I was at dinner the other night and saw a woman with a cell phone in her breast pocket. Maybe there is not enough research out there about the link between cell phones and brain cancer but there is emerging evidence. Another evening I saw a teenage girl put her cell phone in her cleavage (read, her bra), maybe she thought it looked sexy, maybe her jeans were too tight that night so she couldn't put it in her back pocket but for god sake, PLEASE don't put your cell phone near your breasts! Let's think about what we know.....
- Cell phones put out an electromagnetic field (EMFs).
- Your body's cells that have extended exposure to electromagnetic fields can turn cancerous (think high tension power lines and their relationship with leukemia), especially in children due to their extended, cumulative exposure to EMFs.
- EMFs from electrical devices such as cell phones are a form of low level radiation that has an effect on the cells of your body.
- Even though brain cancer and tumors of the ear have yet to be definitively associated with the EMFs from cell phones, you must remember that there is a bone (aka your skull) that protects your brain from direct EMF involvement from your cell phone. Your breast tissue, however does not have this same protection (yes, both men AND women have breast tissue and yes, men can get breast cancer).
- Your cells phones put out EMFs regardless of whether or not you are speaking on the cell phone. Unless you are on airplane mode, which then precludes the need to carry your cell phone around in your breast pocket.
- Cell phones carried in the front pocket of your pants have been related to lowered sperm quality in men. Also, sperm quality was found to go down the more time a man spent on a cell phone as well.
- There is an increase in oxidative stress, increased free radicals and a decrease in anti-oxidants in tissues near the exposure to a cell phone.
The University of Pittsburgh's Cancer Center has made the
following 10 recommendations:
- Do not allow children to use a cell phone except for emergencies. The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields.
- While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the cell phone away from the body as much as possible. The amplitude of the electromagnetic field is one fourth the strength at a distance of two inches and fifty times lower at three feet.
Whenever possible, use the speaker-phone mode or a wireless Bluetooth headset, which has less than 1/100th of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone. Use of a headset attachment may also reduce exposure.
- Avoid using your cell phone in places, like a bus, where you can passively expose others to your phone’s electromagnetic fields.
- Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times. Do not keep it near your body at night such as under the pillow or on a bedside table, particularly if pregnant. You can also put it on “flight” or “off-line” mode, which stops electromagnetic emissions.
- If you must carry your cell phone on you, it is preferable that the keypad is positioned toward your body and the back is positioned toward the outside of your body. Depending on the thickness of the phone this may provide a minimal reduction of exposure.
- Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting a few minutes as the biological effects are directly related to the duration of exposure. For longer conversations, use a land line with a corded phone, not a cordless phone, which uses electromagnetic emitting technology similar to that of cell phones.
- Switch sides regularly while communicating on your cell phone to spread out your exposure. Before putting your cell phone to the ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up. This limits the power of the electromagnetic field emitted near your ear and the duration of your exposure.
- Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, as this automatically increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.
- When possible, communicate via text messaging rather than making a call, limiting the duration of exposure and the proximity to the body.
- Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR = Specific Absorption Rate, which is a measure of the strength of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). SAR ratings of contemporary phones by different manufacturers are available by searching for “sar ratings cell phones” on the internet.
I don't know whether or not cell phones in a breast pocket of a shirt or in your bra will lead to cancer in the future but I'm also not waiting for more research to find out something that should be obvious to most and that is to keep your cell phone as far away from your body as possible when you aren't talking on it.
