Een grappig verhaal, als het niet zo ernstig zou zijn.

De schrijver, Örjan Hallberg, is in Zweden een bekend wetenschapper met een eigen onafhankelijk onderzoeksbureau gespecialiseerd in epidemiologische verhandelingen mbt mobiele telefonie. (Een van zijn bekendste publicaties: ''Say the countryside goodbye when even healthy people die'').

A mobile cancer story
A year ago I attended the funeral of a young relative. He died from a brain tumor in the left side of his head. I heard that he used to talk regularly in his cell phone while driving around in the forests up north in Sweden. The output power inside a car is most of the time at the highest level, especially in the countryside where the distance to base stations generally are greater than in city regions. With the right hand on the steering wheel and the left hand at your left ear it is not surprising that the tumor developed where it did.

About half a year later I took a coffee break in a restaurant during a bus travel up north. I happened to be seated next to a gentleman who was driving a car from north to Stockholm. Then he was going to bring another car back up from Stockholm. He had been transporting cars like that for many years but quite recently he had been hit by a brain tumor that now successfully had been removed. He felt quite happy and was back to normal business again.

- Do you speak a lot in your cell phone while driving? I asked.

- Yes, I always keep a good contact with my bosses and customers to know exactly where to deliver the cars, he answered.

- So, I guess your tumor was located in your left side of the brain, I said.

- No, it was on the right side, he answered.

- Odd, I said, most drivers use there right hand for steering and their left hand to hold their mobile phone. You seem to be an exception to that rule.

The gentleman was silent for a couple of seconds, and then he said:

- But I hold my phone like this!

And he showed me how he placed the mobile phone close to his right ear while holding it in his left hand across his chest. The left ear had already since long become damaged and he could not hear so well.

Örjan Hallberg



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