Are mobile phones harmful to yours and your childrens health?

This has been the question that people argue over since the first phones brought out in the 1980's. Its a very interesting topic and im sure if you looked into it yourself you would be

so surprised at the results just like I was.

I read some advice saying that a good use for old mobile phones is toys for your children. I did this. I removed the battery and gave my old mobile to my 2 toddlers to play with so they would have one just like mummy. Well let me tell you, tomorrow when we go home, I am taking that phone and putting it in the phone recycle bin at my nearest phone shop. Read on to see why.

So what are the risks? This is such an important question that is asked by millions. Why? Because in the whole world there are roughly 1.5 billion people using mobile phones. If you think about how many people on average have one per household you would see this is a huge amount of people. All these people could possibly be putting their health in serious danger.

One thing we know for certain is that mobile phones DO emit radiofreqency radiation. And these electromagnetic waves go through the skull and into the head. The question that has been studied time and time again is do these waves cause tissue damage, causing things like brain tumors?

Well this is one thing you will have to keep asking yourself. Because no-one knows whether this is true or false for sure. Sure there have been many tests, but not enough to pull a conclusive answer. In one test they exposed tissue to the radiation at the same frequency as a mobile for 18 months straight and found damage to it. Yet in others they have found nothing.

Basically there have been no studies over long term use. Mobiles simply haven't been around long enough for that. Also they keep changing. One of the new types Third Generation (3G) phones put out a higher rate of radiation than any other phone. This is scary! They are updating and changing the phones faster than the scientists can test and do trials on them to see if they are safe. Many brain conditions like brain tumors take years and years to develop and often just as long to discover.

Even though there is no conclusive answer either way, there is still enough tests and evidence to make people worried, especially some scientists and doctors. Some studies proved that there was an increase in illness in animals (like cancer in mice) and others have shown that it effects humans brain temperature and blood pressure. Other studies have shown that it effects your DNA, to the point where it wasn't repaired when the cells divided. This is long term damage and very scary! Yet there are many scientists that say the findings are inconsistent and very unreliable, saying its just people scared of new technology and that millions of people use them everyday with no effect. Mobile phone companies also support this theory because they are making billions off of the sales every year.

In 2002 they concluded that mobile phones do cause biological effects but there is still no evidence that they cause illnesses like brain tumors. Yet a study in 2004 challenged this. The Swedish study which was published in a medical journal showed a large increase in benign brain tumors (non cancerous) in people who had used mobile phones for 10 years or more. The tumor appeared on the side of the head, where you would hold your mobile, its called a acoustic neuroma. There was no increased risk of any other types of tumors in this study. But the simple fact that they found that is enough to make me want to throw mine out of the window...

So where to go from here?

We dont necessarily have to throw out our mobiles. There would have to be much more study before this would be something most people would do... but do we want to take that risk? Do we want to give phones to our children and maybe be responsible for a tumor in their brain when they grow up? I wouldn't want to take that risk but again its a personal choice, and one that is debatable. Yes an acoustic neuroma is benign and can be treated but its still risky and not nice.

The studies dont support everyone throwing out their mobile phones yet. But what you can do is take precautions...

When possible use your landline or payphone...

Text rather than talk...

If you want to call someone on your mobile, use speaker phone or a headset or hands free device...

And most importantly, think twice about giving your child a mobile phone, working or not. There is no evidence to say that a mobile will harm a child more than an adult, but some research has shown that a childs developing brain may be more suseptable to tissue damage.

 

Pictures thanks to flickr.com