Cell Phones and Breast Cancer

When women come in for mammograms, we are often asked if carrying a cell phone in your bra will give you breast cancer.

To the best of our research, there is no evidence to suggest a direct cause between the two, but there are several anecdotal cases. In science, we like facts. And the facts are, no one knows for sure. Cell phone instructions often include a note in fine print about storing the phone at a minimum distance from the body to avoid direct contact, although they don’t cite potential cancer as a reason.

So our advice? Keep your cell phone at a distance when you are not using it. Keep direct contact with potentially sensitive body parts to a minimum. Toss your phone in a shoulder bag. Store it on your desk. It seems the safest move until research helps us out by answering the question with facts. Find the best bra for your comfort, but leave the pockets for something other than your phone!

Image credit: LG KF350 aka “ice cream” Flipped Open by quirkyrocket via Flickr Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Originally published 7/18/13 on mammographykc.com.