The Best Cell Phone Safety Recommendations
Number One Cell Phone Safety Recommendation: Don't Use Cell Phones!
Image credit: Maria Beliakova
Cell phone safety is an important issue in today's world. Everyone knows that they're dangerous. But exactly how dangerous? We don't know yet, but they are dangerous.
The voluntary exposure of the brain to microwaves from hand-held mobile phones... [is] the largest human biological experiment ever.
~Professor Leif Salford, Head of Research at Lund University, Sweden
Do you want to wait till they find out exactly how dangerous cell phones are before you and your children stop using them?
Dr. George Carlo, an an epidemiologist, believes that because we don’t yet know the health risks, we must exercise caution.
"I fear it is unprecedented in terms of the danger that it presents," warns Dr. Carlo, referring to the health risks of cell phone use.
Dr. Carlo was hired by the Cellular Telephone Industry Association in 1993 to lead a $28 million, 7-year research program to determine if cell phones were safe.
He was fired when it became clear that his research did not support the cell phone industry’s claims of safety.
Observing the following simple precautions and recommendations can reduce your exposure to dangerous electromagnetic radiation (EMR).
Cell Phone Safety Recommendations
1. Don’t allow children to use cell phones, except for emergencies.
- Don't buy them a cell phone.
- Children’s skulls are thinner and their brains contain more fluid than adults’. Electromagnetic radiation travels more easily through liquids; therefore, it travels through children’s brains much more easily. This puts children at a greater risk of developing cancer through exposure to EMR.
- Malignant brain tumors are the second leading cause of death in children [under the age of 15] and young adults [under the age of 34], according to NeurologyChannel.com
- Brain tumors now cause more deaths among children than any other form of cancer, reports Sydney TV News.
- If your children already have cell phones, and for whatever reason you decide not to change the status quo, don’t let them sleep with their cell phones under their pillows. (You might be surprised where your kids keep their cell phones!)
- They shouldn’t play games on cell phones, either.
- It’s wise to teach your children why you don’t want them to use cell phones. Educate them about the dangers. Help them understand and accept that you are responsible for their safety, and that, as they get older, they begin to share that responsibility too.
- Be an example to them of cell phone safety by not using cell phones yourself if you can at all avoid it.
2. Avoid using a cell phone if you are pregnant, or suspect that you might be.
- Don’t use a cell phone with a baby or young child on your lap or in your arms. The developing organs of the fetus or child are the most sensitive to any possible effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure. [Reference: R. B. Herberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (2008)]
- Ultrasound and electronic fetal monitoring also expose your unborn infant to EMR. You may want to consider avoiding these procedures unless absolutely necessary. [Reference: Dr. George Carlo, Medical Alert: Aggravated Symptom Relapses (May 2008)]
3. Limit the amount of time you talk on cell phones.
- The more time you spend talking on cell phones, the greater your risk of developing brain or eye cancer.
- Just a two-minute call on a cell phone can alter the natural electrical activity of the brain for up to an hour. [Reference: Spanish Neuro Diagnostic Research Institute]
- Be polite, but keep it brief. Discourage unnecessary conversations on the cell phone. You may be saving a life - quite possibly your own or that of a loved one. Talk to others about cell phone safety.
- Consider using text messages as much as possible, but still only when truly necessary. Develop your own cell phone safety strategy for avoiding long conversations on the cell phone.
4. Use a regular phone as much as possible.
- Regular phones are your safest bet for conversations and work.
- Cordless phones aren’t safe either. The base of any cordless phone emits high levels of EMR, even when the phone is not being used. [Reference: Dr. George Carlo, Medical Alert: Aggravated Symptom Relapses (May 2008)]
5. Keep the cell phone as far away from your body as possible.
- By moving the cell phone just 5 cm (approximately 2 inches) away from your head while talking on it, you reduce by 75% the electromagnetic radiation that reaches your head. [Reference: R. B. Herberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (2008)]
- You cut your EMR exposure to less than 1% by keeping the cell phone over 18 cm (approximately 7 inches) away from any part of your body. [Reference: R. B. Herberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (2008)]
6. Avoid carrying your cell phone in your pocket, on your belt, or in your hand.
- The hip produces 80% of the body’s red blood cells and is especially vulnerable to EMR damage. Close proximity may also affect fertility. [Reference: Dr. George Carlo, Medical Alert: Aggravated Symptom Relapses (May 2008)]
- Body tissue in the abdomen absorbs radiation more quickly than the head. For best cell phone safety, keep the phone away from your body at all times.
- If you carry a cell phone in your purse, you should position it with the keypad facing toward you in order to get less EMR. For you women who like purses with two or more compartments, you can carry the phone in the compartment farthest from your body. Avoid carrying a cell phone in a fanny pack (also known, depending on where you live, as hip pack, bum bag, pouch, etc.) It’s too close to your body.
7. Avoid using wired headsets.
- Headsets, including the ear buds that come with most cell phones today, have been shown to act as antennas, channeling the EMR directly into the ear canal. [Reference: Dr. George Carlo, Medical Alert: Aggravated Symptom Relapses (May 2008)]
- When you use regular ear buds or ear pieces, you’re getting 3 times more EMR than if you held the cell phone against your ear, and you’re getting it directly into your ear canal, and therefore into your brain.
- This is also a good reason to avoid listening to music on your cell phone.
