Buried away in the new issue of GQ — the one with Johnny Depp on the cover — is the most frightening magazine article I’ve read in a long time, “Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to your Health.”
Christopher Ketcham’s piece on the mounting evidence that cell phones (and cell phone towers and WiFi) could be life-threatening isn’t promo’ed on the cover, but then again this is not the sort of story you can write a sexy tagline for.
The piece follows an item I read on the Publisher’s Lunch blog recently that a big book is coming next year that will be the “Silent Spring” of the cell phone industry (although more people are probably impacted by cell phone hazards than were touched by the pesticide run-offs that Rachel Carson wrote about in her early 1960s New Yorker piece and the subsequent best-selling book).
Ketcham combines anecdotal material — young Wall Streeters noticing that co-workers have been developing brain tumors adjacent to their phone ears — with studies from Europe that seem to leave little doubt that we might 
want to cut back on the number of hours we spend with cell phones and in places where WiFi is blasting microwaves at us all the time.
The piece offers no solutions and very little solace because we have all become so addicted to those little buggers that we don’t want to believe that they can be harming us.
Ketcham does suggest that we try to restrict our longer phone chats to land lines and that men should not keep phones in their pants pockets (or hooked on their belts) if they are planning to have children any time soon.
According to the article, European scientists have made such strong cases against WiFi radiation that many public facilities — such as libraries — are shutting that technology down.
GQ is not offering a link to this piece yet, but it is well worth the price of the magazine
Yikes!
Comment by Rich — January 24th, 2010 @ 11:47 am
What about outdoor WIFI services? Some communications companies are offering this to their customers. For instance, Cablevision has made remote connections available in these areas – Optimum Online – WiFi – Map
Can we get cancer from walking around in our neighborhoods now?
oldswede
Comment by oldswede — January 24th, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
Cell phone health hazards? The jury is NOT still out, as you mentioned, government standards are not protecting us as they are not in line with the science, and there are safer solutions.
Here’s another wireless wake-up call.
Wireless access in the sky? Convenient? Yes.
Safe? Maybe not.
In researching my new book I discovered technical and medical experts around the world who are ‘highly concerned’ about this kind of radiation exposure in aircraft.
It has been well tested on the onboard navigations systems etc. but was it tested on the flight crew – the pilot’s cognitive abilities, reaction time, decision making etc.?
A cardiologist also contributing to this book reports a series of potential cardiac symptoms from wireless radiation – never good at 37,000 ft.
Evidently, adverse health and cognitive effects are magnified within a confined metal space and at high altitudes.
Other symptoms from wireless radiation may include dizziness, ringing in the ears, sleep disruption.
More details at http://www.radiationrescue.org
- Dr Kerry Crofton
Comment by Dr Kerry Crofton — January 25th, 2010 @ 3:18 pm
Wireless neighborhoods – just about everywhere.
The research shows that there are several factors with the risk from wireless radiation.
One is the strength or power of the signal; others are proximity and duration.
So wireless exposure in your neighborhood does not pose as much a risk as wireless in the building where you live and/or work. Unless you are close to a cell tower antenna.
As I wrote in my book, many people have heard about the health hazards of cell phones but are unaware of the risks with wireless radiation in our homes, offices and schools.
(Check out two letters on my website (www.radiationrescue.org) from leading scientists raising their concerns about this exposure in our schools.)
Then there is the issue, as I mentioned before, about wireless radiation in the sky – not only health issues – but aviation safety. Sobering thought.
Yes, we are demanding the convenience of online on-the-go, but at what cost?
- Dr Kerry Crofton
Comment by Dr Kerry Crofton — January 27th, 2010 @ 6:14 pm