Your Cellphone Could Be a Major Health Risk, and the Industry Could Be a Lot More Upfront About It

(AlterNet article on cellphone EMF risks follows these links re proposed legislation or regulations.)
There have been attempts in U.S. cities and states to protect against cellphone radiation. But there have been ups and downs with these attempts.
Legislation has passed in Maine, but in a March 2014 legislation review, key Democrats switched sides after the bill passed both houses and killed the bill.
Yet legislation was passed and later killed in San Francisco in May 2013.
(Of related interest: FCC finally opens review of cell phone safety standards Nine months after the FCC said it would take a closer look at its standards for cell phone safety to see if the agency needs to revise the 15-year-old guidelines, it finally opened the official inquiry. CNet, March 29, 2013)  
CNN Anderson Cooper report:


From Cellphone Radiation Digest  

Call for Action to Reduce Harm from Mobile Phone Radiation, January 24, 2013

Europe has issued a warning that users globally should heed.

The European Environment Agency published a major report today to alert governments about the need to attend to early warning signs about technology health risks, including mobile phones.

The 750-page volume, “Late Lessons from Early Warnings,” includes twenty new case studies and has major implications for policy, science and society.  Although the report was prepared by the European Environment Agency to provide guidance to the EU nations, its implications are global. 

 . . . .

Martin Blank, Aternet.com

Your Cellphone Could Be a Major Health Risk, and the Industry Could Be a Lot More Upfront About It

The science is becoming clearer: Sustained EMF exposure is dangerous.

The following is an excerpt from  “Overpowered: What Science Tells Us About the Dangers of Cell Phones and Other Wifi-age Devices” by Martin Blank, PhD. Published by Seven Stories Press, March 2014. ISBN 978-1-60980-509-8. All rights reserved

Key excepts, but read the valuable book:

You may not realize it, but you are participating in an unauthorized experiment—“the largest biological experiment ever,” in the words of Swedish neuro-oncologist Leif Salford. For the first time, many of us are holding high-powered microwave transmitters—in the form of cell phones—directly against our heads on a daily basis.

Cell phones generate electromagnetic fields (EMF), and emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR). They share this feature with all modern electronics that run on alternating current (AC) power (from the power grid and the outlets in your walls) or that utilize wireless communication. Different devices radiate different levels of EMF, with different characteristics.

What health effects do these exposures have?

Therein lies the experiment.

 . . . .

What we know

The science to date about the bioeffects (biological and health outcomes) resulting from exposure to EM radiation is still in its early stages. We cannot yet predict that a specific type of EMF exposure (such as 20 minutes of cell phone use each day for 10 years) will lead to a specific health outcome (such as cancer). Nor are scientists able to define what constitutes a “safe” level of EMF exposure.

However, while science has not yet answered all of our questions, it has determined one fact very clearly—all electromagnetic radiation impacts living beings. As I will discuss, science demonstrates a wide range of bioeffects linked to EMF exposure. For instance, numerous studies have found that EMF damages and causes mutations in DNA—the genetic material that defines us as individuals and collectively as a species. Mutations in DNA are believed to be the initiating steps in the development of cancers, and it is the association of cancers with exposure to EMF that has led to calls for revising safety standards. This type of DNA damage is seen at levels of EMF exposure equivalent to those resulting from typical cell phone use.

The damage to DNA caused by EMF exposure is believed to be one of the mechanisms by which EMF exposure leads to negative health effects. Multiple separate studies indicate significantly increased risk (up to two and three times normal risk) of developing certain types of brain tumors following EMF exposure from cell phones over a period of many years. One review that averaged the data across 16 studies found that the risk of developing a tumor on the same side of the head as the cell phone is used is elevated 240% for those who regularly use cell phones for 10 years or more. An Israeli study found that people who use cell phones at least 22 hours a month are 50% more likely to develop cancers of the salivary gland (and there has been a four-fold increase in the incidence of these types of tumors in Israel between 1970 and 2006). And individuals who lived within 400 meters of a cell phone transmission tower for 10 years or more were found to have a rate of cancer three times higher than those living at a greater distance. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated EMF—including power frequencies and radio frequencies—as a possible cause of cancer.

At Powells.com: Overpowered: What Science Tells Us About the Dangers of Cell Phones and Other Wifi-age Devices

At Alibris.com: Overpowered: What Science Tells Us About the Dangers of Cell Phones and Other Wifi-age Devices

Italian Court Makes Cellphone-Tumor Link

Forbes Magazine, long advertising itself as a "capitalist tool," ran a story recently that an Italian court ruled in favor of a complainant in a cellphone tumor case:

Now, in a decision that has hitherto received little publicity in the United States, an Italian court may have opened the floodgates to a torrent of lawsuits against cellphone makers and service suppliers. The decision was handed down last week in Rome in a case brought by an Italian businessman Innocente Marcolini. He had used his cellphone up to six hours a day for twelve years and developed a brain tumor. The court backed his allegation of a causal link. . . . How much will the Italian decision cost the U.S. cellphone industry? And will service providers like A T & T, Verizon, and Sprint take the brunt or will manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola also find themselves in the firing line. If Angelo Gino Levis, a doctor who testified in the Italian case, is to be believed, the decision will prove a goldmine for class action lawyers. He was quoted in The Sun saying that the decision will “open not a road but a motorway [expressway] to legal actions by victims.”

For the industry, there is, however, a finite upper limit on their liabilities in that brain tumors are still relatively rare. According to the Cleveland Clinic, fewer than 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with primary brain tumors each year.

The Forbes article offered these safety tips:

[Writer Nick] Tate comments that in the absence of definitive evidence clearing cellphones of suspicion, they should be used sparingly, particularly by children. He offers these further tips:

* Use a wired earpiece with an external microphone, or a wireless headset, such as a small Bluetooth device.
* Use the speakerphone function to keep the phone away from your head.
* Instruct children to text rather than talk on the phone unless it is an emergency.
* When driving, use an installed wireless device with an antenna located outside the vehicle.
* If the signal is weak, hang up and try again: Radiation is highest when the phone is seeking a connection and the signal is weak.

Another report, this one from 2009, argues that placing a cellphone on your hip can lead to weakened bones.

Thanks to Alternet for the backlinks to both of these stories.