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Another Reason to be Annoyed by Cell Phones
lotussuper7 writes: "This story at newscientist (free, no registration, unlike the NY Times) has some insight into the amount of RF you may be getting from all those cell phones people around you are using. Might be time to buy a cell phone jammer."
Would you really want someone jamming *your* important calls? I wouldn't, and turnabout is definitely fair play. Besides which, jamming someone's phone is a DoS. Most people get rather upset over that sort of thing...
If you don't like cell phones, then go find somewhere that doesn't have them.
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Reduce your exposure to RF emissions by carrying around a powerful RF transmitter! Sure, that'll do the trick.
The article looks like it's just a simulation of what may happen (with some microwave propagation tool), it would be more interesting to perform a measurement (I'm sure that the railways can "lend" a wagon for one day to the experimentalists) and really see what's going on...
It could be much less serious (or much more....).
I'm not an RF expert but I am a physicist. As far as I know radiation can damage your cells in two ways:
a) Direct heating
b) Ionization
The latter one is easy to dismiss by elementary physics. Unlike in the gamma radiation, the photons of the cellphone microwave radiation simply don't carry enough energy to damage the DNA strands. Hell, microwaves pack less punch per photon than the infrared (heat) radiation!
The heating argument is more difficult to deal with. In general, the power of the RF field is again far too weak to heat your brain significantly (=more than the temperature varies naturally). However, if several fields overlap in a certain way (a standing wave forms inside your skull), then I guess there might be a possibility for an interference "hotspot" to form. Again I think this is very unlikely. Even a small head movement or the movement of the radiation source will change the geometry and thus the interference inside your head.
Quite frankly I am surprised by the anti-cellphone mentality in this thread. Most of it seems to come from experiences with annoying cellphone users. However, that's not a problem with the cellphones. That's a cultural problem. People simply have not learnt the proper etiquette yet.
Where I live the cellphones have practically replaced the landline phones. If the adaptation of the cellphones continues at this rate, there will soon be a one cellphone per citizen -- and that includes the minors. When the use is this widespread, the people in general know how to switch their phones to silent mode for meetings, movies and concerts. Having your cellphone ring, for instance, in the middle of a movie is socially extremely bad behaviour. If you start talking on your phone in the theatre, you will get thrown out -- either by the theatre staff or by the rest of the audience.
The owls are not what they seem
So your view is that if a study is carried out and it doesn't agree with your uninformed preconceptions, then that study is worthless?
:)
The studies are all public, and the results are frequently published on the TV news and in papers over here. It couldn't be any more open, seeing as the vast majority of the population have mobiles it's in everyone's interest. The fact is there hasn't been any real conclusion one way or the other yet, but that's not because of a cover up or because of people "closing their eyes", it's because science doesn't know whether it's a risk yet or not.
So it comes down to personal choice - I for one and happy to take the (slight, IMHO) risk that there may be health problems in exchange for the convenience. If you don't think that's a risk worth taking, don't use a phone. Just make sure you live in an oxygen tent to avoid pollution, don't drive, don't take drugs, drink or smoke, and avoid eating bread or cakes. All those things have been PROVEN to cause health problems, but people still do them
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Yeah, but radioactivity and X-rays are ionising radiation. Non-ionising isn't really as dangerous.
There's a much larger EM field set up by the traction motors. Why isn't anyone worried by that?
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The problem is, there is no mention of any real-world measurements being taken. Maybe the model is fundamentally flawed. Maybe having people in the carriage causes the signals to be attenuated more quickly than the model allows for. Maybe the metal of the carriage is not a perfect reflector. Maybe there is destructive interference between phones like the fading on AM radio stations in the evening etc. After all, if too much of the radiation were bouncing around internally, not enough would get out to allow the phones to work at all.
The man has made calculations and assumptions based on these calculations. I see no mention of measurements. There are meters that will measure radiation field strength, and will let you isolate the sources by frequency. Without measurements, the conclusions are just as valuable as the cries of Chicken Little. The sky is still where we left it.
First, I don't see all these supposive people dropping dead from RF over-exposure via cell phones. Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's one giant conspiracy. Right. Second, I think the person who has the most to worry about is the user. We're not talking second hand smoke here. The power at range just isn't significant to harm a 3rd party. Third, your worried about cellphones when you probably drive through a myriad of high intensity EM fields everyday!? Take a florecent light and walk under some high-tension power lines one of these days. Or put one in a mirowave. I'm sure you'll find the effect enlightening. Funny how a cellphone doesn't produce either of these effects, but it just happens to be everybodies whipping-boy of the day. I love it.
And you actually want to jam cell phone calls? I hope those people get their asses sued off the day somebody tries to phone in a life threatening injury but can't. If you have the right to jam my phone, I must have the right to slash your tires to keep from annoying me. I can't wait until they make jamming triangulators so they can find you, beat your sorry butt down and break your little toy. heh.
Ironically, I'm betting your little jammer will produce more EM radiation than a cellphone. I used to work on EA-6b Prowlers in the navy and you're going to have a tough time jamming without generating an equal or greater amount of power than the source. That, and the greater the range, the more power it'll require. Have fun irradiating yourself, chumps.
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And also, I'd like to add that the idea that cancer can be caused by just a single mutation caused by a single hit (yes, that's called 'the single hit hypothesis') is not very popular anymore. Most people agree there has to be some acumulation of damage before things go bad enough to produce cancer. That would explain why your risk of getting cancer increases as you get older, for instance. Have look here for some concepts.
The Bigger The Headache The Bigger the Pill
Hmm...
You can't just the compare the powers... The frequency range is really important...
I stand corrected. The ICNIRP's credentials appear to be impeccable. My point is that the posted article cannot be taken at face value because it says nothing about that organization's credentials, or reasons for setting those standards.
Microwaves and RF waves are not the same thing- microwaves are higher-frequency than RF waves, and consequently are higher-energy. Cell phones broadcast at the high end of the RF spectrum, but still below the microwave range. Moreover, their signals are extremely weak. Yes, there is plenty of evidence that microwaves, and even RF waves, have physiological effects- they warm you up. When you absorb any sort of radiation, that energy enters your body, mostly as heat. However, you will notice that you cannot stay warm by making cell phone calls, no matter how many phones you use- the power level of a cell phone antenna is far too small to have a measurable effect on your body temperature. Thus, if that immeasurably small increase in temperature can give you cancer, we're already dead, because you heat up your head a lot more every time you stand in direct sunlight.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin