• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • 1
    CommentGo Back
 
Cell Phone Convenience or 21st Century Plague?
Compiled by Dr. Nick Begich and James Roderick
Earthpulse Press has been following the development of new technologies over the last tenyears. Our research efforts and publications have been focused on the impacts of newtechnology on both human health and the planet’s operating systems. The idea that both could beimpacted in profound ways through the introduction of new energetic factors may well prove to bethe environmental story of the 21st century. One of the leading new factors is cell phonetechnology that is predicted to have over 1.3 billion worldwide users by the year 2005.
 
Cell phones have been one of the fastest growing industries in modern history. The uses ofelectronic communications for average people began with the introduction of personal pagingsystems in the 1970’s - expanding into remote telephones and cell phones by the end of thecentury. Most people today have either portable phones in the home, cell phones for away-from-home use or both. These devices are connecting people in convenient ways as their costcontinues to decline with expanded use. The cost of cell phones will continue to drop as themarket increases in size and technologies become more capable and increasingly cheaper tooperate. Soon Internet and other connections will be added to the remote world of the etherealoffice space making us more productive, more connected and perhaps more unhealthy.
 
In the following article we attempt to bring together much of the research and reporting over thelast ten years in the area of cell phone and home portable phones. Often in the debate theportable home phone is not mentioned; however, it should be kept in mind that many of thesephones are no different in their potential impacts on our health.
 
The Health Effects Mount
The idea of health effects from cell phones or other devices is quickly becoming the focus ofmuch research. The findings are confirming for many researchers the observations made overthe years of the effects of very small energy sources on living things. It has been discovered thatsmall amounts of energy when delivered in the right way can have the same effects as a massivedose of chemicals. The complexity of living creatures is being found to be influenced by the mostdelicate fields of electromagnetic energy.
 
It has long been known that the subtle effects of light and color when interpreted by the humaneye results in sight or when a sound wave, which is just another form of energy, is transformed bythe ear and brain into sound we can understand.
 
Other forms of energy are not well understood because their current form is a new addition to ourenvironment by mankind.
 
The effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) continue to be reported worldwide. Tests wereconducted in China at the Microwave Institute of Zhejiang Medical University which demonstratedthe effects of exposure to environmental electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in 1170 subjects. Visualreaction time was prolonged and the scores of short-term memory tests were lower in some high-intensity exposure groups. They also found that these energy fields could affect the centralnervous and immune systems in man. Their data indicated that chronic exposure to EMFs areassociated with significant changes in some physiological parameters.1 In an Americanlaboratory similar results have been reported. The impact on Calcium ions, which are important inmaintaining normal health functions in brain tissues, was found in experiments. This may affect
 
nervous system function. Test “results confirm that amplitude-modulated radiofrequency radiationcan induce responses in cells of nervous tissue origin from widely different animal species,including humans.”2 This small effect has significant health ramifications for people.
 
Another area of concern is in prenatal development in mammals. “Pregnant women have beenwarned to be wary of using mobile phones after it was found radiation produced by the devicescaused defects in chicken embryos...US scientists tested mobile phone-style radiation on morethan 10,000 chicken embryos and as a result some researchers are urging pregnant women notto use the phones until the risks can be properly assessed. British mobile phone specialist RogerCoghill said the findings were ‘enormously worrying.’”3 “The possible effects of radiofrequency(RF) radiation on prenatal development has been investigated in mice. This study consisted of RFlevel measurements and in vivo experiments at several places around an ‘antenna park.’ At theselocations RF power densities between 168 nW/cm2 and 1053 nW/cm2 were measured. Aprogressive decrease in the number of newborns per dam was observed, which ended inirreversible infertility.”4
 
“Australian research has found one of the strongest links between cell phones and cancer. Overperiods of 9 to 18 months, exposed mice had twice the tumor rate as unexposed mice. The micewere exposed to cell phone radiation. As reports linking cell phone use to adverse healthconditions have been published, attempts ‘have been made by industry to hose down the findingswith what is called ‘The Hockett Defense’ (named after the chief Tobacco Institute scientist) whoadvise his executives to repeat endlessly, ‘men aren’t rodents’. As one of the scientistscommented to me; ‘but DNA is DNA’. At the level of normal cell growth processes, human andanimal cells act very similar.”6
 
The body has to be seen in the context in which it operates. The body is not a closed system but,rather, an open one which exchanges energy with all of the forces around it. The human bodyseeks equilibrium or its own balance. Energy interaction requires a corresponding action from thebody. On an energetic level this results in chemical changes, system stress and other interactionswhich can be either healthy or not so healthy. The “new techniques using low-frequency pulsedelectromagnetic fields (e.g. digital telecommunication) have raised the question of interferenceswith the biological system of man. EEG-data of man sampled under the influence of theseelectromagnetic fields are altered extremely in the range of
alpha 
-activity during as well as afterexposure for some hours. This biological effect is induced by field intensities lower than the giveninternational limiting values. Regarding these results there is the very important question ofpossible influences, injurious to health for people exposed to pulsating electromagnetic fields,especially by operating the new type of digital telecommunication networks (GSM-standard).”7 Ineach of these kinds of observation a very limited area is researched involving a few wave forms,frequencies and carrier modulations in a sea of possibilities. Each of these tests represents a lookat the beach - a grain of sand at a time. Some energy fields are healthy and are being used tocreate solutions to many health issues while others are life threatening. The disconnect betweentechnological fields of research will dissipate over time as communication increases betweenresearch areas.
 
