Cell Phones are Dangerous, But This May Be Far Worse...

Posted by: Dr. Mercola | February 09 2010

An increasingly alarmed army of international scientists have reached a controversial conclusion:

The "electrosmog" that first began developing with the rollout of the electrical grid a century ago and now envelops every inhabitant of Earth is responsible for many of the diseases that impair or kill them.
During the past 100 years, we have methodically filled in the electromagnetic spectrum far beyond what occurs in nature.

Recently, several developments have highlighted the growing hazards of EMF pollution and the crucial need to address them.

In 2007, the Bioinitiative Working Group released a 650-page report citing more than 2,000 studies (many very recent) that detail the toxic effects of EMFs from all sources. Chronic exposure to even low-level radiation (like that from cell phones), can cause a variety of cancers, impair immunity, and contribute to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, heart disease, and many other ailments.
Additionally, every single study of brain tumors that looks at 10 or more years of use shows an increased risk of brain cancer.

A recent study from Sweden is particularly frightening, suggesting that if you started using a cell phone as a teen, you have a 5 times greater risk of brain cancer than those who started as an adult.
A recent study showed that exposure to very-low-frequency voltage signals (1-100kHz), or "dirty electricity,” can greatly increase your risk of melanoma, thyroid cancer, and uterine cancer. These signals are largely by-products of electronics, such as modern energy-efficient appliances, televisions, stereos and other entertainment devices.

These electronic devices use a lower voltage than other appliances, and this manipulation of current creates a complex electromagnetic field. This field not only radiates into the immediate environment but also can travel along home or office wiring throughout the neighborhood.

"For the first time in our evolutionary history, we have generated an entire secondary, virtual, densely complex environment — an electromagnetic soup — that essentially overlaps the human nervous system," says Michael Persinger, PhD, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University who has studied the effects of EMFs on cancer cells.

And it appears that, more than a century after Thomas Edison switched on his first light bulb, the health consequences of that continual overlap are just now beginning to be documented.

Sources:
  MSNBC January 18, 2010

Dr. Mercola's comments:

New scientific evidence is continually emerging that nearly all the twentieth century human plagues can be tied to some aspect of our use of electricity, including:

• Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children
• Brain tumors
• Malignant melanoma
• Asthma
• Cardiovascular disease
• Immune system dysfunction
• Hormone disturbance
• Brittle diabetes
• Sleep disorders, headaches, Alzheimer’s disease and ADHD

And this is just a partial list.

EMFs and Your DNA

Cells in your body can react to EMFs as a harmful invader, just like they do to other environmental toxins.
Remember that you are an electrical being.
Your body is a complex communication device where cells “talk”, tissues “talk,” organs “talk,” and organisms “talk[1].” At each of these levels, the communication includes finely tuned bio-electrical transmitters and receivers, which are tuned like tuning into a radio station. What happens when you expose a radio antenna to a significant amount of external noise? You get static from the noise – and that is what is happening to your body in today’s electrosmog environment.
Two of the more well-known biologicals impacts from electrosmog are the interruption of the brain wave pattern[2] leading to behavior issues[3] and the interference to your body’s entire communication system (cytoskeleton)[4] leading to abnormal neurological function, such as dementia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
At a cellular level, your cell membrane receptors (the brain of the cell) recognize electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure producing a stress response similar to that produced by exposure to heavy metals or toxic chemicals.[5]
This can cause the cell membrane to go from an “active” or permeable state where it allows nutrients in and toxins out, to an “inactive” state where the cell membrane is impermeable. During a normal day, your cells will change states thousands of time, but when under constant environmental stress, the membranes can be locked in the inactive state. This is often referred to as “oxidative stress” as nutrients are able to enter into the cell, while toxins (free radicals) are not allowed to leave.
There is also real evidence that this inactive state can even have geno-toxic effects, meaning electrosmog is toxic by both damaging DNA and preventing your body from repairing DNA, which can be the first step to cancer.
We are not really sure what the “trigger” is that causes health problems, but we know that the electrosmog is definitely a contributing factor. For health, your body must be able to communicate within itself, that is, to be in harmony with the natural rhythm of the earth and all life.
The chaotic and unpredictable patterns from electrosmog can create noise in your body and force your body out of harmony. These damaging biological effects have been found at levels far below the so-called industrial and governmental safety limits—1,000,000 times lower than those limits, in some cases.
Why do things such as MTT, acupuncture, TENS units, pacemakers, and many other bioelectrical treatments work? Most likely a major reason why they work is because they focus on getting your body back into its natural rhythm or resonance. Just as you breathe in oxygen from an atmosphere you can’t see, your cells are suspended in a sea of vibrational energy that you can’t see or feel—that is, until it makes you sick.
As the MSNBC article states:

