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Radiation Warnings Straight
from Your Cell Phone
Part 1
Cell Tower
Life Bluetube Headsets
Cell Phone Towers Health Effects
EM Field Meter
Cell Phone Sensitivity
June 25th, 2010 | Author: Adrian
An Israeli startup has developed a new iPhone application
that lets you see how much radiation you’re exposed to from
your mobile device.
What do you do when you suspect something’s bad for you but
you just can’t stop doing it? That’s a question many
cellphone users have been asking themselves, with reports of
radiation emissions from their mobile devices raising
serious questions about the safety of our increasingly
un-tethered society. A new Israeli startup may have the
solution.
Tawkon has entered the fray with an inexpensive application
for the iPhone that warns users when radiation levels have
inched up too high and provides advice on how to counter the
potentially negative effects.
The company says that its solution gives users the
information and tools to avoid cellphone radiation as much
as possible by “mapping” their homes or offices so they’ll
know where they’re exposed to significant levels of mobile
phone radiation. It also supplies simple precautionary
measures to minimize radiation, based on a user’s location
and cellphone usage.
However, you won’t find this app on your iPhone any time
soon, because Apple has banned it. Apple says that Tawkon is
a diagnostic tool that would create confusion for iPhone
owners from a usability perspective. Tawkon believes that
Apple doesn’t want its customers to install an app that
appears to advise them to talk less – even though its stated
aim is to make it safe for them to “talk on.”
Tawkon founder and CEO Gil Friedlander is taking it in his
stride. He tells ISRAEL21c that his company is in
discussions with Apple and that he is “optimistic and
hopeful that the issue will be solved soon.” He insists that
he’s not an anti-cellphone zealot. “We love our cellphones,
too,” he says of the Tawkon team. “We won’t give them up.
But we can help people use them more responsibly.”
In the meantime, the company is pressing forward with
porting the application to other devices, starting with the
Blackberry then expanding in the coming year to cover
Google’s Android operating system and the Symbian OS used by
Nokia phones.
Taking action to reduce your radiation exposure Friedlander
describes the Tawkon app as “like infrared goggles –
suddenly you can see at night. We view ourselves the same
way. We give users the ability to see and feel non-ionizing
radiation. Once you know whether you’re in a red, orange or
green zone, you have the information you need to take
action.”
That action might be to move to a different location until
the radiation levels drop, or to plug in a headset or use a
speakerphone in your car.
Tawkon can’t actually measure a cellphone‘s radiation – it’s
just software after all – so the app relies on processing a
dizzying array of factors, including your location,
environmental factors such as the weather, Bluetooth
functionality, how close your phone is to your body
(utilizing the iPhone’s proximity sensors), antenna
orientation (are you holding the phone vertically or
horizontally), GPS and even the phone’s built-in compass.
The app then prompts users with a vibration or tone when the
radiation levels reach a dangerous threshold.
Some of the worst places to talk in terms of radiation are a
room with thick concrete walls (a basement, elevator or, in
Israel, the sealed room mandated from the time of the first
Gulf War), and a moving vehicle (such as a train, car or
bus) when the phone is switching off between cellphone
broadcast towers. In all these cases, the phone has to work
harder to connect to a signal, hence the radiation goes up.
In some cases, the locations where radiation is highest can
be surprising. “In my apartment, radiation in the washroom
is high,” Friedlander says, “while the rest of the house is
decent.” In 80 to 85 percent of cases, there’s “good
coverage and radiation is pretty low, especially in an urban
area,” reassures Friedlander.
No one knows exactly how – or even whether or not –
radiation will cause serious medical problems in another 10
years, but the government isn’t taking any chances. Israel’s
health ministry has recommended that children under the age
of 18 shouldn’t use mobile cellphones at all – young
people’s brain tissue is still developing. In the US and
Europe, however, similar precautionary warnings have not
been issued.
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek,
Thailand, Bangkok,
Bangladesh, Dhaka City,
Swan, Victoria,
Wodonga, Victoria,
Dominica, Roseau,
Nedlands, Victoria,
Belarus Minsk
Korea, (South), Seoul, City,
Sao Tome and Principe, Sao Tome,
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