Monday, January 1, 2001		News Net

Mobiles — more sinned against than sinning?
by Kuljit Bains

A doctor earlier this year filed an $ 800 million lawsuit against Motorola and Verizon for, he says, their cell phones caused his cancer. Recently the much acclaimed Peter Angelos, who made tobacco and asbestos companies pay the public billions of dollars, has agreed to represent this suffering doctor. That’s big news in the ‘mobile’ world.

Now the foremost thing that would come to your mind is not whether he would get the damages or not, but whether your cute cell phone is "microwave-cooking" your brain or is it all an over-reaction. The cell phone industry would obviously like to dismiss the issue as unfounded. Well, the matter may not have been settled yet, but statements like "brain boiling" are surely gross exaggeration, though there might be something to it.

Don’t go by what these extremist, for and against groups have to say. If you have access to the Internet, go and check what the authorities on the subject have to say — there are plenty of authentic sites to get the views straight from the horse’s mouth.

The American Medical Association in the December 20 issue of its journal has virtually declared that handheld cellular phone use is not associated with the risk of brain cancer, but it likes to add that further studies are needed to account for longer induction periods. A report on the study can be had at www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/sci-news/2000/snr1220.htm. The case-control study was conducted from 1994 to 1998. As many as 469 men and women aged 18 to 80 years with primary brain cancer and 422 matched controls without brain cancer took part in the study. "The use of handheld cellular phones was unrelated to the risk of brain cancer in the current study," the authors write.

One of the most reliable studies conducted specifically on this issue is by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones. Full text of its report as well as a summary in various formats can be had at www.iegmp.org.uk/. It’s report, Mobile Phones and Health, essentially concludes that there is no need for the general population to be worried about the use of mobile phones.

The Expert Group notes that individuals may choose to 1) use phones for as short a time as possible, 2) use phones with low specific energy absorption rate (SAR) values, and 3) use hands-free kits and other devices provided they have been proved to reduce SAR. The group, not unlike the Chandigarh Police, discourages the use of mobile phones while driving. Also, as a general rule, the group considers that children less than 16 years of age should be discouraged from using mobile phones as their developing nervous system is likely to be more vulnerable.

A very cautious, but perhaps very pragmatic, statement is : "There is now some preliminary scientific evidence that exposures to radiofrequency (RF) radiation may cause subtle effects on biological functions, including those of the brain. This does not necessarily mean that health is affected but it is not possible to say that exposure to RF radiation, even at levels below national guidelines, is totally without potential adverse health effects."

What does the mecca of technology, the USA, have to say about this? Well www.fda.gov/cdrh/ocd/mobilphone.html leads to a page from the US Food and Drug Administration – Centre for Devices and Radiological Health. It has a Consumer update on mobile phones. While the site gives all details of the finer points involved, it still does not say anything conclusive. What it does say is: "The available science does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe, or that they are unsafe. However, the available scientific evidence does not demonstrate any adverse health effects associated with the use of mobile phones." A site worth visiting if the thought of cancer and the convenience of mobility are causing a conflict in your cranium (the box that holds your brain).

You can read about World Health Organisation projects on electromagnetic fields at www.who.int/peh-emf/. One extremely exhaustive link from the WHO site is www.who.int/peh-emf/faq/q&a_main.htm. One reassuring statements it has is that cellular phones and their base stations produce radiofrequency radiation that is "non-ionizing," and its biological effects are fundamentally different from the "ionizing" radiation produced by x-ray machines.

Good or bad the cell phone is an evil that can only be seen growing in the near future. I say near future because technology always changes faster than you expect it to.