“Remember, these positive-negative shifts are occurring many thousands of times per second, so the electrons in your body are oscillating to that tune. Your body becomes charged up because you're basically coupled to the transient's electric field."
Keep in mind that all the cells in your body, whether islets in the pancreas awaiting a signal to manufacture insulin or white blood cells speeding to the site of an injury, use electricity—or "electron change”— to communicate with each other.
By overlapping the body's signaling mechanisms, could transients [electrosmog] interfere with the secretion of insulin, drown out the call-and-response of the immune system, and cause other physical havoc?”

Yes, absolutely.
And the really frightening aspect about electrosmog is how little control you have over it.

How You Can Protect Yourself

Fortunately, you are not completely helpless. There are strategies that can help reduce your exposure and protect you from the constant onslaught of radiation.
For over 20 years, Building Biologists (www.buildingbiology.net) have been studying and educating the general public regarding the negative impact of electromagnetic fields (EMF). On their website are multiple videos and information on the why, what and how for dealing with EMFs.
First and foremost, you’ll want to reduce your exposure to as many sources as you can.
For my latest list of safety tips and guidelines on how to reduce your exposure, please see my previous article.
In addition to these recommendations, Camilla Rees mentions a few more in her video, including:

1. Intestinal care: Make sure you’re getting plenty of healthy probiotics. The Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland discovered that symptoms of electrosensitivity can be reduced by providing gut barrier support. For more information, listen to the interview with Dr. Rau, medical director of the Paracelsus Clinic, available at this link.
2. Regular detoxification programs: Not only are you dealing with increasing amounts of toxic chemicals in your environment, your body is full of microorganisms that respond to EMFs by generating increased levels of their own toxins, according to a course for physicians on this subject, taught by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD.
3. Beware of mold: Mold, just like other microorganisms, can also react in high EMF environments. One study showed 600 times more neurotoxins generated from mold in a high EMF environment. According to Rees, there are also mold legal cases being reviewed, questioning whether problems in buildings infested with mold may have actually been related to nearby antenna infrastructure.

Controlling the environment in which you sleep is especially important, given you spend a third of your life there. Review how to create a sleep sanctuary in five easy steps.

More Electrical Pollution Solutions

Electrical Pollution Solution has an extensive list of steps you can take to combat electrosmog in your home and work environments. Their suggestions include the following:

• Remove your microwave oven. Besides dangerous EMF radiation, microwave ovens have other negatives impacts on your health. 
• Avoid using electric blankets and electric heating pads.
• Use rubber gloves when washing dishes or working at the sink, and stand on a non-conductive mat. Both increase the resistance of the path through your body.

For additional EMF information, please see EMF.mercola.com for the latest news and updates.

Be a Live Wire for Change

The last thing that you can do, and perhaps the most important, is to help spread awareness about this ever-increasing problem.
If you believe that one or more transmitting products is making you ill, please report it/them to the following agencies (be prepared with the manufacturer, model and/or serial number, and a list of your symptoms):

1. FDA 1-800-FDA-1088 The same FDA program that regulates medical devices also regulates consumer products that emit radiation.
2. Consumer Product Safety Commission 1-800-638-2772
3. EMR Policy Institute

It’s unfortunate, but the government is not likely to step up and do the right thing to protect your health without a lot of pressure from the public.
Power companies have successfully beaten back attempts to modify exposure standards. The cell phone industry, which has funded at least 87% of the research on the subject, has effectively resisted regulation.
Please get involved at any level you can, to help increase the pressure on industry and industry regulators, which is the only way to create a safer future for everyone.

---

[1] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 189.
[2] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 96
[3] Becker, Robert. MD. Cross Current. Penguin Group. 1990. P. 215.
[4] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 131.
[5] Lipton, Bruce, PhD. "The Biology of Belief." Mountain of Love/Elite Books, Santa Rosa, CA. 2005. P. 83

Is the Reason for Bees Dying in Colony Collapse Disorder Finally Solved?

