the sun will come out TUMORrow?!. . .renewed debate on cellphones & cancer. . .

[NewtonMP2100]

. . .wouldn't hurt to use an earpiece just in case. . .


Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer

. . .What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?

Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”

Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.

Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’ remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer. . .


the MISSING LINK to the renewed discussion. . .

[Chupa Chupa]

There is NO scientific test data to prove this, and doctors or journalists tying this in with Kennedy in an attempt for attention is just appalling. If doctors could prove causation b/t Kennedy's use of cell phones and his tumor fine, but to use his illness like this is twisted. Right now it's all hypothesis, nothing more.

[cbelt3]

There is a higher probability of cell-phone related injury from traffic accidents than this 'danger'. I use my earpiece for that reason. Besides, we're bombarded by so much EMI every day, what's a little bit more gonna do ?

[Carnos Jax]

Electro magnetic radiation is a natural part of the environment. The kind we normally worry about is the high frequency types such as ultra violet and above (x-rays, gamma, etc.). But these others (such as the microwave frequecies used by many communications networks), even though they have a lower freqency than light, doesn't mean they're not dangerous over long time spans of exposure. What one should be careful of is introducing new frequencies that weren't present before in our natural evolution, in the quantities that we're talking about.

[SDGuy]

[quote NewtonMP2100]. . .wouldn't hurt to use an earpiece just in case. . .
But - should it be a Bluetooth earpiece?

"Bluetooth uses the microwave radio frequency spectrum in the 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz range. Maximum power output from a Bluetooth radio is 100 mW, 2.5 mW, and 1 mW for Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 devices respectively, which puts Class 1 at roughly the same level as mobile phones, and the other two classes much lower." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

[sekker]

You are at least at 100000000x greater risk of driving in a car than using your cell phone.

I use this kind of thought to keep things in perspective.

[Carnos Jax]

Can anyone recommend a good Class 3 Bluetooth headset for the iPhone?

[OWC Jamie]

[quote sekker]You are at least at 100000000x greater risk of driving in a car than using your cell phone.

I use this kind of thought to keep things in perspective.
That's the same logic that keeps people smoking cigarettes.

[Article Accelerator]

[quote SDGuy][quote NewtonMP2100]. . .wouldn't hurt to use an earpiece just in case. . .
But - should it be a Bluetooth earpiece?

"Bluetooth uses the microwave radio frequency spectrum in the 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz range. Maximum power output from a Bluetooth radio is 100 mW, 2.5 mW, and 1 mW for Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 devices respectively, which puts Class 1 at roughly the same level as mobile phones, and the other two classes much lower." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
That is improperly stated and misleading!

A Class 3 Bluetooth device radiates at a maximum power of 1 mW. A cell phone has a radiated power of up to 3.6 W--3,600 times greater than a Class 1 Bluetooth device. All Bluetooth headsets are 1 mW (Class 3) devices.

BTW, your cell phone power output will rarely be as low as 100 mW--reception conditions would have to be ideal.

Class 3 - 1 mW (0dBm) with a 'typical range' of 10m
Class 2 - 2.5 mW (4dBm) with a 'typical range' of 20m
Class 1 - 100 mW (20dBm) with a 'typical range' of 100m

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phon...and_health
"The radio waves emitted by a GSM handset, can have a peak power of 2 watts, and a US analogue phone had a maximum transmit power of 3.6 watts. Other digital mobile technologies, such as CDMA and TDMA, use lower output power, typically below 1 watt"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6676129.stm
"The Health Protection Agency has said that sitting in a wi-fi hotspot for a year results in receiving the same dose of radio waves as making a 20-minute mobile phone call."


Additional information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_el...and_health
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/EbruBek.shtml

[Article Accelerator]

Sorry--that should be "up to 3,600 times greater than a Class 3 Bluetooth device."