Cellular phones and your health, safety

Cellular phones and your health, safety

JAKARTA (JP): Once I received a very interesting e-mail about
cellular phones on my account. Curiosity lead me to read it
because the subject was about the careless cellular phone usage.

The e-mail informed me that a young girl died in the intensive
care unit of a hospital because a malfunction was caused in one
of the life support machines she was hooked up to. The
malfunction was presumably caused by someone using their cellular
phone outside the intensive care unit.

Gas stations

Another e-mail that was forwarded to me was about one man
being engulfed in flames when using his cellular phone while
filling up his tank at a gas station.

I have no idea whether these e-mails were based on fact, but I
am sure everyone is as interested as I am to know whether a
cellular phone can cause death.

Some time ago, a man was murdered by a long haul missile after
his whereabouts was traced and targeted through his cellular
phone. This was made possible because cellular phones emit
signals that can be detected.

Careless cellular phone usage while driving a car can
absolutely put someone at peril.

Battery

It is advisable that electronic appliances, especially those
operated by battery, are never used near fire. It is also best to
refrain from using a cellular phone in or near a gas station.

Meanwhile, the GSM Association mentions that at short range,
the radio signal from a cellular phone may cause interference in
electronic medical equipment.

The risk substantially decreases at distances greater than two
meters. While visiting someone in the hospital, if you must make
a call it is possible to do so with a mobile phone in a
designated area of the hospital. However, you should take note of
any warning signs and the instructions of hospital staff and heed
them.

If you have electrical medical equipment in use in your home
you should seek the advice of your doctor or equipment supplier
about the use of mobile phones.

Pacemakers

The GSM Association says that brands and models of cardiac
pacemakers exhibit a wide range of immunity levels to GSM and
other types of radio signals.

Therefore, people who wear cardiac pacemakers and who want to
use a GSM phone should seek the advice of their cardiologist.

If, as a pacemaker user, you are still concerned about
interaction with cellular phones, it has been suggested by
national health authorities that you: maintain a 15 centimeter (6
inch) distance between the cellular phone and your pacemaker; do
not hold your phone to your chest, e.g., don't carry the phone in
a breast pocket; refer to your pacemaker product literature for
information on your particular device; and refer to your phone
product literature for the technical parameters of your phone.

Tumor

The association also explains that there is no convincing
scientific evidence that the use of cellular phones can cause
brain tumors or other cancers in humans.

It is the consensus of the worldwide scientific community that
the low powered radio signals produced by a cellular phone do not
have sufficient intrinsic energy to affect genetic material.

Independent scientific institutions around the world review
all relevant research as it is published. The consensus of these
expert groups is that there is no demonstrable evidence of risk
to human health from cellular phone use. The association however,
continues to support international quality research into this
question.

Sophisticated and sensitive research methods using well-tried
models for assessing health risks from other agents have been
applied to investigate the safety of cellular phones.

Many research institutions and the safety standards and
guidelines according to which such research is conducted, are
controlled by government and independent bodies around the world.

Research results are continually reviewed at an international
level by organizations such as the International Commission on
Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the World Health
Organization (WHO).

Flying

I sometimes travel by plane and have noticed that several
passengers, especially on domestic airlines, still use cellular
phones while seated, though it is widely known that using such
devises is not allowed.

Perhaps some people do not understand that there is still some
aircraft avionics that are sensitive to radio frequency
interference from cellular phones and other electrical devices
such as CD players.

Also, when airborne, the radio signals from mobile phones can
travel for hundreds of kilometers and this could interfere with
the operation of ground-based phones.

It is therefore highly recommended that people heed an
airline's instructions to switch off cellular phones. (I.
Christianto)