February 23, 2009
By Jessica ForbesI’ve been on the phone A LOT lately and have started to think about what level of radiation I am exposing my head to on a daily basis. Here is an article from CNN that I found to be very informative and wanted to share with all of you. Enjoy!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/31/ep.cell.phones.cancer/index.html
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I would really like to see more specific scientific data on the subject. Is it the frequency? Is it the amplitude? The face is we are subjected to radiation from the sun everyday. What is it about the type of radiation that cell phones emit that is dangerous.
Light and sound are forms of radiation as well as many other wavelengths that we cannot see. There have been so many “studies” that look at the effects but what about the actual science that is the problem.
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Matthew Reply:
March 20th, 2009 at 1:27 am
The fact is that apart from exposure to natural radiation which is inevitable we are also exposed to man made forms of excess radiation. When you’re exposed to excess radiation it’s not a comparative effect; you don’t say “well it’s not as bad as the radiation I get from the sun” because you are exposed to the sun AND this other source in question. It is a cumulative effect and over time this chronic exposure to repeated ’safe doses’ of excess radiation add up. Most smoke detectors contain radioactive isotopes, if you have a granite bench you’re being exposed to uranium and radon gas, if you lived in the US during the cold war then the nuclear weapons testing would have exposed you to man made atmospheric radiation, at the airport you stand near X-ray scanning machines, in the hospitals you absorb radiation from diagnostic equipment, from cell phones, it’s said that microwave ovens leak small amounts of radiation but all of the above are unnecessary exposures on top of what you’re already getting naturally. Radiation is something that is best avoided, as time goes on we are exposing ourselves to increasingly more radiation, our diets are increasingly deficient in essential nutrients that protect our bodies and help us repair the damage. Keeping this in mind is it really any wonder that in the West we have such high rates of cancer? Not only due to radiation but also probably from all the carcinogens in our environment. It seems idiotic to waste all these resources trying to cure cancer when we can just prevent it really easily.
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Jeremy Reply:
March 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Again, not scientific. I agree that generally radiation should be avoided but there are more dangerous types of radiation then others. It’s an oversimplification of a complex problem.
I guess what I object to is the fear based position. “Radiation is everywhere so the only thing to do is get rid of it all”. All though that may be ideal, I can assure you it will never happen.
I heard a radio program recently that was talking about the wires in your wall giving off radiation and not to put your babies crib next to a wall. Wires carrying electricity will have radiation. But the amount and type is so miniscule that it would take thousands of years to have any effect. It similar to speaker cables. There is electricity flowing through speaker wires. But touch your fingers to the bare end and you won’t feel anything, it’s such a small amount. But now we have mothers thinking their baby is going to get cancer because they left the crib too close to the wall.
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Matthew Reply:
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 am
What do you mean “not scientific”? Everything I gave you was true and you can look that up in your own time. Just because you don’t agree with me does not mean it’s “not scientific”. In fact I don’t see anything scientific about what you wrote apart from recapitulating something you heard. Of course it’s a complex problem but I’m not the one who’s oversimplifying. How’s this for an oversimplification: dividing up the continuous spectrum of electromagnetic radiation and just drawing a discreet line between ‘safe’ non ionizing frequencies and ‘unsafe’ ionizing frequencies?
A high antioxidant and phytochemicals intake from plant sources has been proven by science and time to be protective against degenerative diseases like cancer, yet in the interests of food industry we don’t generally eat nutritious foods, we eat nutritionally devoid junk at a time when we need valuable nutrition more than ever before on account of all these excess toxins and pollutants we are being exposed to on a daily basis. Never in human history have we been exposed to such a huge amount of toxins, never before have so many non-orthomolecular compounds found their way into the human body. Yet we still ask dumb questions: How can we cure cancer? What pill can I take for this? How can we make a SUV “carbon neutral”? How can we make Coca Cola Organic? When it’s so obvious beyond the thick wall of ignorance that we can do so much to significantly improve our health by preventing exposures to potentially toxic substances, especially those subtle, poorly understood ones that don’t manifest themselves until later on in life. If we cut down on our consumption of frivolous junk then we are exposing ourselves to less man made toxins and we are doing the environment, our health, our genetic integrity as humans, and our future a huge favour. Just remember that nature does nothing in vain, and when humans try and “improve” upon nature bad things happen to us and our environment.
Comment by Jeremy — February 25, 2009 @ 10:37 pm
Hi Jeremy,
Your questions are definitely warranted. As you stated, we are exposed to radiation all the time and our bodies themselves emit radiation. Cell phones are a relatively new technology, so there are no long-term studies on their effects but I have found that most research seems to point to the fact that the type of radiation cell phones emit (non-ionizing radiation) is in itself not harmful. What seems to be the problem is the constant amount of exposure to one part of the body (usually one ear) on a daily basis. There are also many other factors involved, including whether a person’s diet is rich in antioxidants which makes them better able to handle radiation and whether a person is exposed to radiation from other sources such as the sun or x-rays on a frequent basis. Here is a quote from Scientific American. The whole article can be found at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-cell-phones-can-cause-brain-cancer
“Recent research suggests, however, that although short-term exposure is harmless, long-term cell phone use may be a different story. Three studies since 1999 indicate that people who have used cell phones for more than a decade may have as much as three times greater risk of developing brain tumors on the side of the head against which they most often hold their phone—an argument for, at the least, shifting ears regularly or, even better, using an earpiece or the speakerphone feature while chatting.
“For people who’ve used their cell phones for more than 10 years and who use their phone on the same side as the tumor, it appears there’s an association,” Lawrie Challis, emeritus physics professor at the University of Nottingham in England and former chairman of the U.K.’s Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research program, told ScientificAmerican.com during a recent interview.”
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Jeremy Reply:
February 27th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I think I sometimes just object to the oversimplification of a complex issue. Even the term “radiation” can be mis-understood. I like that you mentioned the specific type of radiation (non-ionized) as there are many different types, some harmful, some not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation
I think if they can focus on the specific science of the issue it will help for cell phone manufacturers to build safer phones. Whether its dangerous or not I don’t see cell phone use going down any time soon (though the hands free idea is a good one, especially while driving)
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Comment by Jessica Forbes — February 27, 2009 @ 11:35 am
If you’d like to check the SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) of your cell phone you can find it on the link below.
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-radiation-levels/
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Jessica Forbes Reply:
March 4th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Thanks Chris! Great info.
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Comment by Chris — February 27, 2009 @ 2:37 pm