Cell Phones Radiaton & Koobi
“Can Cause”
Brain Cancer?
Cell Tower
Life Bluetube Headsets
Cell Phone Towers Health Effects
EM Field Meter
Cell Phone Sensitivity
In addition, companies can erect base stations that cover a
radius of many kilometers for much less than it would cost
to run the copper cables from central exchange to every
customer’s phone. This has made cell phone usage affordable
for a large segment of the population. As a result, growing
numbers of Africans at the top, middle, and even bottom
rungs of the economic ladder depend on the wireless sector
for their empowerment and livelihoods. I have not seen any
people who take so much delight in owning cell phones, and
handsets have become the preferred articles of gift in rural
Ghana. As a result, Africans are buying mobile phones at a
world record rate, and research shows that the take-up
soared by 550% in the last five years.
But more than just inadequate landline networks and
institutions are fueling Africa's wireless boom. Growing
political stability has helped to attract foreign investors
to the region. Africa and particularly Ghana has seen
economic booms before – from cocoa, timber, gold and
recently, oil – but hardly any have benefited the ordinary
man. Cell phones may be different. On my recent visit to
Ghana, I found out that the telecommunications sector is
becoming the fastest-growing employer.
It directly employs thousands of people and hundreds and
thousands more, indirectly. While carriers provide jobs to
qualified engineers and administrators, indirect employment
has helped spread the wealth even to those who don't have
the benefit of education or the right connections by
offering them the opportunity to sell calling cards. In some
cases, card vendors make more money than government
secretaries and elementary school teachers. Overseas calls
made from a wireless phone have become cheaper, which has
let many people and businesses connect to relatives and
foreign partners at much cheaper international calling rates
than those charged on landlines.
Indeed, it has been shown that adding an additional ten
mobile phones per 100 people boosts a typical developing
country’s GDP growth by 0.6 percent. A large part of this
boost comes from innovative use of mobile phone technology
by local entrepreneurs. In contrast to their use in the
developed world, mobile phones in Africa are used for a wide
variety of tasks, from sending money to family members to
buying a fish from the market. Many business men, farmers,
and laborers are finding new uses for a tool thought of as
simply a voice communication device in the West, and are
coming up with original methods for solving their own
problems.
For example, contract laborers can now provide their phone
numbers to potential employers and move on, instead of
having to wait for hours at a workplace in case a job
arises. Access to market information through mobile phones
also provides rural communities with invaluable information
about centers of business; many African fishermen check the
local fish market prices on their phones to determine where
to bring the day’s catch. In Ghana, farmers in Tamale are
able to send a text messages to learn corn and tomato prices
in Accra, over 1,000 kilometers away. In light of the many
advantages of the use of cell phones and the newly
postulated potential for its harmful effect, what do we do?
Below are few recommendations for the safe use of cell
phones.
Let's start by talking about the type of radiation produced
by cell phones. It isn't the same kind you'd experience if
you entered the red zone at a nuclear power plant. Cell
phones expose you to non-ionizing radiation -- that's the
same sort of radiation produced by a microwave oven. It’s
created by radio frequencies that cause -- again like that
microwave oven -- heating. There's no argument, even from
skeptics, that the frequencies and transmitted power from
your phone produce some heating. And since you're holding
the thing against your head you're exposing your brain to
cell phone radiation. None of that is in dispute. It’s the
link to cancer that is in question.
So short of lining your head with aluminum foil, what do you
do to decrease any possible risks? I'll try to list ways you
can do to help yourself in an order based on how easy each
is to follow. First try to shorten your cell phone
conversations. The ladies, if you want to gossip, go to your
friend or use testing instead of calling or use the speaker
phone. The longer you hold the cell against your head the
more exposure you receive. Since phones emit radiation when
sending messages and not when it is receiving, you can try
to talk less and listen more (tell this to the Ghanaian
women led by the 31st December Women’s Movement). The next
tip is just as easy to follow as the first. Move your phone
from one ear to the other every few moments while you’re
talking. That way you avoid concentrating all the radiation
in one spot.
You need to know a bit about how cell phones work to
understand why my next tip makes sense. The phone is a
transceiver - - a receiver and transmitter housed in one
tiny device. It links to a nearby cell tower where your
signal is amplified and sent on to other towers -- that's
why you get so much range from a low-powered cell phone. You
may already know that. But here's what you might not know.
If you're a good distance from a cell tower, or if the
signal is weak for some other reason, the phone
automatically boosts its transmitting power. That means,
when the bars that display signal strength show a weak
signal, your phone is cranking up the power and giving you a
higher dose of non-ionizing radiation. So -- when you are in
an area with low signal strength, avoid using your phone if
you can. Wait until you’re in an area that offers a stronger
signal, more bars.
Some people have suggested using a wired headphone and
clipping the phone to your belt. Well, that's a good idea
but not a perfect one. For one thing, you're moving the
phone toward another vulnerable area -- your groin (and to
the men, your balls. What is the point in calling the lady
when your balls are cooking?).
So far, no quantification of the possible risks from cell
phone use has been made, but groups like Cancer Research UK
have recommended that children under 16, whose brains and
central nervous systems are still developing, only use cell
phones for essential calls. For Ghanaians, this would be a
tough call, given the popularity of cell phones among the
very young, from as early as primary school age, and
teenagers.
While it is always good to be cautious, the mobile phone and
cancer connection should still be treated as a hypothesis.
SO DON’T HANG YET. CALL ME IF YOU CAN.
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