Mobile Devices Pose Surprising Health Risks
ABC this week released a list of seven health risks associated with the use of mobile devices. Noticeably absent from the report was the risk of brain damage due to radiation emitted from cell phones. According to ABCNews.com, Food and Drug Administration spokesperson Peper Long said, "Current scientific evidence doesn't indicate any adverse health outcomes associated with exposure to radio frequency energy from cell phones." This may come as a relief to some cell phone users, but there are other reasons to worry.
Despite the title, some of the risks are not all that surprising. The article mentions driving while talking, walking while talking, and "Blackberry thumb," but a few other symptoms are particularly intriguing. According to the report, dermatologists have recently witnessed a rise in instances of contact dermatitis, or allergic reactions to material in cell phones. Many people suffer from nickel-sensitivity, the primary culprit, which can result in redness, rashes and blisters.
Topping the list is a particularly disturbing, and disgusting, risk that is not so much associated with phones as it is their users, specifically those in the healthcare industry. A recent study of 200 Turkish hospital workers found that 94.5-percent of their cell phones tested positive for traces of bacteria, including several instances of "super" bacteria, or strains that are resistant to certain types of antibiotics. Only 10-percent of the subjects regularly cleaned their phones. Common sense, people. Wash your hands, and remember Purel and sanitary wipes are your friends! [From: ABCNews]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jas said 7:41PM on 3-11-2009
Regular hand-washing with regular soap is certainly encouraged, but please remember that excessive use of anti-bacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, etc is exactly what leads to these "superbugs."
Generally speaking, we try to keep too clean, never giving our bodies a chance to mount an immune response that is necessary to fight subsequent exposures.
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Jason said 10:48AM on 3-12-2009
Nice comment, good to see someone has a brain. I would like to know how people survived and evolved over so many thousands of years without their precious hand sanitizers if we really need them. Problem is most people are zombies and will believe anything that has a great advertisement on TV.
Lasmith66 said 11:29AM on 3-12-2009
it's true, people are becoming germophobes to the 'nth' degree
john rolfes said 2:12PM on 3-12-2009
HUH?
qux said 9:27PM on 3-16-2009
Hehe. Evolution.
jb said 4:26PM on 3-12-2009
WARNING EVERYONE.... MAH'S COMMENT here...link to Emma Watson is a VIRUS. These sites don't police comments very well. I saw it on another story with warning...so passing it on. Never click on posted links.
kiki said 5:31PM on 3-12-2009
Actually, it's the anti-bacterial soaps that are a problem; they cause bacteria to mutate. Hand-sanitizers don't...they kill on contact. No battle.
Art said 6:25AM on 3-12-2009
Basic Hygene applies here as well as in every other aspect of life. Wash your hands, and face regularly, shower regularly, and don't allow others to use these very personal items without cleaning them afterward. What could be more simple. The amount of time teens text and do other repetitive action will shpow up in later years. Much can happen that young people don't think about 1
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paul said 6:48AM on 3-12-2009
A cell phone is like Listerene, I hate it but I use it......
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Paul said 6:50AM on 3-12-2009
Put this brain damage myth to bed and forget about it. The radiation from these things is minimal. It cant get through the skull unless its made of wood (sic). 3/1000 of a watt is really next to nothing.. Does anyone know about the inverse square law about radiation? No? Look it up. The real danger is yakking while driving. Abusing a good thing leads to dire consequences. I worked with high power RF radiation most of my life and I'm still here.
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PaulZX12 said 8:38AM on 3-12-2009
Yeah, but can you have kids? LOL
David S. said 11:04AM on 3-12-2009
You work with radiation and you are saying this? HUM.. It is 3/10ths of a watt of 1.9 gigahertz to be exact or 300 milliwatts. Any radio is dangerous. I am a ham radio operator and had to learn about RF. If you bothered to read your owners manual with the cell phone that you own, you will see not to use it for no more than 5 minutes per day, not hours. You are heating up the tissue in your brain.. You are cooking it like a microwave oven does to meat. You WILL get cancer someday from cell phone usage. It is a GIVEN.. The rise of brain cancer is higher than ever, geez, wonder why? Let the CELL PHONE COMPANIES say they are safe, they are not. Why do independent testing companies that do RF or radiation testing with cell phones always come back with a BIG warning how dangerous they are? Those results seem to always disappear when the manufactures take the results to hush the dangers of using them or they threaten to sue them if the results leak out. It would put big hurting on the multi-billion dollar business, the cell phone manufactures and also the cell phone service providers. OPEN YOUR EYES, RF is dangerous.. Do your own research, don't rely on false reports or lies that people tell.. They are NOT safe in anyway.
Bill H said 5:17PM on 3-12-2009
Great comments Paul.
