Cell Phone Radiation and Your Health

Cell Phone For 4-Year Olds: A Bad Idea

2009-06-23T22:44:00.016-10:00

Cell phones aimed at children as young as four years old are soon to be launched in the UK. This despite the official Government advice to parents that they should avoid giving mobiles to under-16s as a safety precaution against the potential health risks.

The new phone, called the FireFly, looks like a toy and has just five buttons, including two that call mom and dad directly. The Ireland-based company that markets the phone has already sold over 7,000 of them in Ireland and plans to launch it in the UK before the end of the year.

This issue is of great concern because studies have shown that the radiation penetration rates among children are much higher than adults. Dr. Om Gandhi, a respected University of Utah scientist, compared in his 1996 study the specific absorption rates (measured in milliwatts per kilogram, or mW/kg) of cell phone radiation inside the brain among three age groups: 5-year olds, 10-year olds, and adults. This is what he found:

- 7.84 in an adult
- 19.7 in a ten-year old child
- 33.12 in a five-year old child

Radiation Penetration
in head of adult

Radiation Penetration in
head of 10 year old child

Radiation Penetration in
head of 5 year old child

These differences in exposure are quite substantial, and show potentially serious health risks to children from the radiofrequency waves. And government officials are taking notice. Professor Lawrie Challis, who led the UK Government's research on the safety of cell phone use, said that primary school pupils should not have phones at all.

But other countries are going beyond just issuing warnings and advice. France, for example, is pushing through laws banning sales of cell phones to children under six and prohibiting advertising them to children under 12.

Cell Phone Use May Contribute to Memory Loss

2009-05-17T23:12:00.011-10:00

Researchers from Israel's Ben Gurion University found that cell phone radiation may adversely affect the cognitive functions of phone users. The experiment tested the subjects' ability to quickly remember images while exposed to the cell phone radiation. Cell phones were attached to both ears of 48 participants. One third of the subjects had the cell phone working on the right side of the head, one third with the phone functioning on the left side, and the remaining third had no working phone at all. The delay in reaction time appeared to be most significant among subjects who had the working phone closest to the brain's left hemisphere. You can read more details of this report here: Cell Phone Usage Damages Memory.

This study appears to be consistent with the findings of a separate study from Sweden performed on rats. The Lund University research team found that rats exposed to cell phone radiation for two hours a week for more than a year did poorly on a memory test compared to rats that had not been exposed. They believed this has to do with the cell phone's microwave radiation causing a leakage through the blood-brain barrier. More details of the Swedish study can be found here: Mobile Phones Affect Memory In Laboratory Animals

Yet another reason to be take necessary precautions when using cell phones. Using the speaker phone, an air tube hands-free headset, or a scientifically tested cell phone radiation shield are some viable options.

Video: 60 Minutes Australia Report on Cell Phone Health Risk

2009-05-04T01:13:00.007-10:00

Recently 60 Minutes featured a report on the widespread use of cell phones and its possible connection with brain tumor. An international team of doctors, including two of Australia's finest surgeons, released their latest, comprehensive research. Dr. Vini Khurana, a Canberra neurosurgeon, talks about studies that showed a doubling of risk of brain tumor for long-term use of mobile phones over 10 years, and expressed his opinion that it may be a conservative estimate. Another prominent neurosurgeon who worked on the report, Dr. Charlie Teo, is convinced that the increased number of brain tumor cases he sees in his patients is related to their use of the mobile phone. The segment includes footage of Dr. Teo performing surgery on one such case.

Cell Phones and Children's Brains

2009-02-20T16:14:00.006-10:00

Agencies in Britain, France, India, Israel and, most recently, Finland have issued warnings that regular use of cell phones could damage children's brains. France and a number of other European nations are even proposing to ban the marketing or design of cell phones for kindergarteners.

It seems that the current safety standards were based on models of a 200-pound man in the military back in 1988, not exactly representative of an 8 year old who typically receives their first cell phone today (UK report). According to a University of Utah professor, Om Gandhi, radio frequency signals penetrate children’s heads more deeply because of their smaller and still-developing heads.

I don’t think people should wait for the government to do something. The FCC, who doesn’t have a single health expert on its staff, based its standards on advice provided by experts working for the cell phone industry. The FDA doesn’t have the authority to set cell phone standards either. If the tobacco controversy was any indication, it would take years before the government takes more decisive action. Meanwhile, the consumer will have to take it upon themselves to provide the necessary precautions. (BIOPRO offers some of the best scientifically tested solutions.)