The Cell Phone Connection: Are EMFs Killing Bees?

Despite the research pointing to a virus, a fungus or a pesticide as the most likely suspects in CCD, it's hard to ignore the research from at least two studies that point to cell phones and electromagnetic fields (EMF) as major threats.
When cellular phones were placed near hives, the radiation generated by them (900-1,800 MHz) was enough to prevent bees from returning to them, according to a study conducted at Landau University.
Scientists believe the radiation produced by cellular phones may be enough to interfere with the way bees communicate with their hives. Cellular phones may create a resonance effect that interferes with the movement patterns bees use as a kind of language.
Most recently, experiments by Sainuddeen Pattazhy, a researcher and dean in the department of zoology at SN College, Punalur, Kerala, also found that microwaves from mobile phones appear to interfere with worker bees' navigation skills.
When Pattazhy placed mobile phones near beehives, the hives collapsed completely in five to 10 days. The worker bees failed to return home and vanished, never to be found. Adding to the mystery, parasites, wildlife and other bees, which would normally raid the abandoned hives, would not go near the collapsed colonies. Pattazhy said in The Pioneer:

"The navigation skill of the worker bees is dependent on the earth's magnetic properties. The electro-magnetic waves emitted by the mobile phones and relay towers interfere with the earth's magnetism, resulting in the loss of the navigation capacity of the bee. Then it fails to come back.
Also, the radiation causes damage to the nervous system of the bee and it becomes unable to fly."

So cell phones appear to be another likely threat to bees around the globe, and there may be a cumulative effect going on that is making it more and more difficult for bees to survive, let alone thrive.

To read full article go to:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/29/is-the-reason-for-bees-dying-in-colony-collapse-disorder-finally-solved.aspx 

FCC Raises the Red Flag about Cell Phone Hazards

By Dr. Mercola

On November 5, 2009, the FCC released their Consumer Facts on "Wireless Devices and Health Concerns." In this document, the FCC recommends precautions for the use of cell phones.

According to the FCC, “Recent reports by some health and safety interest groups have suggested that wireless device use can be linked to cancer and other illnesses. These questions have become more pressing as more and younger people are using the devices, and for longer periods of time.”
They now recommend the following steps:

• Use an earpiece or headset
• If possible, keep wireless devices away from your body when they are on, mainly by not attaching them to belts or carrying them in pockets
• Use the cell phone speaker to reduce exposure to your head
• Consider texting rather than talking
• Buy a wireless device with lower Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

Sources:

  FCC November 5, 2009

Dr. Mercola's comment:

Public health agencies cannot continue to keep their heads in the sand while millions of people, including children, are unknowingly being exposed to radiation at levels that are putting their health at risk.

Warning Labels Should be Added to All Cell Phones

The issue has been heating up recently, and a bill introduced in Maine, which would make it the first to mandate warning labels on all cell phones, created a flurry of national attention. I suspect and sincerely hope it will not be much longer before cell phones are outed as the cigarettes of the 21st century, and this bill would be a first step toward that.
It calls for the following statement to be prominently placed on every cell phone and all related packaging, on a non-removable label:

“Warning, this device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause brain cancer. Users, especially children and pregnant women, should keep this device away from the head and body.”

In addition, the bill, as currently written, requires the label to include the color graphic showing the electromagnetic absorption of a 5-year old child’s brain, as depicted in a 1996 study published by the IEEE on the effect of cell phone microwave emissions on the neck and head.

Why You Can’t Trust Current FCC Cell Phone Standards

You may find it hard to believe that the FCC would allow cell phones on the market if they were unsafe. Well, the FCC does, in fact, require wireless devices to meet minimum safety guidelines for human use.
Unfortunately, these guidelines are based on exposure limits in terms of Specific Absorption Rate, otherwise known as the SAR value. The SAR value is a measure of the power of the cell phone and its potential for heating tissues.
But simply choosing a phone with a lower SAR value does not at all mean the phone is safe. Camilla Rees, founder of www.Electromagnetichealth.org and co-author with Magda Havas, PhD of Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution, explains:

“It is important consumers realize that the SAR value, while providing information for comparison purposes between phones, is very limited in its usefulness as a measure of ‘safety.’ We are greatly concerned that people may be turning to the EWG database in droves not understanding just how limited a measure the SAR value is.”

Why is the SAR value not an accurate measure of safety?

