Electro Magnetic Radiation - What is it?

So what is it that we are worrying about?  What is Electro Magnetic Radiation (EMR)?

According to Andrew Goldsworthy (Radiation Research):
All modern electronics emit electromagnetic radiation. Radio waves, microwaves, visible light, and x-rays are all examples. Electromagnetic waves are produced by the motion of electrically charged particles. These waves are also called "electromagnetic radiation" because they radiate from the electrically charged particles. They travel through empty space as well as through air and other substances.

If I can’t see Electro-Magnetic radiation – how do I know where it is?
The internal circuits of personal computers generate EM fields. Also, cathode ray tube (CRT) displays generate EM energy over a wide band of frequencies. As do mobile phones. To prove this simply place a radio receiver of any kind and use it at the same time as you use your personal computer, or mobile phone and you will probably hear RF noise in the receiver that originates in the computer or from the phone.

What is EMI (electromagnetic interference)?
EMI (electromagnetic interference) is the disruption caused by an electromagnetic field. This is why mobile phones are not allowed to be used in hospitals, aeroplanes or petrol stations. The EM radiation emitted from them can interfere with sensitive equipment and poses a danger to safety.

EMI was traditionally used to describe how one EM field emitted from one electronic device affects the operation of another electronic device, EMI can now also be used to help explain the ways in which EM radiation effects living things.

How do I know if I am at risk?
A study was conducted by Lennart Hardell, a professor of oncology at university hospital in Orebro, Sweden. It was published in a British journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

This study showed that the chance of developing a malignant brain tumor was roughly eight times higher for cell phone users in the Swedish countryside than in urban areas. The risk of developing any brain tumour was four times higher for country dwellers using mobile phones for five years or more, compared with those who did not use the devices.

The study suggests that mobile handsets in rural areas deliver a higher dose of electromagnetic radiation because they have to transmit a stronger signal to distant transmission towers, whereas towers are closer together in urban areas, resulting in phones transmitting a weaker signal.

They suggest that the risk may be greater in children whose thinner skulls and developing nervous system make them more vulnerable.

This suggests that we are in a no win situation - if you live near a base station you are at risk, if you live in a rural area you are at risk.

According to IMS research, the number of active base stations worldwide is set to pass 3 million units by the end of 2007.

Other reports:

The Daily Mail reported that “researchers found that long-term users had double the chance of getting a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they held the handset”.

The stories are based on a review of studies that looked at the difference in mobile phone usage between people with and without brain tumours for more than a 10 year period.

The authors found 11 studies on people who had used mobile phones for more than a decade. Some of these showed that mobile phone use significantly increased the risk of some types of brain cancer while others did not.

Further perspective is given to this by data from Cancer Research UK, which suggests that “brain tumours” are rare and occur in less than seven in 100,000 people.

Contrary to newspaper reports, this review did not find that children are at greater risk of cancer from mobile use. The review did not look specifically at children and it would not be possible to come to this conclusion.

However, the Stewart Report, a government sponsored independent review, recommended in 2004 that the use of mobiles by children should be minimised as a precautionary measure. This recommendation is endorsed by the findings from the 2007 MTHR Report, which found that although there was no evidence that mobile phones were associated with adverse effects in adults, further research is still needed for their use by children, and for their long-term use by adults. Proposals for the MTHR 2 study that begins in 2008 include epidemiological studies of the risk of brain tumours in children.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk for brain tumors, a new Swedish study said on Friday, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers. The Dutch Health Council, in an overview of research from around the world, last year found no evidence radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was harmful. A four-year British survey released in January showed no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and the most common type of tumor. However, researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life said they looked at the mobile phone use of 905 people between the age of 20 and 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and found a link.

What you need to know - Conventional View
•  A new Finnish study published online in the International Journal of Cancer compared 1,521 cellular phone users who received a glioma to 3,301 control participants without tumors.

• For people who have used a modern cellular phone for more than 2000 hours in their lifetime, the risk of getting a brain tumor rose by 270 percent.

• The study is considered the second that firmly correlates cell phone usage with an increased risk of developing certain brain tumors.

• The risk was highest among people under the age of 20.

• Older-style analog cell phones already have been shown as a source of brain tumors, but even with the development of digital cellular phones, the risk is still there.

• According to a scientist associated with the web site foodconsumer.org, the study results should not make readers assume that ten years of cell phone use will correlate to an immediate tumor, but that the tumor will show up later than that.

What you need to know - Alternative View
• Mobile phone manufacturers have tried to suppress the dangers of mobile phones by funding their own distorted research that concludes the phones are perfectly safe.
• All people -- but children and teens especially -- should be warned against using mobile phones due to the increased risk of brain tumors.

Bottom line
• Cell phone usage is shown to increase your risk of a brain tumor.