Cell Phones Affect Memory Loss in Lab Animals

2008-12-22T01:38:00.003-10:00

Cell phone radiation leads to memory loss, at least according to rat experiments in Lund University, Sweden. The study shows that rats exposed to cell phone radiation for two hours a week for more than a year did poorly on a memory test compared to rats that had not been exposed.

The research team believes this could be related to earlier findings that microwave radiation from cell phones can affect the so-called blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier protects the brain by preventing substances circulating in the blood from penetrating into the brain tissue and damaging nerve cells. An earlier study had found that albumin, a protein that functions as a transport molecule in the blood, leaks into brain tissue when lab animals are exposed to cell phone radiation.

The researchers also found certain nerve damage in the form of damaged nerve cells in the cerebral cortex and in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain. You can read more details of this study here.

Cell Phone Tips from a Cancer Institute Director

2008-12-04T23:26:00.005-10:00

Dr. Ronald Herberman, who runs a leading cancer institute at Pittsburgh University, made worldwide headlines recently for sending out a memo to his staff, warning that cell phones might cause brain tumors. "Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer," the memo from Dr. Ronald Herberman reads. "Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use."

Dr. Herberman warns that children should only use cell phones in emergencies, because their still-developing organs are most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure. He also advises keeping mobile phone conversations as short as possible and using headsets, text messages or speaker phone settings to keep the phone away from the head.

Here's a link to Dr. Herberman's full memo and his ten practical tips to limit exposure to cell phone radiation.

Cell Phone Radiation Releases Mercury from Dental Fillings

2008-11-23T19:56:00.018-10:00

A study from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences shows that microwave radiation from cell phones increased the release of mercury from dental amalgam restoration. Here's a summary of the study, with excerpts from the report...

Fourteen female healthy University students aged 19-23 years who had not used mobile phones before the study and did not have any previous amalgam restorations but had more than 4 teeth decayed were investigated. Their urine samples were collected before amalgam restoration and one hour after mobile phone use at days 1, 2, 3 and 4 after restoration. Dental amalgam restorations were performed for all 14 students, with identical volume and surface area of the amalgam fillings. They all were asked not to use sea food, canned food and hot tea/coffee from one week before the study to final sampling at day 4 after amalgam restoration.

The students were randomly divided into two equal groups. The test group students were exposed to microwave radiation emitted from a Nokia 3310 mobile phone (SAR = 0.96 W kg"1) that was operated in talk mode for 15 min every day at days 1-4 after restoration. The other seven female age matched students who served as controls, sham exposed to microwave radiation. For each subject of the two studies, a questionnaire regarding their possible sources of exposure to electromagnetic fields or microwave radiation, occupation, medical history and life style was filled out.

The results: An elevated urinary mercury concentration released from dental amalgam fillings was observed in students exposed to microwave radiation emitted from mobile phones.

Although the amount of released mercury from dental amalgam is not sufficient for causing a toxic effect in humans, potential toxicity due to exposure to mercury vapor (Hg) from dental amalgam fillings is still the subject of current public health debate in many countries. Despite there is no evidence that dental amalgams cause health problems in the majority of the population, the effects of dental amalgam on specific groups, including pregnant women, small children, elderly and people who are especially sensitive to mercury is not clearly known.

You can read the details in the full report of this interesting study here: Mercury Release from Dental Amalgam Restorations after Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Following Mobile Phone Use (PDF)

Cell Phones Lower Sperm Count, Study Says

2008-03-19T23:15:00.004-10:00

A published study by a Cleveland Clinic found cell phone radiation lowers sperm counts and causes abnormalities in sperm shape and mobility. The study compared semen samples from the same men and subjected one sample to cell phone radiation for an hour to determine if abnormalities are caused solely by radiation exposure.

This is another reminder that men should avoid putting their phones and Bluetooth devices inside their pants pockets when the phone is on, as the heat from the radiation may heat the testes and disturb semen production. You can read the report here: Study links cellphones and lowered sperm count. Also see the preliminary findings of the same study reported a year and a half ago.

This is not the first study that looked at this issue. Hungarian researchers four years ago also made similar findings: Men and Mobiles: Calls to Take Caution.

Cell Phones and Bees

2007-05-11T19:53:00.000-10:00

By now most everyone has heard or read about the mysterious disappearance of bees, in what is known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). While some scientists suggest that cell phone radiation may have something to do with it, it is all highly speculative and doesn't answer a lot of questions, the main one being: Why only now when cell phones and cell phone towers have been around for years?

