Aftonbladet today answers the most common questions:
- Is your mobile phone dangerous? Nobody knows for sure. The scientists downplay the risk, but the cell phone story is a thriller: - Todays knowledge could be tomorrow's nightmare, says the scientist Olle Johansson from Karolinska Instituttet. - It is likely that 30 years from now wonder how people in the whole world could place such a high frequency radiation source to the head.
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Why can the mobile phone be dangerous? The antenna radiates microwaves. The same type of radiation as in a microwave oven, although in much smaller doses. Like the microwave oven heats food, the microwaves of the phone heat human cells. Science does not know exactly what happens with human cells which are exposed to microwaves.
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Can I get cancer from the mobile phone? Animal studies on rats show that cells are affected and the genes (DNA) can be damaged by mobile phone-like radiation. - This is a plausible coupling to how tumors are initiated - Olle Johansson explains.
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What other damages can microwaves cause? An American study mentions the following damages: Behavioral disturbances, nerve damages, fetal damages, cataract, changes to blood chemistry and impaired immune defense. Whether this is also true for the low doses which the mobile phones are emanating, nobody knows.
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Are children more sensitive to microwaves? In general, children are more sensitive to anything affecting the human body. An Australian report concludes that children absorbs microwaves at a rate 3.3 times higher than an adult.
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Are different people sensitive to the radiation to different degrees? This is probably so. Electrical hypersensitive people often complaint over problems in connection with mobile phones.
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Is the digital phone more dangerous than the analog phone? A substantial body of research suggests that this is true. In this case it is connected with the fact that the digital phone emits a pulsed signal, and this frequency affects people more than the analog signal.
- How clear must evidence be before the mobile phone industry admits to the risks? It is one of the worlds most successful hi-tech industries by the turn of the century. In Sweden alone this industry has created tens of thousands of jobs.
