Amount Of Cell Phone Radiation example essay topic

All scientists agree that cell phone radiation and its affect are something to look after [6]. Although cell phone companies insist that there product are safe, the critics fight that this is precisely what the tobacco companies said before its was widely accepted that smoking is a direct factor of lung cancer [3]. All cell phones emit some kind of electromagnetic radiation. When using a cell phone, both sending and receiving calls emit a tiny amount of energy. The cell phone emits non-ionizing radiation and is considered safe. It causes heating in general and some examples of non-ionizing radiation are visible light, radio frequency and microwave radiation [7].

"A radio wave in space is characterized by its frequency, intensity of electric and magnetic fields, direction, and polarization" [66]. The interaction of external radio waves with different body tissues produces internal electric and magnetic fields. These fields can be calculated knowing the different parameters and boundary conditions using Maxwell's equations. This becomes a difficult problem, since biological bodies are diverse and vary in shape. This makes an exact solution impossible.

The boundary conditions are also extremely complicated to calculate since they change dramatically depending on the situation [66]. Scientists are generally interested in how external fields combine with biological bodies to create internal fields. These internal fields will be the ones to interact with the membrane of the nucleus and the DNA it contains. Internal field strength is increasing proportionally with the external field strength. The problem rises when the internal field is not uniform to the external field, which adds complexity to the problem [66]. The magnetic permeability ({m}r = 1) of most tissues is equal to that of free space.

This means that most tissues are non magnetic. Both electric (E) and magnetic (H) fields decrease exponentially with distance from the boundary of a tissue because of energy loss after reflection. The penetration depth is proportional to the frequency. The higher the frequency, the less the penetration threw the skin.

For example, at 2.45 GHz (microwave oven frequency), penetration depth in tissue is about 2.0 cm, while at 10 GHz, it is about 0.4 cm [67]. Penetration depth for fat and bone is nearly five times greater than for higher-water-content tissues. At higher frequency then 5 GHz, if any heating is created, its primarily surface of the tissue [67]. Holding a cellular phone next to your head is like putting your head in a microwave (but obviously in a very small scale) since both uses the exact same type of radiation. If the phone's antenna is placed next to someone's head for a few minutes it will raise the temperature of the nearby brain cells by 0.1 degrees Celsius [4]. The energy level of a microwave photon is about 10-5 eV or 10-24 J. Now the fundamental bonds in human tissue is the covalent bond and then hydrogen bond.

The energy required to break a covalent bond is 10 eV or 10-18 J. This is about a million times greater then the microwave energy. The energy required to break a hydrogen bond is only about 0.5 eV which is roughly 10 times less the energy required to break a covalent bond [55]. The energy of the microwave photons is clearly not enough to break the covalent or hydrogen bonds. In short terms this does not have any affect since this is heating is about one tenth of the normal fluctuation of the brain's temperature. Where the scientist are debating, is that in long term we have no clue what can be the results, and since we know that some small changes in our equilibrium can have some very dreadful side effects [10]. Scientist also agree that no one should keep their phone more then 20 minutes at a time cause effects might be accentuated [5].

Also another risk independent of the heat created by radiation is that the brain creates its own microwave activity. Scientist such as Gerald Hyland of Warwick University", believes the problem could lie with the interaction between brain cells wave and those mobile cell phones" [3]. In other words the electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phones could interfere with the body's sensitive electrical activities. This means that even weak fields could significantly damage the cell and its DNA content [10]. Potential Health Risks An American health foundation found out a long-term use of a cell phone increases use of tumors in the acoustic nerve, which carries sensory impulses to the brain. They also found that that cell phone radiation impaired the ability of blood cells to repair damaged DNA [5].

However these results are still inconclusive since scientists say that they were of short duration or these results weren't able to be reproduced in another laboratory. This doesn't mean that these researches shouldn't be taken seriously. It only indicates that they should draw more attention to this matter and that there is something to look forward [6]. More disturbing results were revealed in 1997 by investigators at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. "Mice that had been genetically engineered to be susceptible to lymphoma, the cancer of lymphoid tissues" [4]. For one hour per day.

The scientist exposed the transgenic mice to low-power radio waves similar to those emitted by digital cellular phones. After 18 months of research, they discovered that the lymphoid tissues have doubled. Later on, a 1999 study led by a scientist named Led William Ross of the university of California found that it decreases the tumors found in rats. These are mind-bottling results that nobody can explain but all scientists agree that they are seeing effects [4]. Here are some harmful effects that might be caused by cellular radiation: o Cancer o Brain tumors o Alzheimer's o Parkinson's o Fatigue o Headaches o Short term memory lost o More possible illness may come up as research goes on [2, 6, 7] All scientists and phone companies agree that children should not have access to cell phones [5].

The reason for this is that children are expected to be more vulnerable then adults because "absorption of GSM microwaves is greatest in an object about the size of a children's head" [10]. This is why all children should keep away from any kind of radiation especially those of a cell phone. 5 yr 10 yr Adult 2.5 Precautions to be taken Until this matter gets clarified and conclusions are made its better to take precautions against cellular radiation. Here are some tips to minimize exposure: o Extend the antenna during calls. o Try using your home number when at home (limit the use) o Never use a cell phone for more then 20 minutes at a time. o Buy a phone that places the antenna as far as possible from you. o Use mobile phones in open spaces as much as possible. o Avoid children using cell phones [2]. The government is starting to force companies to indicate the amount of cell phone radiation emitted. In fig. 5 we can see the amount of radiation for some popular cells the government forced to expose in order to have a more aware consumers.

SAR ratings calculate the amount of radiation a cell phone emits per kilogram. Also some companies such as metro call started suggesting and warning their customers to buy a pager to their children instead of a cell phone [9]. Disney is also taking the initiative to stop licensing its cartoons characters to cell phone companies in response to customers fear for their children [8]..