It’s been a very long time since I wrote something on my blog. Well, I have my reasons..nothing much but studies, assignments and stuff. 😛
As I was wondering how long it has been since I updated my blog with something informative or something which came to my mind, I came across a rather disturbing but sensitive issue which most of us, me inclusive, have been ignoring all this time. It’s been a rather long semester with lots of research based stuff for me to do hence, I guess my mind has not come out of it yet! XD
Hence, this is going to be more like a research based blog rather than something from my heart. Hope you don’t mind.
Anyways, the topic which I have written below is something related to mobile radiations and their effects and some of the methods people have come up with to minimize them. Like I said, this is more like a research based topic rather than a natural one that comes to my mind.
- Did you know that research on the effects of Electro Magnetic Field(EMF) started as early as WW2?
- Back then, it was noticed that birds fell when they were near antenna towers on warships. Since then, it has been a phenomenon which has been of much research but the government and other ‘creamy’ people’s intention to market stuff and gain money has deprived the common man on gaining this knowledge but rather been showcased as an entertainment of some sort which gets better and better each day! So, now you know why that little chirpy sparrow is no longer visible in everyone’s home these days!
- Its a well known fact that birds use the Earth’s natural magnetism to navigate. Now, the Earth’s magnetism is very very low compared to the ones emitted by man-made substances. It was also verified that beyond a certain level of EMF values, cells within the human body started splitting, yup, if you guessed it right, cancer!
- Back in those days, the number of such towers were less but the power emitted was very high but the point to be noted is – there was something called as public isolation distance which meant there shouldn’t be any EMF radiating towers within a certain distance of housing locations, 50 meters to be exact!
A report found out that people within this or near to this distance were found to have contracted cancer! This report was kept very confidential (only the government defense had access to this!) There is something called as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which was started to curb these frequencies and the power radiated by such equipments. Certain safety levels have been specified for the max. value of power emitted by devices which use Radio Frequency (RF) and anything beyond this has a very high chance of catalyzing cancer in human cells! Europe follows a rate of 2 watts/square metre while the US which has FCC follows 1.6 watts/sq. mt.
One thing which caught my eye as well as attention is that Russia, a country which is overlooked by many, has set a limit 100 times lower than these based on their research since the 50’s!!! I was simply amazed when I read this!
The theory is that:
1. Continuous exposure to much lower levels of RF radiation leads to serious health hazards
2. Pulsed radiation at the same average power is more harmful than continuous power
3. Women are more susceptible to EMF health hazards
4. Children and younger generation are most susceptible because of early introduction to cellphones and tendency to use these for a much longer duration
If you took a look at your cell phone description either on the manual or in the warranty card, you would find something called the SAR which stands for Specific Absorption Rate which have been recommended by the IEEE. These have been kept at 1.6 watts/Kg for the head, 0.08 watts/Kg for the whole body and 4 watts/kg for hands, wrist, feet and ankles.
But something which again caught my attention was :
An analysis made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that biological effects occur at SAR levels of 1 watt per kilogram—one-fourth the SAR level chosen by the FCC. Radio frequency has shown to induce heating of tissues leading to behavioural changes in mice, rats and monkeys, indicating potentially adverse effects in human beings too.
| Power density exposure limits for GSM1800 adopted by various countries |
| • Australia – 2 W/m2 • Austria, Salzburg City – 0.001 W/m2 (precautionary limit) • Belgium (ex Wallonia) – 1.2 W/m2 • Canada – 3 W/m2 • CSSR, Belgium, Luxembourg – 0.24 W/m2 • India – 9.2 W/m2 (as per ICNIRP recommendations) • Italy, in areas with duration greater than four hours – 0.095 W/m2 • Italy, in sensitive areas – 0.025 W/m2 • New South Wales, Australia – 0.00001 W/m2 • New Zealand – 0.5 W/m2 • Poland, China, Italy and Paris – 0.1 W/m2 • Switzerland – 0.095 W/m2 • USA – 10 W/m2 (as per FCC OET-65 Public Exposure Guidelines at 1800 Mhz) |
A simple look at the above table shows that Canada, USA and India have the highest limits which makes more people there susceptible to cell-splitting, not a surprise though!
 Effect of increased dose of radiation on sleep
(i) At 0.1 nW/cm2 exposure, sleep disturbance is 25 per cent
(ii) At 1 nW/cm2, sleep disturbance is 35 per cent
(iii) At 10 nW/cm2, sleep disturbance is 45 per cent
(iv) At 100 nW/cm2, sleep disturbance is 55 per cent
It can be seen that with logarithmic increase in dose, sleep disturbance increases linearly.
All the more reason why you don’t get enough sleep everyday you place your mobile near you!
Ringxiety—the psychological disease of hearing phantom sound and sensation of cellphone ring—has appeared in Japan (also reported in India) among cellphone users.
Thus, the best thing to do right now would be to not allow children and pregnant women, at the least, to stay away from mobile phones as much as possible. Another interesting solution which I came across on the net was the use of something called as ‘Air tube’ which is nothing but a headphone not entirely with wires but with a sound chamber like a stethoscope of a doctor which has only air in it to transfer sound, thus reducing the radiation from reaching your head to about 98%!! The problem of using normal headphones is that, they are yet, made up of wires which again radiate radio frequency. Hence it makes sense that we use something which has less number of wires, at least that go to our brain!
And yes, it is true! Research has been proven to show that it really works! The video below shows some interesting stuff about this product:
The above cited site has some other simple but rather effective methods to curb this radiation aspects.
dheerstory 