A non-profit environmental group has launched a global campaign for safer cell phones. According to its press release, the Environmental Health Trust (EHT) will promote the public right to know about ways to reduce cell phone radiation in a dozen countries.
The safer cell phones campaign will launch tomorrow in Toronto, Canada. Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, President of EHT, will discuss the campaign’s goals, and debut a new pamphlet prepared by physicians on cell phone safety, as well as a set of creative warning stickers to be placed on phones.
Dr. Davis is the author of “Disconnect: The truth about cell phone radiation…†She has also testified before a U.S. Senate panel about the dangers of cell phone use.
“This global campaign is designed to alert the planet’s five billion cell phone customers that heavy use of phones next to the body increases infertility, cancer and neurological problems,” Dr. Davis said in the EHT press release. “We’re launching this campaign in Canada because this country is about to elect a new government, and the government has a duty to warn about the dangers of that cell phone in their pocket and protect the basic right to know about such risks.”
“Every cell phone comes with a set of safety warnings in small print that few read,” she continued. “People have a right to know what cell phone manufacturers are saying about their products, and this brochure is designed to spotlight that information.”
The physicians pamphlet produced by EHT, titled “Cell Phones & Health: Simple Precautions Make Sense,” was created by a group of leading US and French oncologists and neurosurgeons. It outlines steps for protecting one’s family from <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/Cell-Phones-Cause-Cancer-Radiation-Exposure-Lawsuit-Lawyer">cell phone radiation and shares recent findings about the negative impact this radiation can have the health of both adults and children.
So far, studies about the effects of cell phone radiation have been inconclusive, and most experts agree that there is an urgent need for more research. It can take decades for the health impacts of a new technology to surface, so the problems associated with cell phone radiation might not be apparent yet. But some studies have raised red flags. In the World Health Organization’s Interphone Study, for example, the heaviest cell phone users (those who used the devices at least 30 minutes a day) who reported using their phones on the same side of their heads had a 40 percent higher risk for gliomas, the most common type of brain tumor. The Interphone study involved nearly 13,000 people in numerous countries.
Earlier this year, researchers at the National Institutes of Health published a study which found that 50-minutes of cell phone use was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism (a marker of brain activity) in the region closest to the phone antenna. The study is one of the first, and the most prominent, to offer scientific evidence that cell phones affect brain metabolism. What is not yet understood is exactly how the brain changes induced by using a cell phone might impact health over the long-term.
Dr. Davis’ will launch the EHT cell phone safety campaign tomorrow at 2:00 pm at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Lecture Hall 205. Admission is free to the public.
