ALKHOBAR, 2 September — This summer the lines of subscribers at Saudi Telecom Company (STC) offices Kingdomwide were incredible. With the reduction in the cost of “family” cell phone subscriptions these wireless devices have become more popular than ever before. That’s really frightening. Why? Because there are absolutely no scientific studies that prove cell phones are safe to use as designed and in fact indisputable evidence is now being found to the contrary.
In the last year I began noticing that at computer and communications trade shows, many men had switched to using earpieces rather than holding their mobile devices pressed up against their heads. Personally, I keep my cell phone in a small shoulder bag and use an earpiece. We are all taking these precautions now because since 1999 there have been several widely publicized studies, which show that the radiation from mobile phones can cause damage at the cellular level. A definite link to brain tumors or other cancers has not been proven but these early cellular studies point to the possibility that cell phone use could lead to serious health problems in the long term.
While those of us in the IT business are concerned with such findings, the general public appears to be either blissfully unaware or shockingly misinformed of the danger. In the instruction booklet that came with my new cell phone there was not one word about the potential health hazards that could be caused by holding the device against the user’s head. The booklet did contain a warning that the phones should be kept at least six inches away from a pacemaker and there was an advisory about the best ways to use the phone while driving. But there was no information about a study funded by that very same cell phone manufacturer which showed that blood cells exposed to radiation at wireless phone frequencies developed genetic damage. Instead, there was a notice that the cell phone complied with all international standards for the protection of the public in regards to exposure to RF electromagnetic energy.
This summer I saw numerous children with cell phones pressed against their heads even though there is evidence that the radiation from cell phones penetrates into a child’s brain much more deeply than into an adult’s. Some people showed me tiny devices that look like buttons, which they attached to their phones. The makers of these devices promise that these small attachments deflect or absorb the radiation from the phones rendering them harmless. There are no independent scientific studies to support such claims. I even had someone tell me that the use of my earpiece could actually cause more damage than holding the cell phone against my head!
Now I know that many people think they don’t have time to read books these days, but if you’re going to use a cell phone then there’s one book you really should spend a few days with. Called “Cell Phones — Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age: An Insider’s Alarming Discoveries about Cancer and Genetic Damage,” this book is co-authored by Dr. George Carlo, chief scientist of the world’s largest research effort into wireless safety, and Martin Schram, a veteran journalist. The book clearly lays out the ways in which US government agencies, telephone manufacturers, special interest groups in the wireless business and even the media have gone about misinforming the public about cell phone safety. The book alleges that the results of scientific studies have been hidden from the public. False claims regarding cell phone safety have remained unchallenged. Even worse, in some instances both the US government and cell phone manufacturers have stopped providing funding for research into the potential health hazards caused by the use of wireless devices.
The cellular telephone was first mass marketed in 1984. Because it was not a drug or medical device there was no requirement to establish that its use by the general public was safe. Current estimates are that more than 500 million mobile phones are switched on worldwide, and there still are no studies proving that cell phones are safe.
The safety of cellular phones was first questioned in 1993 when David Reynard of Tampa, Florida appeared on CNN’s talk show, Larry King Live. Reynard told King that he was filing a lawsuit against cell phone companies alleging that his late wife, Susan, had suffered a fatal brain tumor caused by her cellular phone. Cellular phone manufacturers, the wireless industry and the US government scrambled to calm public fears. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) appointed Dr. George Carlo, an epidemiologist with doctorates in pathology and law to direct a $25 million scientific study into cell phone safety.
CTIA claimed that there had been more than 1,000 studies on bioelectromagnetics, the science at the center of the cell phone controversy, and that not one study showed any potentially negative health consequences. Carlo quickly discovered that these claims were false. He couldn’t find anywhere near 1,000 studies on the subject. Carlo came up with only eight studies that were in any way relevant to the use of cell phones and these were all flawed. None of them tested the effects of cellular phone radiation on the brain in the proper manner. So Carlo set out with a team of experts to do the necessary research. It took years to develop the proper methodologies for the early cellular studies but when they concluded their results were damning.
In 1999, Carlo sent letters to 28 prominent individuals in the cellular telephone industry to report on the efforts of six years of research and investigation by himself and his team. The letters read in part:
“I report to you that:
* The rate of death from brain cancer among handheld phone users was higher than the rate of brain cancer death among those who used non-handheld phones that were away from their head;
* The risk of acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor of the auditory nerve that is well in range of the radiation coming from a phone’s antenna, was 50 percent higher in people who reported using cell phones for six years or more; moreover, that relationship between the amount of cell phone use and this tumor appeared to follow a dose-response curve;
* The risk of rare neuro-epithelial tumors on the outside of the brain was more than doubled, a statistically significant risk increase, in cell phone users as compared to people who did not use cell phones;
* There appeared to be some correlation between brain tumors occurring on the right side of the head and use of the phone on the right side of the head;
* Laboratory studies looking at the ability of radiation from a phone’s antenna to cause functional genetic damage were definitely positive, and were following a dose-response relationship.
Carlo went on to say that, “…while none of these findings alone were evidence of a definite health hazard from wireless phones, the pattern of potential health effects evidenced by different types of studies, from different laboratories, and by different investigators raised serious questions.”
It is important to note that the evidence of genetic damage, of which Carlo advised, was serious. In laboratory tests, radiation from cellular phones caused micronuclei to form in the living cells that were exposed to the radiation. The relationship between the presence of micronuclei and cancer is so strong that doctors use it to identify those patients who are likely to develop cancer. After the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, international experts used micronuclei testing as a vital tool for diagnosing cancer risks in humans.
There are several new studies under way concerning the health risks from cellular phones, but conclusive results from them are years in the future. For example, the findings of a large international study correlating cell phone use and brain tumors will not be available until 2005. This is not unusual. Carlo and Schram point out in the book that in the case of cigarette smoking, two decades of study and more than 100 years of consumer use were required to gather enough evidence to convince governments of the need for warning labels on cigarette packs. It took the deaths of millions of people to conclude that cigarette smoking is hazardous to the health. Even now cigarette manufacturers do not hold themselves responsible for those deaths and their products are subject to limited government regulation.
Carlo does not believe that consumers should wait for regulatory bodies to protect them from the hazards of radiation emitted by cellular phones. In the book he made the following recommendations:
* Keep the phone’s antenna away from the body. Use a headset, earpiece or speakerphone.
* Do not use the phone when the signal strength is low. The lower the signal strength the harder the instrument has to work to carry the call and the greater the radiation that is emitted from the antenna.
* Purchase a phone with an antenna that can be extended during the phone’s use. The strongest radiation plumes are emitted from the mid-length portion of the antenna. If the antenna is recessed inside the phone, the entire phone functions as an antenna. This exposes the head, jaw and hand to radiation.
* Keep the phone away from the body. Phones emit the greatest amounts of radiation during ringing and dialing.
* Don’t use your phone while driving. Accidents caused by inattention due to cellular phone use are already a recognized health hazard.
* Children under the age of 10 should not use wireless devices. Pagers are preferred to cellular phones for children over the age of 10.
Consumers also must be extremely cautious about unverified claims. Carlos reiterated that a report published in Britain’s Which? magazine that showed in tests that some cell phone headsets caused more radiation to go into the brain than the phones themselves had been refuted by a number of studies done by recognized researchers using established scientific methods.
