Is your Mobile Phone Killing you and your Children ?
We present the evidence………… You Decide!
“No one really knows how big the risk is from cell phones,” said Louis Slesin, the editor of Microwave News, a newsletter on the health risks of radiation.
Can Hands-free earpieces triple radiation risk to the brain?
HANDS-FREE kits used by millions with mobile phones may actually increase the amount of radiation channelled into the brain, a new report claims.
Tests found a three-fold increase in microwave radiation transmitted to a user's head. The research by the Consumers' Association showed that an earpiece with a mobile phone, far from reducing exposure to radiation, effectively amplified it and focused it directly into the brain.
Don’t Waste Your Money
"If you've heard about possible health risks and started to use a shield or a hands-free kit, you should stop now," the report says. "If you don't have one, don't waste your money. In reality, the earpiece wire on the hands-free kits we tested acts as an aerial - and channels three times as much radiation to your head." The earpieces were originally introduced to make phoned more convenient to use, but became more popular as fears were raised over radiation.
The tests examined two of the most popular hands-free earpieces. Experts believe the problem could affect other kits.
They keep saying they are not sure……but
There is still no undisputed evidence that the phones cause brain damage. But many experts claim they pose a risk to health, with cancers, memory loss and psychological disturbances all blames on the handsets, now used by about 25 million Britons.
In the past four years, more than six million hands-free kits have been sold to worried users. The report states: "Think again if you use a hands-free kit to protect yourself from mobile phone radiation - the two we tested increase the radiation levels inside your head compared with holding the phone by your ear."
The British Medical Association is urging companies to give the public more information about hands-free kits and shields.
"The report said that a couple of headsets increased the level of radio waves and we found that the levels were reduced - a massive decrease - from an already very low level."
The tests, using dummy heads and radiation detectors in a shielded laboratory, found that both kits tripled the levels of radio waves reaching the brain.
"The results took us by surprise-by the time we discovered them it was too late to test more kits," the report says. "But looking at several other kits, our experts thought they would also conduct the radiation."
Do you live near A Transmitter Mast?
The report also warned that the 35,000 mobile phone masts across the UK could pose a significant health risk. “People who live or work near transmitter masts may also have legitimate health worries," it says.
Comment from the Manufacturers
A spokesman for Philips said: " Their tests have not followed the industry approved testing mechanisms ."
"Until the international studies report there's no way to know whether mobile phones are perfectly safe or whether they are like cigarettes - a health risk that's suspected long before it's approved." Which? States.
MOBILE PHONE BRAIN FEARS - New Swedish Study
Neurologists claim users could be at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease because of radiation emissions from the phone handsets.
A study found that only two minutes of exposure can disable a safety barrier in the body which is meant to protect the brain from harmful substances in the blood. Once they invade, there is a higher chance of developing diseases of the brain and nervous system.
Mobile Phones proved to cause Long Term Memory Loss?
In a separate study, scientists claim they have proved mobile phones also cause long-term memory loss.
The findings will heighten alarm over the safety of the phones, used by more than 20million people in Britain . Already there have been reports linking them to brain tumours, confusion and headaches.
The latest evidence, from a Swedish study, explains how mobile phone radiation can set off what could be a disastrous chain reaction in the body.
Researchers at Lund University carried out experiments on rats using microwave fields which mimicked mobile phone emissions.
Two Minutes use is all it takes?
After two minutes' exposure, the rats' blood-brain safety barrier opened up, allowing proteins and toxins to enter the brain.
Worryingly, even when the microwaves were not strong enough to heat up the rats' heads, the scientists detected poisonous activity deep in the centre of their brains.
WHO Guidelines too low?
This suggests that current World Health Organisation guidelines on mobile phones use, based on minimum radiation heating levels, may not be enough to protect users.
Professor Leif Salford, the neurologist who carried out the research, said: 'We saw opening of the blood brain barrier even after a short exposure to radiation at the same level as mobile phones’.
Once again they are not sure……but
'We are not sure yet whether this is a harmful effect, but it seems that molecules such as proteins and toxins can pass out of the blood while the phone is switched on and cross into the brain.'
'We need to bear in mind diseases such as MS and Alzheimer's which are linked to proteins being found in the brain. '
Professor Salford said his team came up with the same findings when they repeated the experiment. 'So we think we are on to something very significant ,' he said. Proteins are a normal part of blood, but can cause nerve damage or set off diseases of the nervous system if they manage to get into the brain.
They said the findings provided the first biological explanation for health complaints about mobile phones.
'This is very exciting but also very worrying research ,' said spokesman Jean Philips from Cambridge-based consumer group Powerwatch
'We have long suspected that poisons must somehow be getting into the brain to produce some of the effects that people are complaining of from using their mobile phones .'
Long Term Memory Loss in Rats
In a separate study, due to be published in the U.S. science journal Bioelectromagnetics, mobile phone radiation was linked to long-term memory loss in rats.
