor misrepresenting health risks to millions of followers, but you certainly shouldn’t lose any sleep over the radiation-amplifying coils in your unpowered mattress. (en)
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