Handphones: Health Hazard or Useful Gadget?By Cameron Crotty
(1/18/00)
If you unwrapped a cellular telephone this holiday season, congratulations. You are now one of the billions of handphone-touting people who own a wireless phone.
As phone owner, you may wonder to what dangers you are now being exposed. It's true that cell phones and their base antennae--the large, stationary devices set up by cellular service providers to send and receive phone signals--emit electromagnetic radiation, which can be harmful. However, many believe the worst cell phone danger comes from people who drive and talk at the same time. It's worse in the U.S. where new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations may make you a target for wireless spam.
Depending on who you ask, cell phones are useful tools, handy communication gadgets, potential lifesavers, menacing distractions, or even dangers to our health. We'll take a look at some of the science that supports and refutes those opinions and try to assess the real risks to your health and safety.
Your Health
Don't pick up the phone--it may give you cancer.
Cell phone handsets and base antenna towers have long been accused of causing health risks in human users. Most of the suspicion is based on fear of the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones and its potential link to cancer. The fact that this radiation is invisible, intangible, and enters and leaves our bodies without our knowledge makes it even more intimidating. The only trouble with this particular fear is that there's no conclusive evidence to back it up.
Think Fast
In the past 15 years, there have been a number of studies on the effects of radiation from both cell phones and base antennae--some producing truly odd results. For instance, a recent study from the University of Bristol concluded that analog cellular radiation actually sped up human thought processes. But despite quirky findings such as these, no one has proven a link between cell phone transmissions and human health risks.
In fact, all the available data suggests just the opposite. According to three separate U.S. government agencies (the Federal Communications Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and one independent standards organization (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), cell phone radiation levels are well within the acceptable minimums for exposure--that is, if you don't hold your head within a few feet of a base antenna for a couple of hours.
The Odds Are in Our Favor
So why the continuing paranoia? The problem, according to James Walsh, author of True Odds: How Risk Affects Your Everyday Life, is that information about risk is often presented in a misleading way. Furthermore, consumers jump to conclusions that the available data doesn't support. In his book, Walsh examines the gap between the data about the risks created by cell phone radiation and the public's perception of that risk.
"You can establish that the exposure of human tissue to certain types of radiation causes abnormal tissue growth," says Walsh, "and it's also true that a cell phone causes some level of radiation." Walsh says that although both statements are true, you can't say that cell phone radiation causes abnormal tissue growth.
Still, the debate over the risks of cell phone radiation is unlikely to subside anytime soon. In September of last year, Britain's House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee recommended that more money be devoted to research into the health risks of cell phones. The committee didn't claim that any health risks had been proven, but rather that further research was justified. Aluminum-foil party hats, anyone?
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