Dr Henry Lai, of the University of Washington in Seattle , carried out the experiment in which 100 rats were placed in a large tank of cloudy water and taught to swim to a platform.
Half the group were then exposed to radiation and all forgot the way to the platform, while the unexposed rats remembered.
A second test involved removing the platform from the tank.
While the normal rats swam around in bewilderment at its removal, the radiation-exposed group showed no memory of it ever being there.
Children and Mobile Phones
 "Children may be more vulnerable because of their developing nervous system and greater absorption of energy in the tissues of the head" – The Stewart Report
Children should not be given mobile phones because using them for more than 10 years increases the risk of brain cancer, a leading scientist has said.
People who have used their phone for a decade are twice as likely to be diagnosed with a tumour on a nerve connecting the ear to the brain, according to a group of scientists who have surveyed the results of 11 different studies.
Prof Kjell Mild, of Orbero University, Sweden, who is a Government adviser and led the research, said that children should not be allowed to use mobile phones because their thinner skulls and developing nervous system made them particularly vulnerable.
His study was published just a month after a separate piece of research, jointly funded by the Swedish Government and the mobile phone industry, found there was only a “very faint hint” of a link between long-term use of mobile phones and brain tumours.
This six-year, £8.8 million Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme came under fire for failing to investigate more thoroughly those who had used their phones for more than a decade.
Most scientists have had difficulty researching this area as mobile phone usage did not become widespread until the late 1990s.
Professor Mild said the danger may be even greater than his study suggests because 10 years is the minimum period needed by cancers to develop.
“ I find it quite strange to see so many official presentations saying that there is no risk. There are strong indications that something happens after 10 years, ” he said.
He has called for more research, especially into a possible link between mobile phones and Alzheimer’s disease, since “we have indications that it might be a problem”, as well as a possible link with Parkinson’s.
The need for greater research has been echoed by Prof Lawrie Challis, who led the MTHR research.
They want a revision of the emission standard for mobiles and other sources of radiation, which they describe as “inappropriate” and “not safe”.
The international standard is designed merely to prevent harmful heating of living tissue or induced electrical currents in the body, and does not take into account the risk of getting cancer.
The hidden menace of mobile phones - Don’t use your Mobile for more than 10 Years
Research into the link between regular handset use and disease reveals the risks rise significantly after 10 years, despite official assurances that they are safe.
Using a mobile phone for more than 10 years increases the risk of getting brain cancer, according to the most comprehensive study of the risks yet published.
The study – which contradicts official pronouncements that there is no danger of getting the disease – found that people who have had the phones for a decade or more are twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.
The scientists who conducted the research say using a mobile for just an hour every working day during that period is enough to increase the risk – and that the international standard used to protect users from the radiation emitted is “not safe” and “needs to be revised”.
They conclude that “caution is needed in the use of mobile phones” and believe children, who are especially vulnerable, should be discouraged from using them at all.
The study, published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Occupational Environmental Medicine, is important because it pulls together research on people who have used the phones for long enough to contract the disease.
Cancers take at least 10 years – and normally much longer – to develop but, as mobile phones have spread so recently and rapidly, relatively few people have been using them that long.
The risk is even greater on the side of the head the handset is used: long-term users were twice as likely to get the gliomas, and two and a half times more likely to get the acoustic neuromas there than other people.
The scientists conclude: “Results from present studies on use of mobile phones for more than 10 years give a consistent pattern of an increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma.” They add that “an increased risk for other types of brain tumours cannot be ruled out”.
Read the complete article here
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/public-health-the-hidden-menace-of-mobile-phones-396225.html
Case study:
‘Mobiles are the smoking of the 21st century; they need health warnings’
Neil Whitfield, a 49-year-old father of six, developed an acoustic neuroma in 2001 after years of heavy mobile phone use, on the left side of the head, to which he had held his handset. He says he had no family history of the disease and that when he asked a specialist what had caused it, the doctor had asked him if he used a mobile.
“I was on it four hours a day, easily” he says. “When I held it to my head, I could feel my ear getting warm.”
He adds that he completely lost his hearing in his left ear and was off work for 12 months. Unable to go back to his old job in marketing, he became a teacher, suffering a £20,000 drop in income.
“It has had a devastating effect on my family,” he says. “Mobile phones are the smoking of the 21st century; they should have health warnings on them. You would never buy a child a pack of cigarettes, but we give them mobiles which could cause them harm.”
Random Comments – Conflicting Views
Global cell phone industry has peaked to 2.17 billion cell phone users, 23.5 percent more than last year. This growth is accelerating faster than predicted earlier, and is estimated to peak to 3 billion in 2007, and 4 billion in 2010. Cell phones are becoming increasingly essential, yet users remain blissfully ignorant of their radiation hazards. These health hazards have not yet attracted public attention. Of late, research communities worldwide have been feverishly active and have revealed crucial findings related to adverse health effects caused by phone radiation.
