Sheryl Crow argues that the brain tumor she was diagnosed with last year was caused by her cell phone, although several studies have ruled out that mobile devices cause cancer.
The singer told Katie Couric that while doctors have not told her the reasons behind the tumor, but she insists, “the theory that it’s possible that it’s related to that. I [used to spend] hours on the old archaic cell phones,” she said.
Crow says she started to suspect something was wrong when she began spacing out on stage, forgetting lyrics and generally feeling “mushy.”
While there are numerous studies to counter Crow’s claims, there are is an official classification from the World Health Organization.
The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said last year that cell phone radiation is “possibly carcinogenic,” meaning that cell-phone use might be associated with brain tumor risk, specifically for glioma.
“The evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification,” Dr. Jonathan Samet, a scientist at the University of Southern California who chaired the working group, said in a statement.
Crow says that carcinogens are classified by degrees by the IARC. Cell phone radiation shares the 2B degree classification with lead, truck exhaust, DDT and chloroform. However, a sweeping study that came out in the American Journal of Epidemiology after the WHO classification did not show a link between cell-phone use and benign brain tumors.