Cell Phones are the
'Cigarettes' of the 21st Century
By Dr Joseph Mercola, Founder of Mercola.com
A comparison of cell phone use, which continues its meteoric
rise and cigarette smoking, is illustrative. Just a few of the
similarities between the two habits include:
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Manufacturers and industry leaders who either hide or debunk
unfavorable study results and continue to promote their
products despite awareness of the significant dangers to
public health
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Government conflict of interest created by lobbies for both
industries and revenues collected from use taxes
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Expensive, effective marketing campaigns aimed at every
segment of society, including children
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Massive amounts of scientific data proving beyond a shadow
of a doubt the direct link between these products and
life-threatening damage to the human body
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The
addictive nature of both products
The primary distinction between cell phone use and cigarettes is
that smoking has been around long enough to confirm it can,
indeed, be a fatal habit. According to a 2008 World Health
Organization (WHO) report, tobacco use kills 5 million people a
year worldwide, and is a risk factor in six of the eight leading
causes of death.
The Evidence of Cell Phone Danger Continues to Pour In
These are just a few recent examples of study data linking
electromagnetic radiation and cell phone use to a stunning array
of serious health concerns:
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At a
recent Senate Committee hearing, witnesses testified that
cell phone use has been linked to salivary
gland tumors
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Wearing a cell phone on your hip – either on your belt or in
a pocket – has been linked to decreased
bone density in
the pelvic region. All the other vital organs located in
your pelvic region – your liver, kidney, bladder, colon and
reproductive organs – are also susceptible to radiation
damage.
-
Proximity to cell phone towers causes an increase in the
symptoms of electromagnetic
hypersensitivity, including fatigue, sleep
disturbances, visual and auditory disturbances, and
cardiovascular effects, just to name a few.
Cell Phones and Brain Cancer
Thanks to a multimillion-dollar research study funded by none
other than the Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA),
which certainly didn’t set out to uncover these results, we now
have proof of:
-
A
significant increase in cell phone users’ risk of brain
tumors at the brain’s outer edge, on whichever side the cell
phone was held most often.
-
A 60
percent greater chance of acoustic neuromas, a tumor
affecting the nerve that controls hearing, among people who
had used cell phones for six years or more.
-
A
higher rate of brain cancer deaths among handheld mobile
phone users than among car phone users (car phones are
mounted on the dashboard rather than held next to your head)
In addition to this research, a review of 11 long-term
epidemiologic studies published in the journal Surgical
Neurology revealed
that using a cell phone for 10 or more years approximately
doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the
same side of the head where the cell phone is typically held.
Spain has seen an increase in pediatric brain cancers of 21
percent in just one decade. This is consistent with studies
showing a 40 percent brain tumor increase across the board in
Europe and the U.K. over the last 20 years.
Brain cancer has now surpassed leukemia as the number one cancer
killer in children.
Other Health Hazards Linked to Cell Phone Use
In addition to the widespread concern about brain cancer,
scientists have found that information-carrying radio waves
transmitted by cell phones and other wireless devices can:
Steps You Can Take to Protect Yourself and Your Family
While you can’t completely avoid radiation in today’s wireless
world, if you’re ready to give up your cell phone, you can
virtually eliminate that one hazard, at least.
If you’re not prepared to take that step, you can minimize
exposure by heeding the following advice:
Children Should Never Use Cell Phones: Barring
a life-threatening emergency, children should not use a cell
phone, or a wireless device of any type. Children are far more
vulnerable to cell phone radiation than adults, because of their
thinner skull bones.
In Dr. Havas’ video above, you saw three images of cell phone
radiation penetrating the skulls of an adult, a child of 10, and
a five year-old from the research of Dr. Om Ghandi of the
University of Utah. Those depictions are a graphic
representation of just how deeply into your child’s brain cell
phone radiation can reach.
Reduce Your Cell Phone Use: Turn
your cell phone off more often. Reserve it for emergencies or
important matters. As long as your cell phone is on, it emits
radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making
a call.
Use a Land Line at Home and at Work: Although
more and more people are switching to using cell phones as their
exclusive phone contact, it is a dangerous trend and you can
choose to opt out of the madness.
Reduce or Eliminate Your Use of Other Wireless Devices: You
would be wise to cut down your use of these devices. Just as
with cell phones, it is important to ask yourself whether or not
you really need to use them every single time.
