Beware of Cell Phone Radiation, Says California Health Department
Time to rethink our relationships with our phones.
This week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued a warning about the dangers of cell phone radiation. CDPH also provided guidelines on how consumers can protect themselves.
That includes “simple steps, such as not keeping your phone in your pocket and moving it away from your bed at night” said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith, which “can help reduce exposure for both children and adults.”
Except, these “simple steps” that Smith describes require that we change basically everything about how we interact with our phones. See additional suggestions for more:
-Keeping the phone away from the body
-Reducing cell phone use when the signal is weak, and the phone emits more radio frequency to try to connect to a tower
-Reducing the use of cell phones to stream audio or video – or keeping the phone far away when you’re streaming
-Keeping the phone away from the bed at night
-Removing headsets when not on calls
-Avoiding products that claim to block radio frequency energy, which, as in the case of weak cell phone signals, actually result in the cell phone emitting more energy
-Texting more and calling less
-Or (perhaps the simplest solution) keeping the phone on airplane mode when not in use
This is not the first time that questions about the safety of cell phone radiation have arisen, though thus far, there has not been conclusive scientific evidence either way.
But perhaps the strongest argument for limiting cell phone use has been work done by Joel Moskowitz, the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Family and Community Health.
In 2009, Moskowitz shifted his research from the health efforts of tobacco to that of mobile phones after a South Korean colleague showed him literature that suggested that “cell phone manufacturers want you to keep a minimum distance away from your body,” as he explained . “if you keep the device by your body, you will exceed the safety limits provided by the FCC.”
In May 2015, the Connecticut Department of Public Health issued similar recommendations.
Read the California Department of Public Health’s guidance here:
https://htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/files/cell-phone-guidance-1513219841.pdf
