Cell Phones: Cigarettes of the 21st Century

by George Lunt

Everything you see in the media is tainted with emotion. They show you only the accepted beliefs about something and minimize or ignore opposing opinions. Right now cigarettes are considered evil and just breathing second hand smoke for a few minutes will give you a host of diseases. Fifty or sixty years ago the same cigarettes were the greatest thing in the world. You weren't cool unless you smoked. If you dared to question the safety of cigarettes you were considered crazy.

The media does report the opposition but it only mentions it occasionally. But the sponsored, the most popular, or the most news-worthy beliefs are constantly being pushed to the limit. It's almost impossible to get the truth from them because of their endless preaching of the most popular and most politically correct opinion.

I believe that cell phones are pretty much like cigarettes. Most of us now believe that after chain smoking for years lung cancer will develop. I think that, brain cancer will eventually develop when people over use the cell phone.

The media never told us about the dangers of smoking, until it became popular to condemn smoking. Then it really goes overboard to condemn everything associated with smoking. Yet, in past years the tobacco industry pushed their product with full media support. To illustrate my point let me give you a brief history of smoking in the mid twentieth century during the years that the tobacco industry made extensive use of the media to sell their product.

• 1939 - Germany: First study done linking smoking and lung cancer.
• 1946 - Ad campaign to promote cigarette health called: "More doctors smoke Camel."
• 1950 - Three new studies provide links between smoking and lung cancer.
• 1954 - Ad taken out by tobacco companies ran in 448 newspapers, in 258 cities, with 43 million circulation: "A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS." Ad claimed cigarettes were safe.
• 1950's - Major television shows like the "Lucy Show" and the "Hit Parade" were sponsored by tobacco companies.
• 1965 - Warning labels were placed on US cigarette packs - Caution: Cigarette smoking may be dangerous to your health.
• 1965 - Cigarette ads banned on tv in UK.
• 1971 - Cigarette ads banned on tv in US.

It took until the eighties for cigarette companies to admit that there is a cigarette - cancer link, and until the late nineties to admit that cigarettes are addictive.

Today's cell phone industry can be compared to the tobacco industry in the forties and fifties. The cell phone industry is booming. New cell phone stores are sprouting up everywhere in Chicago, where I live, as well as the rest of the world. Television commercials constantly inform us of the benefits of one cell network over another. The mail is full of post cards and pamphlets describing the coolest new cell phones. Even the stadium where the Chicago White Sox play their home baseball games, once called Cominskey Park, was renamed US Cellular Field after one of the city's leading cell phone networks. Cellular technology is everywhere.

Like the effects of smoking, the negative effects of cell phones are not immediate. If cell radiation has similar effects on people's brains as cigarettes have on people's lungs, the cellular industry knows that it might take thirty or forty years before governments and health advocates accept any study that questions cell phone safety. How much money can these greedy corporate-aliens make in thirty or forty years before the truth finally comes out? Cellular technology in conjunction with such fields as RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) and GPS(Global Positioning System) is providing new ways for many governments to track and control their populations. Because of this, these governments may never admit to any health hazards associated with cellular technology.

With the yearly billions in profits generated by the cell phone industry, don't expect them to admit any health problems associated with their gadgets. They will just hire marketers to cover any contradictory studies no matter how impressive they are. The standard response from these marketers is similar to that of the fictional spin doctor Nick Naylor as quoted from the movie, Thank You for Smoking (2006):

There is already enough evidence that cell phones can cause health problems. From 1993 to 1999 Doctor George Carlo, an American epidemiologist, headed a research program funded by the cellular phone industry that investigated the possible health effects of cellular phones. Doctor Carlo discovered what the cellular industry didn't like, his research funding was not renewed and his ideas were suppressed. He does make it on interviews on different tv shows, but his ideas are not widely embraced by the media. He believes that cell phones could cause cancer and a wide range of other health risks. Children are more susceptible to health problems from cell phones because their skulls are thinner and their brains are still developing.

O.J. Simpson's famous attorney Johnny Cochran died from a brain tumor that was on the left side of the brain, the side where he was known to hold his cell phone. His doctor, Dr. Keith Black, a renowned Los Angeles neurosurgeon, believes that his tumor was caused by his cell phone usage. Black claims, "We do know that there is a significant correlation between the side that one uses their cell phone on and the side that you develop the brain tumor on."

Because of all the cell towers built within the last ten to twenty years especially in urban areas that constantly radiate electromagnetic signals, we are faced with "electronic smog," the equivalent to second hand tobacco smoke. Second hand smoke is always isolated in a room located in a house, restaurant, or tavern, but "electronic smog" envelops the entire environment. Luckily, most people develop an immunity to it, but there are a some that are very sensitive to it. These people suffer from symptoms like nausea, dizziness, and depression. They experience difficulty in sleeping and concentrating. Sweden is the only country that recognizes electromagnetic sensitivity as a disease, and government support is available to sufferers.

Since environmental electronic signals are extremely weak, they're not likely to cause cancer. They can, however, interfere with our brain's natural electronic signals. We've all probably seen how a passing truck with a driver using a citizen's band radio can interfere with certain tv channels. In a similar manner, "electronic smog" can sometimes interfere with our thinking. If you have many days when you're tired and can't think and feel mildly depressed, it could be "electronic smog" and you just don't realize it.

But the placement of electronic transmitting gadgets, especially in the cities, has not stopped. Every year the level of "electronic smog" increases. Eventually, the amount of electromagnetic signals may pollute our environment so much, that we'll all start feeling the effects.

Here are some steps you can take to prevent health problems from your cell phone.

• You don't have to spend hours on your cell phone. Mostly chain smokers get lung cancer. Similarly the ones that are going to get brain cancer are the habitual cell phone users. If you must talk for hours, use the land line. Especially, try to keep your children and teenagers from using their cell phones excessively.
• The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association(CTIA) has developed a rating that compares the levels of radiation that a specific cell phone model puts out. It is known as the SAR(specific absorption rate) rating. In the United States the maximum SAR value a phone can have is 1.6 Watts/kilogram, in Europe the rating can be as high as 2.0 Watts/kilogram. Using a phone with a low SAR rating will have less effect on one's health than a phone with a high SAR rating. You can look up the SAR rating of your phone here.
• Use a hands free setup. These days, the most common hands free setup uses "Bluetooth" technology. The "Bluetooth" type setup has the earphone/microphone itself act as a weak radio transmitter/receiver that communicates with a "Bluetooth" enabled cell phone. This adds additional electromagnetic energy or "electronic smog." Since the signal is not the actual phone signal and it travels a short distance, it uses much less power and may prove to be an improvement over holding the actual phone next to your ear. It may, however, increase the subtle "smog" related effects. When using a hands free setup make sure that the cell phone itself is kept away from other parts of the body.
• Plastic buttons sold by Internet multi-level marketing firms that claim to reduce cell phone radiation when placed on the phone, are nothing but scams. If they worked cell phone companies would already have them built into their products.
• If you find that "electronic smog" bothers you, the only thing you can do is to move to a less polluted environment.

In the coming decades, I believe that some of us, or perhaps many of us, may be in one way or another affected by the overuse of modern wireless technology.

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