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Welcome to the new home of the Celtnet Mobiles in formation site. This page is the latest in a series of eight articles that takes you through how mobile phones work. You can either page through the aritcles, below, or you can use the navigation menu on the left to find the page you want.
There is considerable fear about the use of mobile phones and the siting of mobile phone transmitters. However, as always, much of the fear is unfounded. I'm no apologist for big companies, but I am a scientist and as such, I am trained to evaluate what is real and what isn't.
The world is a big scary place and people are, in general, easily frightened. That which is new and which we are unfamiliar with scares us. Even worse, the mathematics of probability isn't something that we're equipped to deal with. If the press tells us that there is a chance that mobile phones are dangerous then we listen to them, no matter how remote that chance might be. Yet, if there is something truly dangerous, like crossing the road, because we have to do it every day we completely ignore the risks.
It's all about understanding the balance of risks and knowing what's worth worrying about and what isn't. Given this, what are the real risks associated with using mobile telephones. Or, put another way, are there any risks associated with using a mobile phone?
What is Radiation?
Part of the problem is the term 'radiation' itself. It instantly brings to mind thoughts of nuclear bombs, mutations and radiation damage. However, in Science speak radiation is simply 'something that travels outwards from a source'. When we're talking about mobile phones then we're referring to 'electormagnetic radiation'. This is the same kind of radiation that visible light belongs to.
Electromagnetic radiation varies from x-rays at one end, through ultraviolet light, visible light, infra red, microwave, and radio waves.
Each and every day we're bombarded with natural radiation all across the spectrum. Gamma rays (natural X-rays) come from space, the sun produces light all the way from ultra violet to infra red. Microwaves are part of the normal background of the cosmos and dying stars and black holes produce radio waves. We've lived with and evolved in a bath of invisible and visible radiation for all our existence so it's not abnormal and not something new.
Why do Phones Use Radiation?
To be able to work, mobile phones need to communicate with the network and as there are no lines to link the mobile to the network they need another way to enable this communication. That's why mobile phones use radio waves (in actual fact radio frequency [RF] waves to make and receive calls.
The longer the wave the more power you need to create it and the further it will travel. As mobile phones are small devices and can't carry that much power they create relatively short wavelength RF waves (in the microwave band in fact). This means that mobiles need to be quite close to a receiver or base station to work. This also means that the radiation that phones produce is relatively weak and does not travel very far. Thus the doses of radiation that modern mobile phones produce is very small and of low power.
But, should you be worried about that radiation? Let's examine the evidence.
The Possible Health Risks
It should be noted that cellular telephones are a very new phenomenon. They've been around (at least in common usage) for little more than 10 years; essentially half a generation. Whilst science has been examining the effects and potential dangers of mobile phones for this entire period it's not a sufficiently long time to examine and possible long-term effects. Also, it should be noted that mobile phone handsets are changing every year. In many ways, they are becoming more efficient and less powerful and the antenna is being shielded from the human head.
Though considerable research is being done, it will take time for science to catch-up with mobile phone technology. This also means that many of the studies performed on the potential health hazards of mobile phones are performed on small numbers of people and, as a result, some of the conclusions have to be treated carefully.
Here, however, I've sought to draw together both the most common concerns about mobile phones and the latest research examining those concerns.
Mobile Phones and Blood Pressure
There is one major effect associated with the use of mobile phones that is undeniable. This is a finding of slightly increased blood pressure at the time of use, though this returns to normal almost as soon as phone use is stopped.
It should be noted, however, that blood pressure naturally goes up and down in humans throughout the day. Any stressful situation will cause blood pressure to increase and simply talking to another person will cause an increase in blood pressure. Using a mobile phone is stressful (more so than using a landline) as the phone is often used in situations where the person using it may not want to talk, or it rings at inconvenient times. Also, humans have evolved to use physical clues from posture and facial expressions to understand what the other person is saying and how they feel when saying things. With mobile phones you do not have these clues and this is stressful. The increased stress when using mobile phones probably accounts for the various unspecific symptoms such as: burning and tingling sensations in the skin of the head and extremities, fatigue, sleep disturbances, dizziness, loss of mental attention, reaction times and memory retentiveness, headaches, malaise, tachycardia (heart palpitations) reported my many mobile phone users.
