The following advice on minimising your exposure to microwave/radiofrequency
electromagnetic fields (MREMFs) when using
wireless (WiFi) devices like mobile and cordless telephones is
a synthesis of advice given by several organisations, principally
PowerwatchUK.
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- Avoid mobile phones with an internal aerial/
antenna. These tend to emit higher levels of radiation
- Use the most efficient mobile phone possible.
One indication of efficiency is the phone’s ‘talk
time’ - the average amount of talk permitted by one battery
charge-up. The longer the ‘talk time’ the more efficient
the handset, though this could also indicate a particularly
efficient battery. The smallest handsets tend to be less efficient.
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) measurements (the strength of
the microwave electromagnetic field emitted by a mobile phone,
and soon to be printed on mobile phone handset packages) are
a ‘red herring’. The SAR of handsets is assessed
when it is operating at full power, taking no account of the
efficiency of any given handset. The small differences between
handset SAR measurements are more than outweighed by the way
you use your phone
- Use your phone in ‘hands-off’
mode, equipped with a ‘proper headset’ as worn by
(e.g.) call centre operators
- Limit calls to two minutes long whenever
possible
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- When you use your phone indoors make sure
that:
- there are a lot of bars showing. When
a phone is used in an area with a weak signal (low bars
showing) it needs to power up more to reach the nearest
mobile phone mast/base station*, so gives off higher emissions.
There is some evidence that mobile phone users living in
rural areas are 50% more likely to develop a brain tumour
than city-dwelling users
- your phone’s aerial/antenna is
as far as possible from your head and hand. If you cannot
see it, your phone has an internal aerial/antenna, which
tends to be at the back rather than the front of the phone.
Phones with an internal aerial/antenna tend to expose the
head to higher levels of radiation
- you stand as close as possible to an
open window, where the signal strength can be up to ten
times greater than in the centre of the room
- you always hold the handset on the window
side of your head to minimise the number and strength of
the signals passing through your head on their way to and
from the phone mast
- Hold your phone as far away from your ear
as practical. Even half an inch (15 millimetres) gap makes a
huge difference in the strength of the microwave/radio-frequency
electromagnetic fields (MREMFs) penetrating into your body.
Instead, turn up the volume or turn on the loudspeaker if necessary
- Never place any fingers behind the earpiece
to press it to your ear as:
- this will channel more of the radiation
into your head and arm
- the handset is forced to operate at a
much higher transmitter power
- When you switch your mobile phone on or right
off, or dial out, it emits bursts of signal that can be hundreds
even thousands of times higher than the signal strength used
during a conversation or text message send. Hold your phone
away from your body:
- before pressing the dial key and until
you hear the respondent pick up
- for a few seconds after switching off
your phone completely. You may think that it is off, but
it is telling the network (at full blast) that it is shutting
down
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- Switch your mobile phone right off rather
than leave it on stand-by. In stand-by it frequently powers
up to check where the best phone mast/base station is, then
tells it (at full blast) where it is. The weaker the signal
from the mast/base station, the more frequently the phone powers
up to do this
- Do not hold your phone when sending a text.
Place the phone on a flat surface, press the ‘Send’
key. Withdraw your hand immediately
- Do not use your mobile phone when travelling.
MREMFs can be both screened by, and amplified by the metal in
cars, buses, coaches and trains. You will also irradiate the
people sitting near you with those amplified fields. One piece
of research found that 30 people using their mobile phones in
a carriage seating 151 people exposed all 151 to microwave radiation
levels above international safety standards. If you have to
make a call when travelling open a window and stand/sit as near
to it as possible
- Beware operators advertising “unlimited
weekend minutes; talk time of up to 200 minutes and standby
up to 180 hours.” The temptation to ‘get your money’s
worth’ can prove irresistible, yet potentially very damaging
healthwise
And, for non-users ...
- Never stand or sit close to someone else
using a mobile phone. The closer you are, the higher your exposure
level. Powerwatch UK has measured exposures of over six Volts
per metre (V/m) at the head of passengers in a train sitting
in the row behind a phone user!
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Minimising the damage
The areas of the body most vulnerable to the MREMFs emitted by
mobile phones are the eyes, the breasts, the testicles, the ovaries,
the kidneys, the liver, and the abdomen of a pregnant woman.
- Always use a mobile phone ‘hands-free’.
Not only are your eyes very near your ears, many people’s
heads are accumulating metallic or metal- containing objects
that can pick up and amplify MREMFs. These include glasses,
ear-rings, amalgam fillings, dental braces, hair accessories,
facial piercing, head implants or pins (e.g. following an operation)
and cochlear implants. Joó et al. found that both adults
and children using mobile phones who wore metal-rim glasses
or had metallic implants could be exposed to SARs above the
ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) limits. Remove as many
metal items from your head as possible before making a call.
- If it is important to you to keep your mobile
phone switched on the whole time:
- do not carry your phone in the breast
pocket of a blouse, shirt, or jacket. Men can get breast
cancer as well as women. The incidence of both female and
male breast cancer is increasing.
Clipping your phone to a rucksack shoulder strap will irradiate
you in the same way - put it in a rear rucksack pocket,
instead
- do not wear an ‘underwired’
bra where the wire is made from metal. All metallic objects
can pick up MREMFs, amplifying the signal around vulnerable
breast tissue. Use an ‘underwired’ bra where
plastic reinforcers are used
- do not carry your phone on a belt or
in a bag that places it at waist or hip height. Not only
will this irradiate your sexual organs, kidneys and liver
or womb, most phones need to power up higher at waist height
than at head height in order to contact the nearest mast/base
station. Levi Strauss, the US jeans maker, once offered
a line of trousers fitted with ‘anti- radiation pockets’
for mobile phones, aimed at teenagers and 20-somethings,
costing as much as £100 a pair. Perhaps they were
simply cashing in on young people’s fears, as some
accused? Perhaps they really understood the health risks?
The safest place to carry your phone is in a long- strapped
bag that places the phone below mid- thigh
- If you have no choice but to carry your phone
on your body, ensure that:
- its face is next to your body (meaning
that its antenna is facing away)
- it is carried in a mid-thigh or lower
trouser pocket
In the context of mobile phones and Wi-Fi, a base station is
a permanent structure that links (e.g.) a mobile phone to a wireless
server’s network (e.g. Orange, O2). It can be a dedicated
tower or an antenna fixed to or inside a building or tall structure
(e.g. school roofs, church steeples, street lamps). There are
even ‘stealth’ base stations, disguised as (e.g.)
a fire alarm on the side of a house or an artificial tree in a
neighbour’s front garden.
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Editorial
Dr. Joseph Mercola (9.8.08) reported that the August 2003 edition
of The Daily Hazard online newspaper had provided the following
advice:
- The angle of the handset is important. Mobile
phones transmit signals most efficiently when held in a vertical
position. If a phone is laid horizontally (e.g. using while
lying in bed) it needs to emit significantly more radiation
to communicate with the nearest mast/base station
- Try not to obstruct the antenna, as this
will cause the phone to power up
- Enclosed spaces tend to trap and amplify radiation.
If you are in a train or car, open a window and point the phone
towards it
- If you wear metal rimmed glasses take them
off before using your mobile. The metal can increase radiation
exposure to the eyes by 20% and to the head by 6.3%. If you
are wearing metal-rimmed earrings, remove those too
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