Next-Up, the European activist group, has posted the entire Larry King Live show, "Cell Phones: Are They Dangerous?," on its Web site. Only the ads are missing. Click here to see the 44-minute video. A transcript is also available.
In addition to the guests listed in our May 27 post, a seventh was invited at the last minute, perhaps to balance the majority view that there may well be a health problem with long- term use of cell phones: Ted Schwartz of New York-Presbyterian Hospital — a fourth neurosurgeon. He played the role of skeptic, telling Larry King: "I really think the overwhelming amount of evidence that we have from reviewing the literature has shown there really is no good, viable link between cell phone use and brain tumors."
It's worth noting that the CTIA, the wireless trade group, declined to send anyone to be on the show. Instead, as Larry King told the viewers, CTIA referred CNN to the American Cancer Society. Like Schwartz, ACS' Michael Thun seemed well in sync with the industry position. "I think now most of the people who actually do research on brain cancer causes are very skeptical that cell phones cause brain cancer," he said. Vini Khurana, the Australian neurosurgeon, immediately responded, "I strongly disagree."