Mobile Phones and Cancer
Mobile phones use microwave radiation to communicate with the network and part of the radio waves emitted by the phone are, inevitably, absorbed by the human head. How much energy is absorbed depends on the power of the phone, the distance from the base station (the further away you are from the base station the more power and stronger signal is needed to maintain contact) and the length of time the phone is in use.
The most well understood effects of microwaves is their heating effect (this is how a microwave oven works) in that microwaves excite water molecules and cause them to heat up. For a person using a cell phone, most of the heating occurs on the skin near where the phone is held (and not in the brain). The longer the phone is held to the head, the greater the heating. But, at most, this direct heating is only a fraction of a degree and is an effect ten-fold less that the heating caused by standing in direct sunlight for 10 minutes. This heating is normal for the human body and the circulation of the head quickly dissipates such heating. Thus, direct heating is not a concern for mobile phone users.
Of potentially more concern are the low frequency pulses used by mobile phones when communicating with their base stations. It is still unknown whether these pulses could have effects on human cells, but it has been proposed that they might be interpreted by some cells as a form of stress. This has lead to considerable study of the possible role of mobile phones in cancer.
One of the largest studies on the effects of mobile phones was a Danish study published in 2006 which followed mobile phone users for 20 years and found no evidence for an increased risk of cancer in mobile phone users. However, the numbers in the study were low.
Five other European studies examining mobile phone users over 10 years have all drawn the conclusions that there is no association between mobile phone use and an increased risk of cancer. However, one Swedish study (published in 2004) did find an association between mobile phone use and an increase in the occurrence of acoustic neuromas (benign tumours of the acoustic nerve) between mobile phone users and non mobile phone users. There was a doubling of risk of developing these benign tumours (but the incidence of these tumour types is very low in the general population so the risk may actually be less than this.
However, all current studies indicate no increased risk of malignant (life-threatening) tumours with use of mobile phones. This said, more data is needed to examine the long-term effects of mobile phone use and cancer.
Mobile Phones and Development
The pulse effects of mobile phones, discussed above, have also been proposed to adversely effect the development of embryos, causing abnormalities. But studies of developing chick embryos have shown no link between mobile phone radiation and developmental abnormalities. There is no evidence, therefore, that mobile phones cause foetal damage.
Genotoxic Effects
It's known that certain forms of radiation can damage DNA. However, this type of radiation tends to come from the short wavelength range of the light spectrum (X-rays and Gamma-rays and ultra-violet effects on skin). Microwaves come from the other end of he light spectrum and current studies indicate that mobile phones do not directly damage DNA.
What this Means
All the evidence gathered so far suggests that any potential health risk of using mobile phones can be considered to be very, very small. Indeed, the only measurable effect of using mobile phones is a small amount of heating. But, if you are still concerned about the health effects of using mobile phones then there are things you can do to lower your exposure:
Conclusion
So, given everything mentioned above, why is there so much fear about mobile phones? It's true to say that we have become a very risk-averse society and even mention of the word 'risk' is enough to send people into a lather. The media loves stories about dangers so they jump on the latest Scientific reports and studies reporting the conclusions or findings, often without understanding them, all in the name of sensationalism.
It's also true that people do not understand risk, or at least do not understand well that all risks are gradated. Some things are very risky (jumping out of a plane, for example) whilst other things are unlikely to happen (being hit by a satellite) and all other risks lie in-between. Also the more used we are to a risk the less risky it seems (just think about crossing a road).
Everything we do in life has a risk associated with it. Just think of turning on the kettle in the morning. The important the important thing is understanding the level of risk and knowing what that risk level really means then deciding if it's an acceptable level of risk for you, personally.
Just think of this. Few people are afraid of being hit by lightning, but it's a risk we all face. Yet many people believe that they can win the lottery. But,in terms of probability, the chance of being struck by lightning is actually greater than the chance of winning the lottery.
Understand the risks, don't be held captive by them and take sensible precautions.
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