Asymmetries in Hip Mineralization in Mobile Cellular Phone Users

The news break came on the radio and they said "zOMG CELL PHONE USING MEN LOSE BONE DENSITY IN THEIR HIP WHERE THEY CARRY THEIR CELL PHONE IN A HOLSTER EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!!!!!1!!" (to paraphrase)

After a little searching online, I found the article they referred to in the current issue of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. I skimmed it and immediately homed in on a spot that made me toss the rest of the study over to /dev/null: Average age samples.

The summaries I found online reported that there was a "lack of natural variation" in the bone density of cell phone users vs. nonusers. The supposed natural left/right variation in hip bone density is present in non-users of cell phones. Men who wore cell phones on their right hip in a holster for a year (i.e., during the study) were supposed to lack this natural variation in bone density.

Table 1 in this study report kills the whole thing and should cause you to stop worrying about it altogether. The table is "Age and Anthropometric Data of Participants," and it lists a few interesting factoids about the study participants. The participants were within an inch of each other in height. "Nonusers" were a mean 47 years old with body masses of 85kg and Body Mass Indices of 28. "Users" were 33 years old, with masses of 77kg and BMIs of a mean 25.7! You are comparing men who have had a full decade and a half to lose bone on their non-dominant side, to young men with lower body mass indices! Statistical FAIL! They even said as much in the article, but then they concluded to the contrary!

I shake my head at the hysteria this will cause in the next few days/weeks and the [deleted] public policy recommendations that may be forthcoming because of this study. It is GARBAGE in my opinion. If somebody tries to warn you, raise your nose and say "Pish-tosh" like you know what you're talking about; now you do.