Cell Phones: Friend or Foe

1
Cell Phones Friend or Foe?

• By Tayana Vance
• Cell Biology and Genetics
• Dr. Battey

2
Cell Phone Facts

• In todays society, cell phones are everywhere.
  The elderly have them, teenagers live on them,
  and children are starting to get them.
• The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet
  Association estimated that there were 219 million
  U.S. cell phone subscribers in mid-2006.

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Cell Phone Facts

• Cell Phones operate using radio frequences (RF) .
  
• This is a type of energy located on the
  electromagnetic spectrum between FM radio waves
  and waves used in microwaves. (Chapter Seven)

4

• How long would YOU say you spend on a cell phone
  each day?
• 15 Minutes
• 30 Minutes
• 1 hour or MORE?????

5

• If you talk on a cell phone for an hour each day,
  the amount of radiation that you will receive for
  a year would be 1095 watts.

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Calculation

• 1 hour a day x 365 days a year365 hrs.
• 365 hours x 3 watts 1095 watts in a year.

7
Long Term Effects

• Since the widespread use of cellular phones is a
  little more than a decade old, there has been
  limited opportunity to examine its long term
  effects in humans.

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DO CELL PHONES CAUSE BRAIN CANCER?????
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Conducted Studies

• There have been 3 recent studies done in
  different parts of the world about this ongoing
  question.
• The first study compared 233 brain cancer
  patients with 466 patients without cancer in
  Sweden.

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Conducted Studies

• The second study compared 469 brain cancer
  patients in New York with 422 controls in Boston.
• The third study compared 782 brain cancer
  patients in Phoenix, Boston, and Pittsburgh with
  799 controls.
• WHAT WERE THE RESULTS?????

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All three studies showed similar results.

• Most of the studies showed a lower risk of brain
  cancer for uncertain reasons.
• None of the patients with brain cancer
  experienced an increase in the cancer while using
  cellular phones.
• The experiments DID NOT show a clear link between
  the side of the head the cancer occurred on and
  the side of the head the cell phone was used on.

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Conclusion

• This may be great news for some of us that live
  on cell phones. However, be aware of the fact
  that cell phones are still considered to be new
  technology .
• The long term effects of cell phones are still
  unknown so remember to use with caution.

13
References

• Food and Drug Administration and Federal
  Communications Commission. Cell Phone Facts
  Consumer information on mobile phones. 2003.
  www.fda.gov/cellphones/qa.html
• Repacholi, MH. Radiofrequency field exposure and
  cancer What do the laboratory studies suggest?
  Environmental Health Perspect. 105 97.