CHENNAI -- Professor Henry Lai, Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington , asserts more than eighty percent of energy emitted by mobile phone is absorbed by hand and head of user. The energy absorbed, apparently, can cause biological effects. About half of the published studies on biological effects of mobile phone radiation showed effects. These include genetic damage, changes in cellular and molecule functions, psychological effects, etc. Some of these effects could be hazardous to health, particularly, after long-tem repeated exposure. Mechanism of interaction of magnetic fields with human biological systems is not well understood. The most obvious mechanism is tissue heating. But, there are studies reporting substantial heating effects at energy levels, which are not high.
Mobiles phones: No other radio-frequency-emitting device has been ever used in this fashion – Deepak Bagai
Dr Donald A Redelmeir, senior scientist and director, Institute for Clinical Evaluative services, University of Toronto, informs that risk of driving while talking on cell phone is similar to hazard associated with driving with blood alcohol level at legal limit. Drivers using cell phones are four to five hundred percent more likely to get into traffic accidents than those who do not use them.
A committee, headed by Dr. N.K. Ganguly, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has opined that radiations from base stations installed on buildings do not pose direct health hazards to humans. As a precautionary measure, it has recommended adoption of guidelines laid by International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection to limit RF exposure.
Dr. Zenon Sienkiewicz, Health Protection Agency, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Radiation Protection Division, Oxfordshire, UK, an expert on effects of RF fields and member of groups concerned with biological and health effects of RF fields, asserts that fraction of RF field emitted by mobile phone can be absorbed by head, resulting in slight warming of skin and other superficial tissues. Although this interaction is consistent with heating properties of RF fields, a property exploited in clinical diathermy or in microwave ovens, amount of heating that mobile phone can produce is small. It has been calculated that increase in temperature of outer surfaces of brain from phone radiation is only about a tenth of one degree or so, which is considered biologically trivial ( brain experiences daily temperature fluctuation of one degree or so). Although no hard evidence of adverse effects has emerged so far, this remains a very controversial topic and the subject of much scientific debate. Unfortunately, we do not have complete data on all possible health effects, and the technology is rapidly changing (from analog to digital signals, and to 3G and beyond). However, the only established adverse effect remains the distraction caused by mobile phone conversations on driving performance (in the UK, using a hand held phone whilst driving is an offence.) There have been various reports of other field-related effects, but these have generally proved difficult to replicate by other scientists.
Dr. Sienkiewicz assures mobile community will understand the scope and magnitude of health risks in the next few years, as results from national and international research programs, such as the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Program in the UK, and world-wide Interphone project, are published. These programs were set up few years ago to answer questions and concerns about mobile phones. Hopefully, a clearer understanding will come with this new knowledge. Also the World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to produce a detailed review of the subject in the next few years.
Case Western Reserve University; Staff, Glickman Urological Institute, and Departments of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Anatomic Pathology, and Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA, affirms electro magnetic fields emitted by mobile phones interact with human biological systems. Electromagnetic waves (EMW) can affect human biological systems possibly via three mechanisms; EMW specific effect, thermal molecular effect or combination of these. These effects are greater at higher frequencies. Research literature contains many reports of potential adverse effects of radiofrequency EMW on the brain, heart, endocrine system and DNA of humans. Electromagnetic waves alter brain EEG activity and cause disturbances in sleep, difficulty in concentration, fatigue and headache, and increase reaction time in a time-dependent manner. They increased blood pressure and reduced production of melatonin. Lately, EMW have also been implicated in DNA strand breaks.
Dr. Agarwal explains that use of cell phones by men is associated with decrease in semen quality. Decrease in sperm count, motility, viability and normal morphology is related to duration of use of cell phones. However, he opines more studies are needed to identify mechanism involved in reduction of semen quality.
Dr. Ashok Agarwal, director, Andrology Laboratory and Reproductive Tissue Bank:; Director, Reproductive Research Center; Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
And finally some important Questions
- If pregnant women are advised to stay away from microwaves, shouldn’t that tell you something about their effects on your health?
- If cell phones are not safe for children, why would they be safe for adults?
Until the government puts some tougher standards on mobile phone radiation, the best thing to do is be smart: use hands-free devices (not the wireless kind), keep mobile phones away from your body as often as possible and always keep them away from children (what do they need them for, anyway?) and best of all .....
- Neutralise the possibility with the WillauTronic Phone Chip
p.s.
If you still think cell phones are 100 percent safe, just think back to the downfall of cigarettes – only a few decades separate us from a time when Phillip Morris used to put out “scientific research” stating that tobacco and nicotine did not pose any serious health problems.
Fast-Forward to 2008 and now Motorola, Samsung and LG profiteering from the use of mobile phone radiation – prideful sponsoring your local newscasts, not only during commercial breaks, but also in their content.
|
E-mail link to a Friend
