Should mobile
phones carry a health warning?
MOBILE phone users don’t usually get much sympathy from
the rest of us - and quite rightly so. If they’re not bawling
into a handset in a train carriage, they’re veering wildly
across the carriageway as they try to make a call, eat a sandwich
and steer a Vauxhall Vectra at the same time. Should mobile phones
carry a health warning?
But in what seems like an act of divine retribution, it has been
discovered that not only do mobile phones make you look like a
complete prat, they could give you cancer, asthma and Alzheimer’s.
And if that’s not enough to make the buggers shut up, I
don’t know what is.
Researchers at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia discovered
earlier this year that the electromagnetic field that surrounds
electrical appliances can be positively linked to development
of cancer in mice (or negatively linked, if you look at it the
mouse’s point of view).
“This is the first scientific study to show such an effect,”
said Dr Michael Repacholi, whose research is being funded by The
World Health Organisation as part of a £2.2 million five-year
investigation into the effects of electromagnetic fields which
started in June 1996.
The National Radiological Protection Board in Didcot, Oxon,
which has our best interests at heart, said the findings will
provide a focus for more research, but that the implications for
human health were far from clear.
Research by other scientists indicates that prolonged use of mobile
phones may cause hot-spots to develop inside the brain, causing
damage which could lead to Alzheimer’s disease or cancer.
Dr Peter French, an immunologist from New Zealand, told BBC
1’s WatchDog consumer affairs program that he now only uses
his mobile phone when it’s absolutely essential, and switches
sides if a call lasts for more than a couple of minutes.
But despite the warnings, users of mobile phones remain committed
to their high-tech toys. Speaking from inside a special lead-lined
helmet, Paul Pettengale, associate editor of technology magazine
T3, poo-poohed the research, saying “The chances of you
developing a brain tumor by using a mobile phone is so incredibly
slim, it’s not even a consideration. Such suggestions are
little more than scaremongery.” “We're not saying
GSM radiation is harmful. We're saying that if you're concerned
about it then we've got a solution for you” — ANGUS
BROWN, Sales Director, Hagenuk
However, new research has found that a far worse danger is the
link between the use of mobile phones and loss of concentration
and lapses in short-term memory. Boffins at a mobile phone safety
conference in Brussels showed the microwave radiation like that
emitted by mobile phones had the power to temporarily impair the
ability of rats to learn simple tasks.
Dr Henry Lai and Dr N P Singh from the University of Washington
in Seattle believe the radiation changed brain cell membranes
in the rats - and the effects are so severe that it could affect
humans, too.
The mobile phone industry has so far been slow to respond to the
health worries. German mobile phone company Hagenuk is the first
to produce a phone that blocks radiation. “We’re not
saying GSM radiation is harmful,” said sales director Angus
Brown, “We’re saying that if you’re concerned
about it then we’ve got a solution for you.”
Hagenuk’s new phone has an antenna with a special radiating
shield for the users head, so the potentially harmful electromagnetic
energy is emitted in a kidney-shaped pattern away from the user.
Mitsubishi and Hitachi have also designed low-radiation phones
with patents stating that the aim is to prevent damage to users’
health, but Hagenuk’s is currently the only safe phone on
the market.
So the next time you see a Vectra swerving wildly between lanes
on the motorway, don’t condemn the driver as a dangerous,
idiotic show-off - he’s probably just forgotten how to drive
his car. Poor sod.
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