Still, experts like Dr. Carlo is "...convinced the possibility is real." The radiation from the mobile phones could disrupt the bees' navigational system. In a small study conducted by Landau University's Prof. Jochen Kuhn, GSM cell phone radiation from handsets placed near hives in the frequency range 900 MHz - 1800 MHz caused the bees to avoid the hive. German research has also long shown that the behavior of bees changes near power lines.

Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees, and without it the United States alone oculd lose 30 percent of its food supply. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left". So this situation is causing quite a concern.

However, whether or not the cell phones have anything to do with the collapse of the bee colonies, there are enough reports on the media over the years with regards to mobile phones and their effects on human health. Until the wireless industry wises up and ensures safety of its products, we are left on our own to employ precautions.

The MRET technology, used in the BioPro Cell Chip, superimposes a low-frequency 'noise field' on the electromagnetic radiation to make it compatible with the naturally occurring electromagnetic signals of our own cells. Could something as simple as this, adopted industry-wide and built into every cell phone and wireless device, be in our future? That's certainly something to hope for.

Cell Phone Dangers: Autism on the Rise

2007-04-18T22:19:00.000-10:00

In late 1970s, the ratio of autism in the United States was 1 in 10,000 children. Today it is 1 in 150, according to published CDC reports. This troubling increase parallels too closely the increased usage of cell phone, wireless and similar technologies that produce radio waves. Findings from more than five years of research on patients with autism point to electromagnetic radiation stress as one of the potential causes of the explosion of autism in the past two decades.

Tamara Mariea, founder of Internal Balance(TM), Inc., is releasing these findings in a soon-to-be-published paper. Her research also validates Dr. George Carlo's recent pronouncements of the mechanism discovered underlying the biological effects of EMR--that the information-carrying radio waves trigger stress protein responses at the cell membrane level leading to disruption in intercellular communications and buildup of toxins inside the cell. Tamara's research explores electromagnetic radiation as a cohort effect with heavy metal toxins as a strong component of the cause of autism, and has developed therapeutic interventions to detoxify these trapped toxins from the body.

You can read more about this fascinating development in the article, Research on Correlation Between Autism, Cell Phones, and Wireless Computers.

Cell Phone Tumor and Ten-Year Latency

2007-04-07T22:14:00.000-10:00

There seems to be a consistent pattern emerging among studies of long-term effects of cell phone usage: an increased risk of acoustic neuromas and brain tumors for those who have used the mobile phones for ten years or more.

- A Swedish team, Lennart Hardell of Orebro University and Kjell Hansson Mild of the National Institute for Working Life in Umea, found that the long-term, ipsilateral risk (same side of head the phone was used) was two-and-a-half times higher for acoustic neuromas and twice as high for glioma (a type of brain tumor) as would normally be expected. Both risk estimates are statistically significant. The analysis was posted (March 2007) on the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Web site.

- On January 2007, members of the Interphone study group (epidemiologists from five European countries) also reported a 40% increased risk of ipsilateral brain tumors (gliomas) among those who had used mobile phones for ten or more years. Their report was published on the International Journal of Cancer.

- The German Interphone research team last year also had found an increased risk of gliomas, a 2.2 fold increase, among long-term users (ten years or more). Their study was published in the American Journal of Epiemiology.

- In 2004, the Swedish Interphone group reported in Epidemiology a doubling of acoustic neuromas among people who had used a mobile phone for ten years or more.

All these studies stress the need for longer follow-up to assess the long-term health risks associated with cell phone use. Scientists maintain the ten-year latency period is relevant in carcinogenesis because changes in tumor incidence would only follow after at least ten years of radiation exposure.

In the case of tobacco and asbestos, for example, epidemiologists have reported no statistically significant increase in lung cancer and mesothelioma, respectively, until there had been at least ten years of exposure. (source: Microwave News)

Dr. George Carlo's UK Parliament Presentation

2007-03-30T00:30:00.000-10:00

In the previous post we gave a link to the UK TV interview of Dr. George Carlo during his visit to the UK Parliament to give a presentation on EMF and its effects on health. You can read the Mast Sanity briefing about his presentation here: Mast Sanity Briefing - Presentation by Dr. George Carlo.

In addition to describing the mechanism that explains the development of symptoms of electrosensitivity, Dr. Carlo also outlined three levels of intervention the public should be aware of:

"Primary - The reduction/elimination of exposure, e.g. by shielding, and the employment of measures that prevent the inappropriate triggering of the cell receptors, thus acting on the cause of the problem (headsets and active/passive noise field technologies)."
- The Cell Chip's MRET noise-field technology falls under this category.