1. The SAR value is only comparing the isolated heating effect of different phones and does not give an indication that a cell phone is ‘safe.’
2. The power, or heating effect, of the phone is only one of many possible factors impacting cell phone ‘safety.’ Exposures to the radiation from the cell phone at non-heating levels have been linked to many serious biological effects, and the SAR value is not capturing anything about these harmful non-thermal exposures.
3. SAR values are reported to the FCC by the manufacturer and have been known to vary from the reported number by a factor of two across models of the same phone.
4. The SAR value varies with the source of exposure and the person using the phone. For example, if you are in a rural area or in an elevator or a car, where the cell phone uses more power, your brain will get a greater exposure from the higher power required in these instances. Under certain conditions, the SAR value can be 10-100 times higher than reported.
5. Holding the phone in a slightly different way can actually render the worst SAR value phone better than the best SAR value phone.
6. SAR values have been created based on simulations of exposure in a plexiglass head filled with fluid, not a human head, and many scientists consider them to be inaccurate and irrelevant at determining actual biological effects.

One of the worst deficiencies of the SAR value is that it only considers the thermal impact of cell phone usage, and it is very likely that the non-thermal effects of chronic cell phone exposure are more biologically damaging.
Even the FCC acknowledged this concern in their FCC Consumer Facts:

“Some experts think that low frequency magnetic fields rather than RF energy measured by the SAR possibly are responsible for any potential risk associated with wireless devices.”

Have You Heard? Cell Phones are Dangerous ...

In case you haven’t yet heard, there’s a reason why the FCC finally issued cell phone “precautions” despite the industry’s assurances to the contrary.
For starters, the 2009 special EMF issue of the Journal of Pathophysiology contains over a dozen different studies on the health effects of electromagnetic fields and wireless technology
In addition, a review of 11 long-term epidemiologic studies published in the journal Surgical Neurology revealed that using a cell phone for 10 or more years approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same side of the head where the cell phone is typically held.
You should also know that:

• A study by Dr. Siegal Sadetzki linked cell phone use to salivary gland tumors
• Wearing a cell phone on your hip -- either on your belt or in a pocket -- has been linked to decreased bone density in the pelvic region. (All the other vital organs located in your pelvic region -- your liver, kidney, bladder, colon and reproductive organs -- are also susceptible to radiation damage).
• Proximity to cell phone towers causes an increase in the symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity, including fatigue, sleep disturbances, visual and auditory disturbances, and cardiovascular effects
• The BioInitiative Report includes studies showing evidence for:
• Effects on Gene and Protein Expression (Transcriptomic and Proteomic Research)
• Genotoxic Effects – RFR and ELF DNA Damage
• Stress Response (Stress Proteins)
• Effects on Immune Function
• Effects on Neurology and Behavior
• Brain Tumors, Acoustic Neuromas, and childhood cancers like leukemia
• And much more

I’ve barely scratched the surface with the examples I listed above. There are many, many more out there, and if you’re interested to learn more the Web site ElectromagneticHealth.org offers 10 free eye-opening audio interviews with some of the world’s leading experts in the field of EMF.

What Can You do to Stay Safe?

I urge you to take action now to protect yourself and your family from the dangerous effects of cell phones and other wireless devices. Please do not wait for the FCC to make a more serious warning or ban the phones altogether.
I believe this issue is so important I’ve created an entire web site dedicated to EMF education and information. Feel free to bookmark EMF.mercola.com and check back on occasion for the latest news and updates.
If you are not ready to give up your cell phone just yet, at the very least don’t let your young children use one, and avoid cell phone exposure while pregnant or carrying your infant. Children are FAR more susceptible to harm from microwave radiation than adults.
Further, you can at least minimize exposure by heeding the following advice:

• Reduce your cell phone use: Turn your cell phone off more often. Reserve it for emergencies or important matters. As long as your cell phone is on, it emits radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making a call.
• Use a land line at home and at work: Although more and more people are switching to using cell phones as their exclusive phone contact, it is a dangerous trend and you can choose to opt out of the madness.
• Reduce or eliminate your use of other wireless devices: You would be wise to cut down your use of these devices. Just as with cell phones, it is important to ask yourself whether or not you really need to use them every single time.
• If you must use a portable home phone, use the older kind that operates at 900 MHz. They are no safer during calls, but at least many of them do not broadcast constantly even when no call is being made.

