Does Cell Tower radiation pose a risk to our health?

[MickeyD]

It just occurred to me that my 1000 watt heater that's keeping me warm at the moment would happily consume the better part of a 1000kWh a month if I let it. I wonder how much effect it would have on my neighbours if I strapped, say, 3 of those on my roof.

Probably more dangerous if you placed a 1000W microwave oven in each classroom for the kids to heat up their lunches...

 

[Arthur]

Cellphone towers emit a secret high-frequency alpha-wave radiation that keeps people docile. This fact is almost impossible to prove because the government has banned the importation and sale of equipment that can pick up this frequency.

It's a proven fact that, once exposed to this radiation, the brain undergoes changes that inhibit serotonin reuptake. On a mass scale, this has the effect of pacifying the populace.

The only solution is to live in an area without cellphone towers.

If you can't move, consider acquiring special headgear that can mitigate the effects. And make sure children under 18 never come within 2 meters of a switched-on cellphone.

 

[Nick333]

Cellphone towers emit a secret high-frequency alpha-wave radiation that keeps people docile. This fact is almost impossible to prove because the government has banned the importation and sale of equipment that can pick up this frequency.

It's a proven fact that, once exposed to this radiation, the brain undergoes changes that inhibit serotonin reuptake. On a mass scale, this has the effect of pacifying the populace.

The only solution is to live in an area without cellphone towers.

If you can't move, consider acquiring special headgear that can mitigate the effects.

Let me guess, tin-foil hats?

 

[Arthur]

Indeed. Sn or Al based barriers can mitigate the deleterious effects of this radiation.

 

[Humberto]

According to the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health, there is actually some (not necessarily conclusive) evidence of possible adverse health effects caused by cellphones:

• Rabbits (though apparently not humans) exposed to high cellphone radiation for even a short period of time have a higher rate of cataracts due to the thermal heating caused by the cellphone radiation and the poor ability of the cornea to disperse this heat.
  
  

  In the case of a person using a cell phone, most of the heating effect will occur at the surface of the head, causing its temperature to increase by a fraction of a degree. In this case, the level of temperature increase is an order of magnitude less than that obtained during the exposure of the head to direct sunlight. The brain's blood circulation is capable of disposing of excess heat by increasing local blood flow. However, the cornea of the eye does not have this temperature regulation mechanism and exposure of 2–3 hours duration has been reported to produce cataracts in rabbits' eyes at SAR values from 100-140W/kg, which produced lenticular temperatures of 41°C. There were no cataracts detected in the eyes of monkeys exposed under similar conditions. Premature cataracts have not been linked with cell phone use, possibly because of the lower power output of mobile phones.

• Spatial working memory may be impaired from cellphone use.
  
  

  A 2009 study examined the effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) emitted by standard GSM cell phones on the cognitive functions of humans. The study confirmed longer (slower) response times to a spatial working memory task when exposed to RFR from a standard GSM cellular phone placed next to the head of male subjects, and showed that longer duration of exposure to RFR may increase the effects on performance. Right-handed subjects exposed to RFR on the left side of their head on average had significantly longer response times when compared to exposure to the right side and sham-exposure.

• Cellphone use may affect sleep.
  
  

  Sleep, EEG and waking rCBF have been studied in relation to RF exposure for a decade now, and the majority of papers published to date have found some form of effect. While a Finnish study failed to find any effect on sleep or other cognitive function from pulsed RF exposure, most other papers have found significant effects on sleep. Two of these papers found the effect was only present when the exposure was pulsed (amplitude modulated), and one early paper found that sleep quality (measured by the amount of participants' broken sleep) improved.

• Cellphone radiation alters glucose consumption in the part of the brain closest to where the cellphone is held.
  
  

  A team led by Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, used advanced imaging technology to monitor glucose consumed in the brain. They found that even weak cell phone radiation alters brain activity near cell phone antenna. Environmental Working Group now recommends cell phone users limit their exposure to cell phone radiation by for example looking for cell phone models that emitts low radiation.

• Cellphone radiation may affect sperm quality.
  
  

  A number of studies have shown relationships between mobile telephone use and reduced sperm count and sperm quality. Peer reviewed studies have shown relationships using statistical questionnaire techniques, controlled experiments on living humans, and controlled experiments on sperm outside the body.

It does seem that most radiation authorities recommend a precautionary approach to cellphone exposure.

 

[MickeyD]

According to the Wikipedia article<snip>

ergo... blame the cellphone not the tower.

 

[Nick333]

ergo... blame the cellphone not the tower.

And, wear boxers instead of briefs. That has far more than just some effect on your sperm count. Or, is it the other way around?

 

[noxibox]

Environmental Working Group now recommends cell phone users limit their exposure to cell phone radiation by for example looking for cell phone models that emitts low radiation.

Surely then more towers is the answer, so that the phone does not have to increase its power.

