If you keep your cellphone in your shirt or pants pocket, your body absorbs radiation levels that exceed FCC guidelines, says a new report published in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. The reports says that due to the process for evaluating microwave radiation from phones — which was designed by the cellphone industry and is based on a large man whose brain tissue is supposedly homogeneous — the amounts of radiation being absorbed by many adults is being underestimated.
The problem is much worse for children who absorb twice as much microwave radiation from phones as adults. The report says that the hippocampus and hypothalamus of children absorb up to triple the amounts of radiation, and their bone marrow absorbs as much as 10 times more than adults.
The question most often asked is whether or not cellphones can cause cancer. While a recent study from the National Institutes of Health didn't find that cellphones increased risk, it did discover that having a 50-minute conversation with the cellphone next to an ear changes brain activity in the area of the brain closest to the phone. And a recent Danish study found no increased risk for acoustic neuromas — noncancerous brain tumors — in adults who had used cellphones for 11 to 15 years.
But after a panel of experts reviewed dozens of cellphone studies, the International Agency for Research on Cancer issued a statement in May that said cellphones may cause cancer in humans. Some studies have found that using a cellphone for 10 years doubles the risk of developing a glioma (cancerous brain tumor — the type that killed Ted Kennedy). And an Israeli study found a 58 percent increase in parotid tumors (cancer of a salivary gland near the ear) in people who used cellphones frequently.
In addition to cancer, cellphone use has been linked to infertility, insomnia, hearing, and, of course, driving hazards.
If you want to be on the safe side, use these tips to minimize radiation from your cellphone:
• Keep your distance. Use an earpiece or headset, or put the phone on speaker. This will keep the phone away from your brain.
• Switch ears. If you must use the cell phone plastered to your ears, don't always use it on the same side of your head. Switch ears to lessen the radiation exposure to one particular area.
• Avoid weak signals. Don't use the phone when the signal is weak, because the phone automatically increases power — and increases your radiation exposure — to boost the signal.
• Minimize exposure at night. Keep your cellphone at least five feet from your head while you sleep.
• Turn off your cellphone when possible.
• Keep cellphones away from children. Children's brains are still developing, and no one knows the damage radiation might cause.
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