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The million-dollar question: Is my mobile phone injurious to my health? "Will using a mobile phone give me cancer?" asked a person who had newly acquired one. The sales person replied "It hasn't given me one and I have been using a mobile phone for 5 years". Does this prove anything? Scientists have been trying to figure this out for quite some time. But the problem is that researches and experiments in laboratories are not pointing in one direction. First let us look at the potential threats that mobile phone use exposes us to. Cancer, Brain Tumor, Memory Loss, Loss of brain function, Interference with electronic devices (including medical equipment such as Pacemakers) are the major threats mentioned in relation to mobile phone use. But how much of it is true. I for one have never seen anyone die just because he answered a call! So why are we so afraid of mobiles and the suspected threats that they cause? Researchers have conducted numerous studies and experiments to solve the mystery, one way or the other.
On the other hand there are some unexpected results arising from these experiments that suggest that mobile phone radiations have some strange effects on living tissue. Now if the reason for these results do turn out to be mobile phone radiations the question will arise as to what these radiations are doing to your brain when you have your mobile pressed against your ear. A study involved the clamping of a device, which emitted microwave similar to ones emitted by the typical mobile, to the ears of volunteers. All volunteers were as good at recalling words and pictures they had been shown on a computer screen regardless of the fact that the device was switched on or off. This rules out the fact that mobiles have any effect on our cognitive abilities. But... there were some other, unexpected results too. The microwave emissions, decreased the time subjects took to react to words flashing on the screen. That is if the device was switched on the subjects were quicker to respond to visual text stimuli. Even though the improvement was very small but still it was there. The improvement in reaction times could be because the microwaves somehow increase the speed of the flow of electrical signals within the brain. This is good news, but if microwave emissions can improve response time it means that they are interacting with the brain, meaning that where there are positive effects there could be negative effects as well. Even though none were seen in the said experiment.
The copyright of the article Mobile Phones: A Health Hazard?? in Consumer Electronics is owned by Asif Iqbal. Permission to republish Mobile Phones: A Health Hazard?? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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