MOBILE phone users don’t usually get much sympathy from the rest of us - and quite rightly so. If they’re not bawling into a handset in a train carriage, they’re veering wildly across the carriageway as they try to make a call, eat a sandwich and steer a Vauxhall Vectra at the same time. Should mobile phones carry a health warning?
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association estimated that there were 219 million U.S. cell phone subscribers in mid-2006. Based on the large and still rapidly growing number of cellular phone users, and the seriousness of brain tumors, this is clearly a topic of wide concern.
Cellular phone technology works on a system of geographically separated zones called "cells." Each cell has its own "base station" that both receives and emits radio waves.
When a call is placed from a cellular phone, a signal is sent from the cell phone antenna to that cell’s base station antenna. The base station responds to the cellular phone signal by assigning the phone an available RF channel. When the RF channel is assigned, radio signals are simultaneously received and transmitted, allowing voice information to be carried between the cell phone and the base. The base station transfers the call to a switching center, where the call can be transferred to a local telephone carrier or another cell phone.
Recent media attention has focused on a possible link between cellular (cell) phone use and brain cancer, originally because of a lawsuit that alleged such a link. Network news programs ran their own tests of mobile phones, reporting to the public that some mobile phones exceed the maximum level of emitted radiofrequency (RF) energy allowed by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have developed guidelines that limit the amount of radiofrequency energy that cell phones are allowed to emit in the US. The RF exposure from cell phones is measured in Specific Absorption Rate (SAR).
The SAR measures the amount of energy absorbed by the body. The SAR permitted in the US is 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6W/kg).
According to the FCC, this amount is much lower than the level shown to cause any changes in laboratory animals. Every cell phone manufacturer is required to report the RF exposure of each of its phone models to the FCC.
Cellular phones operate with radio frequencies (RF), a form of energy located on the electromagnetic spectrum between FM radio waves and the waves used in microwave ovens, radar, and satellite stations. Cell phones do not emit ionizing radiation, the type that damages DNA and is known to have the ability to cause cancer.
Fears that cell phones might cause cancer appear to be all talk, researchers report. Cell phones antennas emit electromagnetic fields that can penetrate into the human brain and concerns have been raised that this may increase the risk of tumors in the head or neck.
A major new Danish study finds no link between short- or long-term use of the devices and risks for malignancy. The amount of time people spend on cell phones has increased and will be factored into current and future studies. This ongoing research will continue for many years to see if there may be a relationship between slow-growing tumors in the brain or other places in the body over longer time periods. A study released Tuesday, involving some 400,000 Danish cell phone users, appears to debunk the notion that cell phone use increases the risk of cancer.
Some of the subjects were tracked for more than 20 years, as the study set out to marry medical data from 1982 to the present day. Among users, 14,249 cancer cases were reported, according to the survey, a spread that doesn't offer a statistically significant deviation from what would normally be expected.
The study found no association between short- or long-term cell phone use and brain tumors, salivary gland tumors, eye tumors or leukemias.
The findings "suggest that the use of cellular telephones does not pose a substantial risk of brain tumors among short-term or long-term users," the study authors wrote.
Another study found that radiation from cell phones doesn't appear to cause cancer in rats, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research team exposed rats to the two most common types of cell phone radiation for four hours a day, five days a week for two years.
"We tried to mimic a high level of exposure that humans might experience," says study leader Joseph L. Roti Roti, Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology, of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and of cell biology and physiology.
"We found no statistically significant increases in any tumor type, including brain, liver, lung or kidney, compared to the control group." The investigators also looked for tumors in nearly 30 other tissues, as well. They found no statistically significant increases in any tumor type. They also found no differences in weight or life span between exposed and control animals.
If anything, it will become more of an issue as people suffering from a variety of symptoms spy low-level radio frequencies as the trigger. While your cell phone almost certainly can't cause cancer, some think that evidence remains for lesser ailments.
The amount of time people spend on cell phones has increased and will be factored into current and future studies. This ongoing research will continue for many years to see if there may be a relationship between slow-growing tumors in the brain or other places in the body over longer time periods.
Although health problems related to long-term use are thought to be unlikely, there are some steps that can be taken to limit your potential risks.
• Save your lengthy phone conversations for a conventional telephone (landline).
• Change to a cell phone that has its antenna outside the vehicle.
• Use a headset and place the phone away from your body.
• Find out how much SAR energy is emitted from the telephone.
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