The Cell Phone Experiment: Is Mobile Communication Worth The Risk?
Undoubtedly mobile phones and wireless broadband are immensely useful, but there is a persistent question: what are the risks of using these technologies?
Many of us asking the "risk" question are - alas - not necessarily informed or even willing to consider the benefits of networking, and those planning the digital and mobile revolution have hardly heard about the risks. Providers are reluctant to discuss the health implications of the pulsed microwave radiation that makes mobile communications possible - it might be bad for business. But are we missing the boat altogether?
Are we betting on a technology that may be our downfall some years down the line?
The indicators are there - big red lights flashing in urgent staccato rhythm. DNA changes induced by cell phone radiation, farm animals affected by the vicinity of newly erected cell phone towers, people complaining of headaches, increased incidence of serious illness occurring in clusters around cell phone towers.
The World Health Organization's International Council on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) sets standards for exposure to radiation from mobile phones, but the standards are widely regarded as hopelessly inadequate, insufficient even to protect against brain damage.
The main point of contention seems to be the mechanism of destructive activity of microwaves. Officially the only mechanism is heating, as known from microwave ovens, but there seems to be another, more insidious effect. Microwaves that are pulsed in a lower frequency may entrain and disturb vital control mechanisms of the human organism including cell division, heartbeat, blood pressure, brain waves and more.
- - -
Better technologiesIt is not for lack of a better technology that we are stuck with damaging radiation to accompany our desires to socialize and exchange information. Ultra wideband seems just as workable, while "melting into the background" when we look for its radiation. In fact, the technology uses little power and what's more, it jumps from frequency to frequency, breaking up the pattern of "packets" in normal cell phone radiation that apparently does the damage to our DNA.
Another giant leap awaiting us on the horizon is X-max, developed by Joe Bobier of xG Technology. X-max works by sending and receiving single-cycle "wavelets", which can be very low power. The receiver eliminates anything longer than a wavelet, meaning that the remaining single-cycle message bits can be clearly distinguished - there is no base noise to shout down. X-max claims to work at power levels 10,000 times below the FCC's power limits for even ultra wideband transmissions.
But these are technologies in development, so the question still looms: Should we worry about the current technology and work to replace it with something better? My answer is an emphatic yes. You might come to the same conclusion, if you examine the data.
Start by reading "New Problems with Cell Phones" which Andrew Michrowski, director of the Planetary Association for Clean Energy prepared for the recent Whole Life Expo in Toronto. Its focus is on the Canadian situation, to be sure, but the waves are the same wherever you bought your mobile...
"Some, natural, highly-coherent oscillations in living beings have same or similar characteristics as those produced by wireless technologies. For example, the 2Hz-encoded signal from cellphones reporting to base stations resembles the heartbeat (and can entrain heartbeat). Other extremely-low-frequency-encoded signals resemble, and interact with, brain waves, cell growth, cell communication, calcium ion balance and other fundamental life processes, even at levels as low as 0.005W/kg."Much information is being put together every day by Klaus Rudolph of the Citizens' Initiative Omega. He publishes a weekly newsletter with the latest news from around the world. You can subscribe to this excellent resource simply by sending an email.
Perhaps some of you know of other sources of good information on the health implications of cell phone and mobile technologies, or have some information that could help locate promising alternative ways of arranging communication that do not have the drawbacks we now are finding with current technology. Let us know.
See also:
Do you have Microwave Sickness?
Dr. George Carlo, who used to run a multi-million dollar research program for the cell phone industry and went public regarding the dangers posed by cell phones, uses the analogy of putting a frog in water. If you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. However, if you put a frog in cold water and gradually heat the water, you can cook the frog because the frog's body will adjust to the slight changes in temperature and it will not notice it is being cooked. Well, the same thing might be happening to an unsuspecting public - a public that has not been informed about the real dangers of microwave radiation from cell phones, WiFi and other high-frequency-radiation emitting devices and antennas. The truth of the matter, your cell phone and your WiFi might very well indeed be making you and those around you sick!
Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves
The increasing popularity of wi-fi comes on the heels of the explosive growth in wireless mobile telephones, and amid heightened concerns over the health hazards of saturating levels of electromagnetic radiation. Microwaves at current exposure levels are linked to brain damage, DNA damage, brain tumours, cancers, microwave sickness, impairment of cognitive functions, impairment of reproduction and fertility, affecting humans, rodents, birds, and bees.
