From the April 2002 Idaho Observer:

Cell phones: Communications for the 21st century or a road to medical armageddon?

By Amy Worthington

Prior to the Federal Telecom Act of 1996, it was almost impossible for the cellular communications industry to flourish because there was local control of cell tower siting. Science had already established the ill effects microwaves have on plant and animal life and no one wanted a cell tower in their backyard. Since passage of the federal act, however, cell towers have sprung up everywhere because their siting can no longer be blocked effectively at the local level. Why, in total disregard for published medical and environmental science, did the federal government provide the authority to site cell towers all over the nation? Was it to increase our cellular communications capabilities? Or, does logic and prior experience indicate something more sinister?

In order to make contact with cell tower transmitters, your cell phone emits powerful microwave signals in the high megahertz or low gigahertz frequencies.

Microwave energy oscillates at millions to billions of cycles per second. Since WWII, European, Russian and U.S. scientists have known that microwave frequencies are extremely damaging to human tissues. Research in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry demonstrates that microwave frequencies can cause cancer and other diseases by interfering with cellular DNA and its repair.

During cell phone conversation, these cancer-causing frequencies deeply penetrate the brain, ear and eye tissues. The eye is most susceptible to microwave damage. While a standby phone is attached to the body, microwave pulses can penetrate vital organs every few minutes. Headsets and radiation mitigators have been proven generally worthless in reducing this radiation exposure. Recent scientific studies confirm that cell phone microwave can:

* Cause headaches and pressure behind the eyes

* Induce extreme fatigue

* Precipitate cataracts/ eye cancer

* Create burning sensation/rash on the skin

* Damage nerves in the scalp

* Heat the angular gyrus (brain area associated with speech and vision)

* Activate heat shock proteins in the brain (cell stress)

* Induce ringing in the ears, impair sense of smell, cause sensitivity in teeth

* Create joint pain, muscle spasms, tremors

* Cause digestive problems and raise bad cholesterol levels

* Alter the brain's EEG activity during sleep

* Open the blood-brain barrier to virus and toxins (cells leak hemoglobin)

* Reduce the number and efficiency of white blood cells

* Damage blood lymphocyte cells (immune system)

* Cause short term memory loss and difficulty concentrating

* Promote development of Alzheimer's disease

* Stimulate asthma by producing histamine in mast cells

* Stress the endocrine system, especially pancreas, thyroid, ovaries, testes

* Damage chromosomes, specifically the DNA strands

* Induce new cancers and stimulate pre-existing cancers

Scientific data confirming the horrific damage cell phones can do to the human body is found in Dr. George Carlo's great new book, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age.

Dr. Carlo is an epidemiologist who was hired in 1993 by the telecommunications industry to head an industry-sponsored whitewash of the biological effects of cell phone radiation. His findings were so startling that he was forced to make a break with the industry and expose the raw facts to an unsuspecting public. The subtitle of his blockbuster documentary is “An Insiders's Alarming Discoveries About Cancer and Genetic Damage.”

Microwave is extremely hazardous to children. Parents in many European nations are now warned to keep children away from cell phones. University of Utah researcher found the younger the child, the more radiation is absorbed by the brain.

Spanish researchers have shown that cell phones can alter electrical activity of a child's brain for hours, causing drastic mood changes and possibly behavior and learning disabilities.

Findings published in the Journal of Bio-Electric Magnetics warn that mobile phone emissions may damage human embryos. Pregnant women are advised to be wary of mobile phones.

The effect of microwave radiation inside your vehicle is especially dangerous. Volkswagen of Europe warns that cell phone usage inside a car can be “injurious to health due to the extremely high electromagnetic fields generated.”

This is because a cell phone may increase its field strength up to 10 times to maintain communications within the metallic cage of an auto. Studies in England show that drivers talking on a cell phone are actually more impaired in function and reaction time than drunks.

The telecommunications industry and federal regulatory agencies design their own “studies” to conclude that having a microwave transmitter on your head is safe. However, many people claim to be falling ill from heavy cell phone usage. Numerous cancer-related lawsuits are now being filed against both government agencies and the cell phone industry.

Cell phones today are what tobacco was 40 years ago. The research and the debate will continue for years. Meantime, 90 million cell phone users in the U.S. have three choices:

1. Continue heavy microwave bombardment of brain tissues until disastrous health effects become obvious and irreversible. This is the “guinea pig” option.

2. Reduce cell phone usage to under 2-3 minutes per day and never use the phone in a vehicle. Many health science experts are choosing this option.

3. Obtain a hands-free set and keep the phone away from the body. Everyone in the room can then hear the two-way conversation, but less privacy sure beats brain cancer!

And don't forget to check out your cordless phone. If it has a marking that reads 900 megahertz or 2.4 gigahertz, it emits the same microwave radiation as cell phones.

Some great web sites on microwave and other radiation issues are:

www.microwavenews.com

www.emrnetwork.org

www.wave-guide.org (has great list of books available)

www.energyfields.org

Write to: guru@emfguru.org and ask for free e-mail updates on cell phone/tower studies and litigation.

Note: Last month's edition of The IO contained a review of the book, “Cell Towers, Wireless Convenience or Environmental Hazard? The book is a compilation of research papers presented at a one-day conference entitled, “Cell Towers, State of the Science/State of the Law, that took place in Litchfield, Conn., December 2, 2000. The book, edited by Blake Levitt, is a comprehensive exploration of the manyfold health, environmental, political and legal implications of the cellular communications infrastructure currently being erected in our country. Cell Towers can be obtained by sending email to: blakelevit@cs.com