I Have A Mobile Phone
Are mobile phones bad for you? Like is it true they emit radiation and stuff?
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ArishMell · 70-79, M
No. it's an old scare, but if your are really worried don't switch the thing on until you need make a call, or are expecting a genuinely important call needing immediate response, limit your time on it and use texts as well as voice.
They are radio transmitter/receivers, so obviously emit a form of electromagnetic radiation but the fear stems from people not understanding this.
They use high-frequency radio signals but transmit at very low power and the intensity falls rapidly with distance, by an inverse-square law. E.g. at 4m from the device, if the signal is spreading evenly all round, it is at one-quarter of its strength per unit area than is was at 2m distance.
Also, their radiation is NOT the ionising sort too many people concatenate with "radiation" [i]per se[/i] and so confuse with Ultra-violet light, X-rays and Gamma rays. These last three [i]are[/i] ionising radiations, i.e. causing atomic changes that in biology, lead to tissue damage and ultimately, cancer.
At high enough powers radio waves will heat body tissues (as discovered by British military-radar researchers in WW2), but not ionise them as radioactivity does - but a portable telephone transmits at very low power and the signals it detects are even weaker still.
....
Oh, and the British term for what the Americans call "cell[ular] 'phones" after the network principle, is an example of the Great British Public falling for some semi-illiterate advertising copy-writer mangling the language. Your phone is now more "mobile" than mine... unless yours has wheels and a motor.
They are radio transmitter/receivers, so obviously emit a form of electromagnetic radiation but the fear stems from people not understanding this.
They use high-frequency radio signals but transmit at very low power and the intensity falls rapidly with distance, by an inverse-square law. E.g. at 4m from the device, if the signal is spreading evenly all round, it is at one-quarter of its strength per unit area than is was at 2m distance.
Also, their radiation is NOT the ionising sort too many people concatenate with "radiation" [i]per se[/i] and so confuse with Ultra-violet light, X-rays and Gamma rays. These last three [i]are[/i] ionising radiations, i.e. causing atomic changes that in biology, lead to tissue damage and ultimately, cancer.
At high enough powers radio waves will heat body tissues (as discovered by British military-radar researchers in WW2), but not ionise them as radioactivity does - but a portable telephone transmits at very low power and the signals it detects are even weaker still.
....
Oh, and the British term for what the Americans call "cell[ular] 'phones" after the network principle, is an example of the Great British Public falling for some semi-illiterate advertising copy-writer mangling the language. Your phone is now more "mobile" than mine... unless yours has wheels and a motor.
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