Tag: RADIATION

In both horror and sadness, the world is watching the crisis unfold in Japan. The damage to the Fukushima nuclear facility adds another menacing dimension to the disaster. As murky reports emerge, so does increasing panic, made only worse by the viral aspect of social networking. Frantic messages have been pervasive on Twitter, where Tokyo residents report fleeing, encouraged by the ...

A new study from the National Institutes of Health suggests that using cell phones can change the way our brains behave, though it remains unclear whether these changes can be harmful. The study, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that just 50 minutes of cell phone use can noticeably speed up brain activity in the region closest to the phone's antenna. ...

Talk of cell phones' carcinogenic properties has been around since cell phones themselves, it seems. But, while the gadgets have skyrocketed in popularity, discussions about their health effects have remained contentious and undecided. According to Time, though, the public may have put those concerns to bed too soon. Although you may not know it (and we certainly didn't), it's more than likely ...

San Francisco has just passed what is sure to be the first of many over-zealous laws in the U.S. related to cell phone radiation. The city's Twitter-addicted mayor signed into law a measure requiring that retailers post the the SAR (Specific Absorption Rate, or the rate at which the electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by the body) next to each handset in at least 11-point font. The law isn't ...

The debate over whether or not the electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones is dangerous to the human body is far from settled. Some, though, would rather be safe than sorry, and a market has opened for products that claim to protect against those invisible waves of energy. While allegations of those waves' danger may not be grounded in good science, some of the protective designs are. ...

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (or IARC) planned to release a study later today that was supposed to end the debate over the health risks of cell phone usage. Some media outlets broke the news before the afternoon embargo and published articles alternately declaring the study the ultimate proof that cell phones cause cancer or proclaiming the IARC ...

We're all more or less aware that we exist in a world that is largely invisible to the human eye. The machinations of physiology are too small to perceive, and the vast majority of the electromagnetic spectrum simply doesn't register with our peepers. But we're quite literally surrounded by electromagnetic waves, with radiation emitted by the sun and naturally-occurring radioactive particles from ...

Grab your tinfoil hats everyone. We're going on a wild ride through the world of cell phone radiation, industry cover-ups, and government complicity. If you've been following Switched, or tech news at all, you know that one of the most contentious debates right now is over wireless technology and its effects on the human body. Studies come out nearly every week, alternately declaring cell phone ...

You may have heard about Arthur Firstenberg, the man suing his Santa Fe neighbor, Raphaela Monribot, for refusing to turn off her iPhone, wireless network, and other gadgets that emit electromagnetic radiation, which Firstenberg claims to have a hyper-sensitivity to. Ignoring the fact that, according to most studies, electromagnetic sensitivity (EMS) is at best a purely psychological disorder, ...

Cell phones cause cancer, don't cause cancer, might cause cancer, who knows? Well, Maine State Legislator Andrea Boland at least claims to know. She plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would require phones to carry warnings saying that they can cause brain cancer. Apparently unconcerned with things like scientific consensus, Boland wants Maine to become the first in ...

Everyday, more data is released linking cell phone use to brain tumors. While none of it has been conclusive, more and more info stacks up against the mobile devices, which claim 4 billion users around the world. While a recent study on cell phone radiation by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) doesn't put an end to the debate, it at least provides some hard numbers that will allow ...

Despite the fact that there is hardly any conclusive evidence supporting the theory that cell phones emit brain-melting and impotence-inducing levels of radiation, there are plenty of people out there who still live in fear of their RAZRs and iPhones. For those who insist on believing that carrying a cell phone is tantamount to sticking your head in a microwave, there is hope, though; a Belarusian ...

A recent study of Americans' exposure to radiation reached a startling conclusion: On average, we're now subjected to six times the amount of radiation that we were subjected to back in 1980. On hearing this, everyone's first thoughts go to fears of cancer caused by cell phones or Wi-Fi, but now doctors and professors are saying that there's no reason to fear, because all that extra radiation ...

As folks have become increasingly concerned with the threat of chemical terrorism, research teams are rushing to develop radiation detectors that are as reliable, compact and inexpensive as possible. Newsweek reports that one group of Purdue University researchers may very well be at the vanguard of these developments, offering inexpensive radiation detectors that fit discreetly inside cell ...

Remember the popcorn video clip we posted earlier this week, in which a trio of cellphones arranged in a circle supposedly caused a handful of kernels to pop? We knew the vids were fake, and speculated that they were part of some sort of marketing scheme. Now we have confirmation: The clips are indeed part of a viral advertising campaign, put together by a company called Cardo Systems, which ...