Science and Public Policy Institute
The Health Implications Of Playing With Big Brother's Most Cool Tool - Pt 2
By Amy Worthington
The Idaho Observer 6-9-6
Cell Phones - More Damning Evidence
The effects of the radiation can produce a wide range of physical symptoms. Some symptoms may take years to show up. Some of the effects can be short-term while other effects can be long-term or permanent. Opening the blood-brain barrier allows toxins into the brain that cause a wide range of ailments - many of which are currently unknown or poorly understood.
Software-defined radio could unify wireless world
Ireland's communications regulator Comreg has issued the licence for publicly testing a "software-defined radio" device, which has been developed by researchers at the Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research (CTVR) in Dublin. The device can impersonate a multitude of different wireless devices since it uses reconfigurable software to carry out the tasks normally performed by static hardware...
Mobile phone emissions and human brain excitability
Italian study on brain excitability by GSM mobile phone radiation. The double blind study shows that the brains of volunteers were definitely affected by exposure to the cell phone radiation.
Do Microwave Technologies Cause Chronic Fatigue?
Cell phones Invisible hazards of the wireless age
Few people would be surprised to hear that cell phones are unhealthy. But how many of us actually know the degree of damage they cause, the extent of the cover-up by the industry, or that there is a viable solution? Dr. George Carlo, a mobile phone industry whistleblower, recently presented a talk in Vancouver about how electropollution from wireless technology can cause brain damage, cancer and an array of mental illnesses. I checked his facts against recent, peer-reviewed scientific papers and the results were startling. Dr. Carlo explained why the industry's user manuals don't warn of these health hazards: currently, there are pending class action lawsuits against them, which threaten to expose the entire industry, similar to the cases brought against "Big Tobacco", and the asbestos and silicone breast implant industries...
Scientists develop new terahertz material
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have created a device for manipulating terahertz (THz) radiation. The device could be the basis for novel electronics and photonics applications ranging from new imaging methods to advanced communication technologies. The THz range of the electromagnetic spectrum lies between the infrared and microwave wavelengths.
New wireless technology to be developed
"The project's goal is basically to create a small, low-power handheld device that combines a spectrum analyzer and a truly powerful communication device," said Ayazi, a Georgia Tech associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. "We are basically looking for orders-of-magnitude improvement in performance, size and cost. The ultimate goal," he added, "is to integrate Analog Spectral Processors with high-speed electronics on a single chip and bring unprecedented capabilities to the wireless world."
Health concerns over mobile phone masts prompt review
Originally promised three years ago, and then shelved, the review follows articles in The Independent on Sunday about possible effects of the radiation on children and bees. The Government will take account of new scientific and medical evidence, and consult experts and campaigners, as part of a wider review of planning guidelines which ministers send to local authorities. More than 47,000 "base stations", like masts, have already been erected in Britain to service its 50 million mobile phones, often in defiance of intense local public opposition. Successive governments have made extraordinary concessions to the companies to ensure that coverage was rolled out across the country as quickly as possible.
World's safest mobile phone on way
The Wi-Guard technology works by randomising the field so it becomes more similar to naturally occurring electromagnetic fields that the body can deal with. Lawler said the amount of radiation emitted by man-made electromagnetic fields was one billion times higher than in 1950, due predominantly to the massive rise in the number of mobile phones and wireless laptops being used over the past decade.
This is an interesting technology, as randomizing the extra low frequency pattern could indeed make the radiation from cell phones and wireless devices less harmful for biological organisms. Of course it would be more efficient to implement this concept not as a remediation effort but as a basic feature of wireless standards...
EU watchdog calls for urgent action on Wi-Fi, mobile phone radiation
Europe's top environmental watchdog is calling for immediate action to reduce exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones and their masts. It suggests that delay could lead to a health crisis similar to those caused by asbestos, smoking and lead in petrol. The warning, from the EU's European Environment Agency (EEA) follows an international scientific review which concluded that safety limits set for the radiation are "thousands of times too lenient", and an official British report last week which concluded that it could not rule out the development of cancers from using mobile phones.
Birds, Bees and Mobile Microwaves
Our natural world is under assault from human activity. The trouble is, to recognise damage to nature reveals also the risk to ourselves. 'Progress' is in the hands not of individual people, nor their elected representatives and politicians. It is in the hands of the free market, the large corporates who set the direction of our world through creating profit streams however they can. We don't have to identify this as evil; rather it is almost inevitable. We are persuaded of the benefits of convenience and consumerism, and we are the source of the profits and the stimulant to corporate behaviour and the setters of social trends. What we must do is to observe, to ask questions, and be honest enough with ourselves to recognise that nothing we do is without consequence. If we are custodians of our children's futures, we must accept individual and joint responsibility for the condition of our planet.
