 A summary of studies found no acute effects of cell phone radiation, like nausea, headaches, dizziness, fatigue. But they were just looking at the short-term effects, not considering any of the data on the potential long-term effects. No acute effects. So future research efforts should concentrate on possible chronic effects. I've explored the studies on brain tumors and on the effects of the auditory nerve in the ear. But that's not all there is on the side of your head. There's your brain, your ear, and your parotid gland, the big salivary gland, right next to your ear. About 1,000 people develop salivary gland cancer in their lifetime. So the question is, does cell phone use increase the chances of parotid gland tumor development? Well, if you have 100 people drawn to a test tube, the saliva of those who use a cell phone more than an hour a day does appear to have significantly less antioxidant capacity than those who talk less. So considering the major protective role of antioxidants to protect against free radical-induced DNA damage that can lead to cancer, this could be a potential route by which cell phone increases cell-vary tumor risk. But this was just an observational study. Maybe those who are on their phones all day tend to eat worse diets than those who talk less. I don't know. This study is a little more convincing. They found that saliva taken from the salivary gland on the side of the head they were using the phone on had higher levels of inflammatory markers compared to saliva taken from the same person but just from the non-phone side of their head. Now this increase in inflammation isn't necessarily from the cell phone radiation, but may just be from the heat generated by the phone. Just pressing anything warm against your face for an hour a day might not be good for your glands. Does the increased oxidation and inflammation actually translate out into cytogenetic abnormalities, meaning cell and chromosomal abnormalities in your mouth? Those who use cell phones a lot do appear to have an increased number of broken eggs in their tongues. What? That's a rather playful description of a cytogenetic abnormality associated with cancer. OK, but what we really care about is cancer, cancer. Does cell phone use increase the chances of pirated gland tumor development? This is the first systematic review ever published to evaluate that, and cell phone use does appear to be associated with increased risk. Now this is a good time to explore absolute versus relative risk. If you were asked whether you'd be willing to take a daily pill to reduce your chances of dying from a heart attack by 50%, you might jump at it. But if you're so young and healthy that your risk of that is only like 2 in a thousand over the next 10 or 20 years, then taking those 5,000 or so pills may not be worth it for you to go from 2 in a thousand to 1 in a thousand. 50% sounds great, but if you're talking about a really rare event, then it's less exciting. So even if cell phones did increase risk 28%, then a lifetime of cell phone use would only increase your risk of getting such a tumor from a 1 in 1,400 chance to about a 1 in 1,100 chance. If you want to reduce your risk, though, both the heat and cell phone emissions are largely a local phenomenon. So you can use a speakerphone or headset to reduce exposure, or you can do more texting. Basically, until we know more, the adoption of such precautions is not unreasonable, particularly among young people. Something that concerns some researchers enough to recommend young children consider minimizing their use altogether.