Health Canada just proposed guidelines for limited cell phone use and is encouraging Canadians to reduce cell phone talk times and to communicate by text messaging or with a hands-free device whenever they can.
Other countries have already implemented this tactic, said Food Consumer, and, in Russia, officials issued a recommendation that children under the age of 18 completely avoid using the devices. The United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, Germany, India, and Finland have urged their citizens to be very cautious when it comes to their children’s use of cell phones, said Food Consumer. France issued a number of recommendations that included selling devices that limit head exposure to electromagnetic frequencies (EMF), banning ads promoting devices to children under the age of 14, banning cell phone use to children during teaching activities in certain locations and for certain grades, and indicating the SAR clearly on the device, among others.
We recently wrote that a published paper revealed that, not only do children take in twice as much microwave radiation from cell phones than adults, but that the cell phones studied exceeded U.S. Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) exposure guidelines. The paper also revealed that the industry-designed method of looking at cell phone microwave radiation causes children to absorb two times the amount of cell phone radiation into their heads. Children also absorb up to three times the radiation into their brain’s hippocampus and hypothalamus, significantly more in their eyes, and up to 10 times more in their bone marrow, versus adults.
We also recently wrote about a possible association between cell phones and cancer that has many women in Australia turning off their devices. An online health survey of more than 30,000 Australian women found that cancer worries have prompted one in four to cut back on cell phone use, while 21% said they wanted to reduce their use of mobile phones in the future.
Of note, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently decided to classify cell phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing hundreds of human and animal studies. As we’ve reported, the IARC’s review included the 2010 INTERPHONE study, which found that the heaviest cell phone users experienced a 40% higher risk for gliomas, the most common type of brain tumor. The IARC panel did caution that much of the research they reviewed was limited, and said more study was needed.
Food Consumer noted that, among other studies and findings, experts working in the area of biological effects of EMFs and wireless technologies feel there is little doubt that cell phones and similar devices not only likely cause cancer, but are culprits in a number of other conditions, such as depression, diabetes, heart problems, cognitive function problems, and fertility issues. Food Consumer also noted that a number of mechanisms linked to adverse events have been identified and show how electromagnetic fields impact cells and damage DNA.
Approximately five billion people, worldwide, use cell phones, accounting for most of the people in the world, said Food Consumer. It costs about $500,000 to treat a brain tumor, which means that based on increases in the disease and cell phone use, this figure could top $2.5 trillion annually worldwide, Food Consumer explained.