8. Use an air tube headset with ferrite beads.
- This type of headset is believed to be safer, because EMR can’t travel up the air tube like it does on a regular wired earphone.
- Unlike regular headsets, the air tube headset doesn’t act as an antenna.
- Ferrite beads suppress the EMR and dissipate it. In other words, they absorb the EMR and convert it into heat.
- For maximum protection and better cell phone safety, use an air tube headset with a ferrite bead placed as near as possible to the cell phone.
9. Use the speaker phone as much as possible.
- Never hold the phone directly against your head.
- EMR decreases in direct proportion to the distance the source is from your body.
- It's better if you don't even have the phone in your hand. The damage from EMR is not limited to tissue damage near the exposure site.
10. Some suggest using a BlueTooth head piece.
- It’s reported that BlueTooth headsets emit 1/100th the EMR of a normal cell phone. That’s good. But whatever EMR a BlueTooth headset does emit, it does so directly into the ear. Caution is warranted.
11. Avoid using a cell phone while in metal enclosures.
- This includes the following:
[Reference: Dr. George Carlo, Medical Alert: Aggravated Symptom Relapses (May 2008)]
- Any other metal enclosure
- Turn your phone off inside all metal enclosures.
- Metal enclosures act like a Faraday cage, trapping some of the radiation and reflecting it back on you and others.
- Sometimes when I’m in an elevator I tell other passengers about the benefits of turning their phones off. Unfortunately, not many do, but who knows? Eventually they may start turning them off. Establish your own cell phone safety guidelines and tell others about them.
- There’s another very good reason not to talk on a cell phone when you’re driving: talking on the phone while driving, even if you use the speaker phone, increases the risk of having an accident. So our recommendation is to just turn off your cell phone when you get into your car. You can get your messages later when you arrive safely at your destination.
12. Only make calls when and where you have a strong signal.
- Cell phones automatically increase power output when the signal is weak, exposing you to greater EMR.
13. Avoid making calls when traveling fast.
- A cell phone automatically increases power when it is moving at high speeds (such as in a car, train, subway, or plane) as it attempts to connect to the next cell phone base station.
14. Turn your cell phone off at night.
- EMR emitted from cell phones can lower the quality of your sleep. All electrical appliances emit EMR, and therefore can interfere with the quality of sleep. [Reference: R. B. Herberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (2008)]
- The Safe Wireless Initiative suggests moving your electric alarm clock or clock radio (this goes for any other electronic or electrical appliances, too) at least 1.8 meters (6 feet) away from your bed. A battery-powered alarm clock can be used near the bed.
- If you must leave your cell phone on during the night - to be able to receive emergency calls, for example - keep your cell phone at least 1.8 meters (6 feet) away from the bed. This might seem like a big inconvenience, but isn’t it worth it if it might keep you from EMR-induced cancer? Cell phone safety is essential for optimal health.
15. If you purchase a cell phone, get one with a low SAR (Specific Absorption Rate).
- The lower the SAR number, the better.
- The Motorola Razr V3x has a SAR of 0.14, which is the lowest we’ve seen. We’ve heard there may be others with even lower SAR ratings.
- The Motorola V195s has a SAR of 1.6, the worst on the market.
- Many cell phone manuals indicate the SAR number of that particular model.
- You can find most cell phone SAR rates here. (We’re including this link for its useful SAR information, but we don’t agree with much of what the site says. It’s a cell phone manufacturer forum, and much of what they say defends the companies’ policies.)
16. Act now. Don’t wait for health officials to acknowledge the dangers of cell phone EMR.
- Smoking, VIOXX, and Thalidomide (and the list goes on) were touted as safe for a long time, with tragic consequences.
- It is estimated that VIOXX was responsible for as many as 50,000 deaths in the US alone before it was taken off the market!
17. If we do our very best, we can trust God to do the rest.
- We can’t protect ourselves from all danger. And we don’t want to be fearful, as that’s one more stress that’s also detrimental to our emotional and physical health.
- But we can - and should - work at becoming truly informed, and then act on that information to the very best of our ability.
- Then, when we’ve done what we can, we can pray and trust God to do what we can’t.
- The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. (The Bible, Psalm 34:7)
- Take responsibility for your own health and your family’s by developing your own cell phone safety rules.
- Exercise caution. It’s far better to be safe than sorry.
- God loves you and me. If we do what we can, He’ll do what we can’t. Do what you can.
One final thought
It is not known with certainty what levels (if any) of exposure to EMR our bodies can take without negative health effects. Obviously, we cannot and do not claim that following these cell phone safety recommendations to simply reduce levels of exposure will necessarily spare you from developing some kind of health challenge related to EMR.
What we do know is that even small doses of EMR affect the human body on a cellular level. It seems wise, then, to exercise the greatest possible degree of caution and put into practice these cell phone safety recommendations.
Special thanks to Professor Leif Salford, Dr. George Carlo, Dr. R. B. Herberman, and Dr. Om Gandhi.
Please note: If you haven't already watched the videos we've posted about the dangers of cell phone use and the presentations on cell phone safety, please take the time to do so.
If you know someone who has children who use cell phones, let them know about this page so they can learn about cell phone safety.
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Cell Phone Safety Presentations
Mobile Phone DangerAustralian TV's 'Today Tonight'
Rap Warning for All: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age by Trillion