“We have just carried out a survey of 500 users that shows that 12% of users use their phones for more than 20 minutes a day, and that 1.8% use them for more than two hours a day. It is that 1.8% that we are worried about - that is about 250,000 people who are being put at risk of serious ill health.”
The effects of this were quite shocking. Some information which was found out from this survey was that many users complain about sufferring from headaches, tiredness and in the long term - leukaemia.
"Around 40% of users complain that they suffer from headaches, and many people find that after a day's heavy use of the phone that they have a thumping headache.”
"After a while users feel extremely tired, and their reaction times start to fall off.”
"After 14 months to two years some users will start to develop leukaemia.”
(all quotes from - )
“Depending on how close the cell phone antenna is to your head, between 20% and 60% of the radiation emitted by your cell phone is transferred into your head.” - http://www.mercola.com/forms/ferrite_beads.htm
This is quite a lot of radiation being absorbed. If a large amount of radiation is being absorbed, some damage is going to be caused. It is “heating” your brain (therefore heating the cells) which can damage them. If the cells become damaged they could possibly develop into cancerous cells which gives us more evidence that using a mobile phone increases your risk of cancer. I think this website is a reliable website to collect information from since it is a health website. I also think the website devoted to cancer is a reliable source because it is a website devoted to cancer and can give us reliable information on the disease due to them specialising in this subject. I also think that the quotes taken from the bbc are highly reliable since the survey was carried out on large number of people. The bbc is a reliable source for information because they are a news provider for the country and would need to study the subject in a great amount of detail before broadcasting it. They would have to do a lot of background research and surveys because they are under strict control and are not allowed to broadcast elements which are unrealistic or unreliable.
2) Mobile phones can cause Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 417,000 people in the UK. The term 'dementia' is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions.
People with alzheimer’s experience confusion and frequently forget the names of people, places, appointments and recent events. As the disease progresses, people with Alzheimer's need more and more support in order to live their lives. Eventually, they require help with all their daily activities.
The human body is designed to prevent harmful proteins and toxins in the blood from entering the brain, however radiation emissions can break down the natural barrier and enable these harmful proteins or toxins to enbed themselves into the brain. If the proteins enter brain tissue there is a higher risk of brain and nerve diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis developing.
“Radiation emissions from mobile phones could place users at risk of brain conditions including Alzheimer's Disease, according to new reports.”
This mobile phone ‘’scare’’ reported by the bbc was studied by Scientists at the University of Lund. They exposed rats to microwave pulses similar to the radiation emissions from a mobile phone in order to calculate the effects on the body’s blood-brain barrier. Their results were as followed…
“Within two minutes of exposure, the rats' brain tissue was found to be opened up to proteins and toxins contained in the blood after the defence mechanism was disabled.” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/507112.stm
Their results show a clear piece of evidence that radiation breaks down the defenece barrier bewteen the brain and blood – and in just two minutes! This is a very small amount of time. If this can happen within two minutes of exposure to microwave radiation, this shows that it is not just ionising radiation which is harmful. Many people spend a longer time than two minutes on their mobile phones. Holding their phone to their head for a longer amount of time would mean a larger exposure to radiation - causing harsher effects.
The Daily Mail also did a report on mobile phones causing Alzheimer’s.
“Scientists have found that prolonged exposure to the handsets destroys cells in areas of the brain important for memory, movement and learning.”
However, this is not a different study by different scientists, it’s the same study as the one reported by the bbc. There only appears to be one major study on this subject, neither are there many websites saying that radiation causes Alzheimer’s disease which immediately makes you think this particular argument isn’t well studied. This is most likely the case because if this subject had been well studied, there would be more websites about it and explaining why this is the case. Therefore, this argument is not as reliable as other arguments I have looked at. The reliability is heightened on this however, because this information didn’t just come from a ‘random’ website which isn’t known well, it came from the bbc which is news provider for the whole country. Usually the bbc would be very reliable, but in this case I don’t think this report is very reliable seeing as this is one of the few websites which actually states mobile phones cause Alzheimers.
