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ARE CELL PHONES SAFE?
A very disturbing study from the University of Nottingham in England shows that cell phones may not be a safe as we think. Cell phones emit low dose microwaves that do not cause cancer because, unlike X rays, they are not strong enough to break bonds that hold molecules together. The only way that microwaves can cause cell damage is by producing heat. The study in the British Journal, Nature, shows that microwaves cause roundworms to release heat shock proteins that are a sign of tissue injury (1).
At the Bioelectromagnetics Society symposium in Washington, D.C. in February, studies were reported showing that 25 percent of people using cellular phones feel heat behind their ears, people who use cell phones regularly have a markedly increased risk for headaches and recurrent fatigue, and 47 percent noted dizziness, concentration difficulties and memory loss. Recently, Ross Adey of the University of California, Riverside, showed that exposing a pregnant rat's brain to cell phones raises brain levels of ornithine decarboxylase, an enzyme that helps create polyamines, that may increase risk for brain cancer, but there is no evidence at this time that cell phones cause brain cancer.
This summer a 13-country study will determine if cell phones are safe. It will be done by the International Agency of Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. We don't have any answers yet, but I try to make all my calls on a conventional phone and I use my cell phone only when absolutely necessary. I suspect that holding that much energy close to your head will harm you. We wait for future research.
1)Nature May 25, 2000.
2) Science News February 12, 2000
Reported 5/25/00; checked 8/9/05