Undoubtedly mobile phones and wireless broadband are immensely useful, but there is a persistent question: what are the risks of using these technologies?

Photo credit: Rafal Swidzinski and Petr Jancik

Many of us asking the "risk" question are - alas - not necessarily informed or even willing to consider the benefits of networking, and those planning the digital and mobile revolution have hardly heard about the risks.

Providers are reluctant to discuss the health implications of the pulsed microwave radiation that makes mobile communications possible -as it might be bad for business. But are we missing the boat altogether?

Are we betting on mobile phone technology that may be our downfall some years down the line?

Photo credit: UK Health Protection Agency

The indicators are there - big red lights flashing in urgent staccato rhythm.

DNA changes induced by cell phone radiation, farm animals affected by the vicinity of newly erected cell phone towers, people complaining of headaches, increased incidence of serious illness occurring in clusters around cell phone towers.

The World Health Organization's International Council on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) sets standards for exposure to radiation from mobile phones, but the standards are widely regarded as hopelessly inadequate, insufficient even to protect against brain damage.

The main point of contention seems to be the mechanism of destructive activity of microwaves.

Officially the only mechanism is heating, as known from microwave ovens, but there seems to be another, more insidious effect. Microwaves that are pulsed in a lower frequency may entrain and disturb vital control mechanisms of the human organism including cell division, heartbeat, blood pressure, brain waves and more.

Better technologies

It is not for lack of a better technology that we are stuck with damaging radiation to accompany our desires to socialize and exchange information. Ultra wideband seems just as workable, while "melting into the background" when we look for its radiation. In fact, the technology uses little power and what's more, it jumps from frequency to frequency, breaking up the pattern of "packets" in normal cell phone radiation that apparently does the damage to our DNA.

Another giant leap awaiting us on the horizon is XMax, developed by Joe Bobier of xG Technology.

xMax works by sending and receiving single-cycle "wavelets", which can be very low power. The receiver eliminates anything longer than a wavelet, meaning that the remaining single-cycle message bits can be clearly distinguished - there is no base noise to shout down. xMax claims to work at power levels 10,000 times below the FCC's power limits for even ultra wideband transmissions.

But these are technologies in development, so the question still looms: Should we worry about the current technology and work to replace it with something better?

My answer is an emphatic yes. You might come to the same conclusion, if you examine the data.

Start by reading "New Problems with Cell Phones" which Andrew Michrowski, director of the Planetary Association for Clean Energy prepared for the recent Whole Life Expo in Toronto. Its focus is on the Canadian situation, to be sure, but the waves are the same wherever you bought your mobile...

"Some, natural, highly-coherent oscillations in living beings have same or similar characteristics as those produced by wireless technologies.

For example, the 2Hz-encoded signal from cellphones reporting to base stations resembles the heartbeat (and can entrain heartbeat).

Other extremely-low-frequency-encoded signals resemble, and interact with, brain waves, cell growth, cell communication, calcium ion balance and other fundamental life processes, even at levels as low as 0.005W/kg."

Much information is also being put together every day by Klaus Rudolph of the Citizens' Initiative Omega. He publishes a weekly newsletter with the latest news from around the world. You can subscribe to this excellent resource simply by sending an email.

Perhaps some of you know of other sources of good information on the health implications of cell phone and mobile technologies, or have some information that could help locate promising alternative ways of arranging communication that do not have the drawbacks we now are finding with current technology. If you do, let me know.

See also:

Mobile WiMax gets green light

The Stress of Cell Phones
In the midst of looking for more studies on the damage cellular phones can do to your body, I came across an interesting side effect that has nothing at all to do with radiation exposure: The stress that comes with having and using mobiles and how that negatively affects your family in terms of increased stress.