Posted on 06/03/2008 7:48:27 PM PDT by neverdem
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”
Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.
Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’ remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer.
That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society...
--snip--
Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.
But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We are conducting a very large, uncontrolled experiment.
If millions of people come down with brain cancer 20 years from now, there will be much recrimination.
I don’t use the damn things at all.
Somebody should inform these doctors that their Bluethooth headsets also contain transmitters at a frequency of 2.4 GHz.
A Bluetooth headset stuck in your ear may be much worse than a cellphone antenna an inch or so away from your head, from an ionizing radiation perspective.
THANK YOU....that’s what I was thinking..... those little things stuck in their ears aren’t close to their brains????? And, I’m not even a brain surgeon!
They are laying the foundation for a lawsuit 10 to 15 years from now. 10 to 15 years from now all unexplained illnesses will blamed on cellphone use, which in turn, means the go-ver-ment, will get tens of millions of dollars after extorting this from company to buy votes, making Edwards type lawyers rich.
It’s called emotional terrorism.
Of course, nothing might happen and you would have lost out.
It won’t cook the egg.
Lost out on what? The fabulous privilege of yakking with idiots all day long?
It’s an old internet joke. You call one cellphone with the other and the microwaves cook the egg.
How do we know it couldn't also be associated with having spent extended periods of time with ones head up ones @ss.
So your fellow Americans and friends you have are idiots?
forget it, I figured out what hills you come from.
Ever look at the difference in radiated energy? Most Bluetooth headsets have a fraction of the energy of a cell phone.
There is not enough evidence to say one way or another that non-ionizing microwaves at the energy emitted by cell phones can cause cancer.
I can think of a mechanism that may lead to cancer, however. Ultraviolet radiation (non-ionizing) can obviously cause melanomas. Even though radiation may not be ionizing, it can at the right frequencies cause rotational and vibrational oscillations in molecules. That's why microwave ovens heat water.
I would think that at the right frequencies, telomeres at the end of DNA could be stressed to the point that they break off causing premature aging in a cell and possibly cancer during replication of a cell that has extensive damage to telomeres.
But look at all the people that DON’T get cancer so maybe cell phones acually prevent cancer!
People that get cancer from not using cell phones enough are really going to be upset.
“What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?”
Not much. But cell phone engineers don’t know much brain surgery either.
Most are Class 2 Bluetooth devices, at 2.5 mW max. Cell phones transmit much higher energy levels.
Look. When your cold, your fingers don’t work.
Interesting but my cell doesn’t have bluetooth and hence I use a wired headpiece. But then someone said they act like antennas too...not sure what to think.
Well if this is the case then it’s gonna involve much more than cell phones. Police radio’s in the 800MHZ range, cordless home phones 800-2400MHZ, commerical business radio 800-950 MHZ, just for starters. I don’t hold them up to my ear for the simple reason most phones are too blasted small now that your hand covers the built in antenna. I use a wired headset with boom mike. I also have a mount for the phone in my vehicles. I can use the wired headset to talk to someone on the phone almost anywhere and talk so low on it that it bothers no one else. I think the scare is an over-reaction though.
The wired ones don't. They are perfectly safe from RF dangers. IF cell phones are such a great risk many persons now would have hand cancer as well as actually most people hold their hand over the built in antenna.
The emitted radiation from a wired headset would be a small fraction of the radiation from a Bluetooth headset, which is a small fraction of the radiation from a cell phone. If you’re worried about the wired headset, you probably need to get worried about the radiation from broadcast TV antennas in your city.
From the University of Utah,”How big a role do telomeres play in aging?
“Some long-lived species like humans have telomeres that are much shorter than species like mice, which live only a few years. Nobody yet knows why. But it’s evidence that telomeres alone do not dictate lifespan.
Cawthon’s study found that when people are divided into two groups based on telomere lengths, the half with longer telomeres lives five years longer than those with shorter telomeres. That suggests lifespan could be increased five years by increasing the length of telomeres in people with shorter ones.”
In the case of cell phones vs. microwave ovens, it’s like two watts vs. 500 watts. Think being hit by a bullet at 1 ft./ min. vs. 250 ft./min.