Nerve Cell Damage in Mammalian Brain after Exposure to Microwaves from GSM Mobile Phones (PDF)
The possible risk of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields for the human body is a growing concern for our society. We have previously shown that weak pulsed microwaves give rise to a significant leakage of albumin through the blood–brain barrier. In this study we investigated whether a pathologic leakage across the blood–brain barrier might be combined with damage to the neurons.Three groups each of eight rats were exposed for 2 hr to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile phone electromagnetic fields of different strengths. We found highly significant evidence for neuronal damage in the cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia in the brains of exposed rats.
Video: Cellphone Danger - Risks Exposed
Are Cellphones safe? This is the trailer to Cell Phone Wars movie shows just some of the risks. Your health is compromised by EMR ElectroMagnetic Radiation.
Bees, Birds and Mankind - Destroying Nature by 'Electrosmog'
This is an extremely important brochure that has been composed and sponsored by the Competence Initiative, an alliance of scientists and medical doctors who are concerned with electromagnetic pollution of our environment. The negative impact of cellphone technology on insects and birds is posing an extremely grave risk on the environmental health of the planet. Human beings are not immune. Several mechanisms of damage are known in Medicine. Cellphone technology was never safety tested and now both animals and humans around the world are paying the consequences of this criminal neglect sponsored by the World Health Organization and the ICNIRP (the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection).This one is a long read at over 40 pages, but it is the best compilation of the science regarding radiation damage to insects, birds and mammals I have yet seen. Explains the problem in layman's terms but also provides all the scientific references for who wants to delve deeper into the rabbit hole.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Wednesday December 14 2005
updated on Sunday November 21 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/12/14/the_cell_phone_experiment_is_mobile_communication_worth_the_risk.htm
Related ArticlesGRAVE Cell Phone Dangers Revealed...
..."public health scientist George Carlo found that rare tumors on the outside of the brain are more than doubled among cell phone callers  particularly on the right side of the head where `phones are usually held... Here is more support for the earlier post: "Em Fields On Brain Tumor Incidence - Chemicals And Cell Phones" the evidence is so compelling and the regulatory bodies will continually get usurped by... [read more]
February 15, 2005 - Chris GuptaBad News For Cell Phone Users
According to a study published in the June issue of "Environmental Health Perspectives", researchers have documented damage to nerve cells in the brains of rats they exposed to the type of radiation cell phone users get when calling their friends or family. The damaging mechanism seems to be a weakening of the blood-brain barrier, a kind of filter which protects the brain from toxic or otherwise unwanted chemicals circulated with... [read more]
October 01, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerChildren, cell phones and psychiatry
Now what does a psychiatrist have to do with cell phones, you may ask. Psychiatrists are the "experts" in mental health - our mental health. So they recognize when you're delusional if you should start to complain about symptoms from radiation overdosing, for example from your cell phone. Here is an exchange of messages forwarded by Jennie Gorman, about this matter. It illustrates the connection and leads us right back... [read more]
September 02, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerCell phones are not innocuous
There is considerable resistance by groups in affected neighbourhoods to the construction of cell-phone relay towers. Their operation close to Schools and other places where children are normally present, is prohibited in several countries. But the phones themselves? They are not as innocuous as the telecoms and the manufacturers would have you believe. Amy Worthington informs us that recent studies confirm that cell and cordless phone microwave can: *Damage nerves... [read more]
June 07, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerMobile Phones Increase Tumor Risk, Study Says
Further to the post: Em Fields On Brain Tumor Incidence - Chemicals And Cell Phones Chris Gupta ---------------------- Mobile Phones Increase Tumor Risk, Study Says Thu Oct 14, 1:38 AM ET STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ten or more years of mobile phone use increases the risk of developing acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor on the auditory nerve, according to a study released on Wednesday by Sweden's Karolinska Institute. The risk was... [read more]
November 03, 2004 - Chris GuptaNuking your food - microwaves wreak destruction
One of the most "overlooked" health hazards may be nuking your food - throwing those tv dinners into the microwave just for a minute - for convenience sake, but watch out - you may be poisoning yourself. At the very least, you will be eating inferior food. It's a question of frequency, actually. Traditional sources of cooking heat use waves of infrared frequency to heat food, either directly as in... [read more]
December 12, 2003 - Sepp Hasslberger
