Are wireless companies burying radiation/cancer studies?

I'm the first to agree that wireless phones and other low-power radiation, like Wi-Fi, are probably not hazardous to the human body. But Walrus Magazine suggests that, like the tobacco industry before it, the truth might be being buried by the industry that relies on the appearance of safety to sell its products. From the interesting story: "Accounts from a handful of well-respected scientists suggest that since the mid-1990s wireless companies have been doing their best to bury worrying findings, discredit researchers who publish them, and design experiments that virtually guarantee the desired results."

Walrus's primary anecdote involves research performed by Henry Lai and N.P. Singh, which found that radio emissions could damage brain cells in rats. Motorola allegedly wanted to discredit the research and threw its own researcher on the case. When Motorola's hired gun, Jerry Phillips, found similar results, he found a wall go up at Motorola, which suggested and argued that the research was too basic, too weak, improperly done, and ultimately invalid. Eventually Phillips stopped working on Motorola-funded projects... and the Department of Energy soon pulled independent funding, too. Henry La, though doing his research at a University, says he felt similar pressures and had his funding from the National Institute of Health threatened.

Of course there are two sides to every story, and Motorola says that Phillips mischaracterizes their conversations and that Motorola even encouraged him to publish his findings. Motorola did admit to some dirty tricks to try to combat the study, but ultimately says it stands by its own research record. 

On the whole, the story says that the industry's studies tend to indicate there are no dangers inherent to cell phones, while independent studies tend to say the opposite. Of course, even this isn't all that meaningful. Brain tumors take so long to show up, and widespread cell phone use is so comparatively new, that studies that try to compare cell phone use with the incidence of brain tumors in humans aren't yet very useful. Consider how many decades it took for the dangers of cigarettes to become evident in research, and lung cancer is vastly more prevalent than brain tumors.

There's a lot more to this story, but the answer is pretty clear for now: Cell phones may be dangerous, but we'll have to wait for years before there's enough data to consider looking into the matter on a broad scale. The outcome will probably go one of two ways: Either nothing will happen to brain cancer incidence rates, and the issue will eventually be forgotten, or we'll see a gradual uptick in the disorder, which will prompt more research and, ultimately, the truth.

Read the full story, and draw your own conclusions.

LINK: Cellphone Games