Sometimes I feel that everywhere I turn, there is another component to modern life that is a serious health risk. Just when I think I’ve minimized most of the dangers in my home–plastics, VOCs, BPA, phthalates, pesticides, PFOA’s–then another one crops up–prescription drugs in our drinking water, BPA in receipts, and now DNA-altering radiation from cell phones.
I can understand why in the rush to get new technologies to market that make our lives easier, companies wouldn’t slow down to properly examine the health consequences. But when cell phones emit radiation pretty similar to that which your microwave emits, yet you are not protected from it by a metal box, shouldn’t more scientists be testing the safety of cell phones? And when most cell phone manuals come with instructions to not hold the phone directly on your body, say right up next to your head when you’re using it or right next to your leg in your pocket, then why aren’t more consumers asking questions and demanding safer phones?
I am currently reading the book Disconnect, written all about the cell phone industry and the studies that show the health-risks associated with the radiation emitted by cell phones, and hope to review it here shortly. But I have already read the Environmental Working Group’s report on cell phones and have learned that my personal phone has a SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) level of 1.21 watts/kg. The limit is 1.6 and there are phones on the market that emit as little as 0.2, per the EWG’s tests. So until I’m done researching the matter and have decided what I will do, I’ve taken the following precautions:
- My children are not allowed to use a cell phone. I do not use it when I’m holding them either.
- As much as possible, I use the speakerphone, pointing the antenna away from my body.
- I store the phone in areas as far from my family as possible.
- I only use the phone when necessary and limit the length of my conversations.
You can also skim the EWG’s 8 tips for reducing cell phone radiation exposure.
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