Cell Phone Scares: Where's the Follow Up?

There have been some recent sensational articles about how some scientific studies indicate that using mobile telephones can lead to dire health consequences,

that is not so recent, sensational articles have been going on for over 15 years, do not think there still is nothing conclusive............as this article states, what fluff

Transmitted power reduction is "inversely proportional to the square of the distance" in free air.If the output power at the antenna is known and the distance from the antenna to your skull is known then the free air loss can be determined.

The loss from your skull to a suseptable part of the brain would be harder to determine, but be assured it will be much greater than the free air loss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health

See the wikipedia link for details.

See below for the "inverse law" explanation.

The lines represent the flux emanating from the source. The total number of flux lines depends on the strength of the source and is constant with increasing distance. A greater density of flux lines (lines per unit area) means a stronger field. The density of flux lines is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source because the surface area of a sphere increases with the square of the radius. Thus the strength of the field is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source. Brian

Further reading

http://www.techmind.org/gsm/

Problem is that you can't completely believe most reports, surveys, articles etc. the writers usually have alterer motives and are not objective. Their methods of survey are biased and selective, how scientific are these reports/studies? This is quite obvious if you start to compare all the studies with each other.

Common sense should tell you that subjecting the human body to anything that is "not natural" will to a greater or lesser extent have undesired side effects.

a few calls a day or more than 30; on the phone for 30 seconds or 15 minutes; where do you draw the line, and who can you believe on what is safe.

Personally I try to restrict mobile calls, keep talk time to a minimum, I un-cup the phone when speaking and put the phone down instead of in a pocket on my person when at a desk or traveling. I switch off at night, is there anything else I can do to minimise?

Got to agree with Guest - just limit usage as best possible.

The sensational reports are nothing new - some clown drags out old stuff and calls it new every couple of months.

Throw it away! As an aside, why waste money on something that you are convinced is dangerous and putting your health at risk?

I don't know if cell phones have killed from RF radiation but they have killed with traffic accidents. Even hand free is not safe! Worry about real, measurable treats first. Keep your eyes and undivided attention to the road! It will increase your safety level much more than worrying about RF.

Be safe.

Amen and amen!

Yes. Whether hands free or not, talking on a cell phone while driving takes 85% of your attention away from the road. Which might not be a problem if you're on a straight highway and there's no other traffic. However, if you're inclined to talk on a cell phone while driving, you're inclined to talk on a cell phone during heavy traffic.

I got that percentage while attending defensive driving school.

I've also read on safety newsletters that while talking on a cell phone while driving you are 23x more likely to get into an accident than someone that is not talking on a cell phone and driving.

I've also read that talking on a cell phone while driving makes you more dangerous on the road than a drunk driver.

So when you look at those pointers one can conclude that talking on a cell phone while driving is hazardous to your health and that RF energy is the least of your worries. Just think that while you're out there and not using a cell phone, there are people that are and they pose a threat to your health. So cell phones are a hazard to your health whether you use one or not.

100 years ago there was virtually nothing but natural radiation.

Now, nearly everything radiates at some frequency or another.

I don't think holding a cell phone next to your head is going to make any big difference in any case.

But...

If you're paranoid like me, use a Bluetooth headset. Though I have nothing to prove it and I'm too lazy to go look it up, headset radiation must be a magnitude lower than a phone.

Hooker

Common sense: What electronics, besides phones, do you put next to your head on a regular basis. So if there has been a statisical increase in brain tumors, this would be the first thing I would suspect.

First thing I would expect is that, due to the aging population, all sorts of diseases are going to start showing up that we did not notice in the past. Next thing I would suspect would be that medical science has progressed significantly in the past few years, making it more likely that they are going to detect diseases that were overlooked before. Eventually, we get around to environmental effects- but I don't think cell phones have been around long enough for any radiation effects to have had sufficient time to induce any damage that they might cause...

Remember when people used to worry about electricity leaking out of light sockets if there was no lightbulb installed?

Many microwave ovens are installed in a cupboard at head height. Do you stand in front of your microwave ovens when it operates? Looking at the plate turning can potentially expose you to much more RF than your cell phone. We are talking about KW of power versus mW in the cell phone.

Stay away!

Does it help if I wear my tin-foil hat?

As long as it is two ply and has a fin on it to direct feng shui radiation away from your head.

I stand corrected.

According to the article where I got the picture, it actually amplifies the radio signal -- according to MIT research.

But when you read the rest of the article and the conclusions drawn from the study, you will see why I am just a tad sceptical. Still, regardless of the use, putting aluminum on your head just makes it act like an antenna.

Not really - it just points out that one is an idiot and striving to be number 1 idiot of the world!

True, but there is a tremendous amount of competition.

And of course there's the "Cell Phones cause vehicle fires while filling your gas tank." Which does not factor in the need for an explosive atmosphere and the need for a SPARK from the phone.

Has anyone, ever been able to generate a spark from their cell phone? I've been using them since the Motorola "bag" phone days and I have yet to ever witness any kind of spark.

A far more likely scenario is the static electricity generated by sliding your butt out of the car seat.

That whole thing came under the class of 'old wives tales' didn't it?

There is always static electricity available for a spark just like you pointed out.

About like not using the phone when flying. I am not interested in listening to people chatter while traveling but in the company planes we had no such rule.

Yes, I have no idea of how they every came up with that one. I would love to see where someone can explain how a cell phone will generate a static charge. And by all means, you can get technical in your explanation. No need to talk down to us.

This might be of interest.

http://www.esdjournal.com/static/cell/nycellfire.htm