Health effects of cell phone use

[cmhardw]

So I'm sure some of you have already seen this CNN article about cell phone use.

I've recently been doing some other reading on cell phones and have found sites saying that cell phone radiation has negative effects on the long term memory of rats.

They're also finding that cell phones affect your brain waves during sleep up to 30 or 40 minutes after a phone has been turned off.

Even the wikipedia page on the health effects of cell phones is rather extensive.

I don't know about you all, but this feels rather similar to when cigarettes were first starting to be suspected of having negative health effects. I, for one, am very wary of using my cell phone now or even keeping it in my pocket. I'm already looking into buying one of those corded headset ear pieces so that I don't have to hold my phone to my head.

Is anyone else worried about all the evidence that cell phone radiation is affecting people, and likely in a negative way?

Discuss.

 

[Julian]

Good thing I don't use my cell phone then.

 

[JackJ]

I'm not overly concerned since I rarely use my cell phone. But for my friends, it's another story.

 

[MrIndianTeen]

One of the reasons I'm happy not to have a cell phone.

 

[ZamHalen]

That's why I mostly text and use speaker.

 

[RaresB]

+1 to everything everyone already said sauf zamhalen

 

[Clayy9]

Exactly- I don't even own a cell phone.

 

[teller]

Can't say...there are so many fraudulent scare stories by allegedly reputable "scientists" these days...

 

[Edward]

 

[aronpm]

Reading the official report they don't have sufficient evidence to say it is a carcinogen. It is under section 2B on the risk scale, alongside coffee.

bad astronomy

 

[hatter]

I'm not overly concerned until more conclusive evidence and findings are published. We all expose ourselvesto really dangerous things everyday (gasoline? Cigarette smoke?).


I'm on my phone now, ironically enough, so I can't check the stat exactly (it's at cancer.gov though), but I believe we all have a 40.77% chance of being diagnosed with cancer. And 33% of cancer patients, overall, die within 5 years of diagnosis. Really, our outlook is grim, anyway. If your phone doesn't give you cancer, something else very well may.

 

[Dene]

I don't see any reason to believe that there is a significant effect.


I for one don't use a phone so my memory is intact

 

[cuberkid10]

Good thing I only text. Are there any adverse health efferct of using iPod touches (wifi)?

 

[DavidWoner]

I've recently been doing some other reading on cell phones and have found sites saying that cell phone radiation has negative effects on the long term memory of rats.

"Before each training session, rats from one group were exposed for one hour to pulsed microwaves, radiation similar to that emitted by cellular telephones."

So they weren't exposed to actual cell phones. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the level of radiation the rats were receiving was tens or hundreds of times greater than what you would get with normal cell phone use. As far as I'm concerned this study has no relation to cell phones.

Until someone reputable publishes a study that definitively proves that cell phone use is harmful, I see no reason to believe any of this.

 

[Jungleterrain]

I've recently been doing some other reading on cell phones and have found sites saying that cell phone radiation has negative effects on the long term memory of rats.

Good thing I'm not a rat.

 

[Georgeanderre]

I really dont know what to think... but for the meantime my memory stays intact because i never use my phone besides emailing

 

[Waitee]

Everyone dies some day (except like Cthulhu or the elder gods or something(I guess they dont use cellphones)) so why should we care about a thing that gives us +2% or so possibility of getting cancer? I find my phone quite handy anyway

On my knowledge of physics and biology, the effect of radiation is that it ionises atoms on the DNA chain which causes some genes to change or stop working which may in some cases cause a tumor. The intensity of radio waves (which cell phones use for communication) is not enough to ionise an atom. You have to go to UV-B class radiation or to smaller wavelenghts for the radiation to become intense enough.

However there might be another reasons which causes cancer, but I'm don't know about them

 

[Zubon]

I think people are more inclined to jump on the bandwagon with stories like this because they don't understand a lot of the science and it just seems "right" that mobile phone radiation would cause cancer. Even the word radiation beings on images of Chernobyl and other ionizing radiation hazards.

I think that the OVERWHELMING evidence is that mobile phones do not pose any significant health risk.

 

[Waitee]

I think that the OVERWHELMING evidence is that mobile phones do not pose any significant health risk.

When I was in junior high school a couple of my friends took a fight and one was using Nokia 3310 as a weapon

EDIT: that might cause some health risks to the other guy

 

[Kirjava]

You should be wary of sentences that begin with "some believe..." and "possibly...".

Sorry you got taken in by this scaremongering, Chris.