As a nation, Americans spend 6 billion minutes a day using their cell phones

So it isn’t surprising that a new study links heavy cell phone use (30 minutes or more a day) with an increased risk of brain cancer.

There are several cell phone safety tips from Devra Lee Davis, PhD, an epidemiologist and author of the book Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation.

1. Try to avoid direct contact with your cell phone during calls. Use your hands-free device or speaker phone setting.

2. Follow the bars. If you have only one or two bars, then the radiation exposure increases.

The same holds true if you are riding in a fast moving vehicle. The cell phone is constantly reconnecting to new towers along the way. If you have to make a call, wait until you have three or more bars.

3. Tell your kids to text. Since a child’s skull is thinner than that of an adult, radiation can be absorbed faster when a child holds a cell phone up to their ears.

4. Save the long chats for a noncordless landline or an Internet phone system, like Skype.