Rotarians learn about the ill effects of cell phone radiation

Dr. Devra Lee Davis

Dr. Devra Lee Davis, M.P.H., Ph.D, is recognised internationally for her work on environmental health and disease prevention and is an award-wining scientist and writer.

A Presidential appointee and the recipient of a bi-partisan Senate confirmation, Davis was the Founding Director of the world’s first Center for Environmental Oncology and currently serves as President of Environmental Health Trust, a non-profit organisation devoted to researching and controlling environmental health threats. Davis thanked Rotarians for their presence at the meeting despite the oncoming festive season. She said that on her brief tour of the country, she discovered that people in India not only understand the severity of the issue, but also has a devoted group of scientists and engineers who are working towards making a change. She said, “A child’s brain absorbs twice as much radiation as an adult’s. Men with the heaviest use of cell phones have the lowest sperm count. You may not appreciate this but India has been doing significant work in this field.

“The Indian Medical Research Council has a major study underway, examining a number of bio-markers and chemical indicators of health in people who are light, medium and heavy cell phone users, taking in account the exposure they get from the microwave radiation. I know Rotarians extend their support to a lot of significant things and I hope that you will do the same for these scientists.”

While radiation is a dangerous thing, Davis said that she is not anti-technology. She said, “I have a phone myself but there are ways of using it safely. Let me explain to you how this works – the electromagnetic spectrum goes all the way from gamma x-rays to the microwave. A cell phone has damaging effects because the nature of the cell phone signal is irregular and this irregularity over dozens of years causes biological damage. So no matter how you have been using your phone until now, you can start putting them on airplane mode here on, unless you are on a call. Keeping your phone switched off for long intervals and using it only as an answering machine gives you control over your privacy as well as your health as there is no radiation being transmitted to your device when it’s switched off or on airplane mode. These solutions may seem too drastic to you right now, but they are much better to implement now, than suffering from something serious at a later stage in life.”

She went on to explain how constant exposure to radiation can damage hearing, increase the risk of brain cancer and a number of other things. “One of the things to be aware of is that unfortunately, there is not a lot of research done in this field. All the safety standards for today’s phones are 18 years old.

“The simplest advice I can give you is that distance is your friend. All the data about cell phone safety standards generated so far have been by the companies making these devices and we need to have independent laboratories certify such reports which also stands to be a tremendous business opportunity”, she said.

“Unfortunately in India, you have transmission antennas on buildings that are not the tallest in their areas and because of this, you are facing the exposure 24 hours a day, four days a week for years and years. If you are located close to a cell phone tower, you may get unsafe exposure too”, she added.

Although the government officially recommended antennas on the tallest buildings in every area, these recommendations are not being considered in India. Davis said that Rotarians could play a constructive role in bringing this to the light of the day and ensure that technology can develop safely and with lesser side-effects.

She said, “We support research in developing countries because you can do so much more in developing countries. A cell phone should not be held against your body for hours at a time. You have in Mumbai, a very distinguished otolaryngologist, Dr. Divya Prabhat, who has reported several cases of young men with permanent hearing loss from having used their phones for several hours a day. Phones contain warnings to avoid exposure to the pregnant abdomen but seldom do people pay heed to such warnings. Keeping the phone in your shirt or pant pockets gives you four to eight times more exposure than when it is in use!”

In closing, Davis requested Rotarians to take her advice very seriously. She said, “The Israeli’s used to be the world’s heaviest users of cell phones in the 1990s and their government reported a very unusual kind of cancer caused because of the excessive usage. These are the warnings that have been showing up only now and we must learn to use our phones as wisely as possible. I urge you to share this information with your family members and anyone else whose brain you care about!”