Electromagnetic Pollution: the mobile phone problem

 

keywords: electromagnetic waves, mobile phone, mobile phone safety, pollution

Modern life put us in contact with a large number of poisons and pollutants. There is noise pollution, air pollution, chemical pollution  and many others. One of them, however, is totally invisible and undetectable to humans: that is electromagnetic pollution.
There are many different types of electromagnetic waves. The most familiar to us is light but other members of this class are: radio waves, microwaves, ultraviolet light (UV), gamma radiation, infrared and others. I won't describe the dangers of UV light and gamma radiation because these  are already  widely discussed in the media. I will focus on the apparently harmless microwaves and radio waves.
Radio waves permeate all our city spaces and a large bit of the country side as well. They can penetrate walls, trees and even our bodies. Actually, they are doing it right now! We cannot avoid them. We are bombarded with these radiation everyday, twenty four hours a day. Their health effects are not very clear yet.
In addition to the radiation emitted by high power aerials, the emissions  from power lines is known to cause health problems in people that live in close proximity to them. Another notorious source of electromagnetic pollution is the mobile phone industry.
Mobile phones use the microwave and radio wave regions of the spectrum. The heating effect of microwaves is well known (microwave ovens) and it has been proved experimentally that the microwave power emitted by a typical handset can heat up water to a small extent (different handsets emit different levels of power, and that information should be available to customers). It is not a very pronounced effect. However, if we consider that our brains are made of water, what would be the effect of the microwaves in this complex and delicate organ? Children’s' brains, which are still in the process of formation, are even more at risk. 
The masts used to relay information between a mobile phone handset and the actual network are very conspicuous and at the moment they can be seen almost everywhere, usually at the top of buildings. The mast supports the actual aerials, which have a characteristic rectangular shape. The handset doesn't know where the nearest handset is, so that it has to emit radiation in all directions equally. This increases the level of power required on the area next to it (your brain). Furthermore, the handset is continuously communicating with the network (and consequently radiating) even when not in use (but switched on). That exposes other organs of the body as well, for instance, the genitals (if you normally put your phone in the pocket).

Do mobile phones cause brain cancer? We don't know for sure. A more interesting question would be: would you still use your mobile phone if it was proved that it causes cancer? It may look like a silly question but don't forget that millions of people smoke cigarettes, even knowing that they are carcinogenic.

There is also another problem: even if you choose not to use a mobile phone, you are still being irradiated by its network. The mobile phone companies are setting up masts all over the place: you may even have one on top of your building, without knowing it!! Are the residents on a block of flats consulted before such a device is installed on top of their heads? Are they given a full account of the health risks involved? Probably not. Even schools are receiving these masts, when it is known that children are the most at risk!

At the beginning of this century, London and other large European cities were surrounded by deep clouds of black smoke. It was everywhere, and that was a consequence of the charcoal that was burned for space heating purposes. It was a terrible situation, but at least people could see what was going on. They could just go away from the city if they wanted to.
Now we are surrounded by new types of pollution, which are perhaps nastier than the old ones, because we cannot see them. Neither can we evaluate their effects in a straightforward manner.

How can we get more information on this issue? That will be difficult, considering the fact that mainstream media worldwide is largely supported by the mobile phone companies, and as a result there may be a conflict of interest. So, we cannot expect a lot of coverage on this subject, at least until the first casualties start to appear.
Electromagnetic radiation is a threat to our health, especially when combined to other forms of pollution, and mobile phone radiation is just one face of the problem.