"Secondary. The support of the extant biological system through the use of measures that maintain/restore intercellular communication. These measures are most effective in conjunction with primary interventions and include: subtle energy technologies, diodes, and some pendants."
- The Cell Chip's ERT, and the Q-Link pendant's SRT, both subtle energy technologies, belong to this class.

"Tertiary. The use of measures designed to reverse ill effects and to repair cell damage, e.g. by using technologies that act to rehabilitate and correct cell damage. These work only in conjunction with primary and secondary intervention technologies and include: nutritionals, anti-oxidants and repair supplements."
- Antioxidants, such as SOD, catalase, glutathione, and Coq10, are found to be depleted from the body by microwave exposure and may need to be replenished. Other nutritional support that could be helpful includes: melatonin, a powerful anti-oxidant noted to prevent DNA breaks in brain cells; zinc, helps preserve the levels of anti-oxidants in the blood; and gingko biloba, an herb considered a powerful anti-oxidant which prevents oxidative damage in the brain, eye and kidney. Gingko also helps support the production of SOD, catalase and glutathione. All these can be readily found at any health food store. (For more information on nutritional support for combating EMR exposure, see Would You Put Your Head in a Microwave Oven by Gerald Goldberg, MD, available from Amazon.com and other bookstores.
- BioPro Technology's P2R stress repair formula, as well as the ERT-charged Vitatonic and BioProduce nutritionals, also provide excellent support.

Dr. George Carlo: New Data Proves Cell Phones Harmful

2007-03-25T21:55:00.000-10:00

Dr. George Carlo, Chairman of the Science and Public Policy Institute, Washington DC, claims in a UK interview that it has new data that indicates use of mobile phones are damaging to humans. As Dr. Carlo reveals, "We have new data from our Safe Wireless Initiative in Washington, DC, that indicates the mechanism that underlies a cause for concern is clearly now elucidated. We understand that these information-carrying radio waves trigger protein membrane responses at the cell membrane level leading to disruption of intercellular communications and buildup of free radicals inside the cell. This mechanism understanding is very important, because it now explains the wide diversity in symptoms that we are seeing in patients who are reporting electro-hypersensitivity and also other conditions such as headaches, and unexplained anxiety, that henceforth from this point forward we'll know will be associated with information-carrying radio waves." You can watch the video interview with Dr. Carlo here.

By the way, this 'mechanism' that Dr. Carlo describes is what the MRET (Molecular Resonance Effect Technology) addresses in the new BioPro Cell Chip. It prevents precisely the triggering of protein responses in the cell membrane by superimposing a 'noise-field' on the electromagnetic wave similar to the resonance frequencies of living cells in the body. In other words, the cell no longer sees the EMF wave as foreign and does not have to go through its stress reaction. You can learn more about how this works here: How MRET Works

Also see: more Dr. George Carlo interviews.

Radiation from Cell Phones Linked to Lower Male Fertility

2007-03-24T12:52:00.000-10:00

New evidence shows men using cell phones for more than 4 hours a day have greater likelihood of developing impaired sperm production, leading to lower sperm count, quality and quantity. The study's leading researcher, Dr. Ashok Agarwal, explained that the electromagnetic waves from the cell phone could be heating up tissue in the testicles or altering hormones which impacts sperm production. He's planning to publish his results in a fertility journal soon. You can read the full article (and watch the video) here: Cell Phones and Male Fertility.

This report echoes a similar finding two years ago by a team of scientists from Hungary, which showed men who regularly carry their mobiles near the groin, on a belt or in a pocket could potentially have their sperm count reduced by as much as 30 percent. You can read that story, plus tips on how to minimize the effects of mobile phones: Men and Mobiles: Calls to Take Caution

Welcome to the Cellphone-Health blog

2007-03-24T00:42:00.000-10:00

This blog will present news and information related to the cell phone radiation issue as it affects human health. Scientific evidence is mounting that cell phones are not as safe as the wireless industry would have us believe. Health experts like Dr. George Carlo, the former chief scientist of the wireless industry's own research project into cell phone safety, predict that a health crisis of epidemic proportions is not too far off into the future. Be safe. The best way to avoid the microwave radiation effects is to minimize the use of the cell phone. But if you must use it for more than just the occasional or emergency reasons, then apply precautions. On this site, we feature a scientifically validated safeguard solution to the cell phone radiation problem. Check it now.