Cellphone Fears Continue to Spread

While science may take too long to come up with an answer, what is increasingly getting clear is that even as cell phones are proliferating around the world, perhaps growing faster that any other cutting edge technology, the health-fears surrounding its use are growing at an equal pace.

The most recent sensational risk warning emerged on July 24 when the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff urging them to limit the use of mobile phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

This latest warning is significant because no other major scientific-oriented or for that matter even a major academic institute has issued such a warning without adequate scientific data or a definitive study to prove that use of technology can indeed carry a deadly health risks. Besides, numerous studies until now have failed as well to identify a direct link between cancer and mobile phone use.

But what could be more significant is that the US Food and Drug Administration doesn't seems to be worried about the risks mobile phone use may carry even as quite a few of governments around the world have already started issuing similar warnings.

The UK government for instance published a report last year which said that  the Government is clearly worried about the risks mobile phone radiation could have on brain function and warned that 20,000-odd  radio masts in the UK subjects everyone near those masts to constant low level electromagnetic radiation.

In fact so serious is the UK Government that it even commissioned a noted academician and a researcher for a £3- million mass study on more than 200,000 volunteers, to identify if long term use (more than ten years) use of mobile phone poses greater risk of brain cancer.

Although the results of the study are yet to be known- since the study plans to monitor the volunteers for at least five years to plot any serious disease including cancer and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases- the UK Government is not the only one to be worried. Earlier this year, the French government had warned against the dangers associated with the use of mobile phones, especially by kids, while others like Germany and even the European Environment Agency have issues similar warnings to their citizens and urged them to reduce exposure to mobile handsets.

But of all these, perhaps the efforts of the government of a developing country or (undiplomatically speaking) a third-world country, India, is most notable.  Concerned about the increasing noise on the health risks associated with prolonged cell phone usage India has also started working on a policy which will specify safety guidelines to limit public exposure to radio waves from base stations and mobile handsets. To be called "Guidelines for Complying With Limits for Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields," this policy is likely to ban telcos from putting up cellular towers near schools, hospitals and the rooftops of large residential buildings, among other measures.

For a country like India where mobile telephony is not only a money-spinner for its economy, but also brings immense benefits to its societies and diverse communities, this is indeed a bold move. Restricting the growth of mobile usage and its proliferation could attract howls of protests from not only the industry players-for whom billions are at stake-, but also from users for whom a mobile phone is an integral part of life.

Yet the authorities feel guidelines must be in place to provide protection against alleged side effects on health from radiation. India has to be conscious to make its citizens aware of the probable health risks of technology, says TV Ramachandran director general, Cellular Operators Association of India. The growth rate of mobile phone is scorching and expected to cross 500 million by 2010-end, a large chunk of which would be children.

This industry lobby is working with the Government and other industry lobbies like the Association of Unified Service Providers of India, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association, and Indian Cellular Association, to formulate an appropriate policy, which is expected to be finalized in two months.

Interestingly, Indians elsewhere too have started coming out with interesting findings. For instance, in March this year UK-based Dr. Vini Khurana, described as a "top neurosurgeon" by the UK's news paper The Independent , came up what the paper said , "the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks." He said that his independent study has revealed that Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, and urges that people should avoid using them wherever possible while governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

However, even as the debate -on cell phones as ticking time bombs-rages amidst the dismissive smirks of the industry players, while the 3 billion -and growing-mobile phone users around the world hope that all the warnings remain just that, warnings, the advice of Ronald B. Herberman,  of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute is worth paying heed to. "We shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," he says.