Posted on 06/03/2008 7:48:27 PM PDT by neverdem
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”
Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.
Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’ remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer.
That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society...
--snip--
Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.
But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I wonder about all the other radiation, such as from wireless computer connections.
Very few cellphone calls MUST be made. Most of the call time is mindless chatter.
Most cellphones can be jacked to a set of earphones or buds with a short mike, if extended talking is needed.
A headset option that avoids the problem with the wire serving as an antenna right to your head, is a heaset with a tube insead of a wire. Here are a couple options:
http://products.mercola.com/blue-tube-headset/
I have one and the sound is as good as using the cell phone itself. (I have a Motorola RAZR V3m.)
YMMV.
You could usually tell when you got in the beam - your variometer would totally fritz for about half a second. No other (visible) effect though....
I actually suspect that the real power was aimed to the east, and the feeder beam was what we always intercepted as we flew on the west side. Maybe.
Let’s hear it for comm towers! (without which half our sites would not exist)
From Wiki:
Evolution of Safety StandardsI don't believe that either cell phones or Bluetooth headsets are dangerous or cause cancer, but I'm just saying if these doctors are so worried about the effects of a 1 watt cell phone at 800 MHz, they should be just as worried about 100 mW at 2.4 GHz.)The following is a brief summary of the wireless safety standards, which have become stricter over time.
1966: The ANSI C95.1 standard adopted the standard of 10mW/cm2 (10,000 microwatts/cm2) based on thermal effects.1982: The IEEE recommended further lowering this limit to 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) for certain frequencies in 1982, which became a standard ten years later in 1992 (see below).
1986: The NCRP recommended the exposure limit of 580 microWatts/cm2.
1992: The ANSI/IEEE C95.1-1992 standard based on thermal effects used the 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) safety limit. The EPA called this revised standard "seriously flawed", partly for failing to consider non-thermal effects, and called for the FCC to adopt the 1986 NCRP standard which was five times stricter.
1996: The FCC updated to the standard of 580 microWatts/cm2 over any 30-minute period for the 869MHz, while still using 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) for PCS frequencies (1850-1990 MHz).
1998: The ICNIRP standard uses the limit of 450 microwatts/cm2.
And yes, a corded headset is just as "dangerous," because the outside shield of the cable will conduct the cell phone transmissons and re-radiate them right at the ear, centemeters from the brain tissue. (It's known as the skin effect of RF radiation.)
Dr. Vini Khurana got it right when he said he only uses the hands free mode on his phone. Your best defense against electromagnetic radiation is distance.
Or just don't worry about it.
100 mW is a Class 1 Bluetooth device. Most headsets are Class 2, at 2.5 mW. And it’s just as close as a mobile handset held to the ear.
Your best defense against electromagnetic radiation is distance.Or aggressive nutrition, appropriate for improving ones resistance to all manner of cancers.Or just don't worry about it.
Many flip phones have the antenna located in the lower half of the phone, which places the antenna near the lower jaw.
With a Bluetooth headset, the antenna is often in the body of the boom, right over (and sometimes inside of) the ear, and just below the temple.
As I said, it's all semantics anyway, and I'll go with your nutrition answer.
Bon Appétit!
Watch the YouTube videos.
Ping.
Thanks.
Off Topic,
Quix,
here’s where I read about the hydrogen peroxide. Looks like a site with a few other topics of interest.
Joya
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