In the communication industry use of telephones are significant and warmly welcomed for the human use. World health Organization (WHO) reports an estimate of 6.9 Billion subscriptions of the mobile phone globally (World Health Organization , 2014). Both wired and wireless communication, the signals are transferred and received as the form of radio frequency (RF) (analog) and electromagnetic waves in the case of digital media. The electromagnetic waves are non-ionizing radiation meaning they can move the atoms in the molecule but not enough to ionize (replace or remove the electrons). High energy radiations such as X-ray or Gamma rays are seriously hazardous to the human body. The exposure level of the radio waves to the human body for the longer duration can cause heat leading to the tissue burn, skin diseases but there are no clear indications of damaging the blood cells due to the exposure. The frequencies that are used in the mobile phones ranges from 900 MHZ to 2.1 GHZ and power of 0.1 to 2 watts. These exposures to the human body vary with the wavelengths, distance, handheld vs. hands- free and length of the call (World Health Organization , 2014).
Health effects
As it is certain that the longer use of the cell phones can cause the heat to the body cells and most likely affect the soft cells in the brain as use is closer to the head. According to NIH only biological effect of radiofrequency energy is heating and there has been no factual evidence on the brain tumors or cancers. On the other hand the study from World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe’s Health Evidence Network (HEN) on the impact on developing head and brain tumors (benign and malignant) concluded the evidence did not support the hypothesis but an increase in the risk of acoustic neuroma after 10 years or more of mobile phone use (World Health Organization and Health Evidence Network (HEN), 2006). Exposure to the radiation can cause short-term and long-term effect to the human body.
Short term effect
Brain performs all the electrical activity of the human body and the nerves transfer these signals to different parts including the skin. The radiation generated by the cell phones can cause heat to the human body, most likely to the skin in the ear and head section. This can increase the temperature to the exposed part of the human body affecting the electrical activity of the human body. People tend to keep the cell phones near to the heart and this can cause the heating in the exposed part and affect the neural functions related to the heart. The studies from health organizations does not suggest any evidence of the health effects due to the exposure to the radio frequency but practically increase the temperature of the tissue exposed (World Health Organization , 2014).The other side of the cell phone use hazard is battery explosion which is causing the serious burnt to the human body and sometimes leads to the human death.
Long term effect
The longer exposure to the radio frequency can cause human health effects most possibly to the lowest level of effect of the high radiation waves. Again the length of exposure to the radiation will depict the effect to the human body. The Interphone study report from World Health organization in 2010 concluded a median lifetime cumulative call time was around half an hour each day and this trend is slowly decreasing due to the technology of hands free and texting in use that prevents from bringing the cell phones closer to the brain cells. Most discussion in the world at present day is brain tumors and damage in the blood cells. People using the cell phones closer to the brain for longer time might expose to the radiation and slowly these radiations can damage the blood cells and also cause some damage in the temporal organ of the human body. Effect on the brain cells, stem cells, skins leads to the rupture in the DNA that will stop the cells growth leading to the blood barrier to the human body. People keeping the cell phones close to the reproductive organs can cause the damage in count of sperm cells leading to the infertility. The exploratory study conducted by Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) on ten human bodies to cell phone radiation stressor illustrate substantial changes in the blood from short-term cell phone radiation exposure in nine out of ten human subjects (Weston A. Price Foundation , 2015). So several studies have been conducted by various health organizations to verify the possibility of brain cancer due to the exposure to the cell phone radiation for longer time but there has not been any definitive study that proves the theory. The research result depends on the various measuring factors such as duration of use, participant’s health condition, age, frequency of the radiation and many more which is always volatile and results cannot be replicated. In other hand the cell phone use in the children are increasing day by day and radiation might affect the brain cells but still researches conducted by US, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland does not prove any cases of brain cell damage or proved cancer.
CTIA-THE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION. (2015). Background on CTIA’s Wireless Industry Survey . CTIA-The Wireless Association.
Weston A. Price Foundation . (2015, January 16). Does Short-term Exposure to Cell Phone Radiation Affect the Blood? Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-diseases/does-short-term-exposure-to-cell-phone-radiation-affect-the-blood/
World Health Organization . (2014, October). Electromagnetic fields and public health: mobile phones. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs193/en/
World Health Organization and Health Evidence Network (HEN). (2006). What effects do mobile phones have on people’s health? Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
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