For many years, there's been talk about the potential hazards of using a cell phone.

One report would say there was a risk of brain cancer; another would follow saying there was no harm from the relatively low-powered radio signals from the phone. Then the back-and-forth would start all over again.

It continues today. Recently Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, said his research shows it is possible that cell phone radiation raises risks for some relatively rare cancers.

But if the arguments are similar today, cell phone use has changed dramatically. Cell phones were an expensive luxury a decade or so ago. Air time was expensive. Most folks only used them when a land line wasn't available.

These days, everyone has a cell phone — including kids who, according to Herberman, are especially vulnerable to the hazards of radiation. Many people use them constantly, to the point of dropping land line service entirely.

So, for many people, exposure to any potential health hazard has grown from a few hours a month to a few hours a day.

Herberman's research isn't the last word, but it's still worth noting, given the amount of exposure most of us have.

Luckily, we can lessen any hazard from radiation. Bluetooth earpieces allow hands-free operation and keep the cell phone's antenna away from our heads. Some doctors think something as simple as switching the cell phone from one ear to another several times during a long conversation will keep radiation from being concentrated in one part of the brain.

The risks are realistic enough to make it smart to do what you can to reduce the radiation.

But the real kicker to all this is that there is a real and well-documented health risk from cell phones, one so strong that it makes any radiation risk pale in comparison.

A University of Utah psychologist, David Strayer, has found that people using cell phones behind the wheel are more dangerous than if they were driving drunk.

You'd think the precaution I just suggested — using an earpiece to talk hands-free — would remove much of the driving risk. After all, I've watched my real estate agent wife fumble through a purse large enough to hold a small dog in search of her cell phone while driving.

But Strayer's research found that the risk of driving and talking on the cell phone is about the same regardless of the use of a hands-free phone.

Here's the deal, at least according to Strayer as quoted in a Los Angeles Times article: While your computer can handle several chores at one time, your brain can't.

"There are limits to how much we can multi-task, and that combination of cell phone chatting and driving exceeds the limits," Strayer said.

Some states recognize the danger. Motorists in California and in several other states are prohibited from talking on hand-held cellphones while driving.

The loophole is that they can still use headsets and speakers or, incredibly, send text messages while driving.

But the hand-held ban is at least a start. I recently read a New York Times story about a study done by Jed Kolko, an economist with the Public Policy Institute of California. He studied traffic deaths in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., before and after bans on hand-held cell phones.

He thinks California will have 300 fewer traffic deaths a year because of the ban. California averages about 4,000 traffic deaths annually, so that's a heck of a decrease.

The cell phone isn't going away, nor are chatty drivers.

All you can do is control your own actions, and putting the phone aside while driving is a good start. Talk is cheap these days, but it can kill.


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