How cell phone electromagnetic radiation harms your body?

One of the most common daily sources of EMF radiation comes from cell phone electromagnetic radiation. Other sources include:

• power lines
• TV sets
• computers
• microwave ovens
• and other electrical and electronic devices

All these devices emit electromagnetic radiation - the dark side of technology that can affect your health. Most fields we experience in a day come from these sources. 

Cell phone electromagnetic radiation

Mobile phone or cell phone and its base station antennas (or phone masts) operate on radio waves and microwave, both of which emit electromagnetic radiation.

Exposure from the antennas is continuous but very low. It irradiates the whole body and exposes the entire community. Exposure from cell phone handset to the head is more intense. This is only for intermittent periods and should be of concern to user.

Exposures to cell phone electromagnetic radiation are usually to the side of head (for hand held phones) and to body parts closest to the phone (for hands-free phone).

How real is the threat? Decide for yourself:

• In the UK, both Lloyds underwriters and leading insurance groups refused to offer "Product Liability Cover" to cell phone manufacturers for damage to users' health.

• Many hospitals ban cell phone because its radiation interferes with sensitive electronic medical devices to keep patients alive. The electrical system in our brain is every bit as sensitive as medical electronic devices.

• UK government discourages children under 16 from using cell phone. This is because their brains are more susceptible to damage since they are still developing and their skulls are thinner.

• Some major manufacturers have been compelled to publish the maximum SAR (Specific Absorption Rates) values emitted by their cell phone on web sites or product brochures.

• The growing evidence on cell phone electromagnetic radiation has created a new breed of cell phone related products such as cell phone radiation meter, hands-free phone and even special silver-coated undershirts for pacemaker wearers to prevent interferences from cell phone electromagnetic radiation.

• The WHO, in spite of its controversial "no evidence of health risks", recommends making only short calls and using hands-free devices.

Studies show that cell phone electromagnetic radiation produces both non-thermal effects and thermal effects. Non-thermal effects are:

• Increased cell growth of brain cancer cells
• More childhood leukemia
• Doubling rate of lymphoma in mice
• Increased tumors in rats
• Increased breaks in DNA
• 2-4 times increase in cancers in Polish soldiers
• Headaches
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Neurological changes
• Decreased memory and attention in school children
• Retarded learning in rats
• Increased blood pressure
• Damage to eye cells when combined with glaucoma medications

And thermal effects cause problem to the eyes and testes.

Cell phone health hazards

Every cell phone call damages brain cells. Cell phones, like cigarettes, harm both users and nearby non-users.

This was solidly proven in Leif Salford's 1999 studies on the blood-brain barrier, a physiological barrier that protects brain tissue from toxins in bloodstream.

His studies found that decreasing the amount of radiation 1,000 times increased the damage to the brain. And animals exposed to a mobile phone once for 2 hours were found to have areas of brain cell death 2 months later.

Salford, a neurosurgeon from Lund Hospital, Sweden calls cell phones "the world's largest biological experiment ever".

Surveys in France and Sweden indicate that up to 25% of cell phone users experience neurological symptoms such as dizziness, headache, memory loss, fatigue and tingling sensations.

Other studies have demonstrated that cell phone electromagnetic radiation slows down nerve conduction. This is the speed at which vital regulatory message travel through body's nervous system.

This reduces the effectiveness of nervous system. In turn, it could reduce the ability of immune system to protect our body from diseases.

British physicist Dr Gerald Hyland was once quoted by prestigious medical journal, the Lancet, as saying, "If cell phones were a type of food, they simply would not be licensed."

Lowest exposure greatest ill effects

Some experts believe, from their studies that there is a paradoxical connection between low electromagnetic field exposures and increased health risks. This is completely different from the commonly perceived low-dose-low-risk theory.

This is called the "window" effect, which means that effects at low levels can be more noticeable than at higher levels. These effects occur at certain frequencies and power densities, but not at those immediately above or below them.

This situation where the weakest fields have the strongest biological effects, poses a major problem. These "window" effects are of great potential interest to those concerned with possible health consequences of EMF exposure. They imply a complicated relationship between exposure levels and responses. This may make it difficult to define safe exposure levels.

"In the beginning, I felt local warmth around my ear. But the problem grew worse, and turned into a strong discomfort and headaches every time I used a mobile phone... if I hold a laptop in order to read what is on the screen, it feels as if I get an electric shock up through my arms. So I must keep portable computers away from me"

- Former WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland MD, also a former Norwegian prime minister and a medical doctor by profession.

German Doctors: Restrict Wireless Technology

In Germany, over 1,000 doctors have signed a petition (the Freiburger Appeal) calling for severe restrictions on wireless technology because they are seeing such a dramatic increase in certain diseases and symptoms in their patients. They can only attribute these symptoms to ambient microwave radiation and cell phone electromagnetic radiation.

The diseases include:

• attention deficit disorder
• extreme fluctuations in blood pressure
• heart arrhythmias
• heart attacks and strokes (all in young people)
• Alzheimer's Diseases
• epilepsy
• leukemia
• and brain tumors

The symptoms include:

• headaches
• migraines
• chronic fatigue
• agitation
• sleep disorders
• tinnitus
• nervous and connective tissue pains of unexplained origin
• and susceptibility to infection<

The appeal calls for:

• massive reduction in exposure limits
• no further expansion of cell phone technology
• cell phone and antenna-free zones
• ban on cell phone use by children
• and ban on cell phones and digital cordless phones in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, public buildings and public transportation

The UK Government discourages children under 16 from using cell phones. This is because their brains are more susceptible to cell phone electromagnetic radiation damage since they are still developing and their skulls are thinner.