Radiation affects biological material. That is to say that biological material reacts or acts/grows/etc differently in a radio field than otherwise. However, minor magnetic fields of short duration appear to leave no lasting change. While under the influence of a field there is a difference, but everything goes back to normal except in the case of overexposure. The cellular industry follows guidelines for radiation, and in most cell phones now you'll find the antenna is in the side opposite the head when the phone is at your ear, so there's a PCB, LCD and/or other components shielding the user from the point of radiation. Some have the antenna at the bottom of the phone near the back so it's further from the brain. Further, the radiation decreases exponentially by distance, so at one meter there is no known biological affect for standard cell phones signals. Lastly, the transmitter in the phone is very, very, very weak - we're talking mW, not watts of transmitting power. So- Yes, there's an effect No, it's not known to be significant, lasting, or cumulative Yes, people are still studying this No, no one has yet found a statistically significant cause/effect correlation to suggest they aren't safe Yes, lots of people outside the cellular industry are studying this, hoping that they will find otherwise No, they haven't succeeded in showing the cellular industry's results are anything other than real It would not surprise me if we find that those teens who grew up with a cell phone next to their head for an hour a day find that after 50 years they experience a slightly greater rate of cancer than others. But it wouldn't surprise me if the reverse were true either. On the other hand, this is a pretty good reason to text instead of call - the transmission burst is very small and short, and it's away from the head. -Adam On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:32 AM, solarwind wrote: > Cell phones emit energy in the form of radiation. There has been a lot > of "controversy" as to if this radiation is bad for your health or > not. > > The scientists and engineers, of course, say yes, cell phone usage > increases the risk of brain damage. They also say that the research > conducted was mainly done by the cell phone industry which is making > far too much money to let the truth out. > > Others say that if there was a real concern, we would know by now as > cell phones were being used regularly for more than a decade. > > I don't think that there's a doubt that radiation in any form causes > some sort of damage. The question is to what degree. > > The average cell phone user does not put the phone to his head (to > talk) for more than a few minutes a day. But then again, the cell > phone goes up right against the head when you talk. > > I sit in lecture halls with hundreds of students for hours every day. > Practically everyone has a cell phone, inducing the 2 kids beside me, > and the 2 in front/back. These phones must still be emitting radiation > even when not being used (as in people talking into them) as they are > in communication with cell towers constantly (to check for text > messages, things like that). What risk does that pose? > > What about going into a busy subway station every day with people > constantly talking on their cell phones around you? Many of them less > than 1 m away in proximity. > > So to what degree does cell phone usage pose a threat? > > I thought this would be a good place to post this as you all are > engineers and have a good understanding of how cell phones and this > sort of energy behaves on the "physics" level. And I realize I may > have sounded like a complete idiot writing this post, but please, bear > with me. > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist