The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently checked households for cell phone use, but not because of fears over the radio frequency energy they emit.

The survey also wasn't to advise households to have a hard-wired land-line for emergencies -- something emergency preparedness experts do advise in case an emergency knocks out cell phone transmitters.

The CDC checked households to determine if they used only cell phones as a practical matter, for the sake of accuracy in gathering statistical data. CDC reasoned, given the growing numbers of homes that only use cell phones, if cell phone owners aren't included in health studies (or other surveys, for that matter) conducted by phone, the results could be skewed.

In 2003, only 1 out of every 28 adults lived in wireless-only (cell phone) household, by the end of 2006, one out of every eight adults lived in wireless-only households.

Given the startling health-related differences between households that use only cell phones and those that don't, it's a good thing the CDC bothered to check.

The Center's statistical arm, the National Center for Health Statistics, in "Wireless Substitution: Preliminary Data from the January-June 2006 National Health Interview Survey" compared "wireless-only households," (those with no working landline phones) and "landline households," (those with just landlines or cell phones and landlines) for the period between July through December 2006.

Household telephone status information was obtained for 13,056 households, which included 24,473 adults aged 18 years and over and 9,165 children aged 17 years or younger.

The study found that adults in wireless-only households were more likely than those in landline households to say they binge drink, smoke, don't have health insurance, experienced financial barriers to obtaining health care and don't have a regular place to go for health care.

Despite those admitted habits, adults in wireless-only adults were also more likely than landline users to report that their health status was excellent or very good, that they aren't obese and that they have not been diagnosed with diabetes.

By the numbers, the report found;

Published: June 4, 2007

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.