Heavy Cell Phone Use Can Quadruple Your Risk of Deadly Brain Cancer

There has been a controversy about the correlation between heavy cell phone use and brain cancer for some time now. No one wants to hear that something as “indispensable” as your cell phone might actually cause grave harm to your health, but that’s exactly what mounting evidence tells us we’re faced with.

Wireless phones and other gadgets have the potential to cause all sorts of health problems, from headaches to brain tumors.
Previous research has shown that those who begin using cell phones heavily before age 20, have four to five times more brain cancer by their late 20s, compared to those whose exposure is minimal.

In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared cell phones a Class B Carcinogen, meaning a “possible cancer-causing agent,” based on the available research. This places cell phones in the same category as diesel engine exhaust, some pesticides and some heavy metals.

The expert panel ruled that there was “some evidence” that regular cell phone use increased the risk of two types of tumors – brain tumors (gliomas) and acoustic neuromas.

When you consider the fact that your body is bioelectric, it’s easier to understand how and why biological damage from wireless phones might occur.

Research findings show that 3G phones may cause more harm than the earlier versions, raising the risk of brain cancer four-fold. It also appears to have shorter latency period, just five to 10 years, compared to about 25 years for earlier mobile phone versions.

Common-sense guidelines to minimize the risk:

1. Buy a low radiation emitting cell phone - Cell phone radiation is measured in units called a SAR. For a phone to pass FCC certification and be sold in the United States, its maximum Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. Here are the lowest radiation emitting cell phones currently on the market.

2. Don’t let your child use a cell phone. Barring emergency situations, young 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 and developing nervous systems.

3. Keep your cell phone use to a minimum. 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.

4. Reduce or eliminate your use of other wireless 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 some of them do not broadcast constantly even when no call is being made.

5. Limit cell phone use to areas with excellent reception. 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.

6. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body and do not sleep with it below your pillow or near your head. Ideally, put it in your purse or carrying bag. Placing a cell phone in your bra or in a shirt pocket over your heart is asking for trouble, as is placing it in a man’s pocket if he seeks to preserve his fertility. 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 while the phone is on.

7. Use a well-shielded wired headset: 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 can act as an antenna attracting and transmitting radiation directly to your brain. Make sure the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear is shielded. One of the best kinds of headsets use a combination of shielded wire and air-tube. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the sound 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.

There is also quite a bit of controversy in reference to using radiation reducing devices that attach to a cell phone. They may be worth the money or a total waste of it. Many of them seem to make claims that are unfounded. The best bet is to start off with a phone with a low SAR and if you want to buy one of these devices, it may be worth it to get one. The only way to be sure if it works, is to test the radiation emitted by the cell phone with the device off and then with the device on and compare the two readings.

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