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Cellphone radiation killing
you?
Cell Tower
Life Bluetube Headsets
Cell Phone Towers Health Effects
EM Field Meter
Cell Phone Sensitivity
June 12, 2011
The potential impact of mobile phone radiation on your
health has made headlines recently, but what are the facts?
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an
arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO), recently
classified the radiation associated with mobile phones use
as Group 2B: “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.
This essentially put cellphone radiation in the same
category as the pesticide DDT, gasoline engine exhaust fumes
and coffee.
Classifying agents as “possibly carcinogenic” doesn’t mean
they automatically cause cancer and some experts said the
ruling shouldn’t change people’s cellphone habits.
Despite the lack of conclusive evidence that mobile phone
users may be at increased risk of brain cancer,
sensationalist headlines linking cellphone use and cancer
have littered the media since the WHO’s report.
South Africa is no exception, with Carte Blanche tackling
the question as to whether cellphones are as safe as current
research suggests.
Carte Blanche aired many voices which included activists
questioning the lack of recourse for citizens to block
towers in their area and hence prevent possible adverse
health effects because of long term cellphone radiation
exposure.
Government officials and mobile providers however reiterated
the prevailing international view that radiation from
cellular towers is safe.
With all the differing views it can be challenging to
establish the truth about the health impact of cellular
radiation.
Is there real danger?
Various media reports highlighted that the WHO’s
classification puts radio frequency electromagnetic fields
in the same category as DDT (the pesticide), gasoline engine
exhaust fumes and coffee.
It should however be noted that carpentry and joinery,
bracken fern (the plant), certain pickled vegetables and
occupational exposure in dry cleaning are also examples of
agents with a Group 2B classification.
CTIA-The Wireless Association, an international wireless
telecommunications industry association spoke out against
the WHO report, saying that the IARC working group only
reviewed already published studies and did not conduct any
new research.
This has not prevented organisations such as Occupational
Care South Africa (OCSA) from saying that South African
employers need to be cognizant of the WHO’s new warning.
OCSA believes that employers should use questionnaires to
inform, educate and screen any employees issued with
cellphones for company use.
Fortune magazine asked the question “Cell phone use is way
up. So why did brain cancer rates fall?” in a recent
article.
They concluded that we’ll only know for sure whether there
is a link between cellphone use after a few more decades
when the radiation dose in the population stabilises at a
high level and brain cancer rates either jump or continue to
decline.
According to the Fortune magazine article this stabilization
appears to have already happened in the US during 2010.
Many industry experts seem to agree with this view, saying
that the IARC report, though new, doesn’t really offer any
new conclusions about the dangers of cellphone usage.
Mauritania Nouakchott
Finland Helsinki
Holland Amsterdam
Barbados Bridgetown
Korea, (South), Seoul, City,
Kuwait, Kuwait City,
Latvia, Riga,
Lebanon, Beirut,
Indonesia Jakarta City
Benalla Victoria Australia
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