There has been a great deal of laboratory research into the biological effects of EMFs in recentyears. It has been shown that even fairly low levels of electromagnetic radiation can change thehuman body’s sleep rhythms, affect the body’s cancer-fighting capacity by harming the immunesystem, and change the nature of the electrical and chemical signals communicating betweencells.8 The research has also shown that this energy may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.“These results are consistent with previous findings regarding the hypothesis that electromagneticfield exposure is etiologically associated with the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease.”9
 
Reports continue to amplify the same results which are being replicated now around the world. Atthe same time the industry is shifting the standards, changing cell phone designs and alteringother factors which make evaluation of the effects even more difficult. “Existing data indicate thatRFR of relatively low intensity (SAR < 2 W/kg) can affect the nervous system. Changes in blood-brain-barrier, morphology, electrophysiology, neurotransmitter functions, cellular metabolism, and
 
calcium efflux, and genetic effects have been reported in the brain of animals after exposure toRFR. These changes can lead to functional changes in the nervous system. Behavioral changesin animals after exposure to RFR have been reported.”10, 11 New research indicates thatexposure to cell phones’ radiation causes red blood cells to leak hemoglobin, the build up ofwhich can cause heart disease and kidney stones. Scientists exposed samples of blood tomicrowave radiation and found that even at lower levels than those emitted by cell phones, theblood cells leaked hemoglobin. “Last month, scientists at Sweden Lund University found that twominutes of exposure to emissions from mobile phones can disable a safety barrier in the bloodcausing proteins and toxins to leak into the brain. This can cause the chances of developingdiseases such as Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. Symptoms reported by mobilephone users include fatigue, dizzy spells and memory loss.”12
 
British scientists are demanding that mobile telephones carry a health warning. “Amid anexplosive growth of mobile communications, concerns are mounting about cellular telephones’potential links to health problems ranging from headaches to brain tumors... Mobile telephonesare arguably the most radiative appliance we have ever invented apart from the microwave ovenand people are putting them by their heads - arguably the most sensitive part of the body,” bio-electromagnetics scientist Roger Coghill said. Cell phones emanate microwave radiation, andhuman brains may absorb up to 60 percent of that energy.” One engineer said he has sufferedsevere loss of short-term memory. He began suffering from twitching eyes and numbness of thehead within months after using a digital mobile phone for up to six hours per day in 1995. TheNational Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) sets the standards for exposure in Britain.“Recommended radiation limits are measured in ‘specific absorption rates’ - the amount ofradiation averaged over one gram of tissue.” The NRPB recommends a limit of 10 milliwatts pergram, though proposed European guidelines are five times more restrictive.13
 
How much evidence on the risks of mobile phones must be shown before the industry admits tothe risks? “Scientist Clas Tegenfeld who is writing a book on biological effects of electromagneticfields is pessimistic: ‘Already there are at least 15,000 scientific reports on the subject. I am afraidthe truth is that we don’t want to know.’”14 Children may be more sensitive to microwaves thanadults says an Australian report indicating they absorb microwaves at 3.3 times the rate of adults.“For amplitude- or pulse-modulated RF fields, there is the implication that some form of envelopedemodulation occurs in tissue recognition of ELF modulation components, but the tissue remainsessentially transparent to the same signal as an unmodulated carrier.”15 Extremely LowFrequency (ELF) signals have been reported to stimulate physiological responses in manyexperiments where in certain exposures there was an effect but in others not manipulated in thesame way there was no effect at all. It could be compared to the dialing of a radio signal - ifslightly off the signal is not clear. Someday it will be as well understood as radio science whendialing up the health of a person. Research is showing that the body can be both monitored andinfluenced by measuring signals from the body and conditioning signals entering the body. Thisarea of science will also advance.
 
There have been reports of headaches caused by cell and portable phone use.16 Evidence fromthe 1960s and 70s supports the conclusion that cell phones cause headaches among someusers. Cell phone “transmitting frequencies fall in the most sensitive band for the microwavehearing effect. The transmitting frequencies are also in the band that has maximal penetrationinto the head. Further, when the head is shielded from the microwave energy, the area of thehead that needs to be exposed to the microwaves in order for people to perceive the effect is inproximity to the antenna of present day cellular telephones,” Frey wrote. The most important pointthat came out of his microwave research in the 1960s was that his human subjects were reportingheadaches. 30 years ago he encountered and reported headaches from microwave energyexposure at approximately the same frequencies, modulations and incident energies that presentday cellular telephones emit.17 Dr. Frey was involved in several research areas related to theconcept of microwave hearing or the act of creating audible signals inside the head without aphysical connection to a device. Perhaps this will one day lead to the development of new
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
MisterFrost

Plague for sure... not only that, if you talk more than 1 hr/day, you should realize that it is nothing more than an ADULT PACIFIAR, in many ways. Keeps you docile, distracted, and certainly out of touch with yourself and your natural world. Most 'talk' is purely nonsensical BS.

reply03 / 18 / 2009
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...