Did you ever fear for your life when answering your phone? Did you ever have trouble sleeping while your phone lied on your bedside table? Scientists are worried about mobile phone’s radiation.
Complaints from people who believe mobile phone’s radiation is dangerous increased heavily over the past few years. But is this radiation really dangerous or is the fear of it just a storm in a tea cup?
Mobile phone use and brain tumor
Dirk Adang, a scientist from Belgium, thinks that radiation is dangerous to such a degree that it can cause a brain tumor. In his studies, Adang used an experimental group of 124 rats that were exposed to mobile phones’ radiation. In 2008, the experiment showed a higher number of deaths from the group of rats exposed to radiation. Adang did an examination of the bodies of seventeen exposed rats to determine the cause of death. Interestingly enough he concluded that sixteen of the seventeen rats died of a brain tumor, caused by the radiation1.
Previous studies on the other hand argued differently. In 2006, a study among about 2800 British people was conducted to find out if there was a connection between the chance people had to get a brain tumor and the degree in which they were using their mobile phones. That study concluded that there was no higher risk of brain tumor related to higher use of mobile phone2. Similarly, in 2002, the Health Council of the Netherlands also ran a study in which it could be concluded that there was no link between dizziness, headache or increased chance on a brain tumor and the degree in which one uses mobile phones.
Mobile phone use and insomnia
The Swedish medical institute ‘Karolinska’ and the American ‘Wayne State’ University ran a study about the link between insomnia and mobile phone radiation. They studied how fast 71 healthy people fell asleep while they were exposed to phone radiation. That experiment concluded that people who got the most exposure to the radiation could not fall asleep as fast as people who had less exposure3.
Conclusion?
There is a lot of controversy between scientists on this topic, and no one seems to be able to draw an unambiguous conclusion about the danger of mobile phones’ radiation.
Because scientists do not agree with each other about the degree of danger, the society cannot either, and a fear of the unknown is taking over. On the internet discussions about radiation and whether it is or is not dangerous for our health are taking over and accounts of the weirdest phenomenon are being mentioned, creating even more questions in people’s mind...
In doubt, give up your brand new mobile phone, and we can all sleep well again…
1 An epidemiological study on low-level 21-month microwave exposure of rats, Dirk Adang, June 2008.
2 Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in adults: case-control study, BMJ, January 2006.
3 The Effects of 884 MHz GSM Wireless Communication Signals on Self-reported Symptom and Sleep (EEG)- An Experimental Provocation Study, PIERS Online, Vol. 3 No. 7, 2007
--- More information about this topic in our health & beauty section.
I got a prepaid mobile phone for medical emergencies and to keep in touch with relatives at such times. If I do use it I use it as a speaker phone. I only recharge it on a 60 day system and only very rarely do I use my allowance of $30.00 (including SMS). Whilst my Mother was in hospital a few times, when I left if I had a mobile phone. Now that I am alone part of the time, I have it for emergencies. I now also have an emergency system connected to my phone which lessens the use of my mobile phone more.
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