3) Mobile phones can cause insomnia
Insomnia is a sleeping disorder which involves difficulty getting to sleep or not staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning. A lack of sleep can cause depression, lack of concentration and personality changes.
– This website contains a news article about mobile phones causing insomnia. The article states “LATE-NIGHT chats with mates on your mobile may wreck your sleeping patterns.” This article then goes onto say how a Swedish study looked into this and found out from their research that it is infact true… “The research, presented to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, found teens who texted or called more than 15 times a day put their health at risk as a result of poor shut-eye.”
Although this may seem believable, obtaining information from a newspaper may not be as reliable as using information from a news provider. This is because newspapers are competitive with eachother, always intending to sell the most copies and carry out reports on the most interesting subjects with the most eye-catching headlines. In order to succeed with this, they sometimes exaggerate the stories they write so that more people buy their papers.
However, this isn’t the only website stating that mobile phones cause insomnia which means this particular argument has been studied by more than a few researchers. This increases the reliability of this argument because several researches have taken place, been reported and have proven that there is a link with mobile phone usage and insomnia.
Sky news also did a report on mobile phones causing insomnia and reported a study which Scientists had carried out: “Scientists studied the effect of using a mobile phone before going to bed and found that those who were exposed to phone radiation took longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and spent less time in them.”
I think that this website is a reliable source to obtain information because it provides news for the region, just like the the bbc. (mentioned earlier in the first and second argument)
Deep sleep rejuvenates cells and repairs damage suffered during the day, if people are not sleeping well and have been using a mobile phone during the day, they are not recovering from the damage the radiation has caused them. If the damage is not being repaired, it will only get worse the more a mobile phone is used.
Disrupted sleep is also linked to shorter life expectancy, poor memory and heart disease. This shows that this isn’t something we should ignore, Insomnia can have bad effects if left without anything being done. Insomnia which is caused by radiation can be reversed if do not use your mobile phone before you’re about to go to sleep.
Arguments against
1) The radio frequency of a mobile phone is too low to cause damage
“Cell phones use a very, very low level of radio frequency (rf) energy - too low to cause damage.” -
A digital mobile phone is designed to operate at a maximum power level of 0.6 watts. In comparison, a household microwave oven uses between 600 and 1,100 watts. The difference between these two radiation emitting objects shows that mobile phones simply cannot be dangerous with power as low as 0.6 watts and that microwave ovens are more of what we should be taking into concern, rather than mobile phones.
“This radiation does not have enough energy to damage DNA, and cannot directly cause cancer.”
The type of energy emitted by mobile phones is non-ionizing, meaning it doesn't cause damage to chemical bonds or DNA. The energy from microwave radiation is millions of times lower than that the energy from an X-ray. (which is one of the 3 types of ionizing radiation – Gamma, X-ray and UV)
“Mobile phones also produce small amounts of heat in the brain, but again, not enough to pose a health risk.”
This quote tells you that radiation DOES infact heat the brain, however it’s still not enough to be a health risk or cause damage.
“In 2000, the UK signed up to a set of international safety standards, which set a limit on the amount of radiation given off by phones. These limits are designed to have a very large safety margin to protect people who may be more sensitive to phone radiation, such as children.”
There is no evidence that mobile phones are damaging to children. However, if there was if there was a risk – children would physically be more at risk since they are young, their nervous systems are still developing and their skulls are thinner which would allow more radiation to be absorbed. If the limits on the amount of radiation given off by mobile phones are low enough to be safe for children, they would most certainly be safe for adults since they are fully developed and although possible, it would be more difficult for radiation to be absorbed through their thicker skulls.
Another piece of evidence for the frequency being too low to cause damage is that people have been using mobile phones for years. If the frequency was high enough to cause any possible damage, many people would have damaged health since most people use their mobile phones everyday.
“Hundreds of millions of people have been using cell phones and cordless phones for years. If there were a problem, we would have seen it by now.”
