Cell Phone Cancer Cell phone cancer. Cellular (cell) phones first became widely available in the United States in the 1990s, but their use has increased dramatically since then. According to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, there were an estimated 270 million cell phone subscribers in the United States as of December 2008, representing about 87% of the total population. Based on the large and still growing number of cell phone users (both adults and children), and the fact that cell phones give off radio-frequency (RF) waves, some concerns have been raised about the safety of cell phone use. With respect to cancer, concern focuses on whether cell phones might increase the risk of brain tumors or other tumors in the head and neck area. How do cell phones work? Cell phones communicate with nearby cell towers through RF waves, a form of energy located on the electromagnetic spectrum between FM radio waves and microwaves. Like FM radio waves, microwaves, visible ...