If you must use a portable home phone, use the older kind that
operates at 900 MHz. They are no safer during calls, but at
least many of them do not broadcast constantly even when no call
is being made. Note the only way to truly be sure if there is an
exposure from your cordless phone is to measure with an
electrosmog meter, and it must be one that goes up to the
frequency of your portable phone (so old meters wont help much).
You can pretty much be sure your portable phone is a problem if
the technology is DECT, or digitally enhanced cordless
technology.
Use Your Cell Phone Only Where Reception is Good: The
weaker the reception, the more power your phone must use to
transmit, and the more power it uses, the more radiation it
emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves penetrate into
your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full
bars and good reception.
Also seek to avoid carrying your phone on your body as that
merely maximizes any potential exposure. Ideally put it in your
purse or carrying bag.
Don’t Assume One Cell Phone is Safer
Than Another. There’s
no such thing as a 'safe' cell phone.
Keep Your Cell Phone Away From Your Body When it is On: The
most dangerous place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is
within about six inches of the emitting antenna. You do not want
any part of your body within that area.
Use Safer Headset Technology: Wired
headsets will certainly allow you to keep the cell phone farther
away from your body. However, if a wired headset is not
well-shielded - and most of them are not - the wire itself
acts as an antenna attracting ambient information carrying radio
waves and transmitting radiation directly to your brain.
Make sure that the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear
is shielded.
The best kind of headset to use is a combination shielded wire
and air-tube headset. These operate like a stethoscope,
transmitting the information to your head as an actual sound
wave; although there are wires that still must be shielded,
there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head.
Wherever You Are in the World - It’s Time to Take a Stand
I’ve been warning of the dangers of cell phones for over a
decade now, watching for and reporting on new findings along the
way. There’s no doubt in my mind that if our society keeps
ignoring this issue, we will pay a very steep price in declining
health over the coming generations.
Media reports from around the world are catching on to the
similarities between tobacco and cell phones, including this
cleverly titled article from China Daily, "Mobile-boro
Man, Is His Second Addiction a Cancer Cell Phone?"
Camilla Rees, founder of ElectromagneticHealth.org,
also recently interviewed investigative journalist and GQ author
Chris Ketcham about an article he wrote titled, “Warning:
Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to your Health.”
Ketcham’s article contains some disturbing insights into
government and industry efforts to squash research into the
health hazards of electromagnetic fields. One study Ketcham
cites was done 35 years ago and thanks to our Pentagon, never
saw the light of day.
In his article, Ketcham poses the obvious question, “The
evidence is starting to pour in, and it’s not pretty. So why
isn’t anyone in America doing anything about it?”
Louis Slesin, Editor of Microwave News, offers this revealing
but troubling response: “Much
of the comfort in our modern life relies on not caring, on
refusing to recognize the dangers of microwave radiation.”
Camilla has this to say:
“… modern man (and woman) seems to be highly oriented to ego and
power and greed, to an ‘achievement mindset’ derived in many
cases by a need to feel worthy by winning the approval of
others, or the need to be in control.
This encourages a mind body ‘disconnect’, making it difficult to
appreciate the body as a living system, or our own exquisite,
though fragile, electromagnetic makeup.
It’s easier in this place to dismiss potential biological
effects of artificial electromagnetic fields, arrogantly denying
this possibility from a place of ego, ‘being right’. People are
like this all around us and it is astounding.”
It’s time to care, and it’s time to take a stand.
I’m enlisting your help to spread the word about the
dangers of cell phones and electromagnetic radiation.
We can’t look to either the government or the telecom industry
to do the right thing, although it is true we are seeing signs
of hope, in Maine, with Rep. Andrea Boland’s proposed Children’s
Wireless Protection Act, and in San Francisco, where last week
Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced consumer right-to-know legislation
that will require cell phone retailers to post cell phone
radiation levels at point of sale. European citizens especially
have already wakened up to the dangers and the EU has now
started to take action.
It’s fundamentally up to us. We must express our concerns so our
elected officials, who are supposed to be representing our
interests, know that we care deeply about this public health
issue.
For more information, please see EMF.mercola.com for
the latest news and updates.
We recommend that you order the book 'Public
Health SOS: The Shadow Side Of The Wireless Revolution'
by Camilla Rees and Magda Havas to find out more about the
independent research available, obtain advice on what you can do to
create electromagnetic safety and find out how you can help get your
politicians to start paying attention to this important issue
affecting humans, animals and nature.
Furthermore,
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The above information should not be treated as a substitute for the
medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care
professional.
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