cell phone hazards

tunisia_x

Hi friends, I am about to write an article on cell phone hazards. so can anyone give me the email address of those doing research on the cell phone-related health hazards? Health hazards such as brain cancer or brain damage, fatigue, headache, etc. I need the email address to conduct an email interview.

watty

Contact the Norwegians.
They did a 20 year trial and found NO evidence.

There has never ever been any conclusive (statistically meaninfull) evidence of any brain cancer or brain damage, fatigue, headache, etc from Mobile phones. compare how many die from bad driving, alcohol abuse, home accidents, aspirin, paracetemol, children drinking cleaning materials under sink, weed killer, peanuts, bee stings, lightning (once in 300 year chance of it hitting your house).

Not one death or illness has ever been clearly proved to be from mobile phone use. There is more proven risk of RSI from typing the article.

A mast has about 1/1000th to 1/10,000 the power density on your head due to inverse square law. Due to beam width of aerials used to get best performance actually under a mask or within 20m can be 1/10th the signal of 1km away.

Now scaremongers are fussing about WiFi. The transmitters on WiFi are typically 1/5th to 1/20th the power of a phone handset and 10 times further away. Thus power is 1/5th x 1/(10 x 10) = 1/500th or less of mobile phone.

Though some people claim electrosensitivity, no statistically meaningfull results have been found in in double blind tests (1 person scoring 60% is not meaningful as this is achievable tossing coins, a 100 people who claim sensitivity all scoring more than 60% in every session would be significant).

Even if electrosensitivity is proven (which as yet it is not), that does not mean any hazard. BTW the story of people receiving radio due to a filling in tooth is an urban myth probably started by Lucille Ball (of "I love Lucy")





I hope your next article is on something with real risk

cgarvey

Moved IoffL > Wireless

Peanut

watty wrote:

...
Now scaremongers are fussing about WiFi. The transmitters on WiFi are typically 1/5th to 1/20th the power of a phone handset and 10 times further away. Thus power is 1/5th x 1/(10 x 10) = 1/500th or less of mobile phone.

Actually, the transmission power from wifi and a mobile handset can often be very similar.

The power levels quoted for phones in discussions vs. wifi usually compare the highest outputs from the phone (the blips you get in speakers when the phone is registering with the base station etc.), instead of the average levels, e.g. when you are talking on the phone, the transmission power is a lot less.

Look at table 3 here, "Average transmission power levels dependent on the phone’s position relative to the base station"

We can see that in many instances, the transmit power is around 15dbm, which is the same as the average wifi router.

However of course you won't have the wifi up against your head, but you may have a laptop with an antenna built-in to the side of the screen, which may increase the exposure directionally towards you.

Peanut

watty wrote:

Contact the Norwegians.
They did a 20 year trial and found NO evidence.

...or alternatively, ask the Swedes -

"However, our data suggest an increased risk of acoustic neuroma associated with mobile phone use of at least 10 years' duration."
Mobile phone use and the risk of acoustic neuroma

This was mainly in reference to old analogue cellphones, but highlights the difficulties in coming to conclusions about long-term effects of new (at the time) technology.

We now have more widespread and diverse radio technologies than ever before. In the past 5 years there has been an explosion of new mobile services, fixed wireless access, wifi, wimax etc. This cannot be compared to the past, where the only strong exposure would have been from TV and radio transmitters located away from high-density population areas.

While there appears to be no (reliable) evidence (at the moment) of widespread acute ill-effects from this changed environment, it is highly questionable at best to assume that there will be no negative long-term effects, even if only for a small percentage of the population.

Capt'n Midnight

You probably have a microwave oven in your kitchen that leaks up to a Watt.

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/site_viewer.asp - mobile masts, an awful lot of them are on pubs which are public places.

The proven dangers of mobile phones are when road users get killed because someone was on the phone. In the UK people have gone to jail because it was shown that they were sending a text at the time of an accident.

Also having a loud noise / warm device next to your ear is not good. Also phones are warm and probably moist and must be reeking of bacteria that feed on hairs, ear wax, sweat and dead skin cells. There are real risks with phones look at the muggings over them, the radiation issue is complete FUD. It's akin to SUV's. They are no safer than other cars in the price range, but are 6 times more lethal to other road users and reversing over kids used not to be a big problem. Yet people think they are safer.

Devices designed to protect you don't. They "shield" the radiation ( how I'll never know because they don't match any standard device used in the radio world ) but even if they did work all that would happen is that the phone would use more power to contact the base station canceling out any benefit.

Peanut

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

You probably have a microwave oven in your kitchen that leaks up to a Watt.

But in all likelihood, much lower.

As regards FUD, is it so wrong to keep an open mind, when there is uncertainty and doubt among the scientific community itself?

I find it slightly astonishing that people are not open to even the slightest possibility of unforeseen interactions happening in the very complex mechanics of the human body. I'm just guessing, but I think it might involve a slightly higher level of complexity than, let's say, calculating free space loss.

--
"The exposure to non-thermal microwave electromagnetic field generated by mobile phones affects the expression of many proteins. This effect on transcription and protein stability can be mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades...

..Thus, this study demonstrates for the first time a detailed molecular mechanism by which electromagnetic irradiation by mobile phones induces the activation of the ERK cascade and thereby induces transcription and other cellular processes."

Mechanism of a short-term ERK activation by electromagnetic fields at mobile phone frequency.
(April 2007)


--
"...However, following microwave exposure, some but not all human cells might react with an increase in expression of genes encoding ribosomal proteins and therefore up-regulating the cellular metabolism."

Gene expression changes in human cells after exposure to mobile phone microwaves.

University of Bologna, Department of Physics, Bologna, Italy. (2006)

--
"..We have previously shown that weak pulsed microwaves give rise to a significant leakage of albumin through the blood-brain barrier.
..We found highly significant (p< 0.002) evidence for neuronal damage in the cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia in the brains of exposed rats."

Nerve cell damage in mammalian brain after exposure to microwaves from GSM mobile phones.

Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, The Rausing Laboratory and Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. (2003)


--
"...Also, mobile phone exposure caused transient changes in the protein expression levels of hsp27 and p38MAPK. All these changes were non-thermal effects..."

Non-thermal activation of the hsp27/p38MAPK stress pathway by mobile phone radiation in human endothelial cells: molecular mechanism for cancer- and blood-brain barrier-related effects.

STUK – Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Laippatie 4, FIN-00880, Helsinki, Finland (2002)


--
"..It is difficult to deny that RF radiation at low intensity can affect the nervous system. However, available data suggest a complex reaction of the nervous system to RF radiation. Exposure to RF radiation does produce various effects on the central nervous system. The response is not likely to be linear with respect to the intensity of the radiation."

Neurological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation

Henry Lai, Bioelectromagnetics Research Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA (1998)


..and many more. (wikipedia non-thermal microwave effects)

Of course, there are many other studies that show no cellular damage at non-thermal levels. However, there are many different factors to consider, and it seems prudent to at least acknowledge that continuing research is essential, without exaggerating the claims on either side.