Electromagnetic Radiation

1430 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cell phones and cancer risk

Electromagnetic Radiation and Its Effect on the Human Body
In 1998 a Maryland neurologist, Dr. Christopher Newman, was diagnosed with brain cancer and he could no longer work as a result of his disease. He claimed that the Motorola cell phone he had in 1992 to keep in touch with his patients gave him cancer. Then in 2000, he filed an $800 million lawsuit against several wireless providers including Motorola Inc., Verizon Communications Corp., Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems, and others. Within a month, the U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake dismissed the case due to lack of evidence. This case happened during a time where people were confused about how electromagnetic radiation affects the human body. Fast-forward to today and there is still confusion. A lot of people today feel like they are at risk from developing cancer from electronic devices like cell phones, microwaves, and laptops. That is simply not true.
It is the year 2014 and the amount of people estimated to be diagnosed with cancer in the US alone is about “1.6 million” (cancer.org). That is a 0.3% increase from last year. That really isn’t much, in fact since 1930 there has not been a significant change in the occurrence of cancer. The only cancer that has significantly increased over the years is lung cancer, which is probably due to cigarette smokers. The only reason it “feels” like cancer is on the rise is because there is better equipment to screen for it, and more people are living well into old age. This is important because the older you are the more you are at risk of developing cancer. Cancer is not some new type of condition, it has been around for all of human history.
So where did this misconception come from? It is not clear, but it definitely started as...

... middle of paper ...

...ects. For example, “Exposure to high levels of microwaves can have effects on health. Such exposure could lead to a painful burn or to the development of cataracts in the lenses of the eyes. These injuries are caused only by exposure to large amounts of microwave radiation, however, and the small amount that can leak from a microwave oven does not cause these problems” (“Radiation Exposure and Cancer”). This is why the United States formed the FCC. One of their tasks is setting guidelines and testing electronic devices, making sure consumers are not exposed to the extremes. This is why the devices in your home are relatively safe. That also includes cellphones “Neither cell phones nor cell towers have been conclusively linked to increased risks of cancer” (Radiation Exposure and Cancer). Statements like these are constantly being made after each and every experiment

Show More
Related

  • Texas Toll Roads

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is simply a false assumption, and it is so for a variety of reasons.

    Read More

  • Electromagnetism

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Electric guitars are devices that generate sound from a set of pickups that convert string vibration into electrical signals for amplification. The sound starts out as vibrations the musician creates while playing. These vibrations are picked up by the pickups of the guitar. What are pickups? Pickups are permanent magnets wrapped around in a coil. Since the strings are made with a special material called ferromagnetic, they interact with the magnetic fields in the pickups and force electrons to move in the loop. Moving electrons can generate a signal that can be read by the amplifier.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Electronic Cigarettes

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    Living in a world where many prefer to believe what is shown to them, rather than doing some of their own research, can lead to consequences. (Figure 1) Some people believe electronic cigarettes are a safer and healthier alternative to the actual cigarette because of how they are advertised. “Because they [e-cigs] deliver nicotine without burning tobacco, e-cigarettes are purported to be safer and less toxic than conventional cigarettes. Despite these claims, there’s still no real data on the effects of e-cigarettes (positive or negative), yet marketing materials still bill them as a healthy choice” (Worthington emphasis mine). Drug advertisements normally show the beneficial side of

    Read More

  • Fallacy

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    There was an article in The Washington Times about a Florida woman who developed a brain tumor behind the ear where she had customarily placed her cell phone, her husband blamed radiation from the phone and sued its manufacturer. After his 1993 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Show," other similar lawsuits followed. None succeeded however, and within several months, the controversy was forgotten.”

    Read More

  • Cancer Essay

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cancer has become the one of the most feared things for human beings. The various type of cancer have been discovered and there are still a lot of it that undiscoverable. Cancer is a complex disease that have a group of disease. The cancer itself cannot be describe by words. The causes of this cancer is still not being able to be discovered fully. There are only minor factor that can lead to this disease. The carcinogens are believed to be one of the causes that lead to cancer such as asbestos, radon gas, tobacco, PVC and much more from our chemical industries. The environment especially near to the industrial that produce chemical waste can be one of the causes lead to cancer. Cancer also have relation with our age, lifestyle, and diet and also can be genetically inherited. It is believed that older people have higher tendency to get cancer than younger people. Our lifestyle and diet also plays a role causing a cancer by our daily life routine. Smoking tobacco and eating unconsciously (still in research) can also increase the possibility to get cancer especially lung cancer that cause by smoking tobacco. There are several cases, cancer were inherited from their parents. Various type of viruses such as HIV, HPV, EBV and many more virus has a high capabilities to increase the chance a patient to get a cancer because these viruses lower their body immunity to disease.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of Cell Phones Essay

    2004 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Lizette Borreli, “ Ninety-one percent of American adults and 60 percent of teens” own a cell phone. This is almost all of America that owns a cellphone. Although it is very common for those with cellphones to text as their primary form of communication, the use of a cell phone when speaking to one verbally can negatively impact the cell phone user’s health. Short-term effects of cellphones include “tissue heating.” This process occurs when a cell phone’s contact to the body transmits its energy into the skin, resulting in a rise in temperature of the organs ("Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health: Mobile Phones." para. 8). Even though this may not lead to immediate negative effects, it degrades the body over time, exemplifying why cell phones not only have (insert) tolls, but physical ones as

    Read More

  • Can cell phones cause cancer?

