These cell phones are awesome! What can't they do/give you?

Here's some friendly advice. Use a hands-free kit (one that uses a wire) and set your cellphone on the table; a little distance makes all the difference in the world.

//electrical engineer

I'd think it be more obvious if mobile phones were used with driving. I'm more concerned about that since that will kill you.

Nothing beats texting on the mass pike at 80mph. Sort of like a Darwin lottery.

If your cell farks with the TV, car radio, and computer at a 5 feet distance you might want to get a new cell
/Nextel is the worst at this

FTFA: He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

Let's put this into perspective:
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 90 thousand people die each year from infections they catch at hospitals.
And 5% of everyone who goes into a hospital catches some kind of infection there.

So, if you do get a brain tumor from a cell phone DO NOT go to a hospital!

Not this shiat again.

Radiation of a longer wavelength than visible light (radio) = heat, that with shorter wavelength (x-ray, UV) = cancer.

Cell phones generate heat energy -- that is all.

Shall we discuss skin effect next?

This is what you get when you deprecate science education in schools, an easily manipulated public.

Homeopathy and astrology, I'm looking at you.

I've never owned a cell phone, so I'm getting a kick...

You might as well get used to radiation, as it's just going to continue to increase.

I believe most studies on this have found no statistically valid difference between cell phone users and non-users. With three billion cell phone users on the planet, roughly half the people getting brain tumors are going to be cell-phone users. You might as well say that brushing your teeth causes brain tumors, since most tumor patients brush their teeth regularly.

Fark... this article is full of "everybody panic" crap. Yes, cell phones give off radiation. In fact, just about every electronic thing does, to an extent. The amount people receive is completely negligible; if you're to the point where if you worry about cell phone radiation, don't get an x-ray or walk near power lines. In fact, you might want to turn of your computer, and just stay out of the sun.

The amount of radiation the human body can receive and effectively "get rid of" is actually pretty surprising. Even the type of radiation makes a difference. If a cell phone gives off alpha, or heck, even beta particles, you shouldn't worry as long as you have skin.

drjekel_mrhyde: If your cell farks with the TV, car radio, and computer at a 5 feet distance you might want to get a new cell
/Nextel is the worst at this

It is not so much the radiation, it is the frequency they use. That is why with some phones you can hear your car/computer speakers making clicking sounds, and with others, you can't.

/nuclear/biological/radiological/chemical/high-yield explosives tech
//radiation is my thang
///don't get me angry

Bad?

Pretty shameful reporting there:

He has "won awards", but they don't say which ones. He has published "scientific papers", but they don't say where. The paper is "under review in a peer-edited journal", but they couldn't be bothered to wait until the results were reviewed. The results were put "on a brain surgery website", but they don't say where.

The website is pretty easy to find here. (new window) and seems to be a site owned by Dr. Khurana and used both to give general information on Brain Surgery and to promote himself and his books.

The paper posted on the site is here (new window), but is described only as being written "for the general public". Is this really the form of a scientific review paper in Medicine, or would the real peer-reviewed paper be a bit less shrill?

To clarify: I'm not criticizing the study itself or its results (I really know nothing about this issue)...just the form in which the article was presented, and the author's general strategy of posting an article on his website in the format he did.

Add to that the fact that for some reason The Independent is anything but objective when it comes to the whole mobile phone microwave radiation tat.

Why do the people we most want to avoid always seem to have a cell phone glued to their head or are constantly texting someone?

It seems our technology is being diverted by the ugly and annoying as another means to constantly bombard us with thier idiocy.

I guess it's pretty obvious I don't own a cell phone and would like all of these annoying farktards to die as soon as possible...too bad cancer takes 10 years to gestate.

thank you bingethinker. That was an excellent way to put it. And I'm not being sarcastic. Most people do not have critical thinking skills, and they'll say, oh, they used a cell phone and they got bwain cancah? Musta been thuh fone!

BlueMonk I guess it's pretty obvious I don't own a cell phone and would like all of these annoying farktards to die as soon as possible...too bad cancer takes 10 years to gestate.

Where do you find friends with no cell phone? Either you a) have no friends (my best guess) or b) you wish all your friends would die. If answer = b, a) will also apply as soon as your friends find out.

bingethinker: I believe most studies on this have found no statistically valid difference between cell phone users and non-users. With three billion cell phone users on the planet, roughly half the people getting brain tumors are going to be cell-phone users. You might as well say that brushing your teeth causes brain tumors, since most tumor patients brush their teeth regularly.

Did you also notice that no where in this article does the good doctor present any data? The article basically says, "yep, everybody's gonna get tumors." And that's it. This doctor says so, so it must be.

As for me, I kinda worry about those things constantly hanging on one's belt. Like, kidney/spleen cancer or something?

kevinatilusa: To clarify: I'm not criticizing the study itself or its results (I really know nothing about this issue)...just the form in which the article was presented, and the author's general strategy of posting an article on his website in the format he did.

The newspaper reporter's job is made a lot easier with the addition of shrill, meaningless hype about cell phones causing cancer. So is Dr. Khurana's. People tend to do things that make their jobs easier, not harder.

BlueMonk: I guess it's pretty obvious I don't own a cell phone and would like all of these annoying farktards to die as soon as possible...too bad cancer takes 10 years to gestate.

Are you related to this guy?

Smoking was banned on airplanes because non-smokers were confined to a small area where they could not avoid the smoke. Now some of the largest countries in the European Union are labelling cell-phone use as "more dangerous than cigarettes" while at the same time considering the use of cell phones on airplanes, where once again passengers cannot avoid them even if they want to?

Sheesh!

When I build my next house I'm designing it as a giant faraday cage...

There are more articles that disprove than prove this point of view. I think the risk so far is a bit overblown, if not absent.

Haven't been able to open that link since i saw it on Digg a couple hours ago, entire site gives me a "bad gateway" message.

Has the Independent gone too far down the rabbit hole?

it's up now.

Anyway, i stopped using a cell because i was getting headaches while i used it on the same side of my head, i never get headaches unless i hit my head on something so that was a good enough reason in itself. Also happened before i read anything like this story, so it wasn't suggestion.

Whether they're harmful or not it's easy enough to live without one, who likes to be on a leash anyway.

I sit here with my laptop running wireless on my lap.

I wish I had lead underpants on.

The waves aren't tiny enough.

They are rather large, a meter or so in wavelength, correct?