The fact that mobile phones have been around for quite a while and so many people have been using them since they were first invented shows that it isn’t fact that mobile phones are harmful to health. This usage would have resulted in durastic health effects if they were really as bad as the public and media crack them up to be.
This diagram from shows the difference in the frequency levels of different types of radiation:
“The use of mobile phones has skyrocketed since the 1980s. But studies in the USA and New Zealand have found that during this time, the numbers of people with brain cancer has not changed very much.”
This is yet another piece of evidence for microwave radiation being too low to cause damage. If the radiation levels were high enough to cause harm, we would have seen a much greater increase in the amount of people with brain cancer since mobile phones had first been introduced.
Most of the research carried out has looked at older analogue phones. Nowadays, most phones available in the UK are digital. (Especially the newer phones) These give out less radiowave radiation than analogue phones, therefore reducing any potential risk.
I think that this argument contains a great amount of reliable information. All of the websites which quotes have been contracted from seem very convincing with lots of evidence for mobile phones being harmless. The cancer research website is very reliable because before they can give a detailed explanantion on a subject, they have to make sure their information has researched thouroughly by scientists and peer-reviewed etc. Most of the subjects they give information on also tell you about studies which have been carried out on large amounts of people, which again, is a reliable source of information.
- Mobile phones have no link to cancer
Many scientists suggest very strongly that mobile phones have no link to cancer. They say that all the risk factors of using a mobile phone are exaggerrated by the media and people really do not need to worry at all about what will happen to them if they use a mobile phone. There have been many researches and studies which have been carried out to try to prove this idea…
“The latest study, published yesterday by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, is the work of 28 teams of experts. With a budget of £8.8million, they spent the past six years exploring possible health impacts of mobile phone-use. Their conclusion? That there’s no evidence that mobiles cause cancer. The experts said their findings were ‘reassuring’, showing no association between mobile phone-use and brain cancer and ‘no evidence’ of immediate or short-term harms to health from mobile phones”
This study seems very reliable because of the fact that research was being carried out over six years and also that the researchers spent a very large amount of money on the study – £8.8 million! This shows they must have been very dedicated with their plan to find out about the effects of mobile phone use. By being dedicated, they would have taken great care trying to get the best results that they possibly can, making them as reliable as possible. However, the website does not tell us what they actually included in the study and how they found out that mobile phones do not cause cancer. They also didn’t mention what tests were carried out, so we do not know how well these tests were executed. Neither do we know how many tests were carried out and how long they spent doing the tests, how long they gathered research for and then how long they spent compiling these results and then finalising them.
Another study I found claims to be the largest study so far on mobile phones…
“The largest study so far on mobile phones and cancer is a Danish study, which looked at over 420,000 people. It found no link between mobile phones and any type of cancer including brain cancers and leukaemia. Even people who had been using their phones for 10 years or more did not have increased risks.” -
This seems very reliable since it states that even the largest study which has taken place has not proved any link to cancer, and of course, a larger study would be more reliable than a small study. Research was carried out on a very large number of people which makes it far more reliable than a study which has involved less people. This quote came from the Cancer Research website which also increases the reliability because it is a website devoted to Cancer. Some people in this study were even followed for 21 years according to Although, just like the first study I mentioned, It doesn’t give you any information on what the reserachers did in order to get their results. This makes the study less reliable.
also tells us about other researches and studies which have taken place and their results from this research…
“Several research studies carried out in Europe and America have looked at large numbers of people using mobile phones. Most have found no link between brain tumours and mobile phones.”
“A large UK study reported in January 2006 that they could find no link between mobile phone use and a type of brain tumour called glioma. The study included information on over 2,500 people. They found no link between the amount of mobile phone use, length of time since first use, lifetime years of use or number of calls made.”
If there were only a few studies proving a link to cancer, this would not be very reliable. However, the fact that such a great amount of researches have taken place and proved there is NO link whatsoever to cancer, this has proved to be a very reliable argument. This is a subject which has been researched very thouroughly over the years and there is so much evidence for mobile phones being completely safe and not causing health problems such as cancer.
