We are quite pleased for the introduction of technology into every stage of our lives, because of the comfort it brings. But surely all of comforts pleasing us somehow have damage also.. 15 years ago mobile phones usage was quite limited while today we are carrying two phones and buying a seperate one to our children. The subject how much harm does the  mobile phones have on human health is not only the work of the academic community, but also is a popular topic of environments where soccer, dinner recipes and even fashion is spoken 🙂

There are thousands of studies done on this subject and numerous articles and books are published. In the period I served for TUBITAK this issue was more popular… we did academic work on the subject, we may consider it later, but questions from our daily lives posed a serious e-mail and telephone traffic …

There are two basic curiosity about mobile phones; first concerns people resting at an office or house close to a base station, anxiety about radiation…the second is more general; how much we give harm to our health when using a mobile phone…

The Base Stations..!

You should first note that mobile phones do not communicate between each other, but with the base stations. So we use the phones by transmitting and receiving signals to the base station. The service can only be possible if the power of that base station is enough and the number of the mobile phones benefiting from the same base at the same time is below a certain limit. Each base station broadcasts GSM signals using antennas on them. This signal emission, depending on the direction of the antenna, radiates at a certain angle. To make it easier to imagine, you can think of a lighthouse in the darkness, usually like the ones in cartoons. Like the one on that scene, starting from the base stations antenna, electromagnetic radiation goes ahead getting wider by the distance, such as the light of the lighthouse. Is it possible to be affected by the light while sitting at the foot of the lighthouse..?? taking also into account the proverb “candle does not illuminate its bottom”.. It is the same case for base stations, the base on the top of our building does not have any harm, but also any benefit. Although no widely accepted standard,  there are limits of  World Health Organization and ICNIRP for electromagnetic emissions. Turkey’s accepted limit values ​​are well below these limits…

What about the phone itself ..??

Coming up to the mobiles we use…We can send  our voice, messages, photos, even videos from place to place wireless, so it is certain that an electromagnetic radiation exists. As time goes on, less environmental health  damaging technologies are being developed and products are tested more strictly. Very basic rule of electromagnetics may benefit us pretty good:  “electromagnetic field decreases with distance..!”. There is a  serious difference between talking with a mobile phone while leaning it on our ears and keeping the phone at 2 inch distance from our ears..! Using headphones and keeping the phone away from our body is the ideal solution.

I made dozens of emission measurements on base stations, I’m not saying this to justify this system but in areas where people are present,  I’ve never seen a value in remotely approaching the limit. What about mobile phone usage?? More or less it is certain that there is an affect to human body, especially the metabolism..but isn’t it a conflict not getting our minds busy with the electromagnetic radiation of household appliances like vacuum cleaner, blender, hair dryer, air conditioner, computer etc. that we use in our daily lives..make a search for the amount of radiation of those equipment..! 🙂

Consequently, without a shadow of a doubt, exposure a long duration to a high amplitude electromagnetic energy have a serious damage on health. Because the limits are given with derived values but not the realistic results gained after series of long lasting experiments on human health, nobody can claim that limits are reliable. Is it the cause of the increase in cancer cases, the becoming spread of amount of electromagnetic emissions from technological devices..??? Probably… In today’s technology, mobile phone is just one of the hundreds of devices around us, radiating electromagnetic  energy as the source…do they give damage too much??? Greater than zero… 🙂