You got that right.
It has been established by years of science and experience that those who lack brains are unlikely to suffer from brain cancer. However some nerve centers may at times surf those micro waves that crash on the shores of ME ME! ISLAND.
So most of the time, you would be exposed to very little of that power. That's why people spend big bucks for the big antennae, to get the power sent where it is needed.
Just don't spend too much time in the direct line between them and whatever they are aimed at.
If you are old enough, you might remember the advert from circa 1964:
“Doctors smoke Camels more than any other brand!”
MRSA From Farm Animals Found In Humans In UK For First Time
The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care) regular webpage with video
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.Anyone can post any unposted link as they see fit.
Hey, where’s the sarcasm thread?
If it looks like the admin mods will downgrade it to chat, I just link it. You can post it.
I used to do that. I trained at Little Black Mtn. in Ranco Penesquitas west of San Diego. Had a massive comm tower. The idea was to take a thermal over the top of the towers which I did on a number of occassions.
I think there is a headset that has no wires in the tube from the phone to the head.
I wonder about all the other radiation, such as from wireless computer connections.
Very few cellphone calls MUST be made. Most of the call time is mindless chatter.
Most cellphones can be jacked to a set of earphones or buds with a short mike, if extended talking is needed.
A headset option that avoids the problem with the wire serving as an antenna right to your head, is a heaset with a tube insead of a wire. Here are a couple options:
http://products.mercola.com/blue-tube-headset/
I have one and the sound is as good as using the cell phone itself. (I have a Motorola RAZR V3m.)
YMMV.
You could usually tell when you got in the beam - your variometer would totally fritz for about half a second. No other (visible) effect though....
I actually suspect that the real power was aimed to the east, and the feeder beam was what we always intercepted as we flew on the west side. Maybe.
Let’s hear it for comm towers! (without which half our sites would not exist)
From Wiki:
Evolution of Safety StandardsI don't believe that either cell phones or Bluetooth headsets are dangerous or cause cancer, but I'm just saying if these doctors are so worried about the effects of a 1 watt cell phone at 800 MHz, they should be just as worried about 100 mW at 2.4 GHz.)The following is a brief summary of the wireless safety standards, which have become stricter over time.
1966: The ANSI C95.1 standard adopted the standard of 10mW/cm2 (10,000 microwatts/cm2) based on thermal effects.1982: The IEEE recommended further lowering this limit to 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) for certain frequencies in 1982, which became a standard ten years later in 1992 (see below).
1986: The NCRP recommended the exposure limit of 580 microWatts/cm2.
1992: The ANSI/IEEE C95.1-1992 standard based on thermal effects used the 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) safety limit. The EPA called this revised standard "seriously flawed", partly for failing to consider non-thermal effects, and called for the FCC to adopt the 1986 NCRP standard which was five times stricter.
1996: The FCC updated to the standard of 580 microWatts/cm2 over any 30-minute period for the 869MHz, while still using 1mW/cm2 (1,000 microwatts/cm2) for PCS frequencies (1850-1990 MHz).
1998: The ICNIRP standard uses the limit of 450 microwatts/cm2.
And yes, a corded headset is just as "dangerous," because the outside shield of the cable will conduct the cell phone transmissons and re-radiate them right at the ear, centemeters from the brain tissue. (It's known as the skin effect of RF radiation.)
Dr. Vini Khurana got it right when he said he only uses the hands free mode on his phone. Your best defense against electromagnetic radiation is distance.
Or just don't worry about it.
100 mW is a Class 1 Bluetooth device. Most headsets are Class 2, at 2.5 mW. And it’s just as close as a mobile handset held to the ear.
Your best defense against electromagnetic radiation is distance.Or aggressive nutrition, appropriate for improving ones resistance to all manner of cancers.Or just don't worry about it.
Many flip phones have the antenna located in the lower half of the phone, which places the antenna near the lower jaw.
With a Bluetooth headset, the antenna is often in the body of the boom, right over (and sometimes inside of) the ear, and just below the temple.
As I said, it's all semantics anyway, and I'll go with your nutrition answer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.