Nice to hear some balanced, pithy, comments.
Woody said 2:37AM on 3-14-2009
Yea, next thing they'll be screaming is that all the people who are buying 42 and 50+ inch (or bigger) TV's are all going to be zombies because of the energies these things exert while in use. These same 'chicken little' the cell phones are melting your brain tissues are probably sitting 4 feet away from a 60 inch plasma flat screen 8 hours a day while the other 8 hours they've sat 1 foot away from their computer monitor. Give it a rest worry warts, nobody gets out of life 'alive' anyways. Might as well enjoy things while you can, our new 'anointed one', Mr. O, already has us set up to spend to get us to us to 2010 $10 trillion dollars (not including interesting). What's 10 trillion? That's something like 10,000 BILLION. I think that much money has been caculated to weigh the same as 103 Nimitz size aircraft carriers. 103 carriers x 177,000 tons each = 18million,231,thousand TONS of money OBAMA has scheduled to spend in 1 year. And this doesn't count the 1.7 trillion he's already spent in the infamous 'stimulous' package nor the Billions in bailouts he's already given to AIG, etc. "Hey Barack, My current Benz is out of gas, can you buy me a new one?"
loufalce said 8:07AM on 3-12-2009
Cell phones DO irridiate the brain and cause zombie-like symptoms. Need evidence? Just look at any cell phone user walking down any street. They look like extras from a George Romero movie.
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terri said 8:42AM on 3-12-2009
What are the phone manufacturers hiding? Please do more research people. Since the advent of cell phones, the incidents of benign brain tumors have risen 86%. That's 86%!!!!!!!!! No connection to cell phones? PULLEEZ.
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Carol said 10:06AM on 3-12-2009
Yea, cell phone radiation doesn't cause brain cancer? - tell that to my ex. He had a tumor removed back in 2007, and he was a heavy cell phone user. Me? I have an emerging environmental illness called Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. The cell phone MASTS are the biggest problem though because, cell phone addict or not, we're ALL exposed 24/7. Cordless phones are no better. This is definitely WAY bigger than smoking ever was. Other countries are doing something about the radiation from masts, but not the industry-money-loving US. Here are some links. Check out the Bioiniative and please sign the petition....
Electro Hypersensitivity - Talking to Your Doctor:
http://weepinitiative.org/talkingtoyourdoctor.pdf
German Doctors Unite on RF Health Effects:
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20050722_bamberg.asp
Bioinitiative Report:
http://www.bioinitiative.org/report/index.htm
Mobile Phone Emissions Increase Worm Fertility:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1889-mobile-phone-emissions-increase-worm-fertility.html
Allergic Reactions Enhanced by Cell Phone Use:
http://bastyrcenter.org/content/view/313/
Cordless Phones and Malignant Brain Tumors:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/cordlessPhonesBrainTumours.php
Attitudes to the Health Dangers of Non-Thermal EMFs:
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20080117_bevington_emfs.pdf
Petition - Urge Congress on EMF Safety:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/6/urge-congress-on-emf-safety-fcc
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David S. said 11:06AM on 3-12-2009
I love it, you are so right.. They are so bad for everyone. Cell phones are killing everyone and these people calling see it. They will see it in a few years, they will all get brain cancer, then they will see we were right.
Thanks again for posting this info..
David
Carol said 10:16AM on 3-12-2009
Did you know how they came up with the idea that cell phone radiation is 'safe'? Basically they said, oh, this amount heats tissue, but this amount doesn't. Let's make it a little less than the amount that doesn't heat tissue and pronounce it 'safe'...
What they failed to consider was what Dr. Robert O. Becker studied and researched his entired life - the NON-thermal bioeffects of these exposures. Read 'The Body Electric' and 'Cross Currents', and you'll quickly understand how dangerous these signals are to the human body, and why we are playing with fire. Dr. Becker learned that certain 'frequencies' of electricity can heal bone tissue. In fact, his methods were accepted and are in use today. It goes without saying that if certain frequencies can heal tissue, certain frequencies can harm it, too! Read these...
Attitudes to the Health Dangers of Non-Thermal EMFs:
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20080117_bevington_emfs.pdf
The Ecologist - The Gathering Brainstorm - Wi-Fi
http://www.avaate.org/article.php3?id_article=1216
Here are some stories about people with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. They are nightmare stories!
'I'm allergic to modern living':
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-443717/Im-allergic-modern-living.html
The woman who needs a veil of protection from modern life:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-450995/The-woman-needs-veil-protection-modern-life.html
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John said 10:15AM on 3-12-2009
Cell phones should be treated the same as cigarettes. Children should not be allowed to use them. They are bad for your health. They should not be allowed in public places. If you must have your cell fix, please go outside, and stand away from other people. Second hand cell talk is disgusting.
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