Mobile Phones Damage DNA: What should we do about it?

by Heidi Stevenson

21 January 2010

The convenience and fun of mobile phones and other electrical products have us hooked. Who would want to accept the idea that they're dangerous? Most of us can't feel anything wrong when we're using them. We can't see anything being emitted from them. It's oh-so-easy to pooh-pooh the idea that they could be harmful. Imagine, though, sitting in your doctor's office and hearing that you've got brain cancer. The convenience suddenly wouldn't be so appealing.

These devices are part of modern life, and everything carries some sort of risk. I don't suggest that we return to the day when electromagnetic devices didn't exist, but we need to know what the risks are before making rational decisions. At this time, the industries involved have managed to stonewall the public's awareness of those risks, but the truth has been leaking through studies funded by other sources.

To put things into some perspective, consider that the risks associated with tobacco have resulted in banning indoor smoking nearly everywhere, and so much pressure on smokers to quit that the numbers have dropped enormously. Benefits do exist with smoking. Many people find it relaxing, but few would now suggest that anyone has the right to impose cigarette smoke on someone else.

The questions we need to answer are: What kind of harm can we reasonably assume mobile phones cause? If so, are there any methods for limiting risk? Should we limit mobile phone use? If so, how much should it be limited and should be restrictions be applied differently in different people?

Dangers In Mobile Phone Use

Obviously, there is some controversy about the risks associated with mobile phones. There are two ways of addressing this issue. One is to ask how they can cause harm, and the other is to ask what research has shown.

Theory of How Mobile Phones Cause Harm

We'll focus on the phones themselves in discussing harm. The masts (towers that transmit signals to phones and other masts) are a separate, though significant issue. Their risk is related to heating. The radiation emitted by them is high frequency, like that of microwave ovens. Thus, the concern with them is that they heat living tissues.

All living organisms generate electromagnetic fields at the cellular level. The electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones are modulated. That is, they send a very high-frequency wave that is modified to carry data. The modification is in low frequency pulses. In mobile phones, the low frequencies cause the significant problems.

George Carlo says that receptors in cell walls can interpret these wave pulses as intruders. So, instead of continuing their function of controlling and allowing nutrients into a cell, or removing toxins from a cell, a receptor shuts down and doesn't permit either one to occur. As a result, a cell can both starve and suffer poisoning. It also interferes with communication between cells.

The accumulation of waste inside cells resulted in one of the most horrifying kinds of damage possible: DNA disruption. DNA is the focus of who we are, the genetic fingerprint that defines us. That most significant definition of ourselves is damaged by EMR.

Documented Health Dangers

Several studies have documented significant increases in brain tumors from use of mobile phones. More and more studies that are independent of the wireless industry have been showing a definitive and frightening association between mobile phone use and brain cancer. Doctors Mercola and Carlo warn of a coming epidemic of brain cancer.

Strong links to EMR (electromagnetic radiation) have been shown. Studies have shown improvements in autistic children who spend significant time away from EMR fields.

A wide range of negative health effects have been documented, including nerve damage in the scalp, leakage of hemoglobin from blood cells, memory loss and confusion; headaches; fatigue; joint pain; spasms; tremors; skin burning and rash; alteration of the brain's electrical activity during sleep; insomnia; tinnitus; impairment of sense of smell; eye damage, including cataracts, retinal damage, and cancer; reduction and decreased efficiency of white blood cells; asthma aggravation; digestive problems; increased cholesterol; stress and imbalance of the endocrine system.

Symptoms associated with the head, primarily brain and eye cancer, are most closely associated with the phones themselves. However, all forms of EMR are harmful.

Heart irregularities are an effect of EMR radiation. As reported in Wireless Phone Emissions Double Heartrate In Sensitive People, heartbeat rate can double simply from being near a wireless phone.

Studies are showing that there's a significant increase with increased use—something of a geometric type of rise. Minimal exposure to EMR seems to have minimal effect, but the rate of harm increases dramatically as the rate of exposure increases.

Is It Possible To Protect Yourself?

Protecting yourself from EMR can be very difficult. Overdoing it could result in ostracizing yourself from much of today's society. Obviously, to protect yourself completely, you need to eliminate all mobile phones, including ones associated with landlines. WiFi anything must go. Electrical appliances, radios, and televisions are out. Modern conveniences—blenders, electric toothbrushes, hairdryers—all must be verboten. Even your electric clock. You need to move outside of town, away from any power lines, and make sure that none are planned in the near future.

Moving back to the stone age would protect you.

Obviously, we gain benefits from these devices. They improve our lives dramatically. So, a balance must be drawn. At this point, I'm unaware of any effective shielding devices. There may be some, but there are none that I can personally recommend—and suggest that, without proof, you be cynical about claims of protection from wireless radiation. Sadly, George Carlo was fooled by a fraudulent outfit selling so-called protective devices. Their claims sounded good, but he later discovered that they were false and separated himself from them. Clearly, this is an arena of "buyer beware".

The question is, how can you be protected and allow the radiation waves get to where they need to go?

Certain commonsense techniques can be applied. Obviously, anything that can be done through a wire should be. If you can set up a computer network via cables, then the radiation from a wireless network can be avoided. This won't provide complete protection from EMR, but it does protect you from the most damaging radiation from wireless devices.

Use air-type earphones. That is, use ones that separate your ear and head from the wires carrying sound. Avoid bluetooth earphones—or anything else bluetooth. It is a wonderfully convenient technology, of course, so if you do use it, be sure to keep the devices as far from your body and turned off as much as possible.

Don't use mobile phones in a contained environment, like an airplane or metal building. The EMR will reflect back at you.

Remember that, wherever you place your mobile phone on your body, you're likely to have bad health effects eventually if you keep it there often or for a long time. Osteoporosis of the hip is known to be caused by wearing your mobile phone there.

Any radio, television, or other type of receiver should be placed outside your home and wired to devices inside.

If you're having trouble sleeping, try removing all electrical devices from your bedroom, even electric clocks.

One bit more: Dont' trust the SAR values that are being used to suggest some mobile phones are safer than others. If phones are used in exactly the same way—that is, they're held at the same angle and the same distance from the head—then they might be meaningful. Stan Hartman, who is an electromagnetic frequency expert in Boulder, Colorado describes the problem clearly:

From my perspective, comparing the 'safest' cell phones is like comparing the 'safest' cigarettes. None of them are safe, and these kinds of comparisons only serve to whitewash how irresponsible and inexcusable the whole technology is.

Using the word 'safer' to apply to any brand just encourages peoples' denial of the fact that all cell phones are a health menace from which we have hardy begun to see the consequences.

It's The Children!

Finally, and most important of all, do not allow children to use mobile phones! There is nothing more important than that. They are the most harmed. Studies show that the younger a child is exposed to EMR, especially in the form of mobile phones, the greater the risk of cancer and other devastating health effects later—and later may be as young as the early twenties.

Children are the greatest concern with EMR. Autism appears to be significantly aggravated by it. Studies are showing dramatic increases in brain cancer—as much as five times greater frequency than was known just a few years ago—and the younger or more frequent usage in children, the greater the risk. We're now seeing the first of the mobile phone generation reaching adulthood and experiencing significant increases in brain cancer.

The truly scary thing is that these young adults were generally unexposed to mobile phones as small children. Their exposure usually began in their teens. What's ahead? Children are now using mobile phones from the earliest school years. Their environments are full of EMR from mobile devices. What sort of health epidemics will they be facing?