| We take the incredible technological advances that | | | | spots or energy deposition in the brain may occur as a |
| have been made in the past 50 years for granted. | | | | consequence of internal reflections." In another study |
| Technology that was once a distant dream is now a | | | | conducted by leading neurosurgeon, Dr. Leif Salford |
| part of the fiber and fabric of our culture. A typical | | | | and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden the data |
| American home is equipped with microwaves, cell | | | | indicated an "unambiguous link between microwave |
| phones, cordless phones, PDAs, computers, and a | | | | radiation emitted by GSM mobile phones (the most |
| wide assortment of technological gadgetry designed to | | | | common type worldwide) and brain damage in rats." |
| make life easier. | | | | There are hundreds of studies with correlative data |
| However, what price are we paying for these | | | | indicating that this is far more than an |
| advances and, more importantly, what price are our | | | | anti-establishment ploy concocted by paranoid |
| children paying for living in a world filled with these | | | | believers who fear technology and little green men. |
| energy emitting devices? | | | | Just as the information on the dangers of tobacco |
| In spite of the occasional debate on safety, most of us | | | | was hidden in plain sight, one need only scratch |
| have come to regard cellular phones as fairly | | | | beneath the surface to find warnings about cell phone |
| harmless. After all, if cell phones were in any way | | | | use. Scientists have warned parents to exercise |
| hazardous to our health, we would know about it. The | | | | caution in providing cell phones to children younger than |
| sheer accessibility allays any potential fears about their | | | | eight years of age as there is little known about the |
| use. Cigarettes are also widely available but we now | | | | effect of radiation on developing brains. Paul Brodeur, a |
| know without question that not only are they harmful | | | | noted science journalist, was one of the first in the |
| to the user but to those around the user as well. | | | | medical community to issue a public alert about the |
| However, widespread tobacco use went on for | | | | dangers of EMF. Brodeur warned that introducing your |
| hundreds of years before the connection between it | | | | body to new forces such as EMF created a condition |
| and the fatalities it causes was made. Until then, the | | | | known as "adaptation stress." In this condition the body |
| vast majority of people didn't consider cigarettes, pipes, | | | | is sent into chaos as it tries to adapt to the new |
| or any other form of tobacco use hazardous. Are we | | | | forces. Brodeur identified symptoms such as fatigue, |
| guilty of being lulled into a similarly false sense of | | | | confusion, lack of concentration and focus, headaches, |
| security about cell phones? | | | | backaches and increased emotional volatility. Is it a |
| The answer is an emphatic and resounding "Yes." | | | | coincidence that many of these symptoms which we |
| Before you dismiss that as an alarmist cry of an | | | | have come to associate with and label as learning |
| anti-technology fringe of society, let's take a closer | | | | disorders in children have increased dramatically over |
| look. Estimates indicate that we are exposed to 100 | | | | the past decade? |
| million times more radiation per day than in our | | | | In another study, conducted by the Spanish Neuro |
| grandparents' generation. Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) | | | | Diagnostic Research Institute, it was found that a cell |
| are low levels of radiation which are generated by | | | | phone call lasting only two minutes not only opens the |
| electronic devices. Initial concerns about radiation were | | | | blood-brain barrier (in children and adults) allowing toxins |
| dismissed because of low level of exposure. We | | | | into the blood stream which can attack brain cells, but |
| learned to live with microwaves because our homes | | | | in children that same two minute exposure could |
| were not filled with other devices. Yet, what is the risk | | | | disrupt the natural electrical activity of their brain for up |
| now, when our homes are filled with electronic devices, | | | | to an hour following the call. So alarming was the data |
| our cars are powered by micro-computers, we are | | | | that Dr. Gerald Hyland, mobile phone adviser to the |
| surrounded by power lines and cell towers, and we | | | | British Government, was quoted as saying "If I were a |
| spend hours a day with a portable phone held to our | | | | parent I would now be extremely wary about allowing |
| ear? | | | | my children to use a mobile even for a very short |
| Cellular phones generate a field known as Radio | | | | period. My advice would be to avoid mobiles." |
| Frequency Radiation (RF). A number of studies have | | | | The cell phone industry is targeting the very profitable |
| concluded that RF from mobile phones poses | | | | children's market. Cell phone makers are marketing |
| significant health risk to users, including headaches, | | | | "Disney phones" and kid-friendly versions with parental |
| memory loss, autism, brain cancers, leukemia and | | | | controls. The industry is no longer content to have the |
| learning disorders. The Committee on Electromagnetic | | | | adult and teen market, but in nationwide back-to-school |
| Energy/Public Health Issues stated in an Australian | | | | campaigns, they aggressively market to tweens and |
| Government Discussion paper that : "Human exposure | | | | younger. |
| of radio frequency radiation is greatest from mobile | | | | We may not have all of the answers today, but the |
| phone handsets because of the method of use, with | | | | information we do have is alarming. How much more |
| the transmitting antenna of the mobile phone handset | | | | evidence do we need before we take the dangers to |
| close to the head. There is evidence that localized hot | | | | our children seriously? |