Note the only way to truly be sure if there is an exposure from your cordless phone is to measure with an electrosmog meter, and it must be one that goes up to the frequency of your portable phone (so old meters will not be of much use). You can find meters at www.emfsafetystore.com.

As a general rule of thumb, you can pretty much be sure your portable phone is a problem if the technology is DECT, or digitally enhanced cordless technology.

• Use your cell phone only where reception is good: The weaker the reception, the more power your phone must use to transmit, and the more power it uses, the more radiation it emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves penetrate into your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full bars and good reception.
• Don’t assume one cell phone is safer than another: Please understand that despite assurances, there’s still no such thing as a “safe” cell phone.
• Keep your cell phone away from your body when it’s on: The most dangerous place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is within about six inches of the emitting antenna. You do not want any part of your body within that area (so do not carry your cell phone on your belt, either).
• Use safer headset technology: Wired headsets will certainly allow you to keep the cell phone farther away from your body. However, if a wired headset is not well-shielded -- and most of them are not -- the wire itself acts as an antenna attracting ambient information carrying radio waves and transmitting radiation directly to your brain.

Make sure that the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear is shielded.
The best kind of headset to use is a combination shielded wire and air-tube headset. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the information to your head as an actual sound wave; although there are wires that still must be shielded, there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head.

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Now They are Hiding Cell Phone Towers in Schools and Churches

As school budgets shrink, some are getting money from an unlikely and controversial source: cell phone tower installations. Local schools can make hundreds of thousands of dollars from leases on towers.

But some parents say the money isn't worth it. They say the practice is irresponsible and gambling with students' health without conclusive evidence that towers are safe.

More than 262 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. depend on 120,000 towers to route their calls to the appropriate destination. In residential areas, schools are seen as prime locations for towers. They offer a large tract of land in an area that otherwise has smaller tracts and residential uses.

The debate over school-based towers is happening throughout the United States. In September, an Oregon district banned them on school grounds. Los Angeles Unified School District took a similar step in 2000.

Sources:

  Courier-Journal December 16, 2008

Dr. Mercola's comment:

Dr. Robert Zieve, an Integrative Medicine Physician, Director of Pine Tree Clinic for Comprehensive Medicine in Prescott, Arizona, and the author of Healthy Medicine, has provided this guest commentary: The article is a sad commentary on our economy and local communities.
Because schools are so poorly funded and desperate for money, they are now resorting to hiding cell phone towers on their premises. Almost everyone is familiar with the potential health peril of proximity to cell phone towers. Already, our children use cell phones for hours each day. Adding a proximity to radiation from towers can only increase those risks.
Parents and administrators often feel compelled to get more money for the school for their children’s education. Yet the same individuals may not be entirely aware of the significant risks these towers may pose to their children’s health.
And schools are not alone. Churches and hospitals are doing the same thing: permitting cell phone towers to be placed on their facilities in order to maintain enough financial “health” to remain operational. These public institutions are competing with each other for scarce funds, and therefore perhaps have turned a blind eye to the potential harmfulness of these towers.
Why are Schools Negotiating With Cell Phone Companies?
Many schools have found their ability to afford supplies on conventional budgets to be overly limited. They therefore have felt forced to make nontraditional deals to supplement their funds. In the case of deals with cell phone companies, schools under extreme financial pressure may have made such deals without completely evaluating the health risks to children.
Wireless technologies are already prevalent in children's homes, meaning continuous exposure during sleep time. Cell phone towers at school during the day add to potential risk.
A Dangerout Ignorance
Parents of school children have a lot to deal with. Already some parents are up from 7 in the morning to 1 AM at night every school day, just to manage their kids’ needs. Many parents of them do not feel the luxury of researching every potential health consequence befalling their children. But this potential peril is particularly troubling.
If not now, when?
Parents may not see the actual consequences that may ensure from this sort of problem until after many years down the road. It is therefore all the more important that they come together now to question the potential harmfulness of these school towers to the health of their children, and to determine whether there are other less perilous ways of supplementing school budgets.
It’s Time to Work Together
We must work together to find another way, not only in this area of the current microwaving of everyone's brains, but in health, food, sick buildings, and on the economy. We must create healthy communities with healthy businesses and governing bodies from the ground up, in which people inform each other and join together to make healthy decisions.

 

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