3) Mobile phones may prevent or even cure Alzheimers disease
A recent article from the bbc said that scientists in Florida had found a link between radiation from mobile phones and alzheimer’s disease.
“Florida scientists found that phone radiation actually protected the memories of mice programmed to get Alzheimer's disease.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8443541.stm
The scientist’s experiment involved 96 mice - most of which had been genetically altered in order to develop beta-amyloid plaques (a marker of Alzheimer's disease) in their brains as they aged. The rest of the mice were non-demented. The mice spent two one-hour periods each day for 7-9 months exposed to the electro-magnetic field generated by a standard phone. Their cages were placed within the same distance from a centrally located antenna generating the phone signal. Their results from this experiment showed that the Alzheimer's mice performed as well on tests measuring memory and thinking skills as aged mice without dementia. Their results also showed that if older Alzheimer's mice already showing memory problems were exposed to the electro-magnetic waves, their memory impairment disappeared. This ‘evidence’ collected seems reliable/believable enough, however this research must be fairly recent since it was reported by the bbc on 7th January 2010 and therefore may not actually prove anything as yet since it is a recent study. One of the scientists who was part of the study said: “this research in mice is at an early stage and a lot more work is needed before we can say anything about the possible preventative or treatment effects of this type of radiation on people with Alzheimer's disease.”
This study has also been mentioned by many newspapers such as The Daily Mail and The Independent. It has also been mentioned by many healthcare websites. However, they are all reporting the same study by the scientists in Florida. This appears to be the only study which is saying there is a significant link between mobile phone radiation curing or preventing Alzheimer’s disease. The fact that there are no other researches or studies supporting this decreases the reliability of this argument. More evidence is needed in order to prove that the use of a mobile phone can help to stop or eliminate Alzheimer’s.
Conclusion
Mobile phones are a recent invention and so far, studies have indicated that using these phones for about 10 years is safe. Perhaps this is the case but we cannot be completely sure about their long-term effects since they havn’t been around for a long enough period of time. There are many arguments supporting the fact that mobile phones are damaging to our health such as the biological damage they can cause; headaches, earaches, short-term memory loss, tingling and burning sensations, blurring of vision, numbing, disturbed sleep/insomnia and the fact they can kill brain cells, cause brain tumors and potentially cause cancer. The factors which make this argument for mobile phones being harmful to humans believable and reliable are the vast amount of websites which give a lot of information on the subject. They tell us about research scientists have carried out and the clear evidence of harm which they have gained as a result of this. As well as arguments for mobile phones being harmful, there are also lots of reports and researches which claim mobile phones are harmless. These also seem reliable and convincing. The researches from scientists and websites are not 100% reliable though. Some evidence I have for this is that the bbc have a report that mobile phones cause Alzheimer’s and another report which says mobile phones can prevent or even possibly cure the disease. So which are you supposed to believe? It seems to be simply a matter of opinion. In my opinion, I think mobile phones are infact harmful. The studies supporting the fact mobile phones are damaging seem to be more reliable and make more sense. There are so many researches and a great amount of evidence which prove there are harmful effects and risks as a result of using mobile phones. Although, I think that if a mobile phone is not used excessively, it will not cause any major damage or health effects since the radio frequency they use is incredibly low. Anyhow, I still think that exposing yourself to this kind of radiation - as low as it may be - is still not a wise idea and therefore it is important to make sure mobile phones are not used for a prolonged period of since this is allowing more and more radiation to be absorbed into your head as minutes pass. Nonetheless, until there is a conclusive answer as to whether mobile phones are dangerous or not, the public should take precautions to ensure they are not causing a health-hazard to themselves. These precautions include reducing the number of calls made and the time spend on the phone, holding the phone further away from your ear so your skull does not directly absorb the radiation, only using a mobile for essential calls, using the loudspeaker instead of holding the phone to your ear, etc. Research on this subject is never-ending, with tons of researches that have been carried out and are continuing to do so. Who knows what new information we’ll find out about mobile phones in the future…
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http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3819/
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