Cell phone news

Microwave News: New Clues on Colorectal Cancer in Young Adults

Could the common habit of keeping a cell phone in a trouser pocket help explain why so many young people have been developing colon and rectal cancer over the last 20 years?Maybe so, according to a new study presented last month at the annual conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology in Santiago, Chile.

Depending on where you carry the phone, the cancer risk, usually small among those under 50, might be up to 12 times higher.

It’s only a pilot study and the results are uncertain, but there aren’t many other known risk factors beyond obesity, smoking, bad diet and lack of exercise, which cannot fully explain what’s going on.

Still, this new hypothesis is facing resistance.

Microwave News: Old Wine in New Bottles: The New WHO Cancer Review

Cell phones and cancer have been much in the news over the last couple of weeks, thanks to a new review commissioned by the World Health Organization. The coverage would have us believe that it’s game over: The issue has been settled and it’s time to move on. Don’t buy it. The fact is that

How a Connecticut middle school won the battle against cellphones

Excerpt: MANCHESTER, Conn. — When Raymond Dolphin became assistant principal of a middle school in Connecticut two years ago, it was clear to him that the kids were not all right. The problem was cellphones. Students were using the devices in class, despite a rule against it. Social media was exacerbating nearly every conflict among students. When Dolphin walked the hallways or surveyed the cafeteria, he invariably saw heads bent over screens. So in December, Dolphin did something unusual: He banned them. The experiment at Illing Middle School sparked objections from students and some parents, but it has already generated profound and unexpected results. SNIP

No biological science behind mobile phone safety testing

Excerpt: From Joel M. Moskowitz:
A leading expert, Professor Om Gandhi, blames the inadequacies of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) safety standard and the Specific Anthropomorphic Mannequin (SAM) model used to test cell phones on industry and military engineers who dominated the IEEE standard setting meetings. He discusses the dangers of 5G radiation.

Meet the man whose research inspired the SAM campaign. Om P. Gandhi, Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with the University of Utah, taught courses on biological effects of antennas, RF and microwave electromagnetic fields for over 50 years.

Prof. Om P. Gandhi is a world expert on how mobile phone radiation penetrates the human brain. Once a consultant to major cell phone companies, Gandhi now refuses to work with them. SNIP…….

How the FCC Shields Cellphone Companies From Safety Concerns

Excerpts from this major exposé of the FCC’s negligence and complicity with the telecom industry

“Orsi and the Pittsfield board decided to try to do something about Verizon’s tower. They quickly discovered that they would get no help from federal regulators. The Federal Communications Commission, which has responsibility for protecting Americans from potential radiation hazards generated by wireless transmitters and cellphones, has repeatedly sided with the telecom industry in denying the possibility of virtually any human harm.”

“But it was a signal of a growing fear – other cities have fought cell sites only to be forced to back down – and evidence of a striking shoulder-to-shoulder partnership between a federal agency and the industry it is supposed to regulate. The build-out of a new generation of wireless networks, known as 5G, is amping up the stakes of this conflict for localities across America. It will require an estimated 800,000 new base stations, including both towers and densely spaced “small cell” transmitters mounted on rooftops and street poles. That means nearly tripling the current number of transmitters, and many of them will be placed close to houses and apartments.”…SNIP

Dramatic results after school’s mobile phone ban

Excerpt: There has been a dramatic decrease in behavioural issues, and a boost in physical activity among students at a Sydney High School after mobile phones were banned. Every day students in years 7 to 10 at Davidson High School put their phone in a pouch that, once closed, cannot be opened without breaking the lock. “Classrooms have effectively become phone free and this has allowed staff to focus on educating students,” principal David Rule said in a school newsletter. “In eight weeks of the policy there has been a 90 per cent reduction in behavioural issues related to phones in the school.” SNIP…

Teenage smart phone addiction (Washington Post)

Excerpt:

“I’ll never buy a smartphone for any of my children,” she says.

It’s a personal stance born of professional experiences. Stacey is a psychiatrist who works primarily with high school and college students in Fayetteville, Ark., and in her practice she routinely asks new patients to swipe open their phones and show her how much screen time they’re clocking per day. …Stacey is a hard-liner in a war being waged in homes everywhere as grown-ups attempt to limit smartphone use that they believe can be harmful to kids, even as they struggle to establish healthy habits with their own phones. And, big surprise, the parents aren’t winning. Because it’s not just their children they’re up against, but also a tech industry pushing products that insiders say are designed to be addictive and a society that has largely capitulated to the norms and urges and expectations all those phones and apps have created.

Even when it comes to kids. Fifty-three percent of American children have a smartphone of their own by age 11, according to a 2019 report by Common Sense Media. By the time they’re 16, 89 percent of kids have one. An earlier report by Common Sense Media found that 50 percent of teenagers felt addicted to their smartphones and that 59 percent of their parents thought that was the case. All of this has coincided with a startling increase in mental health challenges among adolescents, which some psychologists believe might be tied to the adverse effects of social media use.

As Stacey sits with young patients who are grappling with anxiety or depression or lack of focus and can’t fathom cutting back their smartphone use, a single thought tends to run through her head: “This is so stupid, that these little devices are controlling these kids.” SNIP