Ok, no cows were killed in the making of this post and the amount of radiation relased from a cell phone wouldn’t hurt a fly, much less bake a cow. In the short term, anyway.

Still there is some radiation released, It’s not gamma radiation, or anything you’d enounter if you went swimming in a reactor core’s cooling pool. It’s electromagnetic radiation, along the lines of what your microwave oven, cordless phone, radio towers, and realted devicxes pump out. Short term, it’s probably completely harmless. Long term, that’s where things get interesting.

If you’re the type who…

• Lives with a cell phone glued to your head and/or
• works in an office with large numbers of cordless phones and/or
• you live within a mile or two of a large radio/TV tower
• is a hypochondriac
• or is actually sensitive to these devices

then you might want to look into this stuff.

First off, look at the numbers of people using cell phones, cordless phones, microwave ovens, and any other related devices. You don’t see them growing tentacles, extra arms, developing super powers, showing off their new radiation burns, or even acting particularly stupid (any more than normal, that is. )  If there is a danger in the radation released from all these devices then it’s a much more subtle, long term thing.

People who claim that there is a danger mention cancer as one of the issues and cell damage as another. The other camp claims that there is zero evidence that this radiation has any effect on living tissue.

Pass the salt

“..radiation from cell phones is dangerous, perhaps causing brain tumors or other cancers, maybe even cooking your brain like an egg or like popcorn.”

Take the above quote with a grain of salt and take all the “Man Kills Cow With Cell Phone!” news with a much larger grain of salt. Heck, you probably should take the “Cell Phones Pose Cancer Risk!” with a similar, though slightly smaller, grain of salt. There might actually be a cancer (or other health risk,) but people are sharply divided on that.

This post, from Switched.com, nicely sums up the situation with cell phones and other emitting devices :

Cell Phones a Greater Threat Than Smoking, Asbestos? – There are plenty of people out there who believe that talking on a cell phone is just as unhealthy as sticking your head in front of an active X-Ray machine and holding it there while you engage in idle conversation with a friend. Others, though, think the first group are being overly paranoid and probably are the sort who won’t use a public restroom under any circumstances for fear of picking up a flesh-eating virus.

The above clip references a CNN report. My opinion is that most of our media (US and any other) puts scare value first, sensationalism second, eye catching headlines third, and rigorous fact checking frequently (usually?) isn’t part of the calculation.

It’s Dangerous!

This following clip outlines the potential dangers of the use of any of this technology. I picked it precisely because of its These Things are Dangerous view. The author makes some good arguments regarding the dangers of this technology.

cell phones – the largest biological experiment ever – the most basic fact about cell phones and cell towers is that they emit microwave radiation; so do wi-fi (wireless internet) antennas, wireless computers, cordless (portable) phones and their base units, and all other wireless devices. …

It’s Safe!

This last clip is the skeptics point of view, also picked for it’s particular view. The author also make some strong points.

How Dangerous Is Cell Phone Radiation? – Turn on CNN or watch YouTube and you’ll hear plenty of tales about cell phone radiation being dangerous to human tissue, causing cancer or other health problems. Shouldn’t it tell you something that there has never been a documented …

My view? All other forms of radiation have decreasing effect as one receives less of it. All other forms of electromagnetic radiation can be blocked by one method or another. I see no reason for any radiation given off by a cell phone or a cell tower to be different. In addition, I think that reports discussing the dangers of the radiation need to discuss mechanism of effect. How does it do damage?

Obviously there is a vested interest in proving these things safe, given the massive use of all the devices all over the world and by the companies making and promoting them. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s that they’re so damn useful andf that they may be indispensible. I do think it’s something that should be continually researched, by objective people, on a long term basis.

Are cell phones (and all those other devices) safe? Read the three links above and then you tell me in the comments below.

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