Can Your Phone Give You Cancer?

At the right time, blue light can help boost our mood and alertness but does it have a darker, less benign side? Woman investigates...

- Natalia Lubomirski

Do you spend hours staring at your phone at night? if so, you'll see a lot of blue light. equally, if you peer out from behind your curtains this evening, you might notice your road looks a little whiter and brighter. That’s because streetlights all around the country are getting a tech upgrade, with old ‘orange’ spectrum bulbs being replaced with modern ‘blue’ LEDs, the same light emitted from your smart phone. hundreds of thousands of streetlights have been converted, with the rest of the country soon to follow. They may be cheaper to run and great for the environment – LEDs are more energy efficient – but worrying research has revealed that these blue lights could increase the risk of breast cancer...

In the spotlight

The study, carried out by a team at the University of Exeter and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, has established a link between heavy exposure to LED lighting and a one and a half times higher chance of breast cancer, as well as a twofold risk of prostate cancer. Their findings, which arose after analysing the lives of 4,000 people in 11 regions of Spain, may also include the night-time use of mobile phones and tablets, which similarly emit blue light.