Cell Phone Caution

By Lea Tyrrell

It was a memo meant for his faculty and staff, but his warning made national headlines.  And made its way around the world, too.

Dr. Ronald Herberman, the Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sent out a memo to his faculty and staff members urging them to rethink their cell phone use because it could be affecting their health.  You can read what he said by clicking here.

He based his warning on what he says is a "growing body of literature" linking long-term cell use to adverse health effects, including cancer.  Although most experts say there is no comprehensive study that definitely links cell phone use to brain cancer, Dr. Herberman says he's basing his warning on early, unpublished data. 

Dr. Herberman, along with a group of international health experts, outlines the case for precaution in a separate paper.  That was not widely reported on by many news outlets but you can see it here.  Included in that paper is a very interesting graphic illustrating the estimated penetration into the brain of electromagnetic radiation from a cell phone based on age.   In a child of 5, that radiation appears to penetrate almost all the way through the brain.

Many people are not worried that cell phone use is doing them any harm, but if you are concerned about yourself or your children, there are ten precautions that Dr. Herberman and the international experts are suggesting to reduce your exposure.

1. Do not allow children to use a cell phone except for emergencies. The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

2. While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the cell phone away from the body as much as possible. The amplitude of the electromagnetic field is one fourth the strength at a distance of two inches and fifty times lower at three feet.

Whenever possible, use the speaker-phone mode or a wireless Bluetooth headset, which has less than 1/100th of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone. Use of a hands-free ear piece attachment may also reduce exposures.

3. Avoid using your cell phone in places, like a bus, where you can passively expose others to your phone’s electromagnetic fields.

4.   Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times. Do not keep it near your body at night such as under the pillow or on a bedside table, particularly if pregnant. You can also put it on "flight" or "off-line" mode, which stops electromagnetic emissions.

5.  If you must carry your cell phone on you, make sure that the keypad is positioned toward your  body and the back is positioned toward the outside so that the transmitted electromagnetic fields move away from your rather than through you.

6. Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting a few minutes as the biological effects are directly related to the duration of exposure. For longer conversations, use a land line with a corded phone, not a cordless phone, which uses electromagnetic emitting technology similar to that of cell phones.

7. Switch sides regularly while communicating on your cell phone to spread out your exposure. Before putting your cell phone to the ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up. This limits the power of the electromagnetic field emitted near your ear and the duration of your exposure.

8. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, as this automatically increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.

9. When possible, communicate via text messaging rather than making a call, limiting the duration of exposure and the proximity to the body.

10. Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR = Specific Absorption Rate, which is a measure of the strength of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). SAR ratings of contemporary phones by different manufacturers are available by searching for "sar ratings cell phones" on the internet.

Dr. Herberman and his colleagues call the cell phone a remarkable invention and none of them is calling for a ban on cell phone use.  But what they do call for is an adaptation of the technology so that it never becomes a cause of major illness.  And to illustrate their case they point to tobacco and asbestos - popularly used and once thought harmless.  We now know very differently.

Comments

[recitalgypsy]

Wow. Interesting stuff. I like my handsfree already, maybe I'll use it even more now.