What is the big hullabaloo about mobile phone radiation? You've heard those whispers about how radiation causes cancer, heating, cell damage, sleep deprivation and so on. How much of it is true?
All of us use cell phones in this day and age - from a vegetable vendor to the auto driver to our maids and children as young as 12 month-olds. Owning a cell phone isn’t that big a deal today as it used to be ten years ago. As of 2016, there were 7.4 billion subscriptions worldwide i.e. on an average one for every person. As a result of this massive increase in the use of cell phones, the effect of cell phone radiation on human health is a subject of interest and study all around the world. There’s an ambiguity surrounding this subject because of the difference in opinions of different experts. It’s almost as debatable as the big bang theory!
To understand this better let’s consider some facts about the same, and then draw conclusions ourselves. Here are some facts regarding mobile phone radiation:
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified mobile phone radiation as Group 2B - possibly carcinogenic (neither Group2A- probably carcinogenic nor the dangerous group Group1) in 2011.
An assessment done in 2007 and published by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified health risks (SCENIHR) concluded that the three lines of evidence, viz. animal, in vitro and epidemiological studies, indicate that exposure to RF (radio frequency) fields is unlikely to lead to an increased risk of cancer in humans.
A study conducted in 2009, examining the effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation(RFR), emitted by standard GSM cell phones, on cognitive effects of humans confirmed slower (longer) response times to spatial working memory tasks when exposed to RFR from standard GSM cellular phone placed next to the head of male subjects.
A study on mice offspring suggested that cell-phone use during pregnancy may cause behavioral problems that resemble the effect of ADHD.
While one can always keep asking for proof, at ChildSafeMedia, we believe one should take these indicators seriously. While it is difficult to quit cold turkey, there are a few easy precautions that we can take to avoid or prevent the probable ill-effects of radio frequency radiations on our health. For example:
Try to use hands-free as much as possible. This will reduce the amount of radiation entering your head directly.
Pregnant women should try to keep cell- phones as way from them as possible.
Try to answer your cells from the left hand and to the left side of your head.
Keep your little ones away from cell phones. Research suggests that children under 10 years of age receive higher levels of SAR (Specific Absorption Rate - measurement of the rate at which radiation is absorbed by the human body); it is 153% more than that absorbed by adults.
Do not answer your phone when the battery is less than 10% because the radiation is 1000 times stronger.
Living the smart life is even better when you actually start living smartly. And what is it they say? Yeah! Prevention is better than cure.
Take care!