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is undeniable that cellular technology has become main stream. “It was estimated that there were 92 million cell phone users in the US, a number growing by one million every month.” (Frumkin, Jacobson, Gansler & Thun 2001). The arrival and widespread use of cell phones has peaked interest of the health effects of radiofrequencies in the human body.

    Read More

  • Cell Phone History - The Evolution of the Cell Phone

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brain tumors and eye cancer are two health concerns of cell phones that are currently under investigation. Many people have heard rumors about whether or not cell phones are responsible for these health problems, but answers never seem to be found.

    Read More

  • Radiation Of Radiation

    2047 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cell phones were invented by Dr. Martin Cooper who led a team of developers at Motorola and made the first cell phone call in April 3, 1973 at Motorola. Cell phones are handheld devices used by many people these days. Cell phones are a big help to the people using it. Cell phones allow you to keep in touch with family and friends around the world. Mobiles phones use and transmit waves to receive and send signals and let out radiation. However, there is a bit of a problem with these devices, they give off radiation, which may or may not be dangerous. Radiation means the discharge of energy electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles, especially high-energy particles that cause ionization. Radiation that can produce ions when it interacts with matter is called ionizing. Ions are charged particles that are produced when electrons are removed from their positions in the atoms. Alpha particles, beta particles, x-ray particles and gamma rays are forms of ionizing radiation. However, radiation that is not capable of producing ions in matter is known as nonionizing radiation. Radiation is energy that moves through space or matter at a very high speed. Energy can be in the form of particles, such as alpha or beta particles, which are emitted from radioactive materials, or waves such as light, heat, radio waves, microwaves, x-rays and gamma rays. Subatomic means of, relating to, or being a particle making up an atom or a process occurring within atoms Electromagnetic means kind of radiation including visible light, radio waves, gamma rays, and X-rays, in which electric and magnetic fields vary ...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Cell Phone Addiction

    1617 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the telephone’s invention in 1876, it has made human communication easier and added to the convenience of life. Being able to talk to a person that is hundreds, or even thousands of miles away has enhanced our forms of communication. However, when the invention of the first telephone came about, it was only for the elite and required enormous and heavy equipment in order for it to be operable, thus many did not own one. They eventually increased in popularity, which led to a new innovation, the cellular phone, which came about in 1973. However, still only a handful of people had them. The first cell phone was of considerable size and was not available for most until around 1992. Today, there are close to 6.8 billion cell phone subscriptions currently in the world, and the majority of phones are considered smart phones, cell phones that integrate email, internet, and apps on a touch screen handheld device. Currently 78% of all American teens, ages 12 through 17, own a cell phone (Mary Madden 2). Cellphones usage has been connected with extreme health issues. As a matter of fact, high usage of cell phones, defined as 2,000 hours of usage spread across many years, has been shown to be linked with brain tumors in a Swedish study (Christian Nordqvist). According to Christian Nordqvist, a researcher, “85 of the 905 people who had a malignant tumor were high users of cell phones - they started using mobile phones a long

    Read More

  • Light Waves

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Color and temperature, how are they related? Are they related? To understand these questions several concepts must be understood having to do especially with light, the actions light waves can take, how color works, and how temperature works. Once having a good understanding of these concepts putting the pieces together to come up with an answer can be easier.

    Read More

  • Radio Waves

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    that is traveled from the crest of one wave to the crest of the next.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Cell Phones

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    Research also points to an increased risk of multiple types of cancer (Hardell 40). Epidemiologic evidence in the last few years claims that mobile phone usage and risks of brain tumors and other types, such as salivary gland tumors in the adult head have grown tremendously

    Read More

  • The Impact of Cell Phone Radiation on Our Health

    3226 Words  | 7 Pages

    To conclude i would like to say that regulatory agencies have concluded cell phones are safe, cell phone radiation is non-ionizing and studies indicate that there are long term risks but we need more data on intense sustained usage, and cell phones can be used more safely by only using them when signal strength is strong and the transmitter doesn’t have to transmit as much energy.

    Read More

  • Are Cell Phones Dangerous?

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cell phones are one of the greatest inventions in the world. We can imagine how life would be without cell phones. Cell phones are very handy; it can make our communication easier. Also cell phones can provide us with everything, like relaxing with music, browsing the internet, chatting on social networking sites or playing games. Unfortunately cell phones are not risk free. Using cell phones involve emission of EMR electromagnetic radiation, which is a dangerous sort of energy wave, is produce by modern appliances that surround us in everyday lives. The worst causes of EMR are cell phones. These days especially children are getting addicted to cell phones. When you are talking on your phone, there are microwaves going through your head. There has been a study on the development of brain tumors and the amount of time you take on the phone due to radio waves. However, people do not realize the consequences and negative effects cell phones cause. It causes diseases and disorders and other harmful damages to our body and health. Nevertheless, cell phones are also not dangerous.

    Read More

More about Electromagnetic Radiation

Open Document