EULALEE THOMPSONCELLIES, CELLIES everywhere. Jamai-cans have really taken to mobile telephones. The latest report suggests that 10,000 new customers are signing on every month and within the next two years, there could be more than 530,000 customers here. In many countries more than one-half the population use mobile phones and the industry predicts that by 2005 there will be 1.6 billion subscribers worldwide.
As the market expands, local and international attention is focusing on possible health effects from the microwaves or the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) given off during cell phone usage. Recently, representatives of a US-based telecommunications company, Lone Star, were here to market a small device, designed to protect cell phone users from harmful EMR. Richard Calabrese, Lone Star's vice-president said the device, the EverSafe, placed on the case of a cell phone would shield the user from as much as 98 per cent of the radiation and reduce the possibility of harming the brain.
But, does anyone know how much radiation is given off by cell phones and whether this exposure is more harmful than the radiation from watching the television, living near overhead transmission lines, sitting in front of a computer all day or regularly microwaving the evening meal?
Various studies are pointing to a link between radio waves from radio and TV towers, microwaves from cell phones, cell sites, mobile phones, cordless phones and microwave ovens and cancer. These researchers, using laboratory rats say there is strong evidence that EMR harms cells in a way that is potentially cancer causing. Some of these studies say when the cell phone signal is held next to the brain about 70 per cent of people will experience changes in the brain waves and people who sleep with cell phones at their bedsides have poor REM sleep leading to impaired learning and memory.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says current scientific evidence indicates that exposure to radio frequency (RF) fields emitted by mobile phones and the mobile base stations is unlikely to induce or promote cancers. Several studies according to WHO, of animals exposed to RF fields similar to those emitted by mobile phones, found no evidence that RF causes or promotes brain cancer. The WHO however, points to one 1997 study that found that RF fields increased the rate at which genetically- engineered mice developed lymphoma but the health implications of this result is unclear. Several studies are underway to confirm this finding and determine any relevance of these results to cancer in human beings. The effects on brain activity, reaction times and sleep patterns are small, according to WHO and have no apparent health significance.
The WHO points out that when evaluating the health effects of RF, the frequency of the operation must be borne in mind. The WHO says current mobile phone systems operate at frequencies between 800 and 1800 MHz and it is important not to confuse RF fields with ionising radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays. Unlike ionising radiation, RF fields cannot cause ionization or radioactivity in the body.
Mobile phone handsets and base stations present different exposure situations. RF exposure to a cell phone user is much higher than to a person living near a cellular base station but the handset transmits RF energy only while a call is being made while the base stations continuously transmit signals.
