Word: cellularized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...series of scares linking everyday electrical objects (hair dryers, electric razors, electric blankets, home computers) to one dread disease or another. Most of the concern has focused on the low-frequency end of the spectrum: the electromagnetic fields surrounding power lines, electric motors and video-display terminals. Cellular phones occupy another part of the spectrum. They send their signals using very small bursts of high-frequency electromagnetic waves, or microwaves, favored for most over-the-air telecommunications...
Despite the panic, the case against cellular phones is nowhere near as strong as the ones mounted against electric power lines, electric blankets or even hand-held police radars. Dozens of highway patrolmen have come forward to complain of tumors of the eye, the cheek or the testicles (from jamming radar guns between their legs). And there is a growing body of evidence showing that living near power lines can quadruple the risk of contracting childhood leukemia...
Since 1982, 10 million cellular phones have been sold in the U.S., and so far there have been only a few anecdotal reports of brain cancers among users. Given the gestation period for most cancers, it may be some time before the true effects emerge...
...really understands the long-term health consequences of holding a microwave transmitter next to your brain because nobody has thoroughly studied them. To ease fears, Motorola held a press conference last week and claimed that "thousands of studies" had proved their cellular telephones safe. But when asked to name three studies that showed the phones do not cause tumors, a company spokesman could cite only one 10-year-old report and two others with ambiguous results. "If that's the best they can do, they're in deep trouble," said Louis Slesin, publisher of Microwave News, a newsletter that...
Slesin recommends that cellular-telephone owners practice what he calls prudent avoidance. "If you can use an ordinary phone, do." If mobility is required, he suggests either a trunk-mounted car phone or a two-piece cellular model that separates the hand-held receiver from the microwave transmitter. (So-called cordless portable phones use a different frequency and far less power, and they have not been associated with any adverse health effects...