 

[Paul Hjul]

There are 3 types of "health risk" that the cellular industry poses:
[1] Cell towers causing physical damage - the only area where the science, law and common sense converge and leaves the realm of postulating speculation in the hope of claiming consensus as definitive: Masts have fallen on houses, engineers have become injured on site etc ... The reality is that this risk to health is one which is well understood, mitigated against and is actionable when it occurs. If a mast falls on your house expect our MNOs to pay you out rather than go to court and I don't have the numbers but I suspect that you are more likely to be injured by a Telkom trokkie smacking into you or your property than a TM tower causing you injury.
[2] Cellphones causing physical damage - if you phone is hot because of use don't put it on your testicles - most warnings on devices cover this problem. The user chooses to assume this risk and the harm is greater the higher the power of the device - so the further from the tower.
[3] Radiation coming from the tower. Now on this point the current consensus (but consensus is a problematic concept in science, it is fundamentally unscientific) is that there is no credible evidence of harm caused by cell tower radiation. However lets look at the matter arguendo cell towers are discovered to cause harm and illnesses. Well we know who owns the tower and they can be sued when the evidence arrives, the only problem would be if government has made cellular operators exempt from liability - and some jurisdictions have, and no surprise should be felt when towers in those jurisdictions collapse on houses. Vodacom knows that if they don't practice appropriate care they will be nailed and so they purchase properly tested equipment from vendors who are similarly knowing that Vodacom... The cost of safety is built into the mechanisms of installation. IIRC there is a massive policy underwritten by Lloyds for some of the earlier GSM technology stacks causing harm and it would be interesting what windfalls arise to the members who bet in favour of the technology being safe when the equipment is decommissioned.


All and all more cellphone towers are better for the health of cellphone users. Now I sympathise with the homesteader who opposes "radiation" on their land and who chooses not to use cellular technology and is injured by the users of the spectrum on that persons domain. In the totality of South Africa I assume there might be 100 individuals who could make a proper case and frankly the MNOs could club together to have a legally qualified clerk consider petitions for damages and treat the matter as good will.

 

[Sonic2k]

Are the pseudo scientists at it again?
My brain must be totally mush by now after a career which has involved plenty of RF work at powers frequently exceeding 100W

 

[Paul Hjul]

My brain must be totally mush by now after a three years membership of MyBB forums

FTFY

 

[bdt]

To further add to the 'it's not the tower (but rather the lack of), it's the phone' POV: OP meet the inverse-square law - that applies to ALL electromagnetic radiation (now ponder on how this applies to the Sun - that can burn you/cause skin cancer at a cool 149 597 870 700 meters) :



Takeaway: the farther you are away from a radiation source (the cell tower, usually many metres up in the air), the MUCH less radiation you can even get off the thing, to the tune of the square of the distance. Conversely, the weaker a radio signal is (on account of distance from the nearest cell mast) the more the little radiation machine you hold against your head has to work, and THAT radiation distance is of the order of, well, nothing - a phone is usually up against your head. But even that can be mitigated against by using wired headset/a Bluetooth earpiece, which would then move the oh-so-deadly radiation monster anywhere from arm's length to ten metres away.

 

[porchrat]

I know this is just a kid's science project but the methodology is still pretty flawed. At best the kid will be able to establish correlation with that myriad of medical conditions, none of which, as far as I'm aware, have been linked to cellular phone radiation in any causative fashion.

 

[Cius]

We have a crazy old bat that lives in our complex who believes cell phone radiation is killing us all. She has painted the interior of her house with some special paint that absorbs radio waves and put a similar film on all her windows. You can't get cell phone signal in her house anywhere. I sometimes wonder how she ever plans on selling the unit with a selling point like that! She also has some meter that basically reads EM waves. She will put it near plug points and say that the radiation from the electric wiring is too high. It scares me that this lady is smart enough to be qulified as an attorney.

 

[bdt]

The fact that the energy consumption of a typical cell site could range between 1000kWh and 3000kWh per month, this is up to 3 times that of a normal household, multiply that with the number of cell providers within the same area and also include overlapping coverage. With all that energy being emitted what would the impact be on households in close proximity? ie < 500meters.

This may help with understanding where all that power goes:



..LOTS of that power goes to running all the compute hardware needed to make the system work. And then a whole bunch more is needed to keep all that hardware cool (enough) because all that wonderful hardware gets locked inside tightly sealed buildings that are made to keep all that expensive kit safe (enough) from miscreants, with the knock-on effect of leaving the heat generated with nowhere to go (easily).

 

[Necuno]

Debbie knows ?

Hi All

My son (Gr7) is doing a school science project and has decided on doing a project on Cell Tower Radiation and Related health risks. Quite a contentious issue currently. Could you please help by doing a quick survey (7 questions).

http://goo.gl/Gy5Yli

I will make the stats available to all who answer these questions. PM me for any enquiries.

Many Thanks
Tony

 

[bekdik]

I was killed by a malicious attack by a vicious cellphone tower which beat me to death with secret high-frequency alpha-wave radiation