What Everyone Should Know About the Dangers of Cell Phones

How dangerous are cell phones? To answer this it is best to begin by looking at how they work. When you receive a call on one, an electromagnetic signal is beamed from the nearest  cell phone tower. (These towers dot the landscape so you're never very far from one.) The signal is picked up by the antenna on your phone, and this antenna is only a few inches from your brain, so that 70 to 80 percent of the energy of the signal passes through you skull, and much of it penetrates well into your brain. Furthermore, if you happen to be in a car, or where the signal is particularly weak, the intensity of the radiation is much greater.

One of the main arguments against the dangers of cell phone radiation is that the signal is low energy radio frequency (RF) radiation, and this energy is too low to have any effect. Although the signal is near the radio frequency range, it's actually microwave radiation -- the same radiation that is used in  your microwave oven. The central argument along this line is that although these waves are used for heating (as in a microwave oven) the energy of the phone waves is too low to heat tissue. And, indeed, this is true; they are at least a thousand times weaker than the microwaves in a microwave oven. But it's important to remember that low energy microwaves are chosen for cooking because they easily penetrate food, not because they are highly energetic (because they're not). Another argument on their safety is that they are not ionizing, so they cannot knock electrons from atoms and cause such things as free radicals (which can do a lot of damage). Again, this is true, but as any physicist will tell you, you don't need ionizing radiation to do a lot of damage. Non-ionizing radiation is quite capable on its own.

The question we need to ask is: Are the microwaves in cell phones powerful  (energetic) enough to cause damage to brain cells? They are, indeed, low power devices. Early analog devices used about 1.3 watts, and more recent digital phones use about .2 to .6 watts. This is obviously a lot less than the 60 watt light bulbs you have in your house, and miles less than the 600 to 1100 watts your microwave oven uses. But is it enough less?

To answer this, let's look at why radiation is so dangerous to us. As it turns out, radiations of different types vary in the amount of damage they can do to the body. In most cases, the more energetic the radiation, the greater the damage. Everyone knows that x-rays are particularly dangerous. They are highly energetic, highly penetrating, and can easily pass through your body. And while they are passing through, they encounter a lot of cells and break up the DNA within them, and this in turn causes "mutations" or defects that change the "code of life" that is contained within your DNA. So x-rays aren't something you want around you.

Some types of radiation, such as infrared and ultraviolet, however, aren't terribly dangerous, as long as you aren't exposed to them for long. (But as you likely know, infrared radiation can burn your skin, and ultraviolet can also be dangerous if the exposure is very long.) All of these radiations, along with ordinary light and microwaves, are electromagnetic waves, and all are forms of energy. Microwaves are less energetic than any of the other, so it might seem that they wouldn't be much of a threat. But we have to look at how they could be dangerous in other ways. One of the problems is that they are very penetrating and can easily penetrate the skull and brain. Because of this we have to consider what they could do once they are inside our body. In particular, we have to consider are their effect on:

• Our DNA
• On the functioning of our cells
• On the neurons in our brain

Consider our DNA first. As we saw earlier, there's little chance of direct damage to our DNA; microwaves can't break or ionize it, nevertheless they can cause mutations within it. Mutations are dangerous because they change the "code of life" (or, genetic information) that is contained in our DNA, and this genetic information controls everything that happens in our body. In particular, it produces all the proteins that are needed to keep our body running (and alive). This code is held in place by very weak bonds called hydrogen bonds, and microwaves can break them, or at least have an effect on them. Studies have also shown that DNA produces a particular type of protein when it is stressed, usually referred to as "stress protein." When these proteins are produced, your DNA is telling your body that something harmful is happening. And it is well-known the when DNA absorbs microwaves it produces stress proteins in abundance.

The DNA within your cells also controls the various functions of the cells, and one of the most important of these is how the cell reacts to objects and other cells that come in contact with its surface. To deal with them it has "receptors" on its surface; they determine whether or not to let something pass through. Nutrients are, of course, needed to sustain the cell and keep it healthy, and they must pass through. But there are millions of dangerous things such as bacteria, toxins, viruses and so on, that are also trying to get through. The receptors have to make sure they don't get in. In addition, these receptors control cell division; they start and stop it.

So, what has this to do with microwaves? Studies have shown that microwaves can knock out these receptors, and change the way they act. And this can have serious effects for the cell.

ells) within the brain. In effect, they can interact with the "brain waves" within the